Failed state of health

This article reports research from the News Media and Indigenous Policymaking Project that documents the dynamic interplay between the news media and the Howard Government's policy intervention in the Northern Territory's Indigenous communities.

Development in Kyrgyzstan : Failed State or Failed Statebuilding?

This chapter examines the tensions present in approaches to development in Kyrgyzstan. It argues that development in this small post-Soviet republic has been approached primarily as formal statebuilding (Marquette & Beswick 2011), implying a belief that domestic political institutions and processes are the primary cause of fragility and that the adoption of democratic institutions and free market economic policies will result in development. The consequences of this inherently normative endeavour are explored in terms of the local political economy that has developed since independence and especially in the 2000s. Centrally, it is demonstrated how the competing interests and priorities of donors and local elite have undermined development efforts. On the basis of this analysis, it is suggested that rather than being framed as a failing or failed state, Kyrgyzstan is better understood as a case of failed statebuilding that cannot be remedied by the adoption of the current principles for development in fragile states situations, as adopted by the international community. Instead, the focus needs to be on facilitating the rebuilding of state-society relations both locally and internationally with a view to beginning to check the marketization of the state that has occurred.

Giving a state a bad name? Kyrgyzstan and the risk of state failure

The article discusses the possible state failure of Kyrgyzstan and the implications of the label of a failed sate. A brief history of the events that have led to failed state status include the Tulip Revolution in 2005, political protests, presidential election protests, and ethnic violence. The response of the U.S., the European Union, and Russia to the events and the national interests of labeling the state as failed are discussed. It is suggested that instead of establishing security other countries have labeled Kyrgyzstan as a failed state which has led to a lack of political legitimacy, an expansion of neoliberalism, and has dangerous implications for the success of the country.

Development in difficult sociopolitical contexts fragile, failed, pariah preface

This edited volume explores development in the so-called 'fragile', 'failed' and 'pariah' states. It examines the literature on both fragile states and their development, and offers eleven case studies on countries ranking in the 'very high alert' and 'very high warning' categories in the Fund for Peace Failed States Index.

Australian sweet lupin flour addition reduces the glycaemic index of a white bread breakfast without affecting palatability in healthy human volunteers

The addition of some legume ingredients to bread has been associated with effects on glycaemic, insulinaemic and satiety responses that may be beneficial in controlling type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity. However, the effect of Australian sweet lupin (Lupinus angustifolius) flour (ASLF) is unknown. This investigation examined the effect of adding ASLF to standard white bread on post-meal glycaemic, insulinaemic and satiety responses and palatability in healthy subjects. Using a randomised, single-blind, cross-over design, 11 subjects consumed one breakfast of ASLF bread and two of standard white bread ≥ 7 days apart after fasting overnight. Each breakfast also included margarine, jam, and tea with milk and contained 50g available carbohydrate. On each test day, blood samples were taken after fasting, then several times over 2 hours post-prandially, and analysed for plasma glucose and serum insulin. Subjects rated breakfast palatability and perception of satiety, in the fasting state and over 3 hours post-prandially, after which food intake from an ad libitum buffet and for the rest of the day was recorded. Incremental areas under the curves for glucose, insulin and satiety, glycaemic index, insulinaemic index and satiety index were calculated. ASLF addition to the breakfast reduced its glycaemic index (mean ± SEM; ASLF bread breakfast = 74.0 ± 9.6. Standard white bread breakfast = 100, P=0.022), raised its insulinaemic index (ASLF bread breakfast = 127.7 ± 12.0. Standard white bread breakfast = 100, P=0.046), but did not affect palatability, satiety or food intake. ASLF addition resulted in a palatable breakfast; however, the potential benefits of the lowered glycaemic index may be eclipsed by the increased insulinaemic index.

Technology and marginalization: a case study of the limited adoption of the intranet at a state-owned organisation in rural Australia

Taking a critical theory approach and the pluralist view of technology, this paper examines the problems in organizational communication that arose due to the implementation of a limited intranet electronic mail system as the main channel of communication between a rural stateowned organization and its city-based Head Office, installed at the sole discretion of the latter.
The intranet was provided only to the administration division and managers of some units due to financial constraints. This required others to receive information carried via the intranet through a gatekeeper who due to information and work overload, failed to disseminate the information effectively and efficiently. Using a combination of qualitative data collection methods, this study found that the intranet had marginalized those without access to it and reinforced the privileged position of those already with higher status within the organization, contrary to the utopian predictions
of new technologies as leading to social equality.

Deakin University wellbeing index

Discussion concerning the results of the Deakin University and Austn Unity survey which highlighted that Victoria is the happiest state in Australia.

Reconsidering the state : cosmopolitanism, republicanism and global governance

Cosmopolitan arguments for global forms of democracy and governance have intensified in the last decade because of the increasing significance of transnational interconnections and the increased impact of global problems. However, questions remain as to how cosmopolitan structures are going to be realized in practice, given the continued significance of the state in global politics. This paper advocates the importance of considering republican arguments for redeveloping the state alongside the proposals for global democratic structures advocated by political cosmopolitans such as David Held. It contends that many forms of cosmopolitan thought are too quick to dismiss the state as a potential locus of ethical global governance and that republican conceptions of the state and political practice are important counterpoints to political cosmopolitanism. Consequently, this paper critically considers the assumptions embedded in the literature of political cosmopolitanism in relation to the proposals for global democracy and governance. Then the paper considers republican arguments that developing civically minded citizens and responsive state institutions could be a crucial foundation for transnational forms of governance to be realized in practice. The paper then concludes by considering the practical tensions between republican and cosmopolitan proposals.

Victorian index of estuary condition : recommended themes and measures

Deakin University was engaged by the Department of Sustainability and Environment to develop an Index of Estuary Condition (IEC) for evaluating the environmental condition of Victorian estuaries. The Index will ultimately complement the existing Index of Stream Condition (ISC) by providing a consistent statewide assessment of the environmental condition of estuaries. This will better enable:

• Estuarine condition to be reported at regional, state and national levels.

• Prioritisation of resource allocation.

• Strategic evaluation of management interventions in estuaries.

Workshops involving participants with expertise in a variety of disciplines were convened to integrate learnings from assessment programs currently being developed interstate and overseas. This report synthesises and builds on the output from those workshops which:

• Identified key components (themes) of estuaries that contribute to estuarine condition.

• Contributed to development of a broad conceptual model for Victorian estuaries

• Identified possible measures of each theme

In keeping with the sub-indices of the ISC, six themes were identified for use in the IEC: Physical form, Hydrology, Water quality, Sediment, Flora and Fauna. Several measures within each theme are recommended to assess estuary condition.

Implementation of particular measures in the IEC partly depends on the investment required to both collect and interpret the required data. With regard to data collection, each measure was assessed according to whether there is an established sampling procedure, how frequently data need to be collected and the level of expertise required for collection and processing. For interpreting the data, measures were scored on whether baseline condition is established and whether descriptions and scores are developed which reflect the extent of deviation from that condition. These scores were used to indicate which measures are feasible to implement immediately and which require further investigation.

A trial of the recommended IEC measures in a selection of estuaries is recommended as it would provide an opportunity to test the measures and their suitability for application statewide. It is suggested that the trial is conducted in estuaries subject to various levels of threats within each of the four estuary classes described by Barton et al. (2008)

Poetry and public speech: three traces

Poetry is routinely seen as ‘marginal’ to public culture, especially in terms of it having lost its status as a form of public speech. Such a condition is often noted in nostalgic terms, in which a golden era—bardic or journalistic—is evoked to illustrate contemporary poetry’s lack. But traces of poetry’s instrumentality, especially as a form of public speech, can be found in various extra-poetic contexts.

In this article, three examples of poetry operating in ‘extra-poetic contexts’ will illustrate the different, sometimes troubling, ways in which traces of poetry as a mode of public speech can be observed in contemporary culture: the poem-cartoons of Michael Leunig; the role of the poet Les Murray in the drafting of a proposed preamble to the Constitution of Australia; and the quotation of William Ernest Henley’s ‘Invictus’ as the final statement of Timothy McVeigh (the ‘Ohio Bomber’) prior to his execution.

These examples illustrate that poetry-as-public-speech engages with political discourse in diverse, incommensurate ways. Leunig’s occasional cartoon-poems, appearing in the metropolitan press, are examples of poetry at its most public and politically engaged state. And yet, even Leunig’s most ‘political’ work gestures towards a realm beyond politics, where the poetic, the comic, and the existential coexist as a way of making life in the political realm more bearable. Les Murray’s role as a ‘national’ poet in the failed attempt to introduce a preamble to the Australian Constitution illustrates the vestigial role that poets can play in nation building. Lastly, McVeigh’s quotation of Henley, made without any explanation, shows the unpredictable and potentially volatile condition of poetry-as-public-speech. In addition, the examples variously engage in arguments about the relationship between the individual and the state, private identity and national history.

Funding special education provision by means of discriminant function analysis

This thesis is concerned with the development of a funding mechanism, the Student Resource Index, which has been designed to resolve a number of difficulties which emerged following the introduction of integration or inclusion as an alternative means of providing educational support to students with disabilities in the Australian State of Victoria. Prior to 1984, the year in which the major integration or inclusion initiatives were introduced, the great majority of students with disabilities were educated in segregated special schools, however, by 1992 the integration initiatives had been successful in including within regular classes approximately half of the students in receipt of additional educational assistance on the basis of disability. The success of the integration program brought with it a number of administrative and financial problems which were the subject of three government enquiries. Central to these difficulties was the development of a dual system of special education provision. On one hand, additional resources were provided for the students attending segregated special schools by means of weighted student ratios, with one teacher being provided for each six students attending a special school. On the other hand, the requirements of individual students integrated into regular schools were assessed by school-based committees on the basis of their perceived extra educational needs. The major criticism of this dual system of special education funding was that it created inequities in the distribution of resources both between the systems and also within the systems. For example, three students with equivalent needs, one of whom attended a special school and two of whom attended different regular schools could each be funded at substantially differing levels. The solution to these inequities of funding was seen to be in the development of a needs based funding device which encompassed all students in receipt of additional disability related educational support. The Student Resource Index developed in this thesis is a set of behavioural descriptors designed to assess degree of additional educational need across a number of disability domains. These domains include hearing, vision, communication, health, co-ordination (manual and mobility), intellectual capacity and behaviour. The completed Student Resource Index provides a profile of the students’ needs across all of these domains and as such addresses the multiple nature of many disabling conditions. The Student Resource Index was validated in terms of its capacity to predict the ‘known’ membership or the type of special school which some 1200 students in the sample currently attended. The decision to use the existing special school populations as the criterion against which the Student Resource Index was validated was based on the premise that the differing resource levels of these schools had been historically determined by expert opinion, industrial negotiation and reference to other special education systems as the most reliable estimate of the enrolled students’ needs. When discriminant function analysis was applied to some 178 students attending one school for students with mild intellectual disability and one facility for students with moderate to severe intellectual disability the Student Resource Index was successful in predicting the student's known school in 92 percent of cases. An analysis of those students (8 percent) which the Student Resource Index had failed to predict their known school enrolment revealed that 13 students had, for a variety of reasons, been inappropriately placed in these settings. When these students were removed from the sample the predictive accuracy of the Student Resource Index was raised to 96 percent of the sample. By comparison the domains of the Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scale accurately predicted known enrolments of 76 percent of the sample. By way of replication discriminant function analysis was then applied to the Student Resource Index profiles of 518 students attending Day Special Schools (Mild Intellectual Disability) and 287 students attending Special Developmental Schools (Moderate to Severe Intellectual Disability). In this case, the Student Resource Index profiles were successful in predicting the known enrolments of 85 percent of students. When a third group was added, 147 students attending Day Special Schools for students with physical disabilities, the Student Resource Index predicted known enrolments in 80 percent of cases. The addition of a fourth group of 116 students attending Day Special Schools (Hearing Impaired) to the discriminant analysis led to a small reduction in predictive accuracy from 80 percent to 78 percent of the sample. A final analysis which included students attending a School for the Deaf-Blind, a Hospital School and a Social and Behavioural Unit was successful in predicting known enrolments in 71 percent of the 1114 students in the sample. For reasons which are expanded upon within the thesis it was concluded that the Student Resource Index when used in conjunction with discriminant function analysis was capable of isolating four distinct groups on the basis of their additional educational needs. If the historically determined and varied funding levels provided to these groups, inherent in the cash equivalent of the staffing ratios of Day Special Schools (Mild Intellectual Disability), Special Development Schools (Moderate to Severe Intellectual Disability), Day Special Schools (Physical Disability) and Day Special Schools (Hearing Impairment) are accepted as reasonable reflections of these students’ needs these funding levels can be translated into funding bands. These funding bands can then be applied to students in segregated or inclusive placements. The thesis demonstrates that a new applicant for funding can be introduced into the existing data base and by the use of discriminant function analysis be allocated to one of the four groups. The analysis is in effect saying that this new student’s profile of educational needs has more in common with Group A than with the members of Groups B, C, or D. The student would then be funded at Group A level. It is immaterial from a funding point of view whether the student decides to attend a segregated or inclusive setting. The thesis then examines the impact of the introduction of Student Resource Index based funding upon the current funding of the special schools in one of the major metropolitan regions. Overall, such an initiative would lead to a reduction of 1.54 percent of the total funding accruing to the region’s special schools.

Efficiency and unbiasedness in the Indian stock index futures market

This paper explores potential efficiency and unbiasedness as well as the degree of efficiency in stock index futures of an emerging market using both monthly and daily data. Besides analyzing efficiency and unbiasedness with cointegration and error correction model, the degree of efficiency is further investigated after explicitly modeling the underlying state of the market (expansion or contraction) through the first-order Markov switching set-up. The results show that a relatively longer two-month horizon is more effective in eliminating arbitrage opportunities than the short run (one-month and daily) futures.

The Civic School : Australian-Indonesian professional collaboration to model and audit the development of democratic primary classrooms and teacher language using the index for inclusion

The study is a pilot project in Australian-Indonesian institutional collaboration for the professional development of primary school teachers in West Sumatra in citizenship education. Senior staff in the department of Pancasila and Citizenship Education at the State University of Padang (UNP), West Sumatra initiated the project. UNP staff sought the collaboration of the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania for bringing about and sustaining changes in teacher practice needed to implement the new civic goals in the 1999 Suplemen. The Index for Inclusion was used to model and audit the development of democratic primary classrooms and language use in a cluster of Padang schools in West Sumatra. The paper describes the background to the project and how the Index for Inclusion was understood during the initial two-week implementation phase by teachers and school principals. The significance of the study lies in the potential of the Index for Inclusion internationally to citizenship education, a field of education that was not considered in the initial development of the Index project and the contribution of the multiple fields of inquiry to the evolving theoretical understandings of inclusive education.

A re-examination of the benefits of exercise for state body satisfaction: Considerationof individual difference factors

Although the link between exercise and body image is well documented, the considerable inter-individual variability in this relationship has been largely ignored. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to test the contributions of key body image and exercise-related moderators (age, body mass index (BMI), exercise frequency, trait body dissatisfaction, internalisation of appearance standards, and body surveillance tendencies) in predicting variability in the exercise-body satisfaction relationship. Thirty-seven undergraduate women completed a questionnaire containing the above trait-based measures and then carried a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) for a 7-day period. Participants were instructed to use the PDA to self-report their state body satisfaction immediately following an exercise session and also when the PDA signalled at each of six random intervals throughout the day. Multilevel modelling revealed a bi-directional relationship between exercise and state body satisfaction. Moreover, post-exercise increases in state body satisfaction were strongest for individuals who were younger and engaged in regular exercise, and weakest for individuals with high BMI and/or the tendency to compare their appearance with others. These findings highlight potential limits on the efficacy of exercise-based therapy for body image disturbances.