GDP - The Global Development Primer

Did you get your invitation to the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland?  

Neither did we.

This exclusive annual meeting sets out to discuss some of the world's greatest challenges to economic and social development.  World leaders, rock stars, economists, royalty, CEOs, and anyone willing to pay the $72,000 to attend (that's $52,000 for the annual membership to the forum, and another $19,000 to attend the event) can make their way to Davos for a week-long exclusive mixer.  For years the World Economic Forum has been critiqued for its lack of transparency, overt elitism, and air of authority over international development.  

In this podcast Dr. Bob Huish, Dr. Isaac Saney & Dr. Adam Sneyd await their invitations to the World Economic Forum, and while they wait, they discuss the nature of the "The Forum", and whether or not the 2020 forum's slogan of "Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World" has any merit among a group that will put 18,092 metric tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere from their use of private planes to get to the meeting. 

Dr. Isaac Saney is a historian focusing on Cuba, issues of race and racism, and Black and African diaspora studies.  He is  the director of the transition year program at Dalhousie University which is the vanguard program for addressing historical injustice and inequities for indigenous and African Nova Scotian students.

Dr. Adam Sneyd is an Associate Professor with the Department of Political Science at the University of Guelph. Adam's research focuses on the global politics of commodities, and has emphasized food, resource and development challenges in African contexts.

Follow Dr. Bob on Twitter: @ProfessorHuish

About 2 million people visit Cuba every year.  Classic cars, hand-rolled cigars, and thatched-roof bars are popular sites on the tourist track.  But hundreds of students and professors from around the world come to Cuba to hit the books - even students from the United States.   In this bonus episode of GDP Dr. Sarah Blue chats with Dr. Bob Huish about leading study tours to Cuba.  Both Dr. Sarah & Dr. Bob have years of experience in organizing university study tours to Cuba.  This bonus episode debunks a lot of myths about traveling to Cuba and gives students and educators some handy tips for studying in Cuba.  

Sarah A. Blue is an associate professor of geography at Texas State University. Her research broadly focuses on how international migration and changes in the global political economy affect local socio-economic dynamics in the Latin America and the United States. Her current areas of research focus on gender, race, and migration, specifically undocumented Latino migration to the United States and socio-economic change, medical internationalism, and agroecology in Cuba. 

She also owns an educational tour company that has taken 12 educational tour groups to Cuba since 2013. She has been traveling to and conducting research in Cuba for the past 23 years and has been to the island around 30 times. Dr. Blue opened the company Candela Cuba Tours in 2013. Candela Cuba Tours works closely with Dr. Blue’s friends and colleagues in Cuba for the tours, many of whom she has known for over 20 years, and is able to share an authentic Cuban experience with the groups she leads.

Follow Dr. Bob on Twitter:  @ProfessorHuish

Tourism can be hard on sensitive ecosystems.  Imported food, carbon miles, water, sanitation, and single use plastics are all problems.  But you'll never guess what plastic item for tourists is actually causing a lot of grief for environmental sustainability.  Tune into to hear Dr. Bob Huish chat with Dr. Regina Scheyvens about her research on tourism and development in the Pacific.  

Regina Scheyvens is Professor and Co-director of the Pacific Research and Policy Centre at Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand. Her work focuses on relationships between tourism, sustainable development and poverty reduction. She has worked on these issues in Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa, the Maldives and in Southern Africa. Her recent work looks at economic development on customary land in the Pacific.

Follow Dr. Bob Huish on Twitter: @ProfessorHuish

In Cuba in the 1960s an 1970s gay men could be sent to work camps for "re-education".  Hostilities and discrimination against the gay community were widespread in the 1980s and 1990s as well.  However, today Cuba has one of the most progressive approaches to LGBTQ+ rights in the Americas.  

In this podcast Dr Bob Huish talks with Dr. Emily Kirk to discuss how attitudes and policies changed in Cuba from being incredibly repressive to forwardly progressive.   

Dr. Emily Kirk is a Research Fellow in the Department of International Development Studies at Dalhousie University, Canada. She is author of Cuba’s Gay Revolution, and co-editor of Cuba’s Forgotten Decade. Dr. Kirk continues to research the impact of the health-based approach to development within Cuba.

Follow Dr. Bob on Twitter: @ProfessorHuish

Almost 20 years ago Dr. John Kirk encouraged (Dr.) Bob Huish to head to Cuba to pursue research for the first time.  Since then the two have worked closely together on issues of Cuba's place in the global health landscape.  Both have published books on Cuban Medical Internationalism and dozens of articles on the subject.  In this podcast they sit down for a half hour to discuss why Cuba sends thousands of doctors overseas, why Cuba offers medical scholarships to students from around the world, and how well the Cuban development model fares in taking care of their own. 

John Kirk is Professor of Latin American Studies at Dalhousie University, where he has taught since 1978. He is the author / co-editor of 16 books on Cuba, including “health care without borders.” He is currently working on a new book analyzing Canada-Cuba relations. This podcast is part of the special series on The Cuban Development Model. 

Follow Dr. Bob on Twitter:  @ProfessorHuish