The Cuban millenials are the first generation that do not remember the famous Fidel Castro speeches, neither the hard “periodo especial” nor the years of the Soviet bloc… They just came afterwards and did not know the good and bad things. The young seem to feel little bond with the Cuban Revolution, they kind of “studied it at school”. They are the new blood, and the future of Cuba.

During the referendum for Independence Catalans looked at the mirror and recognized themselves. On that significant October 1st crystallized the best qualities of a people who exercised their freedom, peaceful but courageous, woven and joyful, and with a strong democratic will. A wide majority supported the poll to be held. In front, a declining and dark state, willing to do whatever is needed to assure Spain stays intact. The struggle is underway.

This book is like a small village, with its complexity, contradictions and loopholes. You will meet a rural priest, a family of bakers, a lumberjack, a grandmother who never had vacation, a farmer fascinated by poetry and a couple of princesses. All live in hamlets with less than 500 inhabitants, called microtowns, which administer a third of the territory of Catalonia despite housing 1% of the population. Edu Bayer photographer and journalist Marc Serena lived and travelled for seven months in a van to visit them and know them better. Fourteen thousand kilometers later, this is the story of an intense trip by the fifty Catalonia less busy stations.

“…We could be an island of resistance, an experiment, a laboratory, or even a self growth workshop and an open forum for exchange of knowledge and energies...” Kosturica is an organic farm looking for alternatives to the current agricultural model. It is formed by a group of young people that work full time growing vegetables and distributing them. This initiative is build on the direct relationship between producers and consumers, who receive periodical reports on the situation in the farm through email and social media. They live in a XII century “Masia” (Catalan farmhouse) located in Canovelles, Catalonia. They want to keep the rural culture and they are looking for recovering gradually animal power and techniques related to country life of all kinds. Currently, five people on staff grow four acres of orchard with mixed vegetables. They are the core of the experience although there are a number of people who come to help in exchange for vegetables. Kosturica weekly supply around 170 families from around Barcelona.

This series of photographs depicts the surveillance apparatus of Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi’s regime—once one of the most feared authoritarian dictatorships in the world. The images encourage us to reflect on surveillance of citizens by state powers. Qaddafi was a controversial figure. His supporters lauded his anti-imperialist stance, as well as his pan-Arabism and pan-Africanism, while his detractors saw him as an obsessive autocrat who systematically violated the human rights of Libyan citizens. The regime intentionally marginalized areas and suppressed efforts at democratic reform until the Arab Uprisings of 2011. I went to Libya in early 2011 to cover the conflict; and like many journalists, I was attracted to the idea of revolution and wanted to witness the power of people collectively fighting to improve their lives. In August, the Wall Street Journal assigned me to photograph Qaddafi’s security headquarters in Tripoli, which had been abandoned by the regime. The headquarters was a six-story building where the government monitored citizen’s movements and correspondence and was now the empty core of a repressive machine. It was an evocative scene, and I imagined what must have taken place there, the people involved, and the conversations they had. My intention behind these images lies in the sense of chaos that is left behind, and freezing the moment just after the escape of the last occupants and before the arrival of the new residents. Many believe that the Libyan authorities destroyed the extremely sensitive files and information before they abandoned the headquarters, and that the rebels removed the remaining documents when they arrived. The photographs of this strange and usually off-limits place reflect the absurdity and ugliness of control, repression, and fear. They also serve as evidence that even the most powerful regime can be reduced to an empty building with shredded documents on the floor.

"... Then Imana abandoned men, resigned to Earth and let humans take charge of the beast Death." Tutsi Myth In April 1994, nearly a million people were killed in a hundred days in Rwanda, the result of a conflict whose origin was ethnic division, promoted by colonialism. Thousands of people were tortured, mutilated and raped while the international community did nothing to stop the massacres. In 2004 the traditional trial system Gacaca (justice under the tree) was recovered to unblock the ordinary courts from the huge volume of pending cases related to the genocide. Gacacas were open to people, and everyone could participate. It was a tool to maintain memory and foster reconciliation. In Rwanda, Hutu and Tutsi are now banned words on the streets, and it is only possible to refer to Rwandans. However, the official speech emphasizes the victimization of Tutsi, an argument used by the government to justify abuses of power. Under the discourse of reconciliation and forgiveness that the Rwandese government wants to pretend, there are policies that neglect the people and favor the elites. The humble often show the true spirit of forgiveness, in an immense gesture.

After 6 months of fighting on what were often stagnated front lines in Libya, the rebels defeated the Gaddafi's loyalists in Tripoli faster than anyone expected, and took control on the Libyan capital. The end of the dictator seemed to be close but he managed to escape. On 24th August, rebels seized control of Muammar Gaddafi's compound and seat of power in Tripoli, stamping on a golden bronze head of the deposed despot and setting fire to his famous tent in cathartic saw the end to his 42-year dictatorship. In the center of the capital, rebel forces broke through the gates of Gaddafi’s most notorious prison, Abu Slim, liberating thousands of mostly political prisoners to tell stories of hardship, torture and disappearance. But pro-Gaddafi strongholds remained in the coastal town of Sirte, his birthplace, and the southern desert city of Sabha. In addition to the battle were days of Ramadan and the city was desolated. The tense calm was constantly broken by the gunfire, often just to celebrate or due to pure adrenaline. The retreat of regime forces uncovered major massacres at the abandoned Abu Salim Hospital and at the finding of more than 50 charred prisoners in a shelter at the base of the Khamis Brigade.

At the western end of Burma is Arakan State, inhabited for centuries by the Rakhine, Buddhist people with a strong feeling of ethnic identity. Traditions and a language which are considered by many the mother of the current Burmese language, help in the claiming of rights and recognition of the people. In a fertile area with a large expanse of coastline that provides abundant fishing and transport facilities, Rakhine have traditionally lived facing the sea. Despite the lush nature, due to the tropical climate, soil containing large reserves of oil and natural gas, that was recently discovered, the local population does not benefit from these resources. They have always felt a little outside of the country and the issues from Rangoon. In Arakan State (population 3.8 million) there is a serious conflict with the ethnic Rohingya minority (800,000 people) that periodically erupts into confrontation. Originally from Bangladesh, Rohingya people migrated to Burma seeking opportunities in British colonial times, to a then sparsely populated land, and favored by developmental political circumstances. Today they are mainly divided between Burma and Bangladesh, and are not recognized by any of the two states, pariahs everywhere. The ethnic conflict is complex: Baamar (dominant ethnic Burmese) are above the Rakhine, and these in turn are placed over the Muslims, the last of which are the Rohingya. All this translates into social levels and levels of rights. The Rohingya are considered as one of the world's most persecuted minorities. In Burma they were denied citizenship in 1982, and have no right to travel without permission, own land or have more than two children. The high concentration of this minority population is due to the central government not allowing them to disperse. Bangladesh tries to repatriate to Burma and is often denied access to international humanitarian aid. The poor living conditions, lack of human rights and the impossibility of escape anywhere are radicalizing the problem and causing even more suffering, hatred and resentment, and the proliferation of radical Islamic fundamentalism.

The Libyan revolution erupted during the Arab Spring that changed in an unprecedented way the political map of many Arab countries, mainly pushed by their population's democratic desires. Unlike Tunisia and Egypt, the riots in Libya led to a civil war between Gaddafi loyalists and detractors, causing more than 30,000 deaths and 50,000 wounded during 8 months of clashes. The rebels were mostly Shabab, unexperienced young military who decided to stand up and rise in arms against the dictator. Given Libya's wealth in oil and gas, the United Nations Security Council decided to take sides in the conflict in order to ensure favorable treatment with a future government. France led a no-fly zone over Libya, which changed the conflict's balance by suppressing Gadhafi Loyalists' air weaponry potential towards an attack on the rebel stronghold in Benghazi.

Burmese legend tells us than Chin women were so beautiful that Rakhaing princes used to come to the northwestern mountains of the country in search of their wives. Captivated by their beauty, the princes abducted the nubile young girls to take them to the palace. From there, the versions of the Chin themselves are diverse. Some say that to prevent further abductions elders decided to tattoo the girls’ faces to hide their charm. Others say that one of those Rakhaing princes, once he became king, repudiated one of the girls, abandoning her in the countryside. Because of that, Chin tattooed their women's faces, to make them ugly and avoid others would have the same fate. Located in the remote mountains of western Burma, Chin are one of the country's major ethnic groups. Divided into six tribal groups and 63 sub-clans, they speak 20 different dialects and live mainly from agriculture, most in conditions of extreme poverty. The government prohibits foreign access to the area, but visitors can access a border area where Chin settled some villages along the Lemro River, starting from Mrauk U, the ancient capital of the Rakine Empire. The Chin state is bordered by Bangladesh in the southwest and with India in the west and northwest. The Burmese state of Arakan is south and Magwe and Sagaing Divisions are east. In fact, Chin live among their own people state in Burma and Mizoram state in India. They go to school for a few years, so the history of tattooed Chin women has survived through oral tradition. More than a history, the origin of tattooed women Chin is a legend. In the 60s, the Burmese Socialist government banned tattooing girls’ faces, but there are still more than a hundred women with tattooed faces, mostly grandmothers. A last bastion of old women hold in their faces fascinating cobwebs, samples of a tradition that vanishes in the humidity of a forgotten jungle.

Sainaba Gillen hugs her daughter Agi, aged seven, in their family home in Banjul, Gambia. She caresses her as the girl seeks warmth. Her older sisters, aunts, cousins and and grandmothers also take care of Agi as she goes through the stage of "isolation" having just suffered female genital circumcision. In Gambia, 80% of girls are circumcised. After physical amputation, which involves the ritual of ablation, a child is confined to her home, until the wound heals, under the care of the women of the family. "I've had a hard time with this circumcision" explains Sainaba, Agi’s mother. "The girl did not stop crying and saying how it hurt, but for us tradition is very important. We cannot lose our roots", she says. The ritual does not end with the act of physical circumcision. After comes the stage of isolation, a phase considered most important for it is then that the women of the family pass on to the girls most the cultural and social wealth of their people, uniting them as a group. The final part of the process is a big party to welcome the girls into the adult world. In Africa, female circumcision, a practice which dates back to ancient Egypt, is prevalent in both Muslim and Christian societies. It is justified by strong beliefs that range from strict hygiene to Qur'anic obligations. Many times there is the conviction that the clitoris can grow into a penis if it is not circumcised, or that its ablation facilitates procreation and purity by preventing promiscuity, etc. The challenge comes with educating a community to understand the falsehood of such a tradition, and in reality such a practice can gravely endanger the health of women.

Kosovo, the last piece of ex Yugoslavia declared independence on 17 February 2008 and over the following days, a number of states announced their recognition, despite protests by Russia and others in the UN. As of 1 June 2012, 91 UN states recognize the independence of Kosovo and it has become a member country of the IMF and World Bank as the Republic of Kosovo. The UN Security Council remains divided on the question.