Burnout among surgeons before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: an international survey

Background: SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had many significant impacts within the surgical realm, and surgeons have been obligated to reconsider almost every aspect of daily clinical practice. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study reported in compliance with the CHERRIES guidelines and conducted through an online platform from June 14th to July 15th, 2020. The primary outcome was the burden of burnout during the pandemic indicated by the validated Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure. Results: Nine hundred fifty-four surgeons completed the survey. The median length of practice was 10 years; 78.2% included were male with a median age of 37 years old, 39.5% were consultants, 68.9% were general surgeons, and 55.7% were affiliated with an academic institution. Overall, there was a significant increase in the mean burnout score during the pandemic; longer years of practice and older age were significantly associated with less burnout. There were significant reductions in the median number of outpatient visits, operated cases, on-call hours, emergency visits, and research work, so, 48.2% of respondents felt that the training resources were insufficient. The majority (81.3%) of respondents reported that their hospitals were included in the management of COVID-19, 66.5% felt their roles had been minimized; 41% were asked to assist in non-surgical medical practices, and 37.6% of respondents were included in COVID-19 management. Conclusions: There was a significant burnout among trainees. Almost all aspects of clinical and research activities were affected with a significant reduction in the volume of research, outpatient clinic visits, surgical procedures, on-call hours, and emergency cases hindering the training. Trial registration: The study was registered on clicaltrials.gov "NCT04433286" on 16/06/2020

The Syrian war: The “hidden hands” and the challenge to peace processes

Syria’s civil war, which began in 2011, has been dubbed one of the bloodiest conflicts of the twenty-first century. A multitude of institutional, regional, and global efforts and activities in the shape of peace proposals, negotiations, diplomatic peace initiatives, and mediations have been put in place in an attempt to end the war. The goal of this research is to look at these peace mechanisms and the elements that function as undercurrents and/or obstacles to their implementation. It claims that a variety of actors, interests, and goals obstruct diverse peace processes. Furthermore, the complex intertwining of internal and external influences is critical to the success of many conflict management programs. The problems faced by many peace processes include the sordid backstories and operations of hidden hands such as the United States and Russia using the war as a pawn to conduct proxy fights including Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other entities. The conclusion is that, while a political solution is an appropriate vehicle for resolving the quagmire, the effect of foreign interests and complicated internal elements that have a negative impact on political diplomacy may persist for some time. As a result, if a political approach is to be effective, it must take into account and synergize the numerous domestic and exogenous interests

Communal tracking approach to insecurity in Nigeria: A prognostic contemplation on Amotekun, the Nigerian Southwest Security Outfit

Crime proliferation and insecurity represent a multidirectional broadband in social analysis. Crimes generally are outcome of carefully planned and diligently executed mischief of a belligerent group against a target. Crimes are rarely capable of sudden self-propagation. Indexes of insecurity and interest-based assaults of one group against another in the form of terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and communal/ethnic attacks scarcely manifest as entirely externallyinflicted social ills without insiders’ collaboration. Terrorism, banditry and kidnapping as crimes, are at the same time living social organisms that are birthed, nurtured and resourced for attainment of some strategic social objectives. The advanced phase of armed attack manifests only at their maturity. Based on available primary and secondary data on security challenges, aside from arguing that increasing incidence of insecurity in Nigeria results more from economic and ideological roots: political, economic, cultural, religion and ethnic, this paper insists that crimes have both latent and manifest gestational traits. Therefore, it is here conjectured that before crimes attain maturity, Communal TrackingApproach (CTA) to security stands the best strategy for early detection, avoidance and/or prevention of crimes. This paper recommends that if the objective of the new complementary security organization in the Nigerian Southwest, codenamed Amotekun, is to be realized, it must be built more on CTA. Given that Amotekun is not likely to be as resourced as the Nigerian military, and particularly with the everincreasing proliferation of arms among the belligerent elements, CTA, with its communal stance, above all alternate measures, offers a less costly strategy to securing the citizens and the nation

The Influence of Globalization on Insurgency: Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab in the Age of Information Technology

Without a doubt, Africa is presently faced with violence, war, and acts of terrorism arising from the activities of insurgents. This paper examines the ways globalization aids insurgent activities and increasing manipulation of globalization by insurgents. It also looks at the negative impacts of violence and the need to find solutions to the insurgents’ activities that have generated concerns for the contemporary global system. The issues raised are significant considering the need to find solutions to the violence in the continent. This paper argues that just as globalization has encouraged increased technology, lowered transportation cost, increased trade, and capital flow, and the overall economic growth of nation-states; it has also allowed insurgency and terrorism to spread easily; serving as a sanctuary to insurgent groups and aiding the activities of insurgents. Although globalization has been fingered as a factor in some cases of insurgency, it is not itself the main cause of insurgency; however, globalization has dramatically helped transform the strategies, tactics, and the overall activities of insurgents in the past two decades. This is because insurgents have directly and indirectly manipulated the faceless character of globalization to carry out their activities, especially Al-Shabaab in Kenya and Boko Haram in Nigeria. The paper states that just as insurgents have exploited globalization to perpetrate terror, globalization can also be used as a vital tool in counter-insurgency (COIN) and the War on Terror (WoT)