HEALTH CONCERNS OF ‘INVISIBLE’1 CROSS-BORDER DOMESTIC MAIDS IN THAILAND

With the rising number of sex venues along the Thai–Burmese border and the perceived links between migration and the HIV epidemic, the Thai authorities and NGOs have begun concerning themselves with health problems of immigrant workers and seeking effective social welfare programmes for them. However, this paper argues that formal service programmes targeting specific groups may not be enough and notes a need to call attention to officially invisible migrants, particularly domestic maids from Burma who are more vulnerable precisely because they are ‘invisible’. The ‘maid trade’ from Burma to Thailand is statistically invisible firstly because domestic work is not recognized as a formal occupation either by the employers or the employees and therefore, they fail to be registered in census data. Burmese female domestic workers in Thailand are normally recruited through informal channels facilitated by regional trans-national networks that also engage in human smuggling. Domestic workers remain invisible in Thailand also because most of them are live-in and tend to work for one family for lengthy periods of time. They are normally out of reach of labour unions, religious organizations, non-governmental organizations and public health services. The fear of being caught as ‘illegal workers’ by the authorities further hinders their contact with the public. This paper also attributes the migrants’ invisibility to the tradition of ‘domestic servitude’ in Thai society. Using three detailed case studies, the paper demonstrates how the invisibility has contributed to the health vulnerability of these women in their daily lives.     

Global Imperatives and Economic Reform in the Pacific Island States

Since the mid‐1990s, a series of economic reform programmes has been underway in the Pacific Island states. This article links the origins, pace and scope of the reforms to the development of a regional reform agenda, the key site for which was the leading regional organization, the South Pacific Forum. The author details some of the measures and reforms undertaken, and argues that the fashioning and elaboration of the regional reform agenda was driven primarily by external forces, particularly donors, in an attempt to compel the island states to respond to the imperatives of globalization.     

The Global Flea Market: Migration,Remittances and the Informal Economy in Tonga

Some common assumptions about the form and use of migrants' remittances in the South Pacific are examined and questioned in the light of information from a micro-economic study of one group of remittance recipients in the flea market of Nuku'alofa, the capital of the Kingdom of Tonga. The findings of this study suggest that economic analysis and policy recommendations based on the existing macro-economic data on recorded remittances and other economic aggregates should be treated with caution. The unrecorded inflows of remittances in kind and the associated spread of the domestic informal sector have had some important implications for the functioning of Tonga's economy. There is some evidence to suggest that the growth of informal, international trade is fostering other significant changes in the domestic economy. The functioning of remittance-dependent economies such as Tonga is much more complex than existing economic analysis suggests, and involves substantial investment – not just consumption – with the emergence of entrepreneurs and the manipulation of dependence, rather than merely passive receipt of cash and expenditure focused on consumption.     

The Poliomyelitis Epidemic in Johannesburg in 1918: Medical and Public Responses

ABSTRACT

This article traces the appearance of poliomyelitis in Johannesburg during the first recognised epidemic in South Africa in the early months of 1918. The course of the epidemic is examined by reviewing available statistics and investigating the problems that the epidemic imposed on medical and health authorities, both locally and within higher echelons of power. The response of the Johannesburg community to the disease is explored, as are the treatments available to polio patients at a time when the disease was regarded as ‘a mystery’. The place of the 1918 epidemic in the wider history of polio in South Africa is also explored.     

South Pacific Agendas in the Quest to Protect Natural Areas

In the South Pacific islands, development assistance agencies, financial institutions, and international NGOs approach conservation in ways that provide opportunities for foreigners to advise islanders about appropriate paths to development. They fund the intergovernmental South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), which uses its organizational, legal and discursive powers to create opportunities for their work, and so helps validate inequitable political and economic relationships between the islands and developed regions, ensuring that these continue unchallenged by concerns about environmental degradation. But this outsider–insider dichotomy is too simplistic to describe all the endeavours connected with South Pacific protected areas. Amongst indigenous interests in the islands there is more than a single conservation agenda. The variety of agendas connected to efforts to protect natural areas in the South Pacific islands illustrates that conservation is more than a technical endeavour with a single moral goal. Conservationists’ success in preserving biodiversity and natural areas depends, therefore, upon forming explicit and open alliances with other individuals who, although they may have different aspirations and values, are prepared to work openly and effectively with them to achieve some agreed measures.     

泉州蝇埔村“蚵壳厝”牡蛎壳来源初考

为考证泉州“蚵壳厝”牡蛎壳的来源,本文利用了动物学、动物地理学知识对“蚵壳厝”所用的牡蛎壳进行了种类鉴定和分布的分析。结果显示：“蚵壳厝”的牡蛎壳由大量近江牡蛎（CraSS0Strear1Vu一]ar1S）和少量的长牡蛎（C．g1gaS）组成,这两种牡蛎都属巨牡蛎属（CraSS0strea）。动物地理学特点显示,它们都是分布在太平洋一印度洋交汇海域,东非沿海的印度洋西部并没有这些种类的分布。结合前人对海上丝绸之路的研究结果,我们认为泉州“蚵壳厝”牡蛎壳应该是来自于东南亚或南海北部沿海。     

Terrorism in the South Pacific? Thinking critically about approaches to security in the region

‘Not only is the Pacific a potential base for terrorist activities, but if we are not vigilant this is exactly what will happen’. This is the impression one gets from much of the recent academic and policy literature in Australia and New Zealand. However, while there is a need for Pacific Island states to be able to counter terrorist threats, there are very real problems which may result from recent moves to portray the South Pacific as a possible terrorist haven. In addressing issues such as the possible ‘over-securitisation’ of the region, in this article we argue that contemporary threat perceptions must be balanced with constant reassessments of the positive and negative ramifications of painting the region in this light. All local authorities must emphasise a law enforcement approach to countering terrorism. Most emphatically, however, cooperation with (not coercion against) other countries must remain the paramount consideration in any and every effort to combat this phenomenon within the region.     

Conditionality and the EU–ACP Partnership: A Misguided Approach to Development?

The Cotonou Partnership between the states of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) and the European Union (EU) provides a case in which the human rights approach to development is being put into practice. This article uses the partnership to address broader questions regarding the effectiveness of the new approach to development. The EU–ACP partnership is innovative because it reflects the changing international consensus on development, but it is not clear if the norms used in the Cotonou Agreement have achieved the consensus needed to comprise any real shift in development policy. Moreover, it can be argued that what diminishes the efficacy of the human rights approach in the EU–ACP relationship is political conditionality as this mechanism may lead to interventions that are counterproductive to the establishment of stable democracy.     

Third-world development: urbanizing for the future

This article reviews some issues reflected in the 1996 UN Habitat II agenda and recent research on urbanization. The themes of the 1996 Habitat conference were urban development, urban poverty, and governance, civil society, and social capital. It is expected that over 50% of total world population will live in cities in the year 2000. Cities are viewed both as engines of economic growth and centers of severe economic, environmental, and social problems. There is some disagreement about whether cities are rational economic structures or what the World Bank's urban agenda is and its relationship with macroeconomic policy. Discussions of global urban issues are criticized for their neglect of issues of equity and poverty, cultural diversity, and identity and representation. Habitat II also stressed urban sustainability. There is growing recognition that urban management involves more than the "Brown Agenda" of environmental and physical aspects of urban growth. Recent studies identify how politics and power affect people's access to basic urban services. Urban economic activity can also contribute to environmental problems. Urban growth affects the provision of health services. Although there is not a consensus on the role of cities in expanding economic and social development and the best management practices, there is sufficient evidence to indicate that urban processes are varied throughout the developing world. The links between urban and rural areas differentiate cities and expose the need to understand the role of intermediate urban areas surrounding and between larger cities. Poverty has become increasingly urbanized, but the extent of poverty is unknown. Habitat II was an unprecedented effort to engage nongovernment groups, local government staff, trade unions, and the private sector and to emphasize community participation. Networks of trust and reciprocity are key to solving poverty, inequality, and disempowerment problems.     

From Science to Religion: Justifying French Pacific Voyaging and Expansion in the Period of the Restoration and the July Monarchy

Abstract

What explains the generous state sponsorship of the French Pacific voyages of scientific exploration in the period of the Restoration and the July Monarchy, and what links did these voyages have with the beginnings of a French Pacific empire from 1842? While it is argued that the early voyages owed much to state advancement of science, this goal receded as a reviving France became increasingly imperial minded. In justifying imperial expansion into the Pacific, the French monarchy turned increasingly to another source of national identity and global influence: the activities of French missionaries. Though the promotion of French missions did not constitute a primary goal of French Pacific expeditions, their reports helped to strengthen the alliance between French missions and an increasingly expansionist state. Ironically it was the voyagers’ attention to religion rather than science that was to be more directly linked with the foundations of a French Pacific empire.     

Understanding the Geography of Pellagra in the United States: The role of social and place-based identities

This article examines the intersection of constructs such as North and South, white and black, rich and poor, male and female in the creation of the diseased Other during the pellagra epidemic in the United States in the early twentieth century. Pellagra was a disease of poverty, caused by poor nutrition and resulting in over 100,000 deaths in the country between 1900 and 1940. Endemic in the American South, its victims were largely low-income, female and black. The author argues that the conception of the South as the regional Other by Northern interests, a reluctance to acknowledge widespread deprivations in the region by Southern leaders, compounded by inadequate scrutiny of the racial and gender dimensions of the disease, delayed the discovery of the cause of pellagra and the implementation of public health measures to prevent and treat the disease. By highlighting the critical roles of geographical location and identity in disease prevalence, this article adds to debates on the links between place-based identity and health. It also amplifies feminist understandings of how racist, sexist and class-based binaries are refracted and reconstituted in the articulation of socio-culturally produced identities and their consequences for health.     

Preparation for Deep Learning:

ABSTRACT

Norman H. Hardy is not a well-known historical character, so an element of salvage exists in bringing his art and book illustration to a wider audience. His short career as an artist with the Sydney Mail and the 68 paintings in The Savage South Seas in 1907 open up a wider discourse concerning the links between art and photography, between visitation and recording in the field, between art and journalism, and between popular imagination and the publishing practices for illustrated travelogues. Hardy's paintings of Papua, Solomon Islands and New Hebrides reached a wide audience and provide a close-up, intimate record of Indigenous life in the islands, as well as hinting at complex encounters between Islanders and traders. The visual evidence in The Savage South Seas also contributes to debates about the motivations of early 20th-century Euro-American travellers, authors and purchasers of books on the Pacific and provides yet another citation of notions of faraway lands and people in the Pacific as perceived by distant readers and audiences.     

Chinese Aid in the South Pacific: Linked to Resources?

Abstract

China’s emergence as a global development actor has implications for developing countries and “traditional” donor agencies. Its current provision of foreign aid and other forms of development assistance to developing countries throughout the world presents both opportunities and challenges for all actors. At the same time, China’s growing need for natural resources and its policy of securing access through state-led “resource diplomacy” are causing concern. While most scholars and commentators are focused on the “China in Africa” dimension, China’s engagement in the South Pacific region has also been growing rapidly over the past decade and offers some interesting and unique insights. This article examines the dynamics of China’s provision of foreign aid and its quest for natural resources in the South Pacific region, with comparative references to other regions. Drawing particularly upon interviews and site visits in Fiji and Papua New Guinea, it argues that although major commercial resource contracts do appear to be supported by Chinese Government assistance, resources deals are not explicitly part of Chinese foreign aid in the region.     

Division of the waters: changing concepts of the continental divide, 1804–1844

One of the major features of the continental geography of North America that was still misunderstood at the beginning of the nineteenth century was the drainage system between the Mississippi River and the Pacific. At the beginning of the century, Americans thought of the drainage system as symmetrical, with all major streams heading in a common source region and flowing in several directions to the Mississippi, the Arctic, the Pacific and the Gulf of California. The desired water route across the continent was based upon this view. During the first half of the nineteenth century the concept of the common source region and the water route underwent revision. Geographical information from early explorers like Lewis and Clark and Pike reinforced the older theories but gradually gave way before more accurate data acquired by the men of the Rocky Mountain fur trade. The fur trade lore was tested by John Charles Frémont in the 1840's and a new image was developed, one of a continental divide rather than a common source region. Although the idea of a commercial route across the continent still persisted after Frémont, it was viewed as a land route, crossing the Continental Divide at South Pass, rather than one by water.     

Digital Technology in Research and Documentation of Hunter-Gatherer Rock Art in South Africa

The use of digital technology to enhance and manipulate photographs of rock paintings affords researchers insights into imagery that was formerly invisible or obscure. Image enhancement and manipulation software have greatly increased the data set available for study. There is a wide range of techniques available in the digital repertoire, depending on the aim of the research. Here, three South African case studies are discussed in which hunter-gatherer rock paintings are enhanced and manipulated to create digital “tracings” using the computer programmes Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop and DStretch. The results obtained with these simple techniques are presented here, because they might prove useful for rock art research elsewhere in the world. It must be noted, however, that these technological developments do not eliminate the subjective nature of recording and interpreting rock art or the necessity of a theoretical framework in which to understand the imagery.     

State functioning and state failure in the South Pacific

The South Pacific region features enormous variation in state performance. While Polynesian nations such as Samoa have proved to be relatively successful post-colonial states, Melanesian countries like the Solomon Islands are increasingly categorised as 'weak', 'failing' or 'failed' states. Drawing on a range of comparative studies by economists and political scientists in recent years, this article argues that cross-country variation in ethnic diversity between much of Polynesia and Melanesia is a key factor in explaining differences in state performance across the South Pacific. It shows how different kinds of ethnic structure are associated with specific political and economic outcomes, including variation in political stability, economic development, and internal conflict from country to country. In so doing, it helps explain why some parts of the South Pacific appear to be failing while others are relative success stories - and why this is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.     

Succession of government in the post‐colonial states of the South Pacific: New support for constitutionalism?

The mechanisms for changing governments in the post‐colonial states of the South Pacific constitute a unique variant of the Westminster mechanisms earlier adopted in the Dominions and in the ex‐British colonies of Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. This is so to the point where we can speak of a ‘South Pacific model of succession’. In this model, the power to appoint governments is given to parliament, the head of state has no discretionary role on questions of succession, and the convention that a Prime Minister should resign following the passing of a no‐confidence motion is encoded. In contrast to the experience of most other post‐colonial societies, these constitutional mechanisms have actually governed the way in which power has changed hands. Force has not been used either to remove or entrench a government. Central to an explanation of this experience is that no significantly sized group within these states has felt itself to be fully excluded from the possibility of gaining government or from having some representatives of their interests in power. This, however, may not be the case in the future as many of the factors currently contributing to the legitimacy of constitutional succession of government are undergoing rapid change.     

Two Vanished African Maritime Traditions and a Parallel from South America

Maritime traditions that extend along coastlines are more vulnerable to disruption and disappearance than areal trading networks. The paper describes two cases from Africa, the likely early movement of Bantu speakers down the coast of West Africa and the Swahili trading diaspora that reached southern Mozambique by at least the seventh century. Both of these have disappeared from the ethnographic and historical record but can be recovered through archaeology and linguistics. A parallel is made with the trade route that linked the coastal region of Peru and Ecuador with Western Mexico and may have been active from as early as 4,000 bp until the Spanish conquest. The hypothesis is that areal networks, such as those in island Southeast Asia and the Pacific, which are driven by colonisation and bidirectional exchange, are more likely to persist because they are more resilient due to the number of broken ‘links’ they can withstand. Linear expansions may be driven by a quest for trade and resources but are usually not necessary to survival.     

北宋和南宋青铜钱币对比分析研究

宋代是我国钱币的一个大发展时期,宋代钱币在我国钱币史上占有极其重要的地位.为了解南、北宋钱币的成分、显微结构的差异对铸币保存状况的影响,通过显微镜观察、合金成分分析、显微结构分析,对南宋和北宋各21枚钱币的保存状况进行了对比分析研究,以了解这42枚钱币的锈蚀状况、锈蚀原因,以及成分、显微结构的差异对铸币保存状况的影响.同时在分析研究的过程中,对北宋、南宋钱币的合金成分、铸造工艺进行了对比研究.研究结果表明,南宋钱币的保存状况比北宋的差一些,合金成分及显微结构的差异,是导致保存状况不同的重要原因.这些钱币主要是由铜、锡、铅铸造而成,分析结果进一步证实北宋钱币合金成分比较稳定,成分配比比较科学.而南宋成分数据比较分散,早期铜、锡含量较高,铅含量较低,晚期铜、锡含量较低,铅含量明显增高,合金品质大大降低.本研究可为了解当时的科学技术、社会经济形态进一步提供基本信息.     

Contributions of a Heritage Values-based Approach to Rock Art Management. Lessons from the Maloti-Drakensberg World Heritage Site,South Africa

This paper is based on rock art sites of the Maloti-Drakensberg massif (South African part), where more than 600 decorated shelters have thus far been identified. Being both institutionalised heritage sites open to the public and living heritage sites associated with various social practices and utilizations, their preservation requires us to consider the complexity of the values attributed to them. Combining a multidisciplinary and empirical approach, our paper highlights the processes of hybridization between attributed values, which therefore do not adhere to a strict category approach. Being strongly linked to the contexts in which they are articulated, their identification is coupled with a consideration of the macrodynamics in which rock art sites are integrated, as well as an analysis of the links between these different contexts and the value systems identified. In conclusion, the operational dimensions of such a methodology is questioned and some initial possibilities for action are proposed.