This video from the USA says about itself:
In 1993 Harvard Professor Samuel P. Huntington wrote an essay titled “The Clash of Civilizations?” and later he expanded [it] into a book with the same title, but without the question mark. Edward Said, late Columbia professor rips Huntington’s thesis to shreds.
From Wikipedia:
Samuel Phillips Huntington (April 18, 1927 – December 24, 2008) was an American political scientist who gained prominence through his Clash of Civilizations (1993, 1996) thesis of a new post-Cold War world order.
Samuel Huntington’s theories were indeed “prominent”, but that did not prevent them from being wrong (lack of precision in defining his central concept of “civilization”, etc.)
Contrary to other people who died recently (Harold Pinter, Eartha Kitt, Miriam Makeba, Odetta), Mr Huntington was not on the side of the oppressed, but on the side of powerful oppressors; whom he helped with his potentially self-fulfilling prophecies of divide and rule.
Also from Wikipedia:
What has made the work controversial is the degree to which Huntington believes the culture of Latinos entering the United States is incompatible with these Anglo-Protestant notions. He notes, for instance, a “lack of ambition” (the “tomorrow” culture) and “acceptance of poverty as a virtue necessary for entry into Heaven” as central to Hispanic attitudes. For this reason, the book has been criticized as xenophobic and unduly anti-Catholic nativist.
Related articles
- Samuel Huntington: Brutal American war modernized Vietnam (karlomongaya.wordpress.com)
- More jihad against hate: Islamophobia Awareness Month (abdelxyz.wordpress.com)
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Posted by: “bigraccoon” bigraccoon@earthlink.net redwoodsaurus
Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:40 pm (PST)
Unions and Upward Mobility for Latino Workers
February 16, 2009 by Jennifer Brandt
Filed under Civic Participation
Latinos are the fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S. work force. At the end of the 1970s, less than five percent of U.S. workers were Latinos; by 2007, Latinos had grown to 14 percent of the American work force.
Latinos are also the fastest growing group in the U.S. labor movement. In 1983 (the earliest year for which comparable data are available), Latinos accounted for 6 percent of unionized workers; by 2007, they were almost 12 percent of the union work force.
A recent paper published by the Center for Economic and Policy Research examines the impact of unionization on the pay and benefits of Latino workers. The most recent data suggest that even after controlling for differences between union and non-union workers including such factors as age and education level unionization substantially improves the pay and benefits received by Latino workers.
On average, unionization raised Latino workers¹ wages 17.6 percent or about $2.60 per hour relative to Latino workers with similar characteristics who were not in unions. The union impact on health insurance and pension coverage was even larger. Latino workers who were in unions were about 26 percentage points more likely to have employer-provided health insurance and about 27 percentage points more likely to have a pension plan than similar non-union workers.
The benefits of unionization were also high for Latino workers in typically low-wage occupations. Latino workers in unions in otherwise low-wage occupations earned, on average, 16.6 percent more than their non-union counterparts. Unionized Latino workers in low-wage occupations were also 41percentage points more likely than comparable non-union workers to have employer-provided health insurance, and 18 percentage points more likely to have a pension plan.
The findings demonstrate that Latino workers who are able to bargain collectively earn more and are more likely to have benefits associated with good jobs. The data, therefore, suggest that better protection of workers¹ right to unionize would have a substantial positive impact on the pay and benefits of Latino workers.
Read full report here
Click to access latino_union_2008_09.pdf
Source: The Center for Economic and Policy Research <http://www.cepr.net/
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