Racist harassment in the white hinterlands: minority ethnic children and parents' experiences in schools in Northern Ireland

This article explores the nature and extent of racist harassment in predominantly white areas. It is based upon a case study of Northern Ireland and draws upon data from indepth interviews with a total of 32 children and 43 parents drawn from the four largest minority ethnic groups in the region: Chinese, Irish Travellers, South Asians and Black Africans. The article demonstrates that racist harassment is a significant problem in schools in Northern Ireland and highlights the varied forms that it can take from overt acts of physical and verbal abuse to more covert and subtle forms of teasing and 'friendly' banter. Following a consideration of the differing responses that schools have made to racist incidents reported to them by children and/or parents, the article concludes by considering the implications of the findings and re-affirming the argument that anti-racist strategies are as relevant and necessary for schools in predominantly white regions as they are in multi-ethnic areas.

BELFAST nonagenarians; Nature or Nurture? Immunological, cardiovascular and genetic factors

Nonagenarians are the fastest growing sector of populations across Western European and the developed world. They are some of the oldest members of our societies and survivors of their generation and may help us understand how to age not only longer, but better.The Belfast Longevity Group enlisted the help of 500 community-living, mobile, mentally competent, 'elite' nonagenarians, as part of an ongoing study of ageing. We assessed some immunological, cardiovascular, nutritional and genetic factors and some aspects of their interaction in this group of 'oldest old'.Here we present some of the evidence related to genetic and nutritional factors which seem to be important for good quality ageing in nonagenarians from the Belfast Elderly Longitudinal Free-living Ageing STudy (BELFAST).

All lads together? Racism, masculinity and multicultural/anti-racist strategies in a primary school

This article examines the articulation of racism and masculinity as manifest amongst infant children in a multi-ethnic, inner-city primary school. Drawing upon a year-long ethnographic study of the school, it will highlight some of the inherent problems of multicultural/anti-racist strategies which are not sufficiently grounded in an understanding of racism and how iti complexly interrelates with other systems of inequality, in this case gender. The article will show how many of the racist incidents and processes evident amongst the infant children can only be understood within the context of their expressions of masculinity. With this as a starting point, the article will go on to outline and assess one particular strategy of the school to try and engage older African/Caribbean boys through sports and particularly football. It will be shown how, as a result of this 'multicultural/anti-racist' strategy, a distinct masculine ethos has been created within the school which, ironically, provides a strong context for racist incidents to flourish. The article will conclude by arguing for a more complex and context-specific understanding of racism and will reiterate the concerns of a number of black feminist writers of the early 1980s that strategies to combat racism can only be successful alongside strategies addressing all forms of subordination.

From Lydia Pinkham to Queen Levitra:Direct-to-consumer advertising and medicalisation

The medicalisation of life problems has been occurring for well over a century and has increased over the past 30 years, with the engines of medicalisation shifting to biotechnology, managed care, and consumers. This paper examines one strand of medicalisation during the last century: direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of pharmaceuticals. In particular, it examines the roles that physicians and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have played in regulating DTCA in the US. Two advertising exemplars, the late 19 century Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound (for 'women's complaints') and contemporary Levitra (for erectile dysfunction) are used to examine the parallels between the patent medicine era and the DTCA era. DTCA re-establishes the direct and independent relationship between drug companies and consumers that existed in the late 19 century, encouraging self-diagnosis and requests for specific drugs. The extravagant claims of Lydia Pinkham's day are constrained by laws, but modern-day advertising is more subtle and sophisticated. DTCA has facilitated the impact of the pharmaceutical industry and consumers in becoming more important forces in medicalisation. © 2008 The Authors.