scholarly journals Focus on psychiatry in Australia

2000 ◽  
Vol 176 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Henderson

Humankind has been present on the Australian continent for at least 40 000, some say 60 000 years, remarkably adapted to the environment and having a cultural tradition appreciated by few Caucasians. White people have been here for only 200 years; and psychiatry for about half of that. We know nothing about the mental health of pre-contact indigenous peoples; but we now know a little about the ways in which mental disorders are explained and treated by traditional methods. In two centuries, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands communities, which are very diverse, have been steadily reduced to become only 1.5% of the population. From settlement in 1788 until the 1950s, most non-aboriginal Australians were of Anglo-Saxon or Celtic origin. Since the Second World War, the pattern of immigration has greatly enriched Australian life, first through large numbers of people from the Mediterranean littoral, Western Europe and the Balkans, and more recently from south-east Asia. Ethnic diversity is now evident in most peoples' daily lives – whom you see in the street, whom you work alongside, who your friends are, what you eat and who you have as patients. So the present Australian population of 18 million has undergone a marked change in demography and lifestyle within only two generations. Like the people, psychiatry is also changing rapidly. Where are the changes taking place? What is it like to be a psychiatrist here at present? Where has there been success and where has there been failure? Where is there lots of action?

Author(s):  
Sally Anderson

Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark and the Kingdom’s only metropolis. The city embraces institutions of royalty, state and national culture as well as all the ‘people’ of Denmark. Whereas national institutions are by and large located within the walls of the fortress city, the ‘people’ are generally located in neighborhoods constructed during rapid industrialization. The article explores the idea of Copenhagen as a folkelig city, a city that accrues both legitimacy and authenticity by invoking the ‘people’ in all their social, regional and ethnic diversity in certain areas of the city. Although a down-to-earth, non-elite, folkelig community is commonly thought to derive from the daily lives of ‘common people’ in lower class neighborhoods, the article illustrates how the idea of folkelig community is intentionally evoked in efforts to revitalize such very neighborhoods deemed lacking a proper sense of community. The article discusses how two voluntary organizations run by middle class reformers invoke different aesthetics of diversity and authentic commonality in attempts to infuse a working class neighborhood undergoing urban renewal with a new sense of folkelig community. With each their own facility for voluntary sport and culture, both aspire to create venues promoting a common sociality that cross cuts social difference. While the locally based organization invokes a plural community of locals, the nationally based organization invokes a plural community of citizens. The article concludes that the aesthetic of common diversity and the performance of folkelig community are vital to the ideal of the good city upheld by Copenhagen’s mentors, organizers and authorities.  


2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (04) ◽  
pp. 245-250
Author(s):  
A. Speckhard

SummaryAs a terror tactic, suicide terrorism is one of the most lethal as it relies on a human being to deliver and detonate the device. Suicide terrorism is not confined to a single region or religion. On the contrary, it has a global appeal, and in countries such as Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan it has come to represent an almost daily reality as it has become the weapon of choice for some of the most dreaded terrorist organizations in the world, such as ISIS and al-Qaeda. Drawing on over two decades of extensive field research in five distinct world regions, specifically the Middle East, Western Europe, North America, Russia, and the Balkans, the author discusses the origins of modern day suicide terrorism, motivational factors behind suicide terrorism, its global migration, and its appeal to modern-day terrorist groups to embrace it as a tactic.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Mirza Irwansyah ◽  
Cut Nursaniah ◽  
Laila Qadri

Meureudu Riparian in the past was a place of a collective settlements; it was then developed  to become a Meureudu City in Aceh Province, Indonesia. Initially, it was formed as traditional fishermen settlements but now has shifted into semi-modern settlements. However, the settlements developed sporadically to form an unplanned pattern of settlements. This condition resulted in low maintaining river and non-adaptive existence of the dwellings with the environment. Floods occur repeatedly in the river that affected great lost to the community. This study aimed to propose residential pattern design and adaptive settlements with Meureudu River riparian. Easy access roads to markets will facilitate economy growth to the people. This will also cause large numbers of unbridled migrants to enter and build settlements. In this study the a combination of quantitative methods based on interview data and questionnaires and qualitative exploratory methods based on field observation were used. The data were collected through observation, field measurement and secondary data sources. The results show that the condition of settlements along the river basin do not reflect the culture of the river. In order not to further aggravate the condition of the settlement and its impact on the occupants, we recommended two types of houses, namely in the form of stage and non-stage. The stage houses are located on the riverfront with an orientation overlooking the river. Additionally, undersea area can be used as security from the puddle of river water runoff during the flood and as a garden area and public while dry­­, while at a distance of 100 meters from the river non-stage houses form would be built because the runoff of flood water no longer affects the occupancy.


Author(s):  
Vu Thi Thanh Minh

With the majority of the population working in agriculture, the economy of Khmer people is mainly agricultural. At present, the Khmer ethnic group has a workingstructure in the ideal age, but the number of young and healthy workers who have not been trained is still high and laborers lack knowledge and skills to do business. Labor productivity is still very low ... Problems in education quality, human resources; the transformation of traditional religion; effects of climate change; Cross-border relations of the people have always been and are of great interest and challenges to the development of the Khmer ethnic community. Identifying fundamental and urgent issues, forecasting the socio-economic trends in areas with large numbers of Khmer people living in the future will be the basis for the theory and practice for us to have. Solutions in the development and implementation of policies for Khmer compatriots suitable and effective.


Author(s):  
Оlena Fedorіvna Caracasidi

The article deals with the fundamental, inherent in most of the countries of the world transformation of state power, its formation, functioning and division between the main branches as a result of the decentralization of such power, its subsidiarity. Attention is drawn to the specifics of state power, its func- tional features in the conditions of sovereignty of the states, their interconnec- tion. It is emphasized that the nature of the state power is connected with the nature of the political system of the state, with the form of government and many other aspects of a fundamental nature.It is analyzed that in the middle of national states the questions of legitima- cy, sovereignty of transparency of state power, its formation are acutely raised. Concerning the practical functioning of state power, a deeper study now needs a problem of separation of powers and the distribution of power. The use of this principle, which ensures the real subsidiarity of the authorities, the formation of more effective, responsible democratic relations between state power and civil society, is the first priority of the transformation of state power in the conditions of modern transformations of countries and societies. It is substantiated that the research of these problems will open up much wider opportunities for the provi- sion of state power not as a center authority, but also as a leading political structure but as a power of the people and the community. In the context of global democratization processes, such processes are crucial for a more humanistic and civilized arrangement of human life. It is noted that local self-government, as a specific form of public power, is also characterized by an expressive feature of a special subject of power (territorial community) as a set of large numbers of people; joint communal property; tax system, etc.


Author(s):  
I Ketut Ardhana ◽  
I Nyoman Wijaya

Indian culture has dominantly influenced the Indonesian people, particularly in the western part of the archipelago. This, which started centuries ago, can still be seen in the peoples’ daily lives in social, cultural, economic and political matters. Both the Hindu and Buddhist lessons have been practiced in Bali, although it is argued that the Buddhist lessons had been developed earlier than the Hindu ones. These developments have strongly characterized Balinese daily life, so, it is very important to understand how the people anticipate and solve some crucial issues regarding the processes of modernization and globalization. There are some important questions that need to be addressed on the Indian influences in strengthening the Balinese culture from the earlier periods until the modern and even postmodern times. In this case, the specific questions are: Firstly, how did the Balinese accept these two lessons in their daily lives in the context of Balinization processes? Secondly, what kinds of tangible and intangible cultures of the Hindu and Buddhist lessons can be seen in the present day Bali? Thirdly, how do they strengthen the Bali identity or Balinization,  known as “Ajeg Bali”? Through this analysis, it is expected to have a better understanding of the issues of social, cultural, economic and political changes in Indonesia in general and Bali in particular in modern and postmodern times.


Author(s):  
Konstantina Zanou

Transnational Patriotism in the Mediterranean, 1800–1850: Stammering the Nation investigates the long process of transition from a world of empires to a world of nation-states by narrating the biographies of a group of people who were born within empires but came of age surrounded by the emerging vocabulary of nationalism, much of which they themselves created. It is the story of a generation of intellectuals and political thinkers from the Ionian Islands who experienced the collapse of the Republic of Venice and the dissolution of the common cultural and political space of the Adriatic, and who contributed to the creation of Italian and Greek nationalisms. By uncovering this forgotten intellectual universe, Transnational Patriotism in the Mediterranean retrieves a world characterized by multiple cultural, intellectual, and political affiliations that have since been buried by the conventional narrative of the formation of nation-states. The book rethinks the origins of Italian and Greek nationalisms and states, highlighting the intellectual connection between the Italian peninsula, Greece, and Russia, and re-establishing the lost link between the changing geopolitical contexts of western Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Balkans in the Age of Revolutions. It re-inscribes important intellectuals and political figures, considered ‘national fathers’ of Italy and Greece (such as Ugo Foscolo, Dionysios Solomos, Ioannis Kapodistrias, and Niccolò Tommaseo), into their regional and multicultural context, and shows how nations emerged from an intermingling, rather than a clash, of ideas concerning empire and liberalism, Enlightenment and religion, revolution and conservatism, and East and West.


1998 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-237
Author(s):  
M. Aileen Sullivan ◽  
E. Nigel Corlett

The pressure from recent and imminent Health and Safety legislation, both in Western Europe and Canada, has increased the awareness of the important contributions of ergonomics. At the same time it has become clear that ergonomists will never be plentiful enough to attack all workplace problems. In today's world economy, often, many companies lack the resources to employ an ergonomist. This creates a need for the transfer of ergonomics to non-ergonomists so that they can address their own workplace problems themselves. To transfer this skill in an effective and safe way requires a methodology which will incorporate a knowledge base, techniques for identifying mismatches between the people and their work, and ways to assist the users to interpret the results of the analyses and implement the necessary changes. Some useful ergonomics techniques are presented to assist people in assessing their own workplaces. They include techniques which measure work demands and their causes, equipment and environment analysis procedures and techniques that assess the potential for musculo-skeletal injuries.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Ana Rita Pedro ◽  
Ana Gama ◽  
Patrícia Soares ◽  
Marta Moniz ◽  
Pedro A. Laires ◽  
...  

The COVID-19 pandemic brought new challenges to the global community, reinforcing the role of public health in society. The main measures to combat it had (and still have) a huge impact on the daily lives of citizens. This investigation aimed to identify and monitor the population’s perceptions about how it faced this period and the impact on health, well-being, and daily life. In this study, we describe the main trends observed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of mental health status, confidence in the capacity of the health services to respond to the pandemic, and the use of health services by participants. The online survey collected responses from 171,947 individuals ≥16 years of age in Portugal, over a period of 15 weeks that started on 21 March 2020. Participants could fill the questionnaire once or weekly, which enabled us to analyse trends and variations in responses. Overall, 81% of the respondents reported having felt agitated, anxious, or sad during the COVID-19 pandemic; 19% did not experience these feelings. During the confinement period, the proportion of participants feeling agitated, anxious, or sad every day/almost every day ranged between 20 and 30%, but since the deconfinement this proportion decreased. Around 30% reported having more difficulty getting to sleep or to sleep all night; 28.4% felt more agitated; 25.5% felt sadder, discouraged, or cried more easily; and 24.7% felt unable to do everything they had to do, women more frequently than men. Overall, 65.8% of the participants reported feeling confident or very confident in the health services’ capacity to respond to the challenges associated with the pandemic, and this confidence increased over time. Concerning the people who needed a consultation, 35.6% had one in person and 20.8% had one remotely, but almost 44% did not have one due to cancellation by the service (27.2%) or their own decision not to go (16.3%). At this unusual time in which we find ourselves and based on our findings, it is essential to continue monitoring how the population is facing the different phases of the pandemic until it officially ends. Analysing the effects of the pandemic from the point of view of citizens allows for anticipating critical trends and can contribute to preventative action.


Human Affairs ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mishel Pavlovski

AbstractBy questioning the ways in which a supra-national European identity can be created in an environment of globalization, this article starts with the thesis that this concept faces problems which must be resolved first and foremost at the national level. By problematizing multiculturalism as a “utopian theory” which does not solve any problems at the practical level, and by viewing interculturalism as a potential danger to “smaller” cultures, this article identifies what it is that hinders the possible acceptance of the idea of a Europe without borders by analyzing plays by Goran Stefanovski. In four of his plays, Euralien, Hotel Europa, Ex-Yu, and Goce, Stefanovski criticizes Western Europe, on the one hand, for constructing a problematic Other, imposing a visa regime, and contributing to its marginalization, and the Balkans on the other, for mythologizing its nationally-romanticized narrative. The paper sheds light on the fact that the acceptance of a common (shared) European identity, a necessity which propagates itself amidst conditions of globalization, is dependent on the ways in which Europe will resolve its problems, such as the marginalization of the Other, way of thinking in binary oppositions, like old/new Europe, rich/poor Europe, and especially (talking about Balkan countries) the phrase South-East Balkan.


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