Death at Licourt Revisited

New Information comes to light about the five fatalities that occurred in the 1st Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade on the River Somme on 25 March 1918, as discussed in an article published in 2002

Custom, governance and Westminster in Solomon Islands : charting a course out of the political quagmire : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Development Studies, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

This thesis investigates whether the people of Solomon Islands would be better served by a form of governance that is politically hybrid than through the current Westminster unitary-state model. In remote provinces such as Choiseul, the reach of the state is limited. Here, notions of citizenship and national identity have gained little traction because kin group relations underpin society and form the basis for peoples’ identity. In such societies customary institutions, in the form of chiefs, and the church provide order. In these self-governing rural communities governance is distinctly parochial in its application and often hybrid in form. This study examines whether the hybrid polities of such communities have an application within the proposed Federal Constitution of Solomon Islands. The thesis, first, examines the international concepts of governance that have shaped and provided a framework within which the state of Solomon Islands, and its systems of governance, have evolved. State governance today, is very much a product of historical antecedents. However, an analysis of these antecedents demonstrates that Solomon Islanders have been particularly adept at appropriating introduced systems for their own purposes, and matters of governance are no exception. Using semi-structured interviews, the fieldwork component of this thesis examines the hybrid form of governance that exists in a Choiseulese village to determine whether such models have an application within the proposed Federal Constitution, thus providing a greater degree of political legitimacy than exists under the current Westminster system. Three tiers of government are proposed in the Federal Constitution – Federal, State and Community Governments. Of these, Community Governments provide a particularly suitable political arena where hybridised forms of village governance, which locally have a considerable degree of political legitimacy, can be combined with such functions of state as are necessary to achieve good governance. This, it is argued, will allow the development of forms of governance that are much more suited to local conditions than is possible under the current constitution

A Pastor’s Kid Finds the Catholic Church

In this essay, I describe my journey to Catholicism and explain one of the many reasons I became Catholic--namely, an argument from the canon of Scripture

Truly Jewish: Diasporic Identity and “Chosen Glory” in “Monte Sant’Angelo”

In her memoir Unorthodox, Deborah Feldman observes, “A Jew can never be a goy... even if they try to become one. They may dress like one, speak like one, live like one, but Jewishness is something that can never be erased” (96). Her intriguing observation parallels the major themes of Arthur Miller’s short story “Monte Sant’Angelo,” which explores Jewish identity. The modern psychological constructs of diasporic identity, “chosen glory,” and “chosen trauma,” developed after the short story was written, help to interpret the psychological drama unfolding in the little village of Monte Sant’Angelo. Bernstein, a diasporic Ashkenazi Jew, struggles with his Jewish-American heritage. His internal conflict burgeons as he watches his Italian friend Appello enthusiastically explore his ancestral village. He acutely senses his lack of a homeland, a people, and a heritage. Rather than identify with his Jewish heritage, which he perceives to be insufficient, he tries to embrace his American heritage but fails. Through his experiences with his friend Appello and the assimilated Italian Jew Mauro di Benedetto, Bernstein realizes that he will find identity security not by renouncing his Jewishness, but by embracing a diasporic identity and “chosen glory” along with his American identity. Bernstein’s visceral struggle with shame ends in triumphant security as he at last embraces his diasporic identity and “chosen glory.” Feldman aptly summarizes this newfound identity in describing her own reconciliation with her heritage: “For a while, I thought I could un-Jew myself. Then I realized that being Jewish is not the ritual or the action. It is one’s history. I am proud of being Jewish, because I think that’s where my indomitable spirit comes from, passed down from ancestors who burned in the fires of persecution because of their blood, their faith. I am Jewish; I am invincible” (250). By reconciling with his heritage, Bernstein has also become invincible

Joseph Skipsey, the 'peasant poet', and an unpublished letter from W. B. Yeats

This article examines an unpublished letter from Yeats to the ‘pitman-poet’ Joseph Skipsey, which gives new insight into the early career of Yeats and a deeper understanding of the possibilities and capabilities of the Victorian working-classes. It argues that, in Skipsey, Yeats found an English equivalent to the Irish peasant poet, a figure whose life and poetry was central to Yeats’s vision of Ireland and his nation’s literary revival. The article contends that, following the discovery of a letter from Yeats, Skipsey’s poetry and influence should be considered outside the bounds of the Pre-Raphaelite clique within which he is usually located

Materialism and the Resurrection: Are the Prospects Improving?

In 1999 Dean Zimmerman proposed a "falling elevator model" for a bodily resurrection consistent with materialism. Recently, he has defended the model against objections, and a slightly different version has been defended by Timothy O’Connor and Jonathan Jacobs. This article considers both sets of responses, and finds them at best partially successful; a new objection, not previously discussed, is also introduced. It is concluded that the prospects for the falling-elevator model, in either version, are not brigh