Association | Jotup

The Voice to Parliament explained

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Now we finally have a date for the Voice to Parliament referendum, it’s a good time to return to the terrific work our academic experts have done to explain the Voice to Parliament – as well as debunking some of the misinformation and disinformation we’ve seen so far.

Key Points:

Now we finally have a date for the Voice to Parliament referendum, it’s a good time to return to the terrific work our academic experts have done to explain the Voice to Parliament – as well as debunking some of the misinformation and disinformation we’ve seen so far.
Many of the questions we have addressed came from readers who took part in our Voice reader survey last year.
The Australian constitution and the 220-plus page report of the co-design proposed Voice are not very accessible for those of us who don’t speak fluent policy.

Helpful general information:

Pre-eminent constitutional scholar Anne Twomey reminds us of the referendum basics – what will it say on the ballot paper?
But what may have been forgotten is how we got here in the first place – and why it matters.
And is there a risk that proposals that are too detailed, or too vague, can end up being rejected by voters?
This article explores how factors such as race, religion, and experience with racial interactions may inform how these demographics could vote.

Constitutional and legal explainers

A constitutional law expert explains Legislation is an unsatisfactory way to institute a Voice to Parliament because, among other reasons, it would make the body insecure and vulnerable to the whims of different governments.
With 11 Indigenous politicians in parliament, why does Australia need the Voice?
Why is it legal to tell lies during the Voice referendum campaign?
Solicitor-general confirms Voice model is legally sound, will not ‘fetter or impede’ parliament Australia’s solicitor-general Stephen Donaghue provided the federal government with legal advice on the Voice to Parliament.

First Nations perspectives

Kelly Menzel explores the cultural and historical complexities behind many First Nations peoples’ apprehension or uncertainty around the proposed Voice.
Failure to incorporate Indigenous perspectives has contributed to decades of misinformed, ineffective policy such as the Northern Territory Intervention.
Why a First Nations Voice should come before Treaty A leading argument against the Voice to Parliament is that Treaty should come first.
Non-Indigenous Australians must listen to the difficult historical truths told by First Nations people In the Uluru Statement, alongside “Treaty” and “Voice”, there is also a call for “Truth”.

Voice, Treaty, Truth explainers

Since the Uluru statement was declared in 2017 we have heard calls from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders for “Voice, Treaty and Truth”.
Our experts explained each stage of this process.
The Voice: what is it, where did it come from, and what can it achieve?

How did we get here?

TVO strike highlights the scourge of contract work in public service journalism

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Workers at TVO are on strike for the first time in the public broadcaster’s 53-year history.

Key Points:

Workers at TVO are on strike for the first time in the public broadcaster’s 53-year history.
I spoke to a producer who has worked at TVO’s flagship current affairs show, The Agenda, for 22 years and earns $74,000.

Wages shrinking

In a video posted to social media, digital journalist Daniel Kitts, who has worked at TVO for 25 years, says: “For the past 10 years we have tried to… support this organization by seeing our wages shrink basically every year thanks to inflation.
TVO workers say these contracts prevent them from doing the kind of rigorous, civic journalism and current affairs programming that serves communities in Ontario.

The risks of precarious work

People in precarious employment earn low incomes, face intermittent and insecure work, lack access to benefits and training and endure stress, social isolation and poor mental health.
Such pressures on individual lives shapes people’s participation in community life, and precarity becomes a burden borne by society at large.
Striking TVO workers are drawing attention to journalism’s precarity penalty: the consequences for robust journalism when the work of producing journalism is made precarious.

TVO’s contract workers

As money comes in for specific projects, workers are hired on contract.
TVO wants the union to give up language that enables workers on contract for two years to become full-time employees, eligible for benefits and other protections.
As profits decline and labour forces contract, fewer journalists are in secure positions and increasing numbers of workers are on contract or freelance.

The impact on diverse communities

Journalists, researchers and advocates have long been calling for increased racial and gender diversity in journalism, demanding that newsrooms represent the communities they report on.
Public, non-profit outlets like TVO can and should become model employers, committed to producing journalism in the public interest and providing workers, particularly those from diverse communities, with the sustainable jobs necessary to do so.
In this context, TVO workers’ strike for material security to do work in the public interest matters more than ever.

Nigerians with HIV are stigmatised: study shows support from family and friends is crucial to well-being

Retrieved on:

Monday, August 28, 2023

But people living with HIV in resource-constrained settings, like Nigeria, still face psychological challenges and poor health outcomes that are attributed to HIV-related stigma.

Key Points:

But people living with HIV in resource-constrained settings, like Nigeria, still face psychological challenges and poor health outcomes that are attributed to HIV-related stigma.
Less is known about how much support people living with HIV get from family and significant others like close colleagues or religious leaders.
Our study aimed to assess the prevalence of and factors associated with support from family, friends and significant others.
We also assessed whether increased support would reduce stigma among people living with HIV, particularly perceived or internalised stigma.

Social support

For example, a friend of someone living with HIV could provide support by making sure that they took their HIV medications regularly.
The scores for three types of social support (family, friends and significant others) were combined to indicate overall social support.
This allowed us to investigate the association between experience of stigma, social support and HIV treatment adherence.

Friends reduce stigma

We found that when people living with HIV received support from close friends, they were less likely to experience stigma.
Generally, our study showed that people living with HIV in Nigeria who enjoyed support from family or friends were less likely to be affected by HIV-related stigma and associated poor health outcomes.
Our key message is that people living with HIV need social support from families, friends or significant others to improve their quality of life and reduce HIV-related stigma (especially internalised stigma).

Stigma and health outcomes

We hope to gather empirical data on the impact of HIV-related stigma on mental health outcomes (for example, depression and anxiety) and viral suppression among people living with HIV.
Our long-term goal is to collaborate with a sample of people living with HIV in Nigeria to develop, implement and evaluate culturally acceptable stigma reduction interventions to improve HIV treatment uptake and overall health outcomes.

Brics expansion: six more nations are set to join – what they’re buying into

Retrieved on:

Friday, August 25, 2023

The enlargement will grow the association’s membership to 11, and increase its envisaged role as a geopolitical alternative to global institutions dominated by the west.

Key Points:

The enlargement will grow the association’s membership to 11, and increase its envisaged role as a geopolitical alternative to global institutions dominated by the west.
The Brics five represent about 42% of the world’s population and more than 23% of world GDP.
The disparate nature of the six new members is bound to spark debate about the real nature of Brics.
In his welcoming remarks at the summit (22-24 August), the host, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, stated:
Brics stands for solidarity and for progress.

Understanding the nature of Brics

Brics is not an organisation (it has no headquarters, secretariat or treaty).
But it does have a formal institution that is jointly owned – the New Development Bank.
Read more:
South Africa's role as host of the BRICS summit is fraught with dangers.
As a political scientist interested in global politics, I have written about Brics and its potential for changing the status quo.
With hindsight, I can assert that certain principles have informed it since its establishment and first summit in 2009.

The association self-reportedly seeks secure sustainable development for itself and the global south, to safeguard and advance multilateralism, to institute reform for the goal of representative institutions, and to achieve solidarity among members.

Economic development

Economics comes first in the group; at its root, it is a collective of emerging economies eager to sustain and improve their economic trajectory.
Read more:
China’s Africa strategy is shifting from extraction to investment – driven from the industry-rich Hunan region
The group’s first, and so far only, notable establishment is the New Development Bank, primarily to finance infrastructure development.

Multilateralism

The second value refers to the group’s concern about the use of entities outside the UN to pursue global objectives.
The use of force can only be considered legitimate if the decision is sanctioned by the UN.

Global governance reform

Thirdly, the Brics countries have long pushed for leaders of global institutions to be elected in a transparent and democratic way.
For example, the president of the World Bank has always been an American, and the managing director of the IMF a European.

Solidarity

Finally, the members have articulated solidarity with one another in a number of declarations, beginning in 2010.
Read more:
When two elephants fight: how the global south uses non-alignment to avoid great power rivalries
In light of criticism and sanctions plans against China, for its alleged suppression of the Uyghur-Muslim population, and Russia, for invading Ukraine, solidarity has come to mean silence or nonalignment.

A blank slate

This has proved beneficial for member countries hosting Brics summits.
They get to set the agenda and use it for their ends – without upsetting the consensus.
Brazil and Russia have inserted issues that are important to their region, and often invited leaders of neighbouring countries to retreats.

Brics expansion: six more nations are set to join - what they’re buying into

Retrieved on:

Thursday, August 24, 2023

The enlargement will grow the association’s membership to 11, and increase its envisaged role as a geopolitical alternative to global institutions dominated by the west.

Key Points:

The enlargement will grow the association’s membership to 11, and increase its envisaged role as a geopolitical alternative to global institutions dominated by the west.
The Brics five represent about 42% of the world’s population and more than 23% of world GDP.
Using the IMF’s 2022 GDP data, we can deduce that it will account for about 30% of global GDP.
The disparate nature of the six new members is bound to spark debate about the real nature of Brics.

Understanding the nature of Brics

Brics is not an organisation (it has no headquarters, secretariat or treaty).
But it does have a formal institution that is jointly owned – the New Development Bank.
Read more:
South Africa's role as host of the BRICS summit is fraught with dangers.
As a political scientist interested in global politics, I have written about Brics and its potential for changing the status quo.
With hindsight, I can assert that certain principles have informed it since its establishment and first summit in 2009.

Economic development

Economics comes first in the group; at its root, it is a collective of emerging economies eager to sustain and improve their economic trajectory.
Read more:
China’s Africa strategy is shifting from extraction to investment – driven from the industry-rich Hunan region
The group’s first, and so far only, notable establishment is the New Development Bank, primarily to finance infrastructure development.

Multilateralism

The second value refers to the group’s concern about the use of entities outside the UN to pursue global objectives.
The use of force can only be considered legitimate if the decision is sanctioned by the UN.

Global governance reform

Thirdly, the Brics countries have long pushed for leaders of global institutions to be elected in a transparent and democratic way.
For example, the president of the World Bank has always been an American, and the managing director of the IMF a European.

Solidarity

Finally, the members have articulated solidarity with one another in a number of declarations, beginning in 2010.
Read more:
When two elephants fight: how the global south uses non-alignment to avoid great power rivalries
In light of criticism and sanctions plans against China, for its alleged suppression of the Uyghur-Muslim population, and Russia, for invading Ukraine, solidarity has come to mean silence or nonalignment.

A blank slate

This has proved beneficial for member countries hosting Brics summits.
They get to set the agenda and use it for their ends – without upsetting the consensus.
Brazil and Russia have inserted issues that are important to their region, and often invited leaders of neighbouring countries to retreats.

Internet Archive's digital library has been found in breach of copyright. The decision has some important implications

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

The Internet Archive was founded in 1996 as a non-profit digital library, aiming to provide “universal access to all knowledge”.

Key Points:

The Internet Archive was founded in 1996 as a non-profit digital library, aiming to provide “universal access to all knowledge”.
It started with a project to preserve the World Wide Web.
Since 2006, it has also provided a web archiving subscription service to institutions and individuals, allowing them to create digital archives and preserve collections of digital content.

Copyright issues

The lending of books that are out of copyright is not controversial, but Internet Archive’s distribution of copyrighted works is problematic.
Only one person can borrow any given copy at a time for a limited period.
Facilitating access to books in this manner without permission from, or payment to, publishers or authors has been condemned as a “flagrant violation of copyright and authors’ rights”.

Legal implications

The Southern District of New York court issued its final order in Hachette v. Internet Archive on March 24, 2023.
The consent judgement of August 11 has banned the Open Library from scanning or distributing commercially available books in digital formats.
This decision leaves a concerning gap: it does not apply to physical books that are not currently available digitally.
For example, authors of out-of-print works may choose to later publish their work in an ebook format and monetise that edition.

Consequences

Other libraries in Canada and the US have adopted the practice as an alternative to far more expensive and restrictive ebook licensing.
Though the Internet Archive is based in the US, its activities have an effect on the earnings of authors in Australia.
In contrast to Canada and the US, controlled digital lending is, in general, not allowed in Australia.
If we want authors to survive, we’ve got to stop assuming that authors’ intellectual labour is a public commodity.

Can I take my child out of school to go on a holiday?

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

As the school term stretches on, many parents might be tempted to take their children out of school. Perhaps they want to beat the crowds at the snow or enjoy off-season prices at the coast. Maybe they just need a break. As parents, we have certainly experienced this dilemma. But what are the rules around taking your child out of school in term time? And is it a good idea? You do need to send your child to schoolBut by law you are required to send your child to school every day.

Key Points:

As the school term stretches on, many parents might be tempted to take their children out of school. Perhaps they want to beat the crowds at the snow or enjoy off-season prices at the coast. Maybe they just need a break. As parents, we have certainly experienced this dilemma. But what are the rules around taking your child out of school in term time? And is it a good idea?

You do need to send your child to school

But by law you are required to send your child to school every day.
all students who are enrolled at school, regardless of their age, are expected to attend that school whenever instruction is provided.
The act also says parents are responsible for ensuring their children attend school and must explain absences within seven days.
It’s an offence not to send your child to school and parents can be prosecuted.

Why a trip can be a good idea

Education psychologists Jerome Bruner and Jean Piaget developed “discovery learning”, believing it is best for learners to discover facts and relationships for themselves.
School excursions are an example of experiential learning, and depending on what trip you’re planning, you might be able to provide your child with invaluable experiences.
They know how to ask the right questions, guide, support, and make connections between real-world and theoretical learning.

Potential negatives

It’s also important to be aware of potential negatives when planning to take your child out of school in term time.
There is a wide body of research on the relationship between school attendance and academic achievement, with some studies suggesting school attendance is the best predictor of academic achievement.
In some instances, taking your child out of school could exacerbate any school refusal tendencies when they return to school.

But is a cheeky long weekend OK?

There is no clear answer around taking your child out of school during term time.
It will of course depend on what you are planning to do and for how long.
If children are missing school frequently or for long periods, there is likely to be an impact on your child’s learning.

Most US nursing homes are understaffed, potentially compromising health care for more than a million elderly residents

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

Jasmine Travers: There are 15,000 nursing homes with approximately 1.2 million residents.

Key Points:

Jasmine Travers: There are 15,000 nursing homes with approximately 1.2 million residents.
Only 25% of nursing homes were found to be meeting those total nursing hours in 2019.
How does nursing home staffing affect the quality of care and health outcomes for residents?
When nursing homes are understaffed, that means there might not be a sufficient number of certified nursing assistants to, for example, answer call bells.

'Dirty red': how periods have been stigmatised through history to the modern day

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

The answer, I believe, lies in the pervasive culture of shame that has long surrounded menstruation, stifling open dialogue around the subject.

Key Points:

The answer, I believe, lies in the pervasive culture of shame that has long surrounded menstruation, stifling open dialogue around the subject.
So, I embarked on a research project with a team of colleagues at the University of Leeds into the history of menstrual stigma.
What we’ve discovered so far are examples of stigma and shame surrounding periods from many thousands of years ago through to the modern day.

Not a new problem

This passage asserts that women (along with anything they lie or sit on) become “unclean” during menstruation.
If a non-menstruating person touches either the menstrual blood, or anything the woman has touched, they too will become unclean.
He writes that crops “will wither and die”, and bees “will forsake their hives if touched by a menstruous woman”.

From history to today

Some 70 years later, in 2020, Tampax was criticised for advertising tampons that “open silently for full discretion”.
Read more:
Solving period poverty is about more than just making products free
Another example of the stigmatisation of menstruation can be seen in the long history of euphemisms.
A similar study from 1975 discussed 128 menstrual euphemisms, many of which are still used today (such as “Aunt Flo” and “on the rag”).

The harms of stigma

This long history of menstrual stigma continues to inform contemporary culture, having a negative effect on people who menstruate today.
In 2021, a group of researchers concluded that feelings of stigma and shame perpetuate the expectation that people should hide their menstruation.

What can we do?

But there are numerous small actions each of us can take, which collectively can make a significant difference.
First of all, we can all (irrespective of age, gender or sexuality) embrace open conversations about menstruation.
We need to tackle period poverty, ensure access to clean water and private toilets, and encourage employers to develop positive menstrual policies.

Lionesses can return home with pride – but here’s what the FA needs to do to win with the stars of the future

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

England reached the 2023 Women’s World Cup final but couldn’t overcome a Spanish side who were tactically intelligent and dominant in possession, losing 0-1.

Key Points:

England reached the 2023 Women’s World Cup final but couldn’t overcome a Spanish side who were tactically intelligent and dominant in possession, losing 0-1.
But vocal support for the Lionesses was unwavering as the minutes counted down and devastation looked increasingly likely.
Fans roared when goalkeeper Mary Earps saved a potentially game-killing second-half penalty and held their breath when star performer Alex Greenwood received medical attention.

Winning with kids?

Their average age of just under 26 years makes them the youngest England squad to reach a major tournament since 2009.
On the face of this, it seems that both countries have a bright future as these players develop in experience.
But the best national teams in the world are consistently successful at youth as well as senior levels.
The second step is ensuring the structures that girls play in best supports a senior career in professional women’s football.

Investing in youth

The long-term strategy of the Premier League’s elite player performance plan (EPPP) has improved the quality and consistency across audited men’s academies over the past ten years to become a world-class youth development system.
The revamped pathway offers some youth level consistency at the very top.
But as well as improving the professional game, more attention must be paid to the youth system.
Unless there is an overhaul of the youth development system in the women’s game, stories of adversity in our Lionesses will continue – and our ability to consistently produce international tournament-winning squads at youth and senior levels will by no means be a given.