Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis study examines different approaches taken in the late Ottoman Empire to deal with the risks and dangers posed by railroads. Like its counterparts in Europe and the United States, the Ottoman state actively sought to protect individuals against railroad risks. For this purpose, it mandated the use of certain devices meant to facilitate the safe flow of railroad traffic and introduced measures that aimed to discipline railroaders and pedestrians into behaving appropriately. However, the state was not the only actor that struggled to address railroad risks. Railroad companies, primarily to advance their economic interests, incorporated technologies that considerably reduced the risk of collisions. Yet economic concerns also sometimes hampered investments in railroad safety. For instance, the manner in which trespassing cases were handled by accident investigation committees and courts allowed the companies to avoid their obligations with respect to fencing around railroad tracks. As a result, it was easy for pedestrians to use tracks near their homes and workplaces as pathways. Finally, the article also shows that in performing their duties, trainmen enjoyed considerable freedom from control by railroad managers. This freedom was further reinforced by the shortage of experienced and skilled labor in the Ottoman railroad industry.

This report reviews developments in Papua New Guinea (PNG) since independence, and looks at the issues relevant for saving and managing natural resources and resource induced volatility. These issues could serve as a useful basis for discussion of options the government of PNG could pursue as it emerges from the economic and financial crisis and looks forward to the start of operation of the PNG liquified natural gas (LNG) project. Although the wealth of international experience suggests several key areas for the attention of the authorities, many issues can be addressed only on the basis of detailed projections about future resource flows and investment outlays. Whether the rules will prove effective will also depend on other steps to enhance the fiscal framework. The World Bank can provide more detailed analysis, expertise and recommendations should such data become available.

Namibia is known to be the most arid country south of the Sahara. Average annual rainfall is not only relatively low in most parts of the country, it is also highly variable. Only 8 per cent of the country receives enough rain during a normal rainy season to practice rainfed cultivation. At the same time between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of the population depend on subsistence agro-pastoralism in non-freehold or communal areas. Against the background of rising unemployment, the livelihoods of the majority of these people are likely to depend on natural resources in the foreseeable future. Natural resources generally are under considerable strain. As the rural population increases, so is the demand for natural resources, land and water specifically. Dependency on subsistence farming which is the result of large scale rural poverty exacerbates the problem. Large parts of the country are stocked injudiciously, resulting in overgrazing and water is frequently overabstracted, leading to declining water tables (MET 2005: 2). Unequal access to both land and water has prompted government to introduce reforms in these sectors. These reforms were guided by the desire to manage resources more sustainably while providing more equal access to them. In terms of NDP 2, sustainability means to use natural resources in such a way so as not to 'compromise the ability of future generations to make use of these resources' (NDP 2: 595). Immediately after Independence government started reform processes in the land and water sectors. However, these reforms have happened at different paces and largely independent of each other. Increasingly policy makers and development practitioners realised that land and water management needed to be integrated, as decisions about land management and land use options had a direct impact on water resources. Conversely the availability of water sets the parameters for what is possible in terms of agricultural production and other land uses. The north-central regions face a particular challenge in this regard as the region carries more livestock than it can sustain in the long run. At the same time, close to half the households do not own any livestock. Access to livestock by these households would improve their abilities to cultivate their land more efficiently in order to feed themselves and thus reduce poverty levels. But livestock are a major consumer of water. In 2000 livestock was consuming more water than the domestic sector. The figures were 77Mm3/a and 67Mm3/a respectively (Urban et al. 2003 Annex 7: 2). This situation has prompted a Project Progress Report on the Namibia Water Resources Management Review in 2003 to conclude that Given the extreme water scarcity in most parts of the country, land and water issues are closely linked. It therefore seems indispensable to mutually adjust land – and water sector reform processes (Ibid: 20). This paper will briefly look at four institutions that are central to land and water management with a view to assess the extent to which they interact. These are Communal Land Boards, Water Point Committees, Traditional Authorities and Regional Councils. A discussion of relevant policy documents and legislative instruments will investigate whether the existing policy framework provides for an integrated approach or not. Before doing this, it appears sensible to briefly situate these four institutions in the wider maze of institutions operating at regional and sub-regional level. All these institutions – important as they are in the quest to improve participation at the regional and sub-regional level – are competing for time and input fros mallscale farmers.

The Mexican public sector has undergone significant transformations in recent decades. This article argues against the view that these changes are the result of New Public Management-style reforms. Even though the Mexican government has applied some of the tools associated with this paradigm, the essential NPM doctrines — granting more autonomy to public agencies and government officials, and using market mechanisms to promote competition in the public sector — have been absent from the agenda. The Mexican experience exposes two erroneous assumptions in the international debate about NPM: that there is a global trend of similar national reforms and that every change in the public sector is part of this new paradigm. Instead, the changes in the Mexican public sector are the result of incremental adjustments to two broader domestic processes: economic liberalization and political democratization — which have led to a smaller and relatively more accountable administration.Points for practitioners This article suggests that not all reforms are the result of New Public Management initiatives. It points towards alternative explanations for change in the Mexican public sector and identifies political democratization and economic liberalization as the main sources of change. This view challenges existing accounts of public sector change in developing countries and suggests a more complex process of reform. The main lesson for practitioners is that, when analysing reform experiences, they should look at the underlying causal processes rather than at the official rhetoric. Moreover, the article reminds practitioners that NPM is only one among several sources of doctrines for changing the public administration.

Auwalu Abdullahi,1–3 Azmi Hassan,1 Norizhar Kadarman,2 Ahmadu Saleh,4 Yusha'u Shu'aibu Baraya,5 Pei Lin Lua,61Institute for Community Development and Quality of Life (i-CODE), Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), Kampus Gong Badak, Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia; 2Faculty of Medicine, Department of Community Medicine, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), Kampus Kota, Jalan Sultan Mahmud, Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia; 3Department of Animal Health and Husbandry, Audu Bako College of Agriculture, Dambatta, Kano, Nigeria; 4School of Animal Science, Faculty of Bio-resources and Food Industry, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), Terengganu, Malaysia; 5Department of Chemical Pathology, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Malaysia; 6Community Health Research Cluster, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), Kampus Gong Badak, Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia Purpose: Foodborne diseases are common in the developing countries due to the predominant poor food handling and sanitation practices, particularly as a result of inadequate food safety laws, weak regulatory structures, and inadequate funding as well as a lack of appropriate education for food-handlers. The most frequently involved foods in disease outbreaks are of animal origin. However, in spite of the adequate legislation and laws governing the abattoir operation in Malaysia, compliance with food safety requirements during meat processing and waste disposal is inadequate. Therefore, the present study was designed to assess the food safety knowledge, attitude, and practice toward compliance with abattoir laws among the workers in Terengganu, Malaysia. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted using simple random sampling technique in the six districts of Terengganu: two districts were used for the pilot study and the remaining four were used for the main study. One hundred sixty-five abattoir workers from the selected districts were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Results: The mean and standard deviation of knowledge, attitude, and practice scores of the workers were 6.02 and 1.954, 45.16 and 4.496, and 18.03 and 3.186, respectively. The majority of the workers (38.8%) had a low level of knowledge and 91.7% had a positive attitude, while 77.7% had a good practice of compliance. Sex had a significant association with the level of knowledge (P<0.001) and practice (P=0.044) among the workers. The females had a higher level of knowledge than the males, while the males had a better practice of compliance than females. Similarly, knowledge also had a significant (P=0.009) association with the level of practice toward compliance with abattoir laws among the workers. Conclusion: The abattoir workers had a positive attitude and good practice, but a low level of knowledge toward compliance with the abattoir laws. Therefore, public awareness, workshops, and seminars relevant to the abattoir operations should be encouraged.Keywords: abattoir legislations, abattoir staff, KAP, compliance, Terengganu

Researching Children and Youth: Methodological Issues, Strategies, and Innovations, part of the Sociological Studies of Children and Youth series, seeks to fill a void in current publications directly addressing the problems and pitfalls that often accompany researching children and youth in today's society. Sociologists face increasingly limited access to children and youth given their "vulnerable" status, growing requirements from Institutional Review Boards, and more restricted access from organizations and educational institutions. As a result, researchers must be creative in the pursuit of researching kids and teens. Chapters in this volume address such topics as participatory and feminist ethnographic approaches, digital mining, children's agency, and navigating IRBs. The importance of contextualizing sociological research with children with special consideration of space, location, and identity thematically runs throughout all of the contributions to this volume.