Neverland or Tomorrowland? Addressing (In)compatibility among the SDG Pillars in Europe

The 2015–2030 agenda framed Sustainable Development as a Universal venture. This decision has a great historic significance as it encompasses building a better future for the whole of humanity, enrolling the millions who have been denied the chance to live a decent, dignified and fulfilling life and to achieve their potential. For the first time, an entire generation will have the chance to succeed in ending poverty while being the last to have a chance of saving the planet. The world will be a better place in 2030 if humanity succeeds in this journey. However, there is hovering skepticism around the feasibility of this accomplishment. The article aims to empirically test the (in)compatibilities among these objectives even for developed economies such as the European Union countries, demonstrating that unless solid bridges are built promoting innovative networks at a transnational level, welfare and prosperity among those ecosystems will be compromised. The results show that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) pillars have heterogeneous determinants, which are to some extent incompatible. Moreover, policy makers need to further reinforce multi-country compensations if the environment is to be preserved.

Speculations from 1850: being some thoughts on Rangiātea and the House of Tāmihana Te Rauparaha

In March, 1852, the Wellington Independent reported its satisfaction at the sight of a drawing of the interior of Otaki Church, by Mr. C. D. Barraud. It declared the drawing a faithful representation of the church and its congregation that had been executed with "that taste and excellence we are led to expect from the pencil of so able an artist" ('[Untitled]" p 3). It concluded that the print would soon to be published - "in colours" – as it would make a beautiful, interesting and "novel" picture. This claim was added to a few days later in the New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian. Without irony they described the theologically themed depiction as being "spirited" as well as graphic. They go on to claim the "Native Church at Otaki" as one of the "lions" of the "settlement". Yet, for all that initial eagerness, Rangiātea would not go on to become a popular destination, and it has remained largely a picture of architecture. Indeed, even scholarly interest in it as an object of architecture does not appear in depth until the doctoral research of Sarah Treadwell, in the 1990s, who located the architectural significance of Rangiātea in a dialogue with the spatial and cultural patterns of the traditional Māori meeting house. In 2008 Treadwell reflected upon her PhD work with the admission that, in hindsight, her argument suffered the same kind of representational stability we can find in Barraud's rendition. The significance of Rangiātea as the singularly outstanding example of Māori building of the 1850s is uncontested, but Treadwell suggests that what we know and mean by historic "significance" – in his case history's preference for clear lines of origin and influence – are not to be depended upon as a stable discourse. I take that as an invitation to speculate on aspects of Rangiātea's influence and significance with a particular focus on a near neighbour in Ōtaki, the house of Tāmihana Te Rauparaha.

Commemoration as reconciliation: Indigenous history and Canada’s heritage designation system

In September 2020, the Canadian federal government designated the residential school system as an event of national historic significance and two former residential school buildings as national historic sites. They joined over 2,150 other places, people, and events that have been certified as part of Canada’s official historical narrative – the majority of which celebrate the nation’s imperialist history and silence Indigenous peoples. However, public representations of historic injustices that honour victims have the power to disrupt laudatory versions of the past and foster reconciliation. This paper will examine the history of Canada’s commemorative efforts and its effect on the nation’s collective memory, before exploring how the heritage designation framework can be decolonized in a way that respects the needs and desires of Indigenous peoples.

The Trans-Asian Pathways of ‘Oriental Products’: Navigating the prohibition of narcotics between Turkey, China, and Japan, 1918–1938

Patterns of opium production and distribution shifted immensely over the course of the twentieth century, with output falling by three-quarters, almost nine-tenths of which now takes place in Afghanistan. Supporters of drug prohibition trumpet the success of this long-term decline and hail the withdrawal of the four largest opium producers—India, China, Iran, and the Ottoman empire—from the non-medical market, but this seemingly linear trend conceals numerous deviations of historic significance. Among the most notable and little known is Turkey's prolonged resistance to international restrictions on the narcotics trade and the efforts of state and non-state networks to substitute Turkish opium for the diminishing supply of once-dominant Indian exports to a still opium-hungry China in the first half of the twentieth century. This article uses neglected League of Nations and Turkish government sources alongside international newspapers and diplomatic reports to demonstrate the extent of connections forged by state and non-state actors between Turkey and East Asia, expanding on recent research on trans-Asian connections in commerce and political thought.

Status of Rice Brown Spot (Helminthosporium oryza) Management in India: A Review

Rice is one of the most widely consumed staple food for more than half of the population in the world. Brown spot caused by Helminthosporium oryzae accounts for 5% yield loss worldwide annually. Adversely affected fields show yield loss as high as 45%. The present study focuses on the several management aspects that are currently used to curb out the disease incidence and measures to be taken in near future for designing effective disease management protocol. The disease is of historic significance and a devasting outbroke in the Bengal Province during 1943 ended as the Great Bengal Famine resulting in starvation and an estimated demise of 2.1 to 3 million people. Brown spot is still devastating on looking the present scenario of damage to rice. Different approaches have been adopted ranging from the use of brown spot resistant rice cultivars, chemical ameliorations and biological control measures for the management of the disease. But, still the disease seems to be chronic and adverse in the current scenario. In this review, we have highlighted epidemiology, control measures practiced and several quantitative and qualitative gaps with respect to disease management, which if rectified, would lead to a strong impact on crop disease control and the sustainable Rice production that are pertinent to the present situation of farmers.

Place-Making of Transit Towns in Qatar: The Case of Qatar National Museum-Souq Waqif Corridor

Over the last two decades, Doha, the capital city of Qatar, has undergone rapid urbanization. The city has capitalized large-scale urban and infrastructural projects resulting in a loss of historical areas of heritage value to people. Recent construction of the Doha Metro is opening avenues for place-making of transit towns through a framework envisioned by the need to shape compact, livable and sustainable neighborhoods and to mitigate the effects of urbanization on valuable historical heritage sites. Due to its historic significance, the Qatar National Museum (QNM)-Souq Waqif corridor is the case study selected for exploring and defining a framework for a contextualized place-making transit-oriented development (TOD) model. The research design is structured by reviewing the literature about TODs and the need for place-making model in Qatar, followed by collecting visual data from municipal authorities, through site visits, and site observations. The data are then analyzed to propose a novel masterplan, rooted in key urban design components of place-making. The insights will contribute to proposals for context-driven design strategies to enhance livability of the site and to extend its application to other potential transit hubs in metropolitan Doha and in the Middle East.

Collaborative Leadership in School Library Learning Commons

We have a brand new school library standards document in Canada to assist schools with transitioning to futures oriented teaching and learning. Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada was officially released to the world in June 2014 and is now finding its way into strategic planning around the country. The publication of Leading Learning is an event of true historic significance. As the document says, “Learners have a right to expect good school libraries in every school in Canada.” Standards can indeed help measure practice, but Leading Learning does much more. By focusing on the needs of the learner, Leading Learning provides a framework for growth. Every school, no matter the status of its library program, can find itself in this framework and decide on tangible steps for improvement. The development of Leading Learning brought together input from every province and territory in the country, and successfully developed standards for growth that are meaningful within this very disparate context. This is a remarkable achievement.

Carole King's Tapestry

Carole King’s Tapestry is both an anthemic embodiment of second-wave feminism and an apotheosis of the Laurel Canyon singer-songwriter sound and scene. And these two elements of the album’s historic significance are closely related insofar as the professional autonomy of the singer-songwriter is an expression of the freedom and independence women of King’s generation sought as the turbulent sixties came to a close. Aligning King’s own development from girl to woman with the larger shift in the music industry from teen-oriented singles by girl groups to albums by adult-oriented singer-songwriters, this volume situates Tapestry both within King’s original vision as the third in a trilogy (preceded by Now That Everything’s Been Said and Writer) and as a watershed in musical and cultural history, challenging the male dominance of the music and entertainment industries and laying the groundwork for female dominated genres such as women’s music and Riot Grrrl punk.