Book: Mafia Spies: The Inside Story of the CIA, Gangsters, JFK, and Castro Author: Thomas Maier Reviewed by Paul Varian, retired CNN executive producer Gangsters Sam Giancana and Johnny Roselli, who cut their teeth as street thugs for Al Capone, rose to underworld prominence using brutality, cunning and charm. In 1960, the longtime Mafia pals […]
Books 2019: The Dangers of Not Talking to Strangers
Book: Talking to Strangers:What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know Author: Malcolm Gladwell Review by: Soumaya Khalifa, president, Khalifa Consulting and founder of the Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta Like many, I grew up with my parents telling me not to talk to strangers. Now in my consulting, I work with leaders and […]
Books 2017: Complex Family Histories After Fleeing Nazi Germany for the Americas
Book: La Niña Alemana/ The German Girl: A Novel Author: Armando Lucas Correa, 2016 Reviewed by: Jorge Fernandez, vice president of Global Commerce at the Metro Atlanta Chamber “You are my witnesses” (Isaiah 43:10,11) frames the first page of this book – a very appropriate selection for what unfolded between the months of May and […]
Hospitality Students Go Beyond Cigars and Old Cars in Cuba
Editor’s note: This post is sponsored and produced by Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business. When Georgia State University Clinical Professor Leonard Jackson joined the Regynald G. Washington Master of Global Hospitality Management program four years ago, he lobbied to add an overseas travel component to the curriculum. “You can’t go global just […]
KSU’s ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ Global Ed Program Wins Prestigious National Innovation Award
Originally conceived to broaden its study abroad and student exchange curriculum, Kennesaw State University’s “Around the World in 80 Days” was honored Feb. 28 in Washington by the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) with its 2017 Innovation Award. The Duke University-based association recognized the KSU program for “effectiveness” and for the connections it established […]
Books 2016: A Georgia Girl’s Grief, Romance and New Beginning in Cuba
Book: La Americana – A Memoir Author: Melanie Bowden Simón Review by: Leslie Gordon, director, Rialto Center for the Arts at Georgia State University In La Americana, Melanie Bowden Simón describes sneaking into Cuba from Cancun in 2001. That trip, undertaken as an attempt at healing after the death of her mother four months earlier, brings […]
In Wake of Castro’s Passing, World Affairs Council Trips to Help Atlantans Make Sense of Cuba
The World Affairs Council of Atlanta always frames its Cuba trips as a chance to see the country before it “changes,” implying that its slow reforms could alter the chance to see an economy largely stuck in time, a sustained experiment in Communist policies. With the death of revolutionary leader Fidel Castro this week, following on the […]
Cuban Dance Troupe Turns Up the Heat at the Rialto and Helps Thaw Cuban-U.S. Relations
“Trust me, we want to do this,” is what Collin Laverty, the founder and president of Cuba Educational Travel, told a skeptical Charles Shapiro, a former ambassador to Venezuela and president of the World Affairs Council of Atlanta, who knows Latin America well. Mr. Shapiro first met Mr. Laverty, who has been taking many delegations […]
World Affairs Council President Shapiro Upbeat About Prospects for Delta Flights to Havana
World Affairs Council of Atlanta President Charles Shapiro was elated Thursday upon learning of the news that the U.S. Department of Transportation tentatively granted nonstop commercial airline service to Havana, Cuba, from Atlanta as well as a host of other cities. While the approval remains tentative with a deadline for objections to be filed by […]
Cuban Official: Obama Has More to Do to Open Trade, Investment
In Cuba’s economy today, U.S. companies are largely like actors who can only watch the drama play out while companies from Europe, Brazil and elsewhere steal the show.
