| The FPIF Project has been
busy on many fronts these past two months. Our “Teach-In on Kosovo”
weekly forum, co-organized with the Progressive Challenge, continued to
offer thought-provoking discussions on NATO’s campaign in the Balkans.
In June, the series focused on how the mass media and government agencies
reported—and at times manipulated—images of the war. Co-sponsored
by numerous members of Congress, the speakers included media experts such
as Rick Newman, Senior Editor, U.S. News and World Report, John R.
MacArthur, Publisher, Harper’s Magazine, and Edward Herman,
co-author of Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media
Operations. (with IRC Board member Noam Chomsky). Transcripts from all
five forums are on our website.
As part of our ongoing outreach, FPIF contributes materials
to conferences, seminars, and workshops that focus on international affairs.
In July, the Yale Center for International and Area Studies conducted
their annual summer institute, which focuses on effective methods for
teaching foreign policy issues. This year’s program included FPIF
briefs on Africa, Latin America, and Russia. The AFL-CIO Solidarity Center
in Washington, DC, had their first annual staff training. Lisa McGowan,
the seminar organizer, distributed over 800 briefs pertaining to international
trade and investment issues to 75 labor leaders from all over the world.
The World Affairs Council of Washington, DC, and Georgetown University’s
School of Foreign Service distributed briefs on Asia, Latin America, and
Africa to educators who attended their annual Summer Institute on International
Relations. Peace Action is holding their annual conference in New Mexico
from August 6-9, and the Albuquerque office hosted a meeting with local
and national organizers. We will be distributing our special report: How
Weapons Makers are Shaping U.S. Foreign and Military Policy to the 300
attendees.
FPIF staff, after many long days, completed the manuscript
for Global Focus: U.S. Foreign Policy at the Turn of the Millenium, which
is now in the hands of St. Martin’s Press and will be available in
their Fall catalog. This book offers a collaboration between a diverse
list of foreign policy experts and institutions from across the country.
Look for more details in upcoming issues of Insider.
Expanded electronic outreach is attracting a growing and
more diverse audience to the project. FPIF briefs and essays featured
in our weekly ezine, Progressive Response, now appear regularly on other
leading electronic newswires such as Policy.com and the Electronic Policy
Network (epn.org). Remember Progressive Response is free, and you
can sign up by visiting http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/
Foreign Policy In Focus website: http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/
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| borderlines continues to provide
borderlands communities with up-to-date and relevant information regarding
the pressing issues affecting them. Given the continuation of the prolonged
drought that has been affecting the region for the past several years, for
instance, recent issues covering climate change and conflict over water
rights have been particularly timely. Future editions will be looking at
access to environmental information on the border, the effectiveness of
the NAFTA side-agreements, and the ins and outs of Mexican environmental
regulations. As we line up future issues, we're making a special effort
to work with writers from Mexico and improve our coverage south of the border.
borderlines is increasingly being used as a significant source
of information by groups across the country. We've continued to expand
our efforts to work with Mexican partners to redistribute the Spanish-language
version of borderlines on the other side of the line, including Pronatura,
Baja California, the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo Basin Coalition, and the Centro
de Estudios Fronterizos y de Promoción de los Derechos Humanos, A.C.
Similarly, Elaine Hampton of the New Mexico Waste-Management Education
Research Consortium (WERC) will be using borderlines on a regular basis
as instructional materials starting this fall, and the Catholic Social
Mission office in Tucson will be using bulk copies of several issues for
a Border Ministry Training scheduled for September.
Work on the borderlines UPDATER ezine—always a challenge
given the pressing demands of publishing the print version of borderlines
each month—has picked up since Tina Faulkner began working full time.
Recent UPDATERs have covered some important border issues, including the
status of human rights in Chihuahua and the destruction of old-growth
forests on indigenous communal land in Mexico’s Sierra Madre. Upcoming
UPDATERs will report on the status of air pollution studies in Big Bend
National Park, Texas, and citizen complaints against the Mexican phone
giant, TELMEX. To see back issues, visit our website, http://www.americaspolicy.orghttp://www.americaspolicy.org/
On other fronts, the IRC's Borderlands Program—as well as articles
from borderlines—are currently being featured in "La Linea:
Gender, Labor and Environmental Justice on the US-Mexico Border,"
an online presentation by Corporate Watch available at http://www.corpwatch.org/feature/index.html
The May 1998 issue of borderlines was referenced in the GAO’s July
1999 report to Congress, “U.S.-Mexico Border: Issues and Challenges
Confronting the United States and Mexico.”
INCITRA
We are pleased to announce that the bibliographic database is now available
on our website. Over 1,300 books, articles, government documents, reports,
and more on U.S.-Mexico border issues have been indexed, and the database
can be searched by title, author, or keyword. We are making adjustments
to the layout of the search and results pages, but you can search it.
Contact Julie Schneider at (505) 388-0208 or by email at julie@irc-online.org
if you have questions, comments about the site, additions to the database,
or if you’d like to access any of the materials.
In the past two months, Borderlands Program staff members attended a
variety of conferences and meetings throughout the region. Tina Faulkner
attended the Border XXI National Coordinators’ meeting in May in
Ensenada, Baja California; the trinational Coalition for Justice in the
Maquiladoras tenth anniversary reunion in Ciudad Juárez in June; and a
meeting of the President’s Interagency Task Force on the Southwest
Border in July. Tina distributed copies of borderlines at all the events
and made comments at the task force meeting, which will be considered
by the General Accounting Office (GAO), in preparation of a second report
to Congress on the border.
Julie Schneider attended the annual U.S.-Mexico Border Health Association
conference in June and gave a presentation entitled “The Internet
as a Transboundary Resource Tool.” Also in June, Julie gave a presentation
to New Mexican teachers on an overview of U.S.-Mexico border issues. Copies
of the Internet presentation are available by contacting Julie.
The Borderlands Program staff is available to provide training in computers,
the Internet, or other information access issues. Contact them at (505)
388-0208.
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