Suchergebnisse

Sengupta, Madhumita, Becoming Assamese: Colonialism and New Subjectivities in Northeast India. New Delhi: Routledge, India, 2016, pp. 278, ₹895, ISBN: 978-11-38219-60-1.

Working AbstractIn 1951, The United Nations Refugee Convention established asylum for those with a "well-founded fear of being persecuted" based on membership in a "particular social group", yet many countries today continue to actively discriminate against individuals seeking asylum on the basis of their sexual orientation and/or gender identities. In an effort to distance themselves from the discrimination and criminalization that exists in their home countries, many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ)-identifying individuals seek safety as asylees abroad. This research examines the extent to which accepting asylum protocol as well as protections and rights offered to sexual and/or gender minorities impact the movement of LGBTQ asylees. By analyzing the application procedure and programs offered to a state's incoming refugee population in conjunction with the antidiscrimination legislation and freedoms afforded to that state's LGBTQ populations throughout 40 countries around the world, this paper finds that heightened asylum protocol rather than inclusive LGBTQ legal rights influences the resettlement of LGBTQ asylees. Introduction and Background Informatio

This is a review essay of Sana Aiyar's book Indians in Kenya: The Politics of Diaspora. I frame the discussion in the context not only of Indians in Kenya but also in other parts of Africa, particularly South Africa. The rhetoric of the clash of civilizations is introduced, and its implicit and explicit resonance in solidarities and tensions between Indians and Africans is discussed. After highlighting the many merits of Aiyar's account, I end with a call for a more explicit engagement with matters of gender and the role of women in this history.

Background: Plastination is an emerging trend amongst Anatomists worldwide and more and more workshops are being conducted in India training anatomists for preparing plastinates. Platination has been viewed as an asset and its shortcomings ignored. The consent for displaying body as plastinate is a major issue. Religious objections considering plastination against reverence towards human body should also be considered. Also donations of bodies for plastination would deprive the health service of organs for transplant. Promotion and creation of 'sex plastinates' is another matter of immense concern. Methods: A structured Questionnaire was prepared in view of the available literature to ascertain the current opinion of Indian anatomists regarding plastination as an alternative to embalming. Results: The results indicate that majority of the anatomists are in favor of the technique for teaching and exhibition. 96% of the anatomists believe that the anatomical societies should have a documented stand on Plastination and 65% feel that body donation for plastination would soon be a reality in India. Conclusion: The author recommends that import of plastinated bodies should be banned in India. Anatomical Society of India/Society of Clinical Anatomists should have a documented stand on Plastination for teaching purposes. For plastination exhibition in India a prior permission from Government of India alongwith monitoring of the exhibition by an anatomical board should be mandatory. Sale of Plastinates by Individuals/bodies/Institutions should be banned in India. In case of theft of plastinate, from a medical Institute informing the police should be made mandatory.

Multidimensional poverty comparisons can be sensitive to the choice of welfare indicators, the weights assigned to the indicators, as well as the aggregate poverty measure used. This paper examines the robustness of trends in multidimensional poverty in the Philippines to these choices by presenting estimates for three alternative weighting schemes and three measures of multidimensional poverty. The weighting schemes range from uniform weights similar to those used in the global multidimensional poverty indexes produced by the United Nations Development Programme, to weights based on inverse incidence of different deprivations and those derived from the estimated relationship of deprivations to a survey-based measure of subjective welfare. The multidimensional poverty measures similarly range from the "dual cut-off" indexes analogous to the United Nations Development Programme's global Multidimensional Poverty Index, to "union-based" indexes that count all deprivations, to indexes that are also responsive to the distribution of deprivations. Using data for 2004-13, the paper finds evidence of a significant decline in multidimensional poverty that is robust to these alternatives, although the magnitude of the decline in, and especially the dimensional contributions to, aggregate multidimensional poverty are quite sensitive to the alternatives considered.