Daniel
Kammen
“Green Growth?”
The
next U.S. president will be confronted with the need
to right the listing economy while combating global climate
change. Dan Kammen discusses the opportunities available
to the next president, both at home and internationally,
as well as the constraints he will face, identifying
key areas for policy change.
Daniel
Kammen is a professor in the Energy and Resources Group,
the Goldman School of Public Policy and the Department
of Nuclear Engineering at UC Berkeley. He is also the
director of the university’s Renewable and Appropriate
Energy Laboratory.
Tuesday,
September 9, 12:00 – 1:15 pm
554 Barrows Hall
Jonathan
Fox
“Mexico's Right-to-Know Reforms: Testing the Transition”
Mexico’s
laws and official political discourse now emphasize transparency.
Citizens’ “right to know” is assumed
to encourage more accountable governance. In practice,
however, what difference have these reforms made so far,
and how do we know? This presentation will include a
conceptual discussion of the relationship between transparency
and accountability, a national overview of the reform
process, and a field report on a grassroots civil society
campaign to exercise information rights in the state
of Guerrero.
Jonathan
Fox is professor of Latin American and Latino Studies
at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His
most recent books include Accountability Politics:
Power and Voice in Rural Mexico (Oxford University
Press, 2007) and, as co-editor, Mexico's Right-to-Know
Reforms: Civil Society Perspectives (Fundar & Woodrow
Wilson Center, 2007). The latter book is fully online
in English and Spanish at www.fundar.org.mx.
Monday,
September 22, 12:00 – 1:15 pm
554 Barrows Hall
Jean-Paul Faguet
“Decentralization
and Access to Social Services in Colombia”
Jean-Paul
Faguet will explore the empirical effects of decentralization
on access to public services in Colombia. In general,
decentralization has led to a shift in investment from
infrastructure to primary social services, leading to
improvements in enrollment rates at public schools and
in poor people’s access
to public health services. Notably, it was the behavior
of smaller, poorer, more rural municipalities that drove
these changes. This contradicts common claims that local
government is more corrupt, institutionally weak and
prone to interest-group capture than central government.
Jean-Paul Faguet is a visiting scholar at the Center
for Latin American Studies and an associate professor of
Political Economy of Development at the London School of
Economics, where he is also program director for Development
Management.
Monday,
September 29, 12:00 – 1:15
pm
554
Barrows Hall
Panel
Discussion on Film
Children
of the Amazon
In
the 1960s, the Brazilian government began work on the
BR- 364, the highway that would open up the Amazon. Farmers,
loggers and cattle ranchers descended on the tropical
forest with devastating consequences for indigenous people
and for the rubber-tappers who eked out a living from
the trees. The Amazon quickly became Brazil ’s “Wild
West,” and violence became commonplace among the
factions competing for a livelihood. The panelists will
examine how the road changed the forest and local communities
and discuss efforts to protect land and traditions.
Denise
Zmekhol is a film director and producer.
Elenira
Mendes is the daughter of late rainforest preservation
activist Chico Mendes.
Chief
AlmirSurui is a village chief who has worked to
protect Surui lands and culture.
Wednesday,
October 1, 7:00 pm
160
Kroeber Hall
Barry Carr
“Pink,
Red or Tutti Frutti? Where Is Latin America Heading Politically?”
Is Latin America turning to the left? In this talk, Barry
Carr looks at recent developments (in Venezuela, Bolivia,
Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil and
Paraguay) and assesses the significance of the so-called
Pink Tide, the emergence of new international actors in
Latin America and the challenge these developments pose
for the United States in what has traditionally been a
predictable political setting.
Barry
Carr taught at La Trobe University until early 2008 and
served as the director of that university’s
Institute of Latin American Studies. He is currently a
visiting scholar at CLAS and is co-editing a book that
looks at recent developments in Latin America.
Monday,
October 13, 4:00 pm
554
Barrows Hall
Beatriz Manz
“Anthropologist as Witness: Spain’s
Guatemala Genocide Case”
In
the early 1980s, Guatemala’s human
rights abuses reached genocidal proportions. As an anthropologist
who studies Guatemalan society, Prof. Manz has taken
the position, controversial within the profession, that
public exposure of what took place is the necessary and
ethical path. She has provided expert testimony before
Congressional committees and asylum judges, written opinion
pieces for such papers as The New York Times and The
International Herald Tribune and, more recently, provided
expert testimony before the National Court in Madrid,
Spain, which is considering genocide charges against
several Guatemalan military officers.
Beatriz Manz is a professor of geography and ethnic studies
at UC Berkeley and has done extensive anthropological fieldwork
in Guatemala. Her book, Paradise in Ashes, chronicles
the devastation in the war-torn rainforest region of northern
Guatemala.
Monday,
October 20, 12:00 – 1:15
pm
554 Barrows Hall
Children
of the Amazon
Directed by Denise Zmekhol ( United States,
2008)
“Children
of the Amazon” follows Brazilian filmmaker Denise
Zmekhol as she travels deep into the Amazon in search
of the Indigenous Surui and Negarote children she
photographed 15 years ago. Part road movie, part time
travel, her journey tells the story of what happened
to life in the largest forest on earth when a road was
built straight through its heart.
“Beautifully
filmed and compassionately told, ‘Children of the
Amazon’ deftly uses the director’s relationship
with the children of three Amazonian communities to show
the history of the region as a whole.” — Victoria
Langland, UC Davis
Wednesday,
October 22, 7:00 pm
160 Kroeber Hall
Lost
Embrace
Directed by Daniel Burman (Argentina, 2004)
Directionless
and unsatisfied, Ariel dreams of escaping a life trapped
behind the counter of his mother’s lingerie store
in a shabby Buenos Aires shopping mall. He is angling
to move to Poland , a land of opportunity to him but
also the place his Jewish grandmother fled during World
War II. Before he can convince her to hand over the documents
he needs to secure a Polish passport, his long-lost father
arrives on the scene bringing with him the answers to
Ariel’s questions about the past. 100 minutes.
Spanish with English subtitles.
“A
film of unexpected, almost indescribable off-center charm
that deepens as it goes on.” — Kenneth Turan,
Los Angeles Times
Wednesday,
November 5, 7:00 pm
160
Kroeber Hall
The
Judge and the General
Directed by Elizabeth Farnsworth and Patricio Lanfranco (United States, 2008)
When
Chilean judge Juan Guzmán was assigned the first
criminal case against the country’s ex-dictator,
General Augusto Pinochet, no one expected much. After
all, the conservative judge had supported Pinochet and
believed the general’s version of events: that
the tales of mass murder and systematic violations of
human rights were mostly Communist propaganda and any
excesses committed by the military were the unfortunate
consequences of a dire struggle. The filmmakers trace
the judge’s descent into what he calls “the
abyss,” where he uncovers the past and his own
role in the tragedy. 84 minutes.English and Spanish
with subtitles.
Director Elizabeth
Farnsworth will answer questions following
the film.
“See
the movie if you get a chance, even just for a break
from the cynicism of everyday life.” — Phil
Bronstein, San Francisco Chronicle
Co-sponsored
with the Human Rights Center.
Monday,
December 1, 7:00 pm
Pacific Film Archive Theater
Linha
de Passe
Directed by Walter Salles (Brazil, 2008)
In
the heart of São Paulo, one of the toughest, most
chaotic cities in the world, four fatherless brothers
struggle to earn respect and reales without
turning to crime. “Linha De Passe” explores
how the brothers — like the vast majority of young
Brazilian men — instead seek refuge in soccer,
religion or familial connections. The title, a Brazilian
soccer term for players passing the ball from one to
another without letting it touch the ground, poetically
evokes both the structure of the film and the boys’ efforts
to stay in the game. 108 minutes. Portuguese with
English subtitles.
Walter
Salles, the award-winning director of “Central
Station,” “Midnight,” and “The
Motorcycle Diaries,” will be on hand to discuss “Linha
de Passe,” as well as “On the Road,” an
upcoming film currently in production.
Date:
TBD
Location: TBD
