Headlines

• As China further militarise the sea, the risks of conflict grow
• China is pressing its claims over islands claimed by Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan and Brunei. Some of them are being occupied by force

Manila, March 26.─ For years China has sought to divide and rule in the South China Sea. It worked hard to prevent the countries challenging it over some or all of its absurdly aggrandising territorial claims in the sea from ganging up against it. So when tensions with one rival claimant were high, it tended not to provoke others.

Not any more. In a kind of united-front policy in reverse, it now seems content to antagonise them all at the same time. This is both encouraging closer co-operation among neighbours and driving them closer to external powers including India, Australia, Japan and, above all, America.

The latest fight China has picked is with a country with which—unlike Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam—it has no territorial dispute: Indonesia. 

• The president stressed that his goal was to end the decades-long US embargo on Cuban trade
• He also took the opportunity to call out the Cuban government for human rights abuses, specifically the government’s forceful efforts to silence dissent; he stressed the idea that a country is stronger when it’s people are free to express themselves freely
• “I can’t force you to agree. But I believe that every person should be equal under the law,” Obama said. “Citizens should be free to speak their mind without fear.” And he ended with the motto “si se puede”—yes, we can

<Texto en español → AQUÍ>

Havana, March 22 (DP.net).─ President Obama spoke directly to the Cuban people and received repeated ovations from the audience in his speech in Havana, outlining a path forward for the U.S. and the island nation.

Here is a full transcript of his remarks:

«OBAMA: Thank you. Muchas gracias. Thank you very much. Please. Thank you very much.

To President Castro, the people of Cuba, thank you so much for the warm welcome that I have received, that my family have received and that our delegation has received. It is an extraordinary honor to be here today.

Before I begin, please indulge me. 

The World Movement for Democracy (WMD) published on the last day of February its VIII Assembly Report available in PDF format HERE. This international meeting took place in Seoul, South Korea, on November 1 to 4, 2015. Our PDCI was invited to participate, but we had to decline just this time. The meetings gathered several working groups: "Defending Civil Society", "Digital Security", "Preparing for successful transitions" and "Strenghytening global democratic norms", totalling some 50 sessions throughout the Conference with the participation of more than 400 democracy activists, practitioners, scholars, and donors from more than 100 countries.

The Steering Committee issued a statement for "A Call for Democratic Renewal" ◄[click here]  tackling on the challenges facing democracy since the end of the Cold War. The statement pointed to the need of a program to reinvigorate democracy should have four core dimensions: The first is a renewed commitment by democratic governments and international organizations to the defense of civil society against resurgent authoritarianism.

Timonium, Feb.12.─ In 1968, the country’s culture wars pitted a rebellious young generation against the values of their parents. The rift was fodder for Ralph Jaffe, a social studies teacher at Ridgely Middle School in Timonium, to take his ninth-grade students through an experiment in participatory democracy.

They would spend all of their time in class trying to pass a bill through Congress to help create a rapport between the embittered generations.

Students lobbied Maryland’s then-2nd District Rep. Clarence Long, who later introduced a bill. A word-of-mouth campaign began for students outside the class to write their representatives. Students called members of the House Appropriations Committee to make their case.