Development studies
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Haiti
Almost 200 years ago, the Haitian people launched a revolution which ended slavery and established the world's first independent black republic. But it was a country 'born in ruins'. Once a source of plunder for the French colonial power, the national economy has since been a source of personal enri...
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Honduras
Honduras has been called the 'Pentagon Republic' because of the vast military complex the US has constructed on its soil. But lack of national sovereignty is not new to Honduras. When strong local elites failed to emerge after Independence, the US banana companies soon dominated political and econom...
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The Dance of the Millions
Phillip O'Brien, James Painter
The Dance of the Millions provides a comprehensive account of the Latin American debt crisis. It examines why the bank loans came about in the first place, how most of them were used, and why they suddenly dried up in the 1980s. It argues that the role played by the IMF and the World Bank as the fin...
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A Wheel-Manufacturing Technology for Rural Workshops
A small-scale approach to making wheels using a jig
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Nicaraguans Talking
Nicaraguans Talking uses Nicaragua as a case study raising a wide range of development and social justice issues. Since the 1979 revolution, a large proportion of the population has become involved in the search for a way out of the development trap and the Somoza dictatorship's legacy of economic a...
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The Poor and the Powerless
Foreign interests have dominated the economic development of the Caribbean since the first arrival of Europeans in the region five centuries ago. From the plantation system and slavery to the exploitation of oil and bauxite by the multinational corporations, the history of the Caribbeau people is o...
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Promised Land
Jenny Pearce crossed the front line in El Salvador to collect oral histories from the people living under bombardment in Chalatenango, an area controlled by the FMLN guerillas. Promised Land traces how, despite 50 years of systematic and brutal repression, the peasants began to organize themselves....
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Cuba the Test of Time
As Cuba enters its fourth decade of revolution, much has been achieved in health, education and culture. Yet, economic and political obstacles to the island’s development remain. US-orchestrated embargo and destabilisation, together with frequent policy switches, have created a society where nobody...
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Whose Gold?
An examination of the banana trade from planting in the Eastern Caribbean to purchase in Britain, raising questions concerning trade between countries in the South and the North. Using personal experiences and case studies, it encourages pupils to see the implications of their own consumption.
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Colombia
Colombia is a country of dramatic and contradictory images. Officially it is a Latin American successs story , with steady growth, political stability and a large middle class. Yet it has become notorious for the activities of the so-called Medellin and Cali cartels and the violence surrounding the...