Suchergebnisse

Cultural understanding between countries is a vital element of good international relationships. Using the arts to build cultural understanding has many advantages and is referred to as "cultural diplomacy". The arts can signify the visual arts, performing arts and the culinary arts. Cross-cultural education is also included within the definition of cultural diplomacy and can refer to international student / academic exchange, academic collaboration between institutions as well as the academic study of a country's history, politics, arts and language. Latin American is an increasingly important region for Australia and the development of cultural understanding between our regions has become a priority of several Australian Government institutions. These agencies foster cooperation between Australia and Latin America in many ways, including business and trade, tourism, education and cultural promotion such as cultural diplomatic events. Examples of cultural diplomatic events within Australia can be recognised in the work of the Ecuadorian Embassy in Canberra. The Embassy is currently operating several cultural initiatives including visual art exhibitions, film festivals and musical performances. Australia and Ecuador are very different countries in a number of ways. Even our national languages are different, making collaboration difficult. The Embassy's cultural initiatives attempt to bridge the cultural gaps between our countries, "finding the right words" without the restriction of language, building people to people links and also pointing to cultural similarities that are not immediately apparent. The cultural information conveyed through these art events offer a fluid and dynamic way for Australian audiences to gain an exposure to and develop an appreciation of Ecuador, strengthening Australian and Ecuadorian relations. This report will conclude with proposals for new cultural exchange projects that the Embassy might be interested in implementing or, using these programs as templates, introduce similar programs. The goal of these proposals is not only to foster connections and build cultural understanding between Ecuador and Australia, these proposals may also increase awareness of environmental sustainability as well as providing students and artists with a fantastic opportunity to develop their art practice in a new, challenging and ultimately rewarding context. Cultural knowledge built through cultural diplomacy will be an important part of our globalised future and as such is readjusting the value of the arts in societies. As the global village shrinks through advances in telecommunications and the Internet, understanding, respect and appreciation are becoming more important than ever, building opportunities for cooperation across many fields beyond the arts and education.

Heat kills more Australians than any other natural disaster. Previous Australian research has identified increases in Emergency Department presentations in capital cities; however, little research has examined the effects of heat in rural/regional locations. This retrospective cohort study aimed to determine if Emergency Department (ED) presentations across the south-west region of Victoria, Australia, increased on high-heat days (1 February 2017 to 31 January 2020) using the Rural Acute Hospital Data Register (RAHDaR). The study also explored differences in presentations between farming towns and non-farming towns. High-heat days were defined as days over the 95th temperature percentile. International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) codes associated with heat-related illness were identified from previous studies. As the region has a large agricultural sector, a framework was developed to identify towns estimated to have 70% or more of the population involved in farming. Overall, there were 61,631 presentations from individuals residing in the nine Local Government Areas. Of these presentations, 3064 (5.0%) were on days of high-heat, and 58,567 (95.0%) were of days of non-high-heat. Unlike previous metropolitan studies, ED presentations in rural south-west Victoria decrease on high-heat days. This decrease was more prominent in the farming cohort; a potential explanation for this may be behavioural adaption.