Kurlansky, Mark:A Continent of Islands: Searching for the Caribbean Destiny
- Paperback 2020, ISBN: 9780201622317
Hardcover
St. Martin's Press. Very Good. 6 x 1.5 x 8.75 inches. Hardcover. 1998. 306 pages. <br>When the Soviet Unions communist empire collapsed in 1989, a mood of euphoria took hold in… More...
St. Martin's Press. Very Good. 6 x 1.5 x 8.75 inches. Hardcover. 1998. 306 pages. <br>When the Soviet Unions communist empire collapsed in 1989, a mood of euphoria took hold in the West and in Eastern Europe. The West had won the ultimate victory--it had driven a si lver stake through the heart of Communism. Its next planned step was to help the nations of Eastern Europe to reconstruct themselv es as democratic, free-market states, and full partners in the Fi rst World Order. But that, as Janine Wedel reveals in this grippi ng volume, was before Western governments set their poorly concei ved programs in motion. Collision and Collusion tells the bizarre and sometimes scandalous story of Western governments attempts t o aid the former Soviet block. He shows how by mid-decade, Wester n aid policies had often backfired, effectively discouraging mark et reforms and exasperating electorates who, remarkably, had vote d back in the previously despised Communists. Collision and Collu sion is the first book to explain where the Western dollars inten ded to aid Eastern Europe went, and why they did so little to hel p. Taking a hard look at the bureaucrats, politicians, and consul tants who worked to set up Western economic and political systems in Eastern Europe, the book details the extraordinary costs of i nstitutional ignorance, cultural misunderstanding, and unrealisti c expectations. Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly Wedel' s (The Private Poland) experience in the Soviet bloc gives her th e sociological basis from which to understand the post-Soviet aid period. While painting a sympathetic portrait of well-meaning fo reign donors, such as USAID and the European Union's PHARE (Polan d and Hungary Aid in Restructuring the Economy) programs, she pre sents the myriad elements that contributed to their failure in Po land, Hungary and the Czech Republic, but most spectacularly in R ussia and other nations of the former Soviet Union. Prominent amo ng the culprits were the media darlings of the Marriott Brigade, consultants who jet-setted about the region, offering homilies an d heady capitalist exhortations, then departed safely to the next country before developing concrete solutions. While donors lulle d themselves with the idea that these consultants were effective, Easterners were quick to adopt foreign friends to get access to funding. Wedel sharply exposes the mutual promotion of the Harvar d Institute for International Development's consultants and econo mic guru Anatoly Chubais's cronies. She charges that, gaining nea rly sacrosanct status, they maneuvered enormous profits via insid er deals: e.g., Harvard Management Fund was one of only two forei gn participants in the fabulously lucrative loans-for-shares deal s, while one Chubais cohort obtained Norilski Nickel for a fracti on of its value. Wedel's research reveals how little Western aid really got to where it was supposed to go and why even much that did failed to help. Wedel's bold, invaluable report is frightenin g for its revelations and political implications, both in the U.S . and the ex-Eastern bloc. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Informat ion, Inc. From Library Journal Wedel (anthropology, George Washi ngton Univ.), who has written primarily about Poland (The Private Poland, LJ 7/86), here takes a highly critical look at American and European attempts to provide assistance to the emerging democ racies of the Second World of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Wedel describes carpetbagger consultants in Eastern Europe and the chicanery of the Chubais clique and the Ha rvard Institute for International Development in Russia, pointing to the disconnect [between East and West] forged by the Cold War and exacerbated by the barriers of language, culture, distance, information, and semiclosed borders as the root cause. She doesn' t describe what these programs have accomplished; researchers wil l have to consult the publications and web sites of organizations such as the OECD and USAID. While Wedel takes a rather partisan tone, little literature exists on this topic, recommending this b ook for public and research libraries.?Michael Edward Neubert, Li b. of Congress, Washington, DC Copyright 1999 Reed Business Infor mation, Inc. Review Very critical and troubling analysis of the shortcomings of Western aid policy, particularly to Russia. The i mplications of Wedel's critical assessment need to be seriously t aken into account. -- Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advi ser to President Carter Even seven years after the fall of the E vil Empire, Russia has continued to supply the world with plenty of bad guys. Unreconstructed communists, neo-fascists and gangste r hit men aren't difficult to come by in Moscow. It's the good gu ys who are hard to find. That's a lesson Washington hasn't quit e learned. In her new book Collision and Collusion: The Strange C ase of Western Aid to Eastern Europe 1989-1998, George Washington University anthropologist Janine Wedel argues that the Clinton a dministration was determined to cast Boris Yeltsin's young reform ers as the good guys. This, she says, unwittingly contributed to Russia's current economic mess. The result, Wedel contends, is th at American aid to Russia has proved to be a disaster from beginn ing to end. -- Andrew Nagorski, Newsweek December 7, 1998 [Janin e Wedel] is good at conjuring up the sense of adventure and psych ological complexity that ensued as West and East got to know each other up close. She carefully charts the misunderstandings and c ultural collisions as Western aid-givers tried to impose their ow n terms of reference on societies they were usually poorly equipp ed to understand. Much of this discussion, while illuminating, is aimed more at policy wonks than at lay readers. -- The Wall Stre et Journal, Christian Caryl From the Publisher Praise for Colli sion and Collusion: For anyone who has participated in, or merel y observed at close range, U.S. aid efforts to Eastern Europe and Russia, this important book offers many sadly familiar vignettes . But Janine Wedel goes beyond just describing our aid programs a nd the discrepancy between what we promised and what we did. She investigates 'how aid happens.' Hers is a cautionary tale of the conflict of means versus ends, results versus process. Above all, Collision and Collusion reminds us of the danger of trying to im pose change upon societies without understanding how they really work. --Clifford G. Gaddy, The Brookings Institute Janine Wedel' s Collision and Collusion offers devastating evidence showing how foreign aid breeds arrogance in donors, resentment in recipients , and waste and corruption around the globe. --James Bovard, auth or of Lost Rights About the Author Janine R. Wedel is an associ ate research professor and a research fellow at the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Affairs at George Washington Uni versity. Janine R. Wedel is an associate research professor and a research fellow at the Institute for European, Russian, and Eur asian Affairs at George Washington University. From the Publishe r Praise for Collision and Collusion: For anyone who has partici pated in, or merely observed at close range, U.S. aid efforts to Eastern Europe and Russia, this important book offers many sadly familiar vignettes. But Janine Wedel goes beyond just describing our aid programs and the discrepancy between what we promised and what we did. She investigates 'how aid happens.' Hers is a cauti onary tale of the conflict of means versus ends, results versus p rocess. Above all, Collision and Collusion reminds us of the dang er of trying to impose change upon societies without understandin g how they really work. --Clifford G. Gaddy, The Brookings Instit ute Janine Wedel's Collision and Collusion offers devastating ev idence showing how foreign aid breeds arrogance in donors, resent ment in recipients, and waste and corruption around the globe. -- James Bovard, author of Lost Rights About the Author Janine R. Wedel is an associate research professor and a research fellow at the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Affairs at Geo rge Washington University. Janine R. Wedel is an associate resea rch professor and a research fellow at the Institute for European , Russian, and Eurasian Affairs at George Washington University. About the Author Janine R. Wedel is an associate research profes sor and a research fellow at the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Affairs at George Washington University. Janine R. Wedel is an associate research professor and a research fellow a t the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Affairs at Ge orge Washington University. From The Washington Post Wedel's pro bing look at cross-cultural miscommunication demonstrates that We stern resolve and the global rush to benefit from the demise of c ommunist rule was costly not only to societies resistant to chang e, but to the American taxpayer as well. </div ., St. Martin's Press, 1998, 3, Minneapolis, MN, USA: Milkweed Editions, 1993. Paperback. Very Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7?" - 9?" tall. R. W. Scholes. Trade Paperback in Very Good Condition. Foreword by Rosellen Brown. Designed and illustrated by R. W. Scholes. Clean and unmarked pictorial wrappers with light wear to front corners and fore edge of front cover, Soundly bound, square. Internals quite clean and free from any markings of creasing. Debut book by Eileen Drew, a Californian who was born in Morocco to a Foreign Service family and has lived in several African countries. Her stories draw power from her careful observations and the intelligence of her insights about a country she loves. She describes the savannahs, a pigmy village, the jungles beautifully and lyrically. She understands the complexities of two vastly different cultures and why there is so much enmity between them. There are nine short stories, that read like a novel, painting a distinctive portrait of Africa. 155 pages. 6 x 9 inches. Milkweed Editions, Minneapolis, MN, 1993., Milkweed Editions, 1993, 3, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2020. Softcover. Very Good Condition. Drawing on nearly three years of reporting, hundreds of hours of interviews and more than two hundred sources, including some of the most senior members of the administration, friends and first-hand witnesses who have never spoken before, Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig take us inside some of the most controversial moments of Trump's presidency. They peer deeply into Trump's White House - at the aides pressured to lie to the public, the lawyers scrambling to clear up norm-breaking disasters, and the staffers whose careers have been reduced to ashes - to paint an unparalleled group portrait of an administration driven by self-preservation and paranoia. Rucker and Leonnig reveal Trump at his most unvarnished, showing the unhinged decision-making and incompetence that has floored officials and stunned foreign leaders. They portray unscripted calls with Vladimir Putin, steak dinners with Kim Jong-un, and calls with Theresa May so hostile that they left her aides shaken. They also take a hard look at Robert Mueller, Trump's greatest antagonist to date, and how his investigation slowly unravelled an administration whose universal value is loyalty - not to country, but to the president himself. 465 pages. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: 1-2 kilos. Category: Politics; Politics & Government; ISBN/EAN: 9781526609083. Inventory No: 263585. . 9781526609083, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020, 3, Nj: Princeton University Press, March 21, 2008. Binding is Tight. Paperback is Good. Some markings.. Good+. E-mails proposing an "urgent business relationship" help make fraud Nigeria's largest source of foreign revenue after oil. But scams are also a central part of Nigeria's domestic cultural landscape. Corruption is so widespread in Nigeria that its citizens call it simply "the Nigerian factor." Willing or unwilling participants in corruption at every turn, Nigerians are deeply ambivalent about it--resigning themselves to it, justifying it, or complaining about it. They are painfully aware of the damage corruption does to their country and see themselves as their own worst enemies, but they have been unable to stop it. A Culture of Corruption is a profound and sympathetic attempt to understand the dilemmas average Nigerians face every day as they try to get ahead--or just survive--in a society riddled with corruption.Drawing on firsthand experience, Daniel Jordan Smith paints a vivid portrait of Nigerian corruption--of nationwide fuel shortages in Africa's oil-producing giant, Internet cafés where the young launch their e-mail scams, checkpoints where drivers must bribe police, bogus organizations that siphon development aid, and houses painted with the fraud-preventive words "not for sale." This is a country where "419"--the number of an antifraud statute--has become an inescapable part of the culture, and so universal as a metaphor for deception that even a betrayed lover can say, "He played me 419." It is impossible to comprehend Nigeria today--from vigilantism and resurgent ethnic nationalism to rising Pentecostalism and accusations of witchcraft and cannibalism--without understanding the role played by corruption and popular reactions to it., Princeton University Press, 2.5, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.: Grand Central Publishing - Hachette Book Group, 1997. First Warner Books Printing . Trade Paperback. Very Good. 5 1/4" x 8. 238 Pages Indexed. December 1997 Warner Books Release. Tight, bright, and square book with no marks or stamps. Interior pages are faultless. Once a small boy was chosen to rule the most mysterious land on earth. Now the Dalai Lama tells his, and his country's poignant story. Written by the Dalai Lama as a young man in exile, this dignified testament re-creates the miraculous search that identified him as the reincarnated leader of his country. It paints a rare, intimate portrait of Tibetan Buddhism, a way of life that would end with a terrifying foreign invasion surpassing sanity and reason and it reveals the evolution of a man from a gentle monk to a world leader. One struggling to this day to free his country. One able to touch our hearts with the goodness that makes him one of the beloved men of our tame. This is a narrative that gains in drama by the simplicity of its telling. Contents: The Farmer's Son, The Quest for Enlightenment, Peace of Mind, Our Neighbor China, Invasion, In Communist China, Repression and Resentment, A Pilgrimage to India, Revolt, Crisis in Lhasa, Escape, Into Exile, and Present and Future. Appendix I An Outliine of the Buddhism of Tibet. Appendix II Appeals lby His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet to the United Nations., Grand Central Publishing - Hachette Book Group, 1997, 3, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 176 pages, illustrations (some colour), maps; 24 cm. Firm binding, clean inside copy. Light shelfwear to wraps, age toning. "In this refreshing reappraisal of the art and architecture of ancient Rome, Eve D'Ambra focuses on the personal, social and cultural identity of its subjects. The acquisition of art, whether the purchase of copies of Greek statuary, the construction of a sumptuous villa or the commissioning of a portrait head, played a crucial role in Roman society in which displays of wealth and culture were necessary to gain and maintain power. The question of identity is key to understanding the nature of the Roman empire, which seemed infinitely expandable at its peak, welcomed foreigners to become Romans, freed slaves to citizen status and allowed social mobility within a strictly hierarchical social order. D'Ambra discusses patronage on different social levels, from that of the emperor and his court to those of shopkeepers and of artisans, in diverse regions of the empire and in distinct ethnic groups. She compares the imagery of the state and of the military victory with the humblest funerary reliefs. Many provincial artworks were based on imperial models, but others were created in resistance to prevailing imperial standards. D'Ambra draws on a range of sculptures, wall paintings, decorative arts, coins and architecture, from Italy to the edges of the empire, evoking the traditionalism and the adaptability of Roman art. She also looks ahead to the art and architecture of the fourth century AD, which despite the emergence of Christianity as the dominant religion continued to be influenced by Roman styles and themes." - Publisher. CONTENTS: Introduction; Part I. Empire and its Myths: 1. Foundations; 2. Reactions to dominant cultures; 3. From republic to empire; Part II. The Social Order: 4. Identity and status; 5. Elites; 6. Urban working classes; 7. Women and the family; 8. Outsiders and insiders; Part III. The City and Urban Space: 9. The city as civilization; 10. Civic spectacle; 11. Ruler and subjects; Part IV. Portraiture and Commemoration: 12. High and low; 13. Modesty and adornment; 14. Heroic modes; 15. Preserving memory; Part V. Houses and Painted Interiors: 16. Duty and domesticity; 17. Gardens; 18. Painted perspectives; Part IV. The Limits of Empire: 19. Town and country; 20. Power and privilege; 21. Gods and cults.. 1st. Paperback. Very Good. 8vo., Cambridge University Press, 1998, 3, Reading, Massachusetts, U.S.A.: Addison-Wesley Publishing, Company, 1993. First Paperback Edition . Trade Paperback. Very Good. 6" x 9. Coe, Diana - Cover. 324 Pages. January 1993. A richly detailed portrait of the individual countries and peoples of the Caribbean, the author brings to life a society and culture often kept hidden from foreigners. The arts, history, politics, and economics of the region, as well as the vivid day-to-day lives of its citizens. From the Newyoriccans of Livittown, Puerty Rico; to the state-salaried popular musicians of Cuba; to the practitioners of good political hurricanemanship (who know how to stretch statistics to bring in relief funds), this book paints portraits that will prove eqully fascinating to tourists who know the Caribbean only as a string of beach resorts, and to readers curious about U.S. efforts to influence its neighbors. Contents in Twenty Chapters: The Problem with History, Old Gods and Satellite Dishes, Color-Coded Natons, Sacrifice and the Revolution, Why Damballah Left, Bajan Burgers, Prophets and Profits, The Goats the Sheep and the Ugly Time, Two Ways of Looking at It, A Hint of Vanilla, Too Strong a Word, The Good Election, Death by Pepper Sauce, The Tenth Man, The Diaspora, Don Pedro in Levittown, The Cookie Theory of Underdevelopment, In Search of France, History Returns, and The Continent Table., Addison-Wesley Publishing, Company, 1993, 3<
