Faith in Action:

On 29 July 2003, thousands of unemployed farmworkers and their families who had been evicted from coffee estates in the province of Matagalpa, Nicaragua, joined a peaceful march. “The March of the Hungry,” as they named their public demonstration, was not hyperbole....

The Structure and Phenology of Non-Native Scolytine Beetle Communities in Coffee Plantations on Kauaʻi

Populations and communities are known to respond to abiotic conditions, but the forces determining the distribution of particular insect pests are sometimes overlooked in the process of developing control methods. Bark and ambrosia beetles (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) are important pests of crops, forestry, and ecosystems worldwide, yet the factors that influence their success are unknown for many species. The Hawaiian archipelago is host to over three dozen invasive scolytines, many of which occur on Kauaʻi and are pests of agriculture. We analyzed scolytine community dynamics at two coffee estates: a hand-harvested site in a tropical wet forest and a mechanically harvested site in a tropical dry savanna. Our regression analyses show overall scolytine abundance was negatively correlated with rainfall, as were four species: the tropical nut borer (Hypothenemus obscurus), H. brunneus, Cryphalus longipilus, and Xyleborinus andrewesi. These relationships contributed to the compositions of the communities being markedly dissimilar despite having the same species richness. Multivariate analysis found no influence from temperature or harvest method on community dynamics. This information can be valuable for the timing of pest control methods, for predicting the success of possible new scolytine arrivals on Kauaʻi, and for forecasting how these species may spread with climate change.

Social Aspect of Leisure Among the Tribal Population of Nagarhole National Park, Karnataka

Tribes or adivasis are considered to be the parasites of the forests, thinking that they cannot exist without depending on the forest resource. But the trend has changed after the relocation of the tribes from forest to the periphery of the forest areas. Their way of living, language, food habits, occupation, leisure and entertainment, socio-cultural setup everything has changed drastically. The study exposes both in park and outside the park tribal settlements, to show the differences in their living conditions, socio-economic activities, leisure activities among men and women of these hadis. The study mainly focuses on the Jenu Kuruba tribe who is more in number in and around the National Park than the other tribes, like the Betta Kuruba and Yerava. Under India Eco-development Project the inpark 54 hadi tribes (1568 families), are being relocated (250 families already relocated), gradually. This has brought in major impact on the tribes who are inside the park. The inpark hadi tribes are also exposed to other places like Coorg, as wage earners in coffee estates. Thus the exposure to other places for livelihood purpose and the rehabilitation programmes has changed the traditional tribes to modernisation. Key words: Nagarahole National Park, Hadi, Tribes, Leisure, Jenu Kuruba, Ashram School, and Social aspect.

Chinese Plantation Workers and Social Conflict in Peru in the late Nineteenth Century

As the world capitalist system developed during the nineteenth century non-slave labour became a commodity that circulated around the globe and contributed to capital accumulation in metropolitan centres. The best examples are the emigration of millions of Asian indentured servants and European labourers to areas of European colonisation. Asians replaced emancipated African slaves on plantations in the Caribbean and South America, supplemented a declining slave population in Cuba, built railways in California, worked in mines in South Africa, laboured on sugarcane plantations in Mauritius and Fiji, and served on plantations in southeast Asia. Italian immigrants also replaced African slaves on coffee estates in Brazil, worked with Spaniards in the seasonal wheat harvest in Argentina, and, along with other Europeans, entered the growing labour market in the United States. From the perspective of capital, these workers were a cheap alternative to local wage labour and, as foreigners without the rights of citizens, they could be subjected to harsher methods of social control.1