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Since March 2015 Yemen has become the battleground of a horrific war, which has led to one of the biggest humanitarian disasters in the world. More than 10,000 people have been killed and more than 60,000 people have been wounded, many of them civilians. Of the population 80 per cent is in need of humanitarian aid, and the destruction of the (social) infrastructure is beyond imagination. Marina de Regt has been working in and on Yemen since the early 1990s, first as a development worker and later as academic researcher. In this lecture she will give a background to the war, discuss the humanitarian crisis and the impact of the war on Yemeni society. She will outline the historical and political dimensions of the war, and in doing so bring more nuance to the idea that it is just a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. She will also make a plea for an engaged scholarship in which the voices of Yemenis and humanistic values take central stage.

Speaker

Dr Marina de Regt, Assistant Professor Social and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Time, Place, Venue

Wednesday September 5
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Room 2.01 in Wijnhaven
Turfmarkt 99
2511 DP The Hague

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Causes, Main Features, and Future Scenarios

Venezuela was once the most prosperous country of Latin America. For the last 100 years oil has been the main engine for financing most of the country’s expenditures. In 1999 Hugo Chávez came into power, promising what he called ‘a Socialism of the 21th Century’, including among other things the end of corruption and a rapid improvement of the living standards of the masses. After 18 years of Chavismo in Venezuela, the country shows today a situation of total devastation: an inflation of more than 1 million per cent, extensive starvation as a result of acute shortages of food, and a total collapse of public services such as health care. As a result of the huge humanitarian crisis affecting that country, more than 2,5 million Venezuelans have left the country, trying to find a new home in other Latin American countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Chile. This lecture will deal with the main political and economic causes which have provoked this crisis, their main characteristics, and possible political scenarios in this country for the years ahead.

Speaker

Prof Patricio Silva, Professor in Contemporary Latin American History, Leiden University

Time, Place, Venue

Wednesday October 10
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Auditorium
Leiden University College
Anna van Buerenplein 301
The Hague

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