All posts tagged: interventions

Early Childhood Interventions Impose Western Norms and Values

Early Childhood Interventions Impose Western Norms and Values

Published by Jenni Sidey

In Southern Madagascar, Gabriel Scheidecker observed Bara children playing. He was struck by their elaborate games. A group of 3- and 4-year-olds recreated a bilo, the possession ceremony that is a key psycho-social healing technique for this pastoralist community. One child took the role of the healer, two took the roles of those possessed by spirits, and the others sang and clapped in the distinctive rhythms used to induce the state of possession. Bara children have rich, playful social lives among other children in the villages. This cohort of age mates, including many cousins and siblings, will grow up to be economically intertwined throughout their lives, herding and subsistence farming together. Their play thus serves many purposes. It facilitates mental, physical, and social development, as is the case for children around the world, it establishes bonds among peers with whom one’s economic life will unfold, and it includes developing local skills and knowledge, such as the songs and steps to perform the bilo. The engrossing lives of Bara children occur in a context of family …

Brief history of U.S. interventions in Latin America, Caribbean : NPR

Brief history of U.S. interventions in Latin America, Caribbean : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

An April 1961 file photo shows a group of CIA-backed Cuban counterrevolutionaries after their capture in the Bay of Pigs, Cuba. Miguel Vinas/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Miguel Vinas/AFP via Getty Images President Trump’s pressure campaign against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro is the latest chapter in a long history of U.S. intervention in the Caribbean basin, rooted in the 1823 Monroe Doctrine but fully realized in the 20th century — ostensibly to protect U.S. interests and counter communism. In recent months, U.S. strikes on boats that the White House says were transporting Venezuelan drugs, the seizure of Venezuelan oil tankers, and most recently, a CIA strike on a Venezuelan dock reflect a “Big Stick” approach to regional policy that dates back more than a century to President Theodore Roosevelt. In it, Roosevelt built on the Monroe Doctrine, which was formulated originally by President James Monroe to warn European powers away from interfering in the region. Roosevelt, who himself fought against Spain in Cuba in 1898, expanded that doctrine to assert a U.S. …