scholarly journals Kastam: Exploring the Architectural Principles of Exchange and Resilience

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ruwarashe Saunyama

<p>The Refugee Resettlement situation on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea is in dire need of a humane intervention. The Manus Island Detention Centre was officially permanently closed on the 31st of October 2017 (ABC News), leaving 600 men with three options; moving back to their countries of origin, relocating to the East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre or moving and resettling in the United States of America on the basis that they get granted refugee status.   The option of relocating to the East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre may seem like a viable option to the Australian state but to the 600 men it's a move that would render them vulnerable and in danger. Relocating to the transit centre will only cause more overcrowding and depletion of the already scarce resources. The living conditions of the Manus Island Detention Centrefor refugees and asylum seekers was deemed harsh and inhumane. The conditions of East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre are no different.   The lack of bare essentials in these refugee camps such as a constant source of clean water, food, healthcare and accommodation has led to health and psychosocial problems amongst its inmates and if left unaddressed it will worsen further. This has resulted in the refugees becoming increasingly dependent on the Australian and Papua New Guinean states – which treats the centre as a state of exemption. This situation and their isolation from society has also contributed to disempowering the refugees who are increasingly unable to function in day to day life and experiencing difficulty integrating into the Manusian society.   This thesis will address this crisis architecturally; its intention is to explore architecture as a medium that will orchestrate the development of better and empowering living opportunities for the refugees and facilitate a sense of community within the Manusian society via a holistic community model.  The objective of the model is to firstly enable the refugees to become self-sufficient where they don't have to rely on the resources provided from external sources as the Papua New Guinean and Australian state.  Secondly the intention is tofacilitate community integrationby creating opportunities for the refugees and the locals to interact through shared and mutually beneficial opportunities. By developing a sense of community and reliability between the locals and refugees; both parties engaging in a traditional Papua New Guinean practice of Kastam (Otto T.), based on exchange, supportiveness, respect and honour.   The thesis aims to test and readdress, through an exploration of architectural principals related to exchange and resilience, the stigma and ideology of refugee resettlement―by moving away from the idea of refugees as reliant on the states that govern them, to the refugees becoming self-sufficient and thereby becoming less of a burdenand more of an asset to the host community.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ruwarashe Saunyama

<p>The Refugee Resettlement situation on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea is in dire need of a humane intervention. The Manus Island Detention Centre was officially permanently closed on the 31st of October 2017 (ABC News), leaving 600 men with three options; moving back to their countries of origin, relocating to the East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre or moving and resettling in the United States of America on the basis that they get granted refugee status.   The option of relocating to the East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre may seem like a viable option to the Australian state but to the 600 men it's a move that would render them vulnerable and in danger. Relocating to the transit centre will only cause more overcrowding and depletion of the already scarce resources. The living conditions of the Manus Island Detention Centrefor refugees and asylum seekers was deemed harsh and inhumane. The conditions of East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre are no different.   The lack of bare essentials in these refugee camps such as a constant source of clean water, food, healthcare and accommodation has led to health and psychosocial problems amongst its inmates and if left unaddressed it will worsen further. This has resulted in the refugees becoming increasingly dependent on the Australian and Papua New Guinean states – which treats the centre as a state of exemption. This situation and their isolation from society has also contributed to disempowering the refugees who are increasingly unable to function in day to day life and experiencing difficulty integrating into the Manusian society.   This thesis will address this crisis architecturally; its intention is to explore architecture as a medium that will orchestrate the development of better and empowering living opportunities for the refugees and facilitate a sense of community within the Manusian society via a holistic community model.  The objective of the model is to firstly enable the refugees to become self-sufficient where they don't have to rely on the resources provided from external sources as the Papua New Guinean and Australian state.  Secondly the intention is tofacilitate community integrationby creating opportunities for the refugees and the locals to interact through shared and mutually beneficial opportunities. By developing a sense of community and reliability between the locals and refugees; both parties engaging in a traditional Papua New Guinean practice of Kastam (Otto T.), based on exchange, supportiveness, respect and honour.   The thesis aims to test and readdress, through an exploration of architectural principals related to exchange and resilience, the stigma and ideology of refugee resettlement―by moving away from the idea of refugees as reliant on the states that govern them, to the refugees becoming self-sufficient and thereby becoming less of a burdenand more of an asset to the host community.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 106
Author(s):  
Sheikh Saifur Rahman Jony ◽  
Ubydul Haque ◽  
Nathaniel J. Webb ◽  
Emily Spence ◽  
Md. Siddikur Rahman ◽  
...  

COVID-19 has harshly impacted communities globally. This study provides relevant information for creating equitable policy interventions to combat the spread of COVID-19. This study aims to predict the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of the COVID-19 pandemic at a global level to determine control measures and psychosocial problems. A cross-sectional survey was conducted from July to October 2020 using an online questionnaire. Questionnaires were initially distributed to academicians worldwide. These participants distributed the survey among their social, professional, and personal groups. Responses were collected and analyzed from 67 countries, with a sample size of 3031. Finally, based on the number of respondents, eight countries, including Bangladesh, China, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, the United States, and Zambia were rigorously analyzed. Specifically, questionnaire responses related to COVID-19 accessibility, behavior, knowledge, opinion, psychological health, and susceptibility were collected and analyzed. As per our analysis, age groups were found to be a primary determinant of behavior, knowledge, opinion, psychological health, and susceptibility scores. Gender was the second most influential determinant for all metrics except information about COVID-19 accessibility, for which education was the second most important determinant. Respondent profession was the third most important metric for all scores. Our findings suggest that greater encouragement from government health authorities and the promotion of health education and policies are essential in the dissemination of COVID-19-awareness and increased control of the spread of COVID-19.


2012 ◽  
Vol 37 (04) ◽  
pp. 933-968 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Hamlin

International law provides nations with a common definition of a refugee, yet the processes by which countries determine who should be granted refugee status look strikingly different, even across nations with many institutional, cultural, geographical, and political similarities. This article compares the refugee status determination regimes of three popular asylum seeker destinations—the United States, Canada, and Australia. Despite these nations' similar border control policies, asylum seekers crossing their borders access three very different systems. These differences have less to do with political debates over admission and border control policy than with the level of insulation the administrative decision-making agency enjoys from political interference and judicial review. Bureaucratic justice is conceptualized and organized differently in different states, and so states vary in how they draw the line between refugee and nonrefugee.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1957 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 921-940
Author(s):  
Meinhard Robinow ◽  
Frederic N. Silverman

The different types of injury from external sources of ionizing radiation are briefly described and the manifestations of radiation injury in the fetus, the infant and the child are reviewed. If radiation therapy for malignant disease is excluded from consideration, it is found that x-ray damage to skin, other tissue destruction, and growth impairment are relatively minor radiation hazards compared to the dangers of leukemia and other malignancy and of radiation-induced genetic damage. Consideration is given to somatic radiation injury as largely an individual problem and genetic injury as a population problem. This point of view is reflected in the differing recommendations concerning "permissible doses" for individuals and for populations. Medical radiation represents a major and presumably growing source of exposure to individuals and to the population in the United States. Various ways are shown in which excessive diagnostic exposure to x-rays, especially in children, can be reduced without interference with requirements of diagnosis. Control of avoidable radiation can be accomplished by combined attack from different fronts. The more important approaches to radiation safety are discussed. They include attention to technical detail, personnel monitoring, maintenance of radiation records, radiation safety through legislative control and public education. The responsibility of the physician in promoting public understanding of radiation hazards is emphasized.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 106 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. 930-936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas K. McInerny ◽  
Peter G. Szilagyi ◽  
George E. Childs ◽  
Richard C. Wasserman ◽  
Kelly J. Kelleher

Objective. Nearly 14% of children in the United States are uninsured. We compared the prevalence of psychosocial problems and mental health services received by insured and uninsured children in primary care practices. Methods. The Child Behavior Study was a cohort study conducted by Pediatric Research in Office Settings and the Ambulatory Sentinel Practice Network. Four hundred one primary care clinicians enrolled an average sample of 55 consecutive children (4–15 years old) per clinician. Results. Of the 13 401 visits to clinicians with 3 or more uninsured patients, 12 518 were by insured children (93.4%) and 883 were by uninsured children (6.6%). A higher percentage of adolescents, Hispanic children, those with unmarried parents, and those with less educated parents were uninsured. According to clinicians, uninsured children and insured children had similar rates of psychosocial problems (19%) and severe psychosocial problems (2%). For children with a clinician-identified psychosocial problem, we found no differences in clinician-reported counseling, medication use, or referral to mental health professionals. Conclusions. Among children served in primary care practices, uninsured children have similar prevalence of clinician-identified psychosocial and mental health problems compared with insured children. Within their practices, clinicians managed uninsured children much the same way as insured children.psychosocial problems, uninsured children, pediatrics, family medicine, primary care.


Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1811
Author(s):  
John M. Humphreys ◽  
Angela M. Pelzel-McCluskey ◽  
Lee W. Cohnstaedt ◽  
Bethany L. McGregor ◽  
Kathryn A. Hanley ◽  
...  

Mosquito-borne West Nile virus (WNV) is the causative agent of West Nile disease in humans, horses, and some bird species. Since the initial introduction of WNV to the United States (US), approximately 30,000 horses have been impacted by West Nile neurologic disease and hundreds of additional horses are infected each year. Research describing the drivers of West Nile disease in horses is greatly needed to better anticipate the spatial and temporal extent of disease risk, improve disease surveillance, and alleviate future economic impacts to the equine industry and private horse owners. To help meet this need, we integrated techniques from spatiotemporal epidemiology, eco-phylogenetics, and distributional ecology to assess West Nile disease risk in horses throughout the contiguous US. Our integrated approach considered horse abundance and virus exposure, vector and host distributions, and a variety of extrinsic climatic, socio-economic, and environmental risk factors. Birds are WNV reservoir hosts, and therefore we quantified avian host community dynamics across the continental US to show intra-annual variability in host phylogenetic structure and demonstrate host phylodiversity as a mechanism for virus amplification in time and virus dilution in space. We identified drought as a potential amplifier of virus transmission and demonstrated the importance of accounting for spatial non-stationarity when quantifying interaction between disease risk and meteorological influences such as temperature and precipitation. Our results delineated the timing and location of several areas at high risk of West Nile disease and can be used to prioritize vaccination programs and optimize virus surveillance and monitoring.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarethe Kusenbach

<p>In the United States, residents of mobile homes and mobile home communities are faced with cultural stigmatization regarding their places of living. While common, the “trailer trash” stigma, an example of both housing and neighborhood/territorial stigma, has been understudied in contemporary research. Through a range of discursive strategies, many subgroups within this larger population manage to successfully distance themselves from the stigma and thereby render it inconsequential (Kusenbach, 2009). But what about those residents—typically white, poor, and occasionally lacking in stability—who do not have the necessary resources to accomplish this? This article examines three typical responses by low-income mobile home residents—here called resisting, downplaying, and perpetuating—leading to different outcomes regarding residents’ sense of community belonging. The article is based on the analysis of over 150 qualitative interviews with mobile home park residents conducted in West Central Florida between 2005 and 2010.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 276-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimiko Tanaka ◽  
Larry Davidson ◽  
Thomas J Craig

Background: While the neighborhood community literature well documents a link between participation in supportive and effective community groups or activities and empowerment, there is as yet little empirical evidence of this relationship in the context of community mental health programs. Aim: The primary purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between sense of community belonging and empowerment among members of mental health clubhouses. Methods: A secondary analysis using a hierarchical regression model was conducted on cross-sectional structured interview data collected through a self-report questionnaire from 102 clubhouse members from six clubhouses in the United States and Finland. Results: The results indicated that members’ sense of clubhouse community belonging positively contributes to their empowerment. Conclusion: Fostering sense of community belonging appears to be a valid approach to catalyze empowerment. Study limitations and future research agendas were discussed.


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