Word: islandness
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...What the world really needs is for its leaders to think short term, to make the hard pledges that are required to start bringing global carbon emissions down. They can start at Copenhagen. And they should remember the words of Mohamed Nasheed, the President of the Maldives, whose small island country literally risks being erased from the planet by rising sea levels. "We are talking about not living because of climate change," he said on Sept. 21. "We are going to die. Don't do this to us." Not as eloquent as Obama's words - but far more urgent...
...Colombian rock superstar Juanes looked out at a crowd of more than 1 million and shouted, "Cuba libre! Cuba libre!" (Free Cuba!) It was a mantra you could take two ways: If you're a fan of Cuba's communist government, it was a cry to keep the island safe from U.S. imperialism. If you're a foe, it was a plea for the political and economic freedoms that Fidel Castro and his brother, current President Raúl Castro, have muzzled for 50 years...
...Peace Without Borders show, complete with the death threat he received from an anti-Castro militant on Twitter and the insults hurled at Miami's Cuban exiles from the newspaper Granma and other mouthpieces of the Castro regime. (See pictures of the fading legacy of Cuban music on the island itself...
...island where communism is the de facto state religion, it was a refreshing shock on both sides of the Florida Straits to see the hallowed Revolution Plaza packed not for a 10-hour Fidel speech but for something as joyously secular as a pop concert. As Granma itself noted afterward, there was "no political manipulation of cultural expression ... just a vote for human understanding." And while that's to the Castros' credit, the truth is that the long-term effects of that sort of nondogmatic fiesta don't always favor systems like Cuba's. Says Daniel Erikson, a senior associate...
President Obama has pledged to thaw U.S.-Cuba affairs as a way to promote democracy on the island. Though he favors keeping intact the 47-year-old trade embargo against Cuba, he eliminated restrictions on travel to Cuba for Cuban-American families, and his Administration is now in talks with Havana about improving immigration and postal service between the two countries. Erikson says the concert by Juanes, who lives in Miami, was a reminder of the "soft power tool kit" the U.S. should wield more often. "Obama needs to bring more of that kind of cultural diplomacy back into...