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CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- FOREWORD -- NAMIBIA'S FISHERIES: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW -- 1 A DIRECT ESTIMATE OF THE NAMIBIAN UPWELLING FLUX -- 2 THE EFFECTS OF INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL CONTROL ON THE NORTHERN BENGUELA ECOSYSTEM -- 3 BIODIVERSITY OF THE NAMIBIAN EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE: A BRIEF REVIEW WITH EMPHASIS ON ONLINE DATABASES -- 4 ON NAMIBIA'S MARINE FISH DIVERSITY -- 5 RECONSTRUCTION AND INTERPRETATION OF MARINE FISHERIES CATCHES FROM NAMIBIAN WATERS, 1950 TO 2000 -- 6 MANAGEMENT REGULATIONS OF MANIBIAN ANGLING FISH SPECIES

BACKGROUND/AIMS—Landmines have long been used in conventional warfare. These are antipersonnel mines which continue to injure people long after a ceasefire without differentiating between friend or foe, soldier or civilian, women or children. This study focuses on Afghan non-combatants engaged in mine clearing operations in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the Russo-Afghan war. The patterns and types of injuries seen are described and experiences in their management, ways, and means to prevent them, and recommendations for the rehabilitation of the affected individuals are given. METHODS—It is a retrospective and analytical study of 84 patients aged 19-56 years who sustained mine blast injuries during mine clearing operations in Afghanistan from November 1992 to January 1996. The study was carried out at a military hospital with tertiary care facilities. The patients were divided into three groups on the basis of their injuries. Group 1 required only general surgical attention, group 2 sustained only ocular injuries, while group 3 had combined ocular and general injuries. Patients in groups 2 and 3 were treated in two phases. The first phase aimed at immediate restoration of the anatomy, while restoration of function wherever possible was done in subsequent surgical procedures in the second phase. RESULTS—It was observed that 51 out of 84 patients (60.7%) had sustained ocular trauma of a variable degree as a result of the blasts. The mean age of the victims was 29 years and they were all male. A total of 91 eyes of 51 patients (89.2%) had been damaged. Bilaterality of damage was seen in 40 (78.4%) patients. Most, 34 (37.3%), eyes became totally blind (NPL). Only a few escaped with injury mild enough not to impair vision. Foreign bodies, small and multiple, were found in the majority of eyes; most, however, were found in the anterior segment, and posterior segment injuries were proportionally less. CONCLUSIONS—The prevalence of blindness caused by mine blast injuries is quite high. The resulting psychosocial ...

Beginning in the mid-1960s, Mexico encouraged the development of industrial assembly plants known as maquiladoras along its northern border and in selected areas of the interior. Although it began as a stopgap measure to employ men returning from the U.S. bracero worker program, the Border Industrialization Program soon became Mexico's principal development initiative for the border region. Since then, numerous scholars have evaluated the success of the plants by examining their impacts on the economy, the environment, and labor. This study adds to this research literature by assessing the impact of the maquiladora program from the perspective of the assembly line workers. It describes and analyzes the activities of a grassroots, participatory development effort to organize maquiladora workers for more than 20 years. Participatory approaches to development are defined and described in terms of the problems and challenges that animate this field of research. The findings demonstrate how participatory efforts at organizing constitute one of the few avenues available to workers to resist factory exploitation and improve their general well-being. The study confirms some of the shortcomings of participatory development theory, such as its conceptual ambiguity, significant time commitment, and general cumbersomeness, but it provides justifications for its continuance.

This report is on Amtrak: The Political and Social Aspects of Federal Intercity Passenger Rail Policy.