High-energy Zook stil firing on all cylinders

Caption …

The Politics of Social Risk: Business and Welfare State Development

The Politics of Social Risk: Business and Welfare State Development. By Isabella Mares. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. xvii + 319 pp. Figures, tables, references, index. Cloth, $65; paper, $24. ISBN: cloth 0-521-82741-8; paper 0-521-53477-1.

Isabella Mares's book is not a history, but it will be of interest to historians nonetheless. She has developed a theoretical model in order to explain the behavior of employers when they are faced with the introduction of an institutionally organized social security system. By comparing events in Germany and France between the years 1880 and 1990, she confirms her theory that employers did not always oppose the introduction of …

Feds question system for locating design errors

A safety investigator probing the Minneapolis highway bridge collapse said Friday that existing state and federal design review processes may not be adequate to detect design errors.

Joseph Epperson told the National Transportation Safety Board that neither Minnesota nor federal officials detected a design error on the Interstate 35W bridge span.

Back in the 1960s, when the Interstate 35W bridge was erected, Epperson said, the federal government and the states relied on the seal of the engineer who signed off on the project. The engineer for the Minneapolis bridge is deceased.

The five-member board plans to vote later Friday on the probable cause of …

Park District, Bears in scuffle over skyboxes

The football game between the Chicago Bears and the St. LouisCardinals apparently won't be the only confrontation at Soldier Fieldtonight as Bears management squares off again with the Park District.

Bears President Michael McCaskey has invited some disadvantagedchildren to watch preseason action from two skyboxes normallyreserved for Park District bigwigs and their friends. And McCaskeyhasn't yet issued tickets - as Bears management has over the years -to Park District officials intending to use the skyboxes.

The Bears say they control the four boxes, along with 60 othersthey rent out, but the Park District says it owns the disputed four.

The children …

Winfield 76, Scott 43

Scott (12-9, 7-5 Cardinal) FG FT Pts.

Nick Cabell 2-7 0-2 6

Josh Sheets 0-1 0-0 0

Jeremy Grant 2-2 4-6 8

Zach Green 5-14 6-11 19

Lou Green 2-6 1-2 5

Jordan Bradford 0-3 4-6 4

Nick Mullins 0-0 1-2 1

Brandon Bias 0-0 0-2 0

Brandon Woodruff 0-2 0-0 0

Brandon Kirk 0-0 0-0 0

Blake Isenberg 0-1 0-0 0

Terry Baldwin 0-0 0-0 0

Totals 11-36 16-31 43

Percentages .306 .516

Winfield (17-5, 9-3 Cardinal) FG FT Pts.

T.L. Asbury 8-15 2-3 19

Tyler Kovarik 1-3 0-0 3

Virgil Vanover 4-6 1-1 9

Jeremy Stone 5-11 3-4 15

Tim Gladis 2-4 2-2 6

Andrew Ricks 4-10 0-1 …

France investigating Adidas sale settlement

PARIS (AP) — Paris prosecutors have opened an investigation into an arbitration deal over the sale of sportswear maker Adidas — a case that has threatened to ensnare Finance Minister Christine Lagarde.

Separately, a special French court is considering investigating the role that Lagarde — now a top candidate to run the International Monetary Fund — may have played in the arbitration. She has denied any …

Retrial clears former Basque separatist leader

MADRID (AP) — Spain's National Court has acquitted a former Basque separatist leader who was sentenced to two years in prison for defending terrorism.

Arnaldo Otegi, one-time leader of the outlawed Batasuna party, linked to the armed group ETA, was convicted in 2010 for defending terrorism while paying homage in 2005 to an imprisoned ETA member.

But the Supreme Court ordered a …

Implementation and Outcomes of a Comprehensive Worksite Health Promotion Program

ABSTRACT

Background: This paper reports on the implementation and results of a three-year comprehensive worksite health promotion program called Take care of your health!, delivered at a single branch of a large financial organization with 656 employees at the beginning of the implementation period and 905 at the end. The program included six educational modules delivered over a three-year period. A global health profile was part of the first and last modules. The decision to implement the program coincided with an overall program of organizational renewal.

Methods: The data for this evaluation come from four sources: analysis of changes in employee health profiles between …

Wizards-Trail Blazers, Box

…

WASHINGTON (82)

Butler 6-20 5-5 19, Jamison 3-13 3-4 9, Haywood 2-6 0-1 4, Daniels 5-8 3-4 14, Stevenson 3-8 0-0 8, Blatche 2-5 4-4 8, Mason 4-8 0-0 11, Songaila 2-5 0-0 4, Young 2-6 0-0 4, McGuire 0-1 0-0 0, Pecherov 0-1 1-2 1. Totals 29-81 16-20 82.

PORTLAND (102)

Webster 9-14 1-1 23, Outlaw 8-16 3-4 20, Przybilla 1-3 4-7 6, Blake 2-3 0-0 5, Roy 3-6 0-0 6, Frye 3-8 4-4 10, Jack 7-10 2-2 17, Jones 3-9 0-0 9, LaFrentz 3-7 0-0 6, Rodriguez 0-2 0-0 0, Wafer 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 39-79 14-18 102.

Alex Salmond phoned up hard-working conor, 16 He Has received phone calls from the First Minister during geography lessons.

He Has received phone calls from the First Minister duringgeography lessons.

And he spends his free time discussing ways to improve thecommunity.

This is no ordinary teenager.

Sixteen-year-old Conor McKay is less interested in going to discosand more focused on organising them.

While most of his peers are thinking about cars and football, heis a Gordon representative of the Scottish Youth Parliament andinvolved with the Garioch Area Partnership and the Inverurie YouthForum.

And at 15, the Inverurie Academy pupil became the youngest memberof a community council in Scotland - he was co-opted as he is tooyoung to vote.

For all his …

ON (AND OFF) THE WALL: 5@ACI

Down the hill from Farm City and across from the Caldwell Night Rodeo grounds is Albertson College of Idaho--the state's oldest four-year college and home to a surprisingly diverse art faculty. The faculty--the "5@ACI"--are currently exhibiting their work--ceramics, acrylic painting, mixed media, book arts, cibachrome and digital photography--at the Rosenthal Gallery of Art on the college campus through October 18.

Jan Boles, known for his black and white panoramic photographs, gives us something new--color and digital images. Instead of working in the darkroom, Boles creates experimental ink jet prints on watercolor paper. Like his past work, Boles composes these images using …

Gay soldier shares reaction to GOP debate boos

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Army Capt. Stephen Hill says he wasn't trying to score political points when he asked the Republican presidential candidates if they would reinstate the ban on gays serving openly in the U.S. military.

He wasn't worried that his debate question, posed via a YouTube video recorded in Iraq, would generate boos or reveal his sexual orientation to millions of people, including his superiors and fellow troops.

All Hill was thinking about in September was his husband of four-and-a-half months, Joshua Snyder, in Columbus, Ohio.

Now that "don't ask, don't tell" has been lifted, he needed to know if the military would take the next step and recognize his …

Turks vote in local elections; 1 killed in fight

Turks were voting Sunday in local elections that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes will strengthen his party's hand in pushing for constitutional reforms.

Some 48 million people are voting to elect mayors and district administrators in 81 provinces. Voting was largely peaceful although a deadly gun battle between the families of two rivals vying for a village administrator post in southeast Turkey left one dead and 16 wounded, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

Opinion polls indicate Erdogan's Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party will secure most votes following tensions with the military-backed secularists that had long dominated politics.

Last year, Erdogan's party narrowly escaped being disbanded on charges of challenging Turkey's secular constitution.

The opposition has been trying to capitalize on rising unemployment and fallout from the global economic meltdown as well as allegations of corruption against Erdogan's party that have forced two officials to step down.

The party however, remains popular among Turks. It has provided stability following years of precarious coalition governments. The party, first elected in 2002, won general elections by a landslide in 2007 with more than 46 percent of the vote.

In the last municipal elections in 2004, the party won 12 of 16 of Turkey's most important cities, including Ankara and Istanbul.

Its toughest challenge is likely to come from the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party which has a strong showing in Turkey's mostly Kurdish southeast and is seeking to maintain dominance in the region. The party currently holds the region's largest city, Diyarbakir.

A victory for Erdogan's party will embolden him to push for new reforms to help the country's European Union membership bid. Erdogan has said he will seek amendments to the constitution that is a legacy of the 1980 military coup, making it more difficult for example to shut down political parties.

Turkey is also engaged in talks with the IMF over loans to help overcome economic turmoil. The government has denied that it has stalled the talks to avoid IMF-demanded curbs on municipal spending before Sunday's vote.

Authority for principals opposed

We strongly disagree with your April 1 editorial, "Let cityprincipals run their schools."

The engineer-custodians are professionally licensed buildingmanagers. Many are college graduates and others are graduates oftechnical schools. All have received extensive training relating tothe operation and maintenance of buildings and the equipment therein.They comprehend the myriad of problems that must be faced each day tomaintain an atmosphere within which the principal, teachers andstudents can readily perform their duties. They respond to allrequests for service from the principal provided those requests arein compliance with Board of Education rules and regulations and donot jeopardize the safety and/or comfort of the children.

As you state, most engineer-custodians and principals get alongextremely well under this arrangement. The record shows principalsdo not want any added responsibility in this area. Education reforminitiated in the past year mandates that they spend a majority oftheir workday supervising classroom instruction. Most are occupiedwith reading levels, dropout rates and other educational problems andhave no desire to take on duties outside their field of expertise.

Your statement that principals were stripped of authority inthis area over a decade ago, quite simply, is not true. In November,1971, a letter from the president of the Chicago PrincipalsAssociation to the engineer-custodians stated, "This law codifiescurrent practice and does not, nor was it meant to, infringe on therights or status of any other group." In no way did we intend to usethis legislation to preempt, or usurp, your jurisdiction, or that ofany other craft or trade."

Former Gov. Richard Ogilvie's Commission on School-BusinessManagement Task Force concluded in 1972: "Placement of operatingpersonnel under the control of the educational administrators wouldbe a serious violation of good administrative practices."

The "altruistic" attitude of those few promoting this change inthe state school codes causes us to ask this question: Is thisincursion into the authority of the engineer-custodian sincere, ormerely a ploy to obtain additional administrative positions withineach school and/or additional compensation for the principalsthemselves? Donald J. McCue, president, International Union of Operating Engineers Congress usurps

The recent visit by the secretary of state to Moscow illustratesa potentially disastrous trend in Washington: the usurpation ofconstitutional powers of the president by Congress.

After his meeting with Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Secretary Shultzwent to Brussels to "brief the allies." In his turn, Mr. Gorbachevbriefed the visiting U.S. representatives on whom he relies topressure President Reagan into an arms deal.

The congressmen, led by Speaker Jim Wright, went to Moscow evenas 70 senators urged Secretary Shultz not to go, when the bugging ofour embassy was disclosed. The proximity of the visits and Mr.Gorbachev's statement that he intended to inform the congressmen ofhis meeting with the secretary of state are disturbing. Both menwent back to their allies: Mr. Shultz to the NATO allies and Mr.Gorbachev to the congressmen. We have a problem - our Congress! S. Paul Zumbakis, Loop Fake handicaps

Calvin Robertson (Letters, April 22) is right when he complainsabout healthy people who have handicapped plates so they can get agood parking place. Ever since those permit cards were passed outfor convenience by Secretary of State Jim Edgar with the help ofdishonest doctors and phony handicapped people it has been almostimpossible for a true handicapped person to get a parking space.

I once saw a healthy woman get out of a car wearing red high,high heels and she didn't feel ashamed at all. And by the way, beingold is not being handicapped. Most outrun me.

I agree with Mr. Robertson about having these people prosecutedfor fraud and also make these dishonest doctors bear the sameprosecution. I would gladly change places with these healthy peoplewho dare to fake being handicapped as a means of convenience. Bernice Krygier Harwood Heights Some ills not visible

Calvin Robertson shows the rampant ignorance that so manydisabled people have to deal with every day.

While there are some healthy people who abuse handicappedparking plates and cards, there are also many disabilities notvisible to the casual observer which would necessitate close-inparking. Among them are heart disease, lung disease and diseases ofthe nervous system.

Recently, I parked in a legal space directly across from ablue-sign handicap spot. Teenage boys in a parked car were veryvocal in informing me I had parked in Handicapped Parking illegally.I told them I hadn't, but thanked them for being so observant andcaring enough to check it out.

However, do not view every marked handicapped parker withsuspicion. You are not in a position to judge. Maggie Burk, Lombard Different tune?

Gov. Thompson called the AIDS education rap song,"Condom Rag,"garbage.

The song was part of the Illinois Public Health Department'sweeklong campaign against AIDS, and was to be sung in front of theState of Illinois Center in Chicago before Gov. Thompson stopped themusic.

Gov. Thompson argued that "If I were innocently walking thestreets with my family and I had to hear that - I would be offended."Would the governor's innocence be equally offended if he heard thesong while rummaging through the antique shops on Halsted accompaniedby his bodyguards? Jon-Henri Damski, Lake View

Cotton: China's Significant Market Influence

In the middle of September, New York cotton futures began to rise and on November 5th reached the 80-cent/lb. level for December deliveries. Virtually, all these price movements arose from the trends in China.

In its report for October 2003, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced its cotton harvest estimate at 25.50 million bales for the 2003-04 cotton year. There are mixed theories, however, and some private research firm's forecast is 20.67 million bales, a substantial drop.

On the other hand, China is in the midst of great spinning equipment expansion and the demand is skyrocketing. The estimated number of spinning spindles in China exceeded 50 million last year. Japanese spinning firm sources describe this phenomenon as follows: "China is shopping around the world markets for cotton." With even old cotton market prices in China soaring up, the supplydemand picture is considered tight up to the extent that cotton fiber prices have regained a price of about US$1/Ib., which prevailed several years ago. Against the backdrop of this situation, speculative forces came into the market to form the present high prices.

Even so, there is a persistent view that new cotton in China is "in storage somewhere without appearing on the market," according to trade sources. New cotton prices were low for two days on October 30th and 31st. Despite the announcement on October 30th that the order bookings of U.S. cotton exports to China in the fourth week of October reached an all-time high of 1.23 million bales, the market has too much speculative coloring. It is not possible to eliminate the possibility that the future course taken by new cotton in China can cause sharp drops in market prices.

Angels and Manners

"Angels and Manners," by Cynn Chadwick. Bywater Books, 300 pages, $14.95 paper.

Carrie Angel is a working-class mother scraping by in Section 8 housing while apprenticing for her carpentry license, dueling with her demanding and emotionally abusive ex-husband for custody of her two teenage sons (one a feisty queer boy), and trying to contain her fiery temper. Jen Manners is a more hoity-toity woman - but, in the aftermath of an ugly divorce, she's forced to move onto Carrie's subsidized housing block with her aggrieved daughter, selling jewelry to get by. Lower-class and upper-class don't blend well at first, but eventually the two women bond - a friendship forged in part through the three teens - in this in-touch-with-the-times novel about home foreclosures, government cutbacks and a degrading downward economic spiral. Carrie and Jen both start out straight, but they aren't destined to fell in love - the lesbian twist involves a third woman. Instead, Chadwick's expertly constructed novel (she was once a master carpenter) focuses on the process of women learning to discover their strengths and to trust themselves.

Zambia vote: challenger leads as count continues

LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — A challenger who has lost three previous presidential polls took a comfortable lead after votes from more than half Zambia's constituencies were tallied Thursday, but unrest was reported among his supporters.

The last election was close, and this year's race between President Rupiah Banda and main opposition leader Michael Sata also was expected to be a tight race.

Two days after the vote, the Electoral Commission of Zambia said results were in from 85 of 150 constituencies by midday Thursday. Sata was leading with nearly 43 percent of the vote so far, or 693,787 votes. President Rupiah Banda has 36 percent, or 542,362 votes. Eight other candidates split the remaining votes.

Final results were expected by day's end.

Police Chief Francis Kabonde said small disturbances broke out and were quickly put down in impoverished urban areas in the southern Copperbelt province, Sata's stronghold. Sata's supporters have expressed fears of vote-rigging.

Sata's supporters have rioted after previous losses, and the violence following recent elections elsewhere in Africa is on some minds here.

With the atmosphere tense, the Electoral Commission of Zambia obtained a court order Wednesday barring media from reporting any but the confirmed results it was issuing.

Zambia's independent Civil Society Elections Coalition, which deployed some 9,000 observers across the country Tuesday, said Wednesday that despite some minor problems, the election had been "generally smooth and peaceful."

"The election, however, is not over," the coalition said. "Vigilance must continue to help ensure the credibility of the collation and announcement of results."

Banda seeks a new term after completing the term of his predecessor Levy Mwanawasa. Some analysts said Banda, who had been Mwanawasa's vice president, benefited from voter sympathy when he won by just 35,000 votes following Mwanawasa's sudden death in 2008.

During that 2008 special election, Zambia's economy was in trouble. Now, the country is benefiting from rising world copper prices. The boom has helped create 100,000 jobs in Zambia and the government has built bridges, airports and hospitals with revenue from copper.

While Banda is taking credit for the strong economy, the race is still expected to be close, in part because the ballot was crowded with challengers.

ADIOS FIDEL, HOLA RAUL: A Canadian sociologist reflects on the Cuban Revolution

"The adversary to be defeated is extremely strong, but we have been able to keep it at bay for half a century." -Fidel Castro, resignation letter, February 19, 2008.

"The United States will help the people of Cuba realize the blessings of liberty."

-U. S. President George Bush, responding to news of Castro's resignation, February 19, 2008.

Rack in 1959, a group of us in Grade 11 at Moose Jaw's Riverview Collegiate closely followed the course of the Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Our teacher allowed us to make a project out of it, and visuals were posted at the back of the class room: photos, magazine articles, newspaper clippings, and a large map of Cuba on which we recorded the course of the military campaign with pins. We were the egghead geeks-members of the UN Club, the Chess Club, and the Lit Committee (responsible for organizing variety shows, operettas and plays).

But we were not alone. Castro and Guevara were heroes among the young and progressives across North America, Europe, and in what was then called the Third World. They were fighting the good fight-in an exciting military campaign, at that-and Good was winning against Evil embodied by dictator Fulgencio Batista and his backers among the Mafia, the U.S. government, and U.S. capitalists, all of whom treated Cuba like a feudal estate and Batista like their gang enforcer.

My admiration for Fidel Castro and Che Guevara has never wavered over the intervening 50 years. And I think it is fair to say that many of us from that era still feel deep sympathy and support for the Cuban Revolution. Throughout that half century, whenever Fidel Castro came to Canada or the U.S., he was greeted by enthusiastic crowds of supporters. Fidel and Che are today icons in the struggle for social and economic justice among the oppressed and impoverished the world over, and a new generation of progressive leaders in Latin America derive inspiration from their courage and from the beacon of hope provided by the survival of the Cuban Revolution.

In a sense, the victory of Castro on January 8,1959, when his bearded and bedraggled guerrilla army marched into Havana to claim victory, was a defining moment for the rebellious 1960s. Here was an army of youths and teenagers led by 37-year-old Fidel, 31-year-old Che, and 25-year-old Raul, and this armed youth movement had won a heroic battle for progressive change founded on principles of economic equality and social justice. The victory inspired hope and optimism. There were great and good changes coming, and many of us of that era committed ourselves to "the movement."

"The movement" took off in the 1960s-civil rights; the new wave of feminism; ban the bomb; anti-Vietnam war; student power; black power; red power among North American Aboriginals; environmental protection. There was the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia, and the rise of Solidarity in Poland. The Third World was swept by change, as new progressive regimes won power in country after country: Lumumba's victory in the Congo and the successes of the left in Chile culminating in Allende's victory in 1970 were among the most inspiring.

Even the staid institutions of the left in Canada began to change. The Waffle movement in the NDP almost succeeded in pushing the party left. The Canadian trade union movement, with a new generation of young leaders in charge, became more militant. The Communist party in Canada-like many around the world-split over the suppression of Czechoslovakia, and the younger militants threw in their lot with "the movement." We believed we were on the threshold of building a new and better world. And the success in Cuba in 1959 proved it was not just a fantasy, but that it could be done.

But the successes of "the movement"-and the survival of the Cuban beacon-set in motion a series of lessons that had to be learned about state power and how it is used and for whom. The ruling classes-the corporations, the wealthy around the world, and the governments they commandedbegan to use the power of the state ruthlessly to stop what they feared might result in an unacceptable restructuring of the world they commanded and from which their privileges flowed.

The gloves came off, and both clandestine and very public military power was unleashed to crush "the movement." Patrice Lumumba was callously murdered, and the Congo fell into the anarchy that continues to plague it to this day. Progressive governments in Latin America and the Middle East were overthrown. Death squads butchered tens of thousands of progressives throughout Latin America. The two Kennedy brothers were assassinated in the U.S., as were Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Brutal force was used to suppress "the movement" in the U.S. Protesters were beaten savagely in police riots; Black Panther leaders were gunned down by police; militants of the American Indian Movement were killed in confrontations with the FBI; anti-war students at Kent State were shot down by the U.S. National Guard. Che Guevara, who in 1965 had left high office in the Cuban government to foment revolution in the Congo and Bolivia, was captured and summarily executed by the CIA in Bolivia in 1967.

The biggest blow to "the movement" was the U.S.-planned military coup against democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende in 1973. Rather than surrendering and going into exile, Allende resisted to the end and died in his presidential office. The Pinochet dictatorship proceeded to butcher tens of thousands of supporters of the Allende government.

The message to "the movement" was clear: whether you win by bullets or by ballots, we will mercilessly crush you and kill you for daring to defy our power and our privilege.

"The movement" lingered on into the 1970s, dying a slow death in the 1980s. Certainly the great big hopes were not realized, but gains were made. The world had been forever changed, at least around the edges. Gains made by the civil rights movement, both black and Aboriginal, have changed the political landscape in the U.S. and in Canada. The new feminism, fighting for social and economic equality and reproductive choice for women, gained a great deal. The Vietnam War finally ended in ignominious defeat for the U.S.-and we all cheered.

But let's be honest: on the big issues-the fight for structural change leading to social, economic and political justice and equality"the movement" was badly defeated. The poor and powerless of the world today are poorer and more powerless; the rich and powerful of the world today are richer and more powerful. The U.S. Empire now dominates the world and is currently bringing "the blessings of liberty," which Bush promised to Cuba upon Castro's resignation, to Iraq and Afghanistan. These "blessings" include primarilyas they did for Vietnam-bombing the countries into rubble, the deaths of tens of thousands of noncombatants, and the propping up of corrupt regimes composed largely of gangsters and thugs. I am sure the Cuban people can hardly wait.

While my early admiration for Castro and the Cuban Revolution was rooted in youthful idealism and romanticism, my later admiration had to do with Castro's survival skills against the American Behemoth. He outwitted 10 U.S. presidents, and foiled dozens of CIA/Mafia assassination attempts. When he refused to play the tame "revolutionary" and proceeded to implement real structural change, America cut him off in 1961. Did Castro bow? No. Then the U.S. sponsored the invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, and Castro crushed it. Did Castro bow? No, he aligned himself with the Soviet Union and inveigled them to install tactical nuclear missiles to protect the revolution. Out of the ensuing missile crisis of 1962, Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the missiles (as long as the U.S. withdrew some from Turkey). Castro also convinced Khrushchev to demand that the U.S. promise never to invade Cuba. President Kennedy made that solemn pledge, and, so far, the U.S. has honoured it.

Castro knew that the biggest threat to the revolution was an invasion by U.S. military forces. With that off the table, the revolution was militarily secure. Castro and Guevara were real revolutionaries. Guevara died for his revolutionary ideals, rather than living out a life of prestige and comfort in Cuba. Castro transformed Cuba, and his revolutionary integrity was never in doubt from the moment he announced the land reform program. The first land holdings he expropriated for the tillers were those of his own wealthy family, something his sister Juanita has never forgiven him for. Today she lives with the 650,00 Cuban exiles in Miami, dreaming of going back to Cuba to claim what she believes is rightfully hers.

Raul Castro has a big job before him: keeping the revolution intact while changing its character to fit the times and the yearnings of the young. He has quickly introduced small but symbolically important reforms: cell phones; personal computers; microwave ovens, DVD players; the right of Cubans to stay in hotels previously reserved for foreigners. Of more importance were his announcements that state workers (about 90% of all workers) will be granted deeds to their homes and apartments upon retirement; that wage caps on state workers are lifted, allowing those who work more to be paid more; and that farmers can produce privately on designated lands.

The Cuban Revolution sits on the cusp of becoming a revolution characterized by growing and fairly distributed prosperity, especially if the U.S. trade embargo can be lifted, opening up the U.S. market. Pressure has mounted in the U.S. to lift the embargo in the wake of Castro's retirement. The U.S. has already allowed a major exception to the embargoallowing $400 million worth of U.S. grain into Cuba in 2007, estimated to grow to $800 million in 2008.

Under Cuban waters in the Gulf of Mexico sits an estimated 5 billion barrels of oil and 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, so an energy boom could happen very soon. Cuba could very quickly become not only energy self-sufficient, but energy-rich.

The question is: can Raul pull if off? Can he add prosperity and an even better life of consumption to the firm egalitarian foundation of the revolution: universal health care, education, housing, food security and employment? Or will, as his brother Fidel always feared, that move open the door to the ultimate destruction of the revolution?

[Sidebar]

"We believed we were on the threshold of building a new and better world-and the success in Cuba in 1959 proved it was not just a fantasy, but that it could be done."

[Sidebar]

"Under Cuban waters sit enormous deposits of oil and natural gas, so Cuba could very quickly become not only energy self-sufficient, but energy-rich."

[Author Affiliation]

(John Conway is a political sociologist at the University of Regina.)

Christian musician aims for the mainstream

It had been a busy weekend for Helma Sawatzky. On Friday night she gave a concert to promote her new CD called "Fragile." On Sunday she performed at the B.C. Mennonite Women in Mission Inspirational Day. In between she gave interviews and had photographers at her door.

But now, sitting in her small kitchen sharing coffee and cookies, Helma exudes serenity and a desire to share her journey of faith and music.

Helma is from Holland. She completed a BA at the Groningen Conservatory of Music where she realized her strengths lay in performing and song writing. She dreamt of being a full-time musician.

She met her husband Rick at the conservatory. His parents, originally from Winkler, Manitoba, live in Holland and gave the couple plane tickets to Canada to meet relatives. Helma and Rick intended to spend a year working in Canada. They both got jobs with Mennonite Central Committee B.C. Supportive Care Services.

Helma's musical dreams took a back seat as Rick found it difficult to imagine a life with a performer. She didn't write for years and describes that time as painful. But in 1995, she began to write again and found encouragement from Rick.

"Now, he is often the one pushing me and I'm the bucking horse," she laughs. A breakthrough in her music career came in 1996 when Rick Unrau performed here in support of MCC reforestation projects in Bangladesh. Helma was given a spot to do her own music.

Unrau offered to work with Helma and produced her first album, "Riddle of Life." This year she began devoting herself to music full time. Helma and Rick attend Wellspring Christian Fellowship, a Mennonite church here.

"Fragile" was a deeply satisfying project for Helma. As a co-producer she had more control over the project and found that working with a team of people allowed the "whole itself to become bigger than the sum of its parts."

"My music has two components," she says. "My music is Christian, yes, but I don't want to be so preachy as to turn people off. I'd rather have my music speak for itself and start a discussion." She feels strongly that there is a place for Christian artists in the mainstream.

"I'm dead scared," she laughs, but she knows that she is where she needs to be.