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In Mabini's discourse La Revolucion Filipina (LFR), a brown race emerges in the field of modern geopolitics. The work of Mabini is known as a narrative of the dialectical struggle between wisdom and conscience of a protagonist in a revolution against two empires, Spain and America, and an analysis of the various characters involved. In the dialectics of change between the external and internal, Mabini tells a story of the consciousness of a nation. The classical Western conception of natural law is applied to the concrete situation of struggle of the colored slave. Mabini pioneers the critique of American racism and the contradiction of classes within the limits of the political economy of society. Mabini features the dignity and rights of the oppressed working class in the theater of warfare. Mabini's work can be considered a document of the Filipino nation that struggled in order to demonstrate its peculiar virtue: the spirit of freedom of a race that inspires human dignity and just honor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From hindsight, Andres Bonifacio’s “signature” in our historical archive is distinctly legible in his initiative in founding the Katipunan and its praxis in organized revolt. His death by the Emilio Aguinaldo clique revealed the Katipunan’s inadequacy. But it is also productive since hegemony became the new telos of the nationalist impetus. Universal reason and natural rights, the foundation of the national-liberation struggle, were insufficient to forge the popular will and affirm the sovereignty of the nation-people in the face of US imperial power. Ultimately, however, as Apolinario Mabini discerned, the political economy of a feudal/comprador formation defined the limits of ilustrado nationalism. Bonifacio’s example survives in the actuality of irepressible multifaceted subaltern agencies. It renews itself today in the ethnic/indigenous, national-democractic insurgencies flourishing today under global imperial terrorism.

Applying a historical-materialist framework, this exploratory venture to critique Eurocentric cultural studies deploys certain oppositional events/discourses to point out the limitations of the hegemonic discipline. Deconstructing elite bourgeois culture via institutionalizing popular tastes and demystifying idealist rhetoric simply reinforce alienation with a postmodernist hubris. The resurgence of “third-world” resistance with its focus on racial/gender negativity (as in certain democratizing initiatives in the Philippines and among people of color in the metropole) may signal a return to the radical vision of cultural studies. Key to this renewal is the rediscovery of the dialectics of local/ethnic practice and the concrete universal of an anti-capitalist liberation project of subalterns everywhere defying imperialism and the terrorist neoliberal global order.

This hermeneutical critique seeks to articulate the sexual politics submerged in the experiences of selected activists during and after the period of the Marcos dictatorship. In the disasters they suffered, we find revealed the barbaric violence of imperialism and the patriarchalfeudal system. In the quest for the missing child and their own kidnapped self-recognition, the narrative symbolized the damage suffered by whole communities, not just the forcibly disappeared. The plot center-stages the ordeal of oligarchic honor in the crisis that destroyed the rituals of marriage and party discipline. In the process, the fate of individual citizens and the fate of the nation coalesced. Embodied in manifold experiences, the interwoven testimonies of the families involved function as a national allegory in which the traumatic terror of the Martial Law regime becomes a concrete universal for all. Memory/recollection as protagonist becomes a key mediation for the children's predicament, serving as an analogical figure for the disrupted dialectic of the historical project for the people's liberation. It serves as a trope that the contradictions of time and space, body and soul, ethics and geopolitics, will be resolved by the collective effort of organic people's agencies to achieve the goals of national democracy and sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary textual critics attend to a variety of pressing questions. No longer restricted to the quest for the 'original' text of the NT, (1) current practitioners pursue a number of [...]

Background: Achondroplasia is the most common bone dysplasia associated with disproportionate short stature, and other comorbidities, such as foramen magnum stenosis, thoracolumbar kyphosis, lumbar hyperlordosis, genu varum and spinal compression. Additionally, patients affected with this condition have higher frequency of sleep disorders, ear infections, hearing loss and slowed development milestones. Considering these clinical features, we aimed to summarize the regional experts' recommendations for the multidisciplinary management of patients with achondroplasia in Latin America, a vast geographic territory with multicultural characteristics and with socio-economical differences of developing countries.Methods: Latin American experts (from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia) particiáted of an Advisory Board meeting (October 2019), and had a structured discussion how patients with achondroplasia are followed in their healthcare centers and punctuated gaps and opportunities for regional improvement in the management of achondroplasia.Results: Practical recommendations have been established for genetic counselling, prenatal diagnosis and planning of delivery in patients with achondroplasia. An outline of strategies was added as follow-up guidelines to specialists according to patient developmental phases, amongst them neurologic, orthopedic, otorhinolaryngologic, nutritional and anthropometric aspects, and related to development milestones. Additionally, the role of physical therapy, physical activity, phonoaudiology and other care related to the quality of life of patients and their families were discussed. Preoperative recommendations to patients with achondroplasia were also included.Conclusions: This study summarized the main expert recommendations for the health care professionals management of achondroplasia in Latin America, reinforcing that achondroplasia-associated comorbidities are not limited to orthopedic concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the excesses of fascism in World War II and inter-ethnic conflicts in Africa, the Middle East, and the former Yugoslavia, it became axiomatic for postmodernist thinkers to condemn the […]

Contemporary cultural studies posit the demise of the nation as an unquestioned assumption, almost a doctrinal point of departure for speculations on the nature of the globalization process. Are concepts [...]

Background: Achondroplasia (ACH), the most common form of disproportionate short stature, is caused by a pathogenic variant in the fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 gene. Recent advances in drug therapy for ACH have highlighted the importance of elucidating the natural history and socioeconomic burden of this condition. Recognition that there are many potential issues for the patient with ACH is the first step in planning cost-effective interventions in Latin America (LATAM), a vast geographic territory comprising countries with multicultural characteristics and wide socioeconomic differences. We conducted a systematic literature review to characterize the impact of ACH on affected individuals and on healthcare resources in LATAM countries.Methods: Searches of the global medical literature as well as regional and local medical literature up to August 2020. Observational studies on patients with ACH from any LATAM country. Pairs of reviewers independently screened eligible articles, extracted data from included studies, and assessed their risk of bias.Results: Fifty-three unique studies (28 case series and cross-sectional studies and 25 case reports) including data on 1604 patients were eligible. Of these studies, 11 had data available for meta-analysis. Both premature mortality and all-cause mortality in the pooled studies was 15% [95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.0E-3 to 0.47; I2 = 82.9%, p = 0.0029; three studies, n = 99 patients]. Frequency of cardio-respiratory-metabolic disorders was 17% [95% CI 0.04-0.37; I2 = 90.3%, p < 0.0001; four studies, n = 230 patients]; nervous system disorders was 18% [95% CI 0.07-0.33; I2 = 84.6%, p < 0.0001; six studies, n = 262 patients]; ear, nose, throat and speech disorders was 32% [95% CI 0.18-0.48; I2 = 73.4%, p = 0.0046; five studies, n = 183 patients]; and spinal issues including stenosis, compression and associated pain was 24% [95% CI 0.07-0.47; I2 = 91.3%, p < 0.0001; five studies, n = 235 patients].Conclusions: There is currently evidence of high clinical burden in ACH patients in LATAM countries. Establishing the impact of ACH provides the necessary foundation for planning tailored and effective public health interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic is predicted to have a net negative effect on tuberculosis control, with an estimated excess of 6.3 million tuberculosis cases and 1.4 million deaths by 2025. Programmatic issues such as the lockdown of tuberculosis services affect all patients, while biosocial factors have a differential impact on an individual's risk for tuberculosis or adverse tuberculosis outcomes.Case Presentation: We report three Hispanic cases of incident tuberculosis (two males, 43 and 44 years old; one female, 49 years old) after resolution of coronavirus disease episodes. Coincidentally, all cases shared a common risk factor: a chronic history poorly controlled diabetes.Conclusions: Our findings alert to the threat posed by the synergy between coronavirus disease and diabetes, on tuberculosis reactivation. In medium- to high-risk settings for tuberculosis, we recommend implementation of routine screening for latent tuberculosis infection in these cases, and preventive tuberculosis treatment in those who are positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diasporic thinker C.L.R. James has been influential in highlighting how the political and artistic engagements of a decolonising subject can play a vital role in the master discourse of 'dialectical materialism' without being involved with domination. He has been able to reaffirm the concept of 'universality' against modern bipolarity, and his reconstruction of the materialist dialectic has given value to a number of motifs in his analysis of society and culture.

At the 1992 MLA Convention, the keynote event of the Presidential Forum addressed the theme of 'Multiculturalism. The Task of Literary Representation in the Twenty-First Century.' The dominant tenor and [...]

In this preliminary critique of Lualhati Bautista's works, this essay seeks to diagnose the distorted situation of women in a neocolonial society. It endeavors to contextualize the form and structure of selected works in the life of the author and its socio-political background, works that reveal the problems dramatized in her novels. In rendering the contradictions of class and gender in a semi-feudal, capitalist order, Bautista embodied the complex position of women as mother/wife. She analyzed the imaginary and symbolic processes involved in the coming-to-awareness of women trapped in the two prisons of patriarchal domination and bourgeois exploitation. The awakening of women as mother/wife and her participation in collective projects are meaningful signs. They constitute significant historical initiatives in the movement to organize and mobilize women as collective agents in the radical transformation of the Filipino nation in the last quarter of the past century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most daring, yet still unpublished, novels of the renowned Tagalog novelist Faustino Aguilar is Kaligtasan written during the 1950 decade. It is the only novel so far dramatizing in alternating mimetic/symbolic modes the crisisridden years of the Huk uprising and the CIA-led anticommunist campaign of Ramon Magsaysay. Synthesizing the complex strands of the novel genre, Aguilar represents the fierce class antagonisms between impoverished peasants in Luzon and the predatory feudal lords represented by Amando Magat and Don Rehino, respectively. It subjects to satirical and parodic testing the hypothesis of reformist solutions to the unequal division of labor and wealth. It criticizes the patriarchal system of domination and its subversion. By deploying allegorical techniques in exposing contradictions in the ideas and practices of typical individuals, the novel exemplifies the highest achievement of the realistic tradition of Filipino writing infused with socially committed ideals and radical principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Controversies regarding conceptual art and post-conceptual practices are central to the understanding of cultural trends in globalization. The case of post-conceptual artist Kenneth Goldsmith illustrates the various ramifications of this development. The essay introduces this aesthetic field into Filipino Studies, exploring local commentaries and examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his novel Pinaglahuan, Faustino Aguilar depicted the complex situation of Philippine society in the transitional epoch after the defeat of the Malolos Repubilc and the surrender of Macario Sakay. At that juncture, the power of the comprador class emerged in its collusion with patriarchal authority in order to suppress the formidable challenge of the proletariat slowly organizing itself. The multi-layered themes of colonialism versus nationalist sentiments, individualism opposed to collective conviviality, nature versus commerce, and the barbaric reign of commodity-fetishism and money will be examined, together with the analysis of the structure and texture of the narrative fabric. What will emerge is a significant and meaningful art-work with a dialectical motivation that can be appreciated in reading this exceptional classic novel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism. Walter Benjamin In the dawn, armed with a burning patience, we shall enter [...]