Ostracism

• According to this narrative, Putin has sturdily held back waves of foreign and domestic adversaries, and simultaneously restored Russia to greatness.
• Russia has become a nation under the thrall of Putin’s singular idea, instead of a healthy contest between competing ones.
• He has progressively sickened Russian society, creating a toxic culture that celebrates xenophobia, nativism and violence.

Putin’s ascent

• Putin’s political ascent began once he took over as head of the Russian Security Council in March 1999, long seen as a likely pathway to executive leadership.
• He then assumed Russia’s prime ministership, and, soon after, its presidency as an increasingly infirm Boris Yeltsin sought to anoint a successor.
• A struggle for order and stability has been a consistent leitmotif in how Putin has portrayed himself.
• He amended Russia’s tax code, replacing an arcane system of loopholes and tax breaks with flat rates to boost compliance.

Putin’s economic miracle?

• Inflation fell and the economy grew by around 7% a year, although real wages declined.
• While the economy suffered a recession as a result of the global financial crisis in 2008, growth was swiftly restored.
• Annual household income rose to an estimated US$10,000 per capita in 2013, but by 2022 had contracted to only $7,900.
• Wealth is unevenly distributed, concentrated in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and in Russia’s regions it’s highly centred on local elites.

Kleptocrats, meet autocrats

• Despite fanfare about clearing out the oligarchs, Russia has scored consistently poorly on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.
• By comparison, after Putin had finished his first term as president in 2004, Russia placed 90th.
• Putin’s rule is also the story of Russia’s slide from a “managed” democracy to an autocratic regime.

Putin’s legacy: ostracism and fragility

• With respect to perceived external adversaries – NATO members and the broader West – Putin sees regime security as being synonymous with national security.
• By invading Ukraine, Putin has actually succeeded in enlarging NATO further, with Finland and Sweden joining the alliance.
• He has prompted Germany and other overdependent European states to wean themselves off Russian oil and gas.
• And he’s ensured Russia will remain a Western pariah for the foreseeable future, while bequeathing Russia’s next generation the lasting hatred of Ukrainians.

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• As snow falls against a grey sky in Manchester, Terry Roberts (Warren Brown) works to repair buildings damaged during the second world war.
• Set in 1956, Ten Pound Poms, a co-production between the BBC and Stan, tells the story of British migrants as they struggle to build new lives in a distant and unknown land.

Australia’s post-war migration program

• The “Ten Pound Pom” scheme was launched in 1945 and continued into the early 1970s.
• Australia’s post-war migration program was driven by the imperative to “populate or perish”.
• Australia was still a British country and a proud member of the British Empire, with a preference for British migrants.

A new life?

• But once they arrive in Australia, their dream of a new life is dealt a blow.
• As assisted migrants, they are sent straight to a migrant hostel camp, where they will live while earning enough to pay their own way.
• Most assisted migrants who arrived by ship ended up in these camps, where they could stay while they looked for work and resettled.
• Instead they make only brief appearances, and even then, often as caricatures, such as the lazy and overly-emotional Italian, Maria (Sarah Furnari).

An imperial past

• But Ten Pound Poms gives us an idealised portrayal of the migrants’ relationship with Ron and the other Aboriginal characters.
• Series writer, English screenwriter and playwright Danny Brocklehurst, rightly points out these migrant stories are an important aspect of Australia’s past that have received little attention.
• But equally important is that this remembering takes account of both Britain and Australia’s imperial past.

• Provision of psychosocial care, or child life services as known in many countries, is an integral part of the Operation Smile approach to serving patients and their families.
• Psychosocial care is provided by credentialed professionals including certified child life specialists, psychologists or health care play specialists.
• As co-chairs of the psychosocial care specialty council, Priti and Donna are working together and with other volunteers to strive continuously to promote the training for competent psychosocial care providers to serve in Operation Smile's short surgical programs and at comprehensive care centers year-round.
• To learn more about the comprehensive care Operation Smile provides, click HERE
  Operation Smile is a global nonprofit specializing in expert cleft surgery and care.