People | Jotup

Domicide: a view from Homs in Syria on what the deliberate destruction of homes does to those displaced by conflict – podcast

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Thursday, October 26, 2023

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Today, 12 years on, much of the city remains scarred and deserted after years of siege and heavy bombardment.

Key Points:

Today, 12 years on, much of the city remains scarred and deserted after years of siege and heavy bombardment.
In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we speak to an architecture researcher from Homs about what the deliberate destruction of homes and neighbourhoods, known as domicide, does to people displaced by conflict.
It was called the city of the poor because people from all backgrounds and social income felt that they could belong.
It’s deliberate targeting of people’s homes, killing of civilian people, killing of their everyday life and mass destruction of neighbourhoods,” he says.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative turns 10: Xi announces 8 new priorities, continues push for global influence

Retrieved on:

Thursday, October 26, 2023

President Xi Jinping launched it in 2013 with a first speech in Kazakhstan and a second one in Indonesia.

Key Points:

President Xi Jinping launched it in 2013 with a first speech in Kazakhstan and a second one in Indonesia.
The Kazakhstan speech outlined five elements of the “Belt”: strengthening policy communication; road connectivity; currency circulation; people-to-people ties; and promoting unimpeded trade.
As an economist with a keen interest in the political economy of China-Africa relations, I have studied the Belt and Road Initiative since its inception.
Much is made of a fall in spending on the Belt and Road Initiative.
Xi’s announcement at this year’s forum offered old and new news for the Belt and Road Initiative and its signatories.

Comparing promises 10 years on

Xi made eight major commitments at the October 2023 forum. More than half of these draw directly from the policy focus areas announced a decade ago.
Xi promised to build a multidimensional Belt and Road connectivity. He referred to roads, rail, port and air transport and related logistics and trade corridors.
He promised to open China’s economy more to the world. Higher trade levels would be one way. Alongside a new emphasis on the digital economy, Xi added that China would establish pilot zones for e-commerce-based cooperation. In Africa, a guide to those may be provided by the two existing digital commerce hubs set up by Alibaba in Ethiopia and Rwanda under its electronic World Trade Platform Initiative.
He spoke of “practical cooperation”. This seems to refer to financing for expensive infrastructure projects, smaller livelihood projects and technical and vocational training. This has an aspect of crossover with currency circulation, people-to-people ties, unimpeded trade and more.
Xi’s recent speech also promised to support people-to-people exchanges. This is a direct take from the first launch speech of 2013. But he added detail about establishing arts and culture alliances. Also that China would host a “Liangzhu Forum” to enhance dialogue on civilisation.
Finally, in line with the earlier commitment to elevated policy dialogue, Xi promised to strengthen institutional building for international Belt and Road Initiative cooperation. This relates to building platforms for cooperation in energy, taxation, finance, green development, disaster reduction, anti-corruption, think-tanks, media, culture, and other fields.

Beyond the promises made in Xi’s speech to this year’s forum, elevated funding for China’s policy banks was announced.
Further, agreements made between participants also signal commitment to the original principles of the Belt and Road Initiative.

New promises

There are three new policy promises added to those of a decade ago.
China will promote green development, including green infrastructure, green energy, and green transportation. It will hold a Belt and Road Initiative Green Innovation Conference and establish a network of experts. China also promised to provide 100,000 training opportunities in areas of green development.
China will continue to advance scientific and technological innovation. It will hold a conference on Science and Technology Exchange, and increase the number of joint laboratories that support exchange and training for young scientists. Xi also promised that China would propose a Global Initiative for Artificial Intelligence Governance, and promote secure artificial intelligence development.
China will promote integrity-based cooperation. This would include publishing details of Belt and Road achievements and prospects, and establishing a system of evaluating compliance.
These new areas are of increasing economic importance to China, amid rapid population ageing especially, and competition with high-income countries.

The future

There was more detail especially on people-to-people ties and on areas of policy dialogue to be fostered.
He added some new areas such as artificial intelligence governance, green development, e-commerce, and greater emphasis on scientific and tech cooperation.
Comparing the new policy signals with the earlier ones implies that the initiative is by design adaptable.

Lauren Johnston does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Met Office warning for further rain in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

Retrieved on:

Monday, October 23, 2023

Met Office warning for further rain in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

Key Points:

Met Office warning for further rain in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire
- Published
Flood-hit communities are being warned of further rain, with a fresh yellow weather warning issued for much of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.
The Met Office said "heavy rain" was expected across the region between 03:00 BST and 16:00 on Tuesday.
The Met Office warning states: "There is a small chance that homes and businesses could be flooded, causing damage to some buildings.
Between 10-20mm of rain is expected to fall "fairly widely" on Tuesday, it added, but some places in Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire could see between 30-50mm.

Decades of underfunding, blockade have weakened Gaza's health system − the siege has pushed it into abject crisis

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, October 18, 2023

On Oct. 17, 2023, news broke that at least 500 patients, staff and people seeking shelter from Israeli bombs had been killed in an explosion at a hospital, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave.

Key Points:

On Oct. 17, 2023, news broke that at least 500 patients, staff and people seeking shelter from Israeli bombs had been killed in an explosion at a hospital, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave.
It amounts to a devastating loss of life during a campaign of bombing that has not spared the frail or sick.
Insufficiently and poorly resourced for decades, doctors and hospitals also had to contend with the devastating effects of a 16-year blockade imposed by Israel, in part with coordination with Egypt.

A system completely overwhelmed

Hospitals in Gaza are completely overwhelmed.
They are seeing around 1,000 new patients per day, in a health system with only 2,500 hospital beds for a population of over 2 million people.
People maimed in the bombing are being treated for horrific injuries without basics such as gauze dressings, antiseptic, IV bags and painkillers.
The U.N. estimates this fuel will run out any day due to a complete siege placed on Gaza by Israel.

A century of underfunding

But Gaza’s health care system was already under stress before the latest bombardment.
In fact, policies that stretch back decades have left it unable to meet even the basic health needs of Gaza’s residents, let alone respond to the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe.
What each have had in common is that, from my perspective as a global health expert, they invested little in Palestinian health.
For periods of the 20th century, the health priorities of successive governing bodies appeared focused more on reducing the spread of communicable disease to protect foreigners interacting with the native Palestinian population.

Dying before they can leave

Since then, chronic underfunding of public hospitals has meant that Palestinians in Gaza have remained reliant on outside money and nongovernmental organizations for essential health services.
During the passage of the Oslo Accords in the mid-1990s, the Palestinian Authority was established to administer services in the occupied territories.
The Palestinian Authority received a significant influx of humanitarian aid as it took on civil responsibilities, including health.
As a result, health indicators for Palestinians, including life expectancy and immunization rates, started to improve in the late 1990s.

Gaza health services after the siege

This vulnerable health system is now facing unprecedented challenges, staffed by health professionals who have committed to stay with their patients even under hospital evacuation orders and at risk of death.
It is uncertain what the health system of Gaza will look like in the future.
Already at least 28 doctors and other health workers have been killed in Gaza, with ambulances and a number of hospitals rendered useless by the bombs.

'Reflect, listen and learn': Melissa Lucashenko busts colonial myths and highlights Indigenous heroes

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Melissa Lucashenko’s latest novel, Edenglassie, takes the reader on a journey through magnificent and heartbreaking dual narratives set five generations apart.

Key Points:

Melissa Lucashenko’s latest novel, Edenglassie, takes the reader on a journey through magnificent and heartbreaking dual narratives set five generations apart.
Review: Edenglassie – Melissa Lucashenko (UQP) Lucashenko gifts us with characters impossible to not to invest in.
Read more:
With wit and tenderness, Miles Franklin winner Melissa Lucashenko writes back to the 'whiteman's world'

It’s Granny Eddie’s world

The first character we meet is Granny Eddie, who has been hospitalised after a fall.
Winona laments not seeing her Granny Eddie enough, while also trying to find a job, disrupt the colony and make sure her granny is safe and cared for.
Respectful, kind and considerate, he is trying his best to care for Granny Eddie – and finds himself pushing professional boundaries as he falls head over heels for fiery Winona.
She and Dr Johnny have much to learn from each other as they bond over their care for Granny Eddie.

Shifting time

Lucashenko transports you, shifting through time.
In 1844, we meet Mulanyin, saltwater man, whose inner complexities are explored in depth as he learns the Law and lessons from Country and Ancestors.
With that thought, the boy had the electric realisation that all his life he had been eating the decisions of his Ancestors.
With that thought, the boy had the electric realisation that all his life he had been eating the decisions of his Ancestors.
I am reminded of the poem, The Past, by the late Oodgeroo Noonuccal:
Let no one say the past is dead.
Haunted by tribal memories, I know
This little now, this accidental present
Is not the all of me, whose long making
Is so much of the past.

‘Your body is not your own’

In the present, Winona and Granny Eddie interact and relate with Māori mob, through shared understandings of birthing practices and opposition to white cultural appropriation.
I found myself laughing, crying and fighting off goosebumps as I read.
There were moments when I had to put the book down, to sit with what I was reading.
It is clear Lucashenko has done extensive research to position this historical fiction through past and present Magandjin localities.
This is further evidenced by Lucashenko’s extensive acknowledgments and thanks to contributors and knowledge holders in the book’s author notes.

Poland votes for change after nearly a decade spent sliding towards autocracy – but tricky coalition talks lie ahead for Donald Tusk

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Now it seems the right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS) is on the way out of government.

Key Points:

Now it seems the right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS) is on the way out of government.
Although PiS came away with the highest percentage of votes (35.38%), a coalition of opposition parties looks more likely to end up in power.
The Civic Coalition (KO), an alliance of centre-right parties led by former European Council president Donald Tusk, has secured 157 seats in parliament.

The return of Donald Tusk

Tusk has vowed to turn back towards European Union partners and for Poland to keep pace with them on social issues, such as by introducing same-sex marriage.
Women, who have seen their rights to abortion care ultimately vanish under PiS, can be hopeful of a shift back towards liberalisation under a Tusk administration.
Tusk has said PiS has “dehumanised” too many people during its time in power.
As Tusk himself put it: “It’s the end of the evil times”.

The demise of PiS

The PiS years have been characterised by a gradual dismantling of Poland’s liberal democratic order.
Donald Tusk and KO have won because Poles did not want to become an electoral autocracy, as forecast in the event of an unprecedented third term for PiS.
PiS attempted to push immigration up the agenda during the campaign rather than tackling these issues head on.

Not quite a done deal…

Andrzej Duda, president of the Polish Republic (and a PiS member), needs to decide who should form a government.
Following established tradition, his first choice will be PiS because it was the most voted for party, even if it doesn’t have a majority.
If Duda fails to find a government after three attempts, he will have to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections.

People with intellectual disability are often diagnosed with cancer when it is already well advanced

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

People, Diagnosis, Self-harm, Health, Obesity, Death, Cancer, Communication, Population, Survival, Intellectual disability, Awareness, Research, Housing, Medical imaging, Nursing, Residential care, Vaccine

Many people with intellectual disability are diagnosed with cancer when it has already spread (metastasized) and the odds of survival are lower.

Key Points:

Many people with intellectual disability are diagnosed with cancer when it has already spread (metastasized) and the odds of survival are lower.
Cancer has been reported as the cause of death about 1.5 times more often among people with intellectual disability than people without it.
In a recent study, my colleagues and I found that cancer is the second leading cause of death in Ireland for people with intellectual disability who live in residential care homes.
Making reasonable adjustments
In England, recent research found that over 40% of adults with intellectual disability who died from bowel cancer died before they reached the age for cancer screening.

Why is space so dark even though the universe is filled with stars?

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Tuesday, October 17, 2023

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Why is space so dark despite all of the stars in the universe?

Key Points:

Why is space so dark despite all of the stars in the universe?
– Nikhil, age 15, New Delhi
Why is space so dark despite all of the stars in the universe?
– Nikhil, age 15, New Delhi People have been asking why space is dark despite being filled with stars for so long that this question has a special name – Olbers’ paradox.
The study of distant stars and planets helps astronomers like me understand why space is so dark.

Imagine a bubble

If the bubble were about 10 light years across, it would contain about a dozen stars.
If you keep enlarging the bubble to 1,000 light years across, then to 1 million light years, and then 1 billion light years, the farthest stars in the bubble will look even more faint.
But there would also be more and more stars inside the bigger and bigger bubble, all of them contributing light.

Age matters

Even though that’s an amazingly long time in human terms, it’s short in astronomical terms.
It’s short enough that the light from stars more distant than about 13 billion light years hasn’t actually reached Earth yet.
And so the actual bubble around Earth that contains all the stars we can see only extends out to about 13 billion light years from Earth.

The Doppler shift

But that brings me back to the other thing I told you to imagine: that all of the stars are not moving.
The universe is actually expanding, with the most distant galaxies moving away from Earth at nearly the speed of light.
Because the galaxies are moving away so fast, the light from their stars is pushed into colors the human eye can’t see.
This effect is called the Doppler shift.

Tornadoes in the UK are surprisingly common and no one knows why

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Tuesday, October 17, 2023

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You might associate tornadoes with the plains of the central US, but they’re surprisingly common in the UK too – albeit smaller and weaker.

Key Points:

You might associate tornadoes with the plains of the central US, but they’re surprisingly common in the UK too – albeit smaller and weaker.
In fact, my former PhD student Kelsey Mulder found that the UK has about 2.3 tornadoes per year per 10,000 square kilometres.
That’s a higher density than the US, which as a whole has just 1.3 per 10,000 square km.
Nonetheless, a random location in the UK is more likely to experience a tornado than a random location in the US.

England has three ‘tornado alleys’

These tornadoes aren’t as violent as the more extreme ones in the US, but the damage can still be substantial.
Although the Birmingham tornado was the most damaging tornado on that day, two others were recorded across the British Isles.
Indeed, around 70% of UK tornado days have at least two reports, and 13% produce three or more.

What causes tornadoes

We do know that “supercells” – rotating thunderstorms tens of kilometres across – form the largest tornadoes in the US but occur less frequently in the UK.
Instead, tornadoes in the UK tend to be formed from lines of storms along cold fronts.
Our group has been trying to understand what causes some of these parent storms to begin to rotate and eventually spawn tornadoes.
Recent advances in computing and our collaborations with colleagues in engineering may yet reveal the secrets of UK tornadoes.

'They treat you like an it': people with intellectual disability on seeing medical professionals

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

This was how Richard*, who has an intellectual disability, described his general experiences with medical professionals.

Key Points:

This was how Richard*, who has an intellectual disability, described his general experiences with medical professionals.
He was among 18 adults with intellectual disability and eight support people we spoke to for a study on how people with intellectual disability have experienced medical care.
This work, part of a broader body of research on intellectual disability and medical care, has revealed an urgent need to shift the deeply entrenched assumptions many health-care workers often hold about patients with intellectual disability.

Centring lived experience from the outset

We set out to involve people with lived experience of intellectual disability in the project design, implementation and interpretation.
This meant people with intellectual disability were often unsure why they were having a genetic test at all.
The video below shows an all-too-common experience for people with intellectual disability seeing a doctor for genetic testing.
Read more:
Hospitals only note a person's intellectual disability 20% of the time – so they don't adjust their care

Post-diagnosis support is often lacking

It touches on deeply personal issues of identity, health implications for children and extended family, and future health.
For example, after a genetic diagnosis Katrina said:
I feel like I’m not normal now.
However, people with intellectual disability told us they were rarely connected with appropriate psychological supports after their diagnosis.
[…] I knew I wasn’t normal to others – I knew I was missing, some part of my brain has gone missing.
[…] I knew I wasn’t normal to others – I knew I was missing, some part of my brain has gone missing.

Change is underway

Failing to address this means fewer people with intellectual disability getting health checks and screenings, leading to poorer long-term health.
The average life expectancy of Australians with intellectual disability is already shockingly low compared to the general population.
But slowly, change is underway.

If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
She is also a Board member of Self Advocacy Sydney, an organisation run by and for people with intellectual disability.
The institute that Jackie Leach Scully directs has received funding from the NHMRC and the NSW Department of Health.