Harassment, stalking, threats and attacks targeting New Zealand politicians: a mental health issue

The harassment of politicians has significant psychosocial costs for both the victim and the perpetrator and represents an opportunity for mental health intervention. Abstract Objective: Due to the nature of their work, politicians are at greater risk of stalking, harassment and attack than the general population. The small, but significantly elevated risk of violence to politicians is predominantly due not to organised terrorism or politically motivated extremists but to fixated individuals with untreated serious mental disorders, usually psychosis. Our objective was to ascertain the frequency, nature and effects of unwanted harassment of politicians in New Zealand and the possible role of mental illness in this harassment. Methods: New Zealand Members of Parliament were surveyed, with an 84% response rate (n = 102). Quantitative and qualitative data were collected on Parliamentarians’ experiences of harassment and stalking. Results: Eighty-seven percent of politicians reported unwanted harassment ranging from disturbing communications to physical violence, with most experiencing harassment in multiple modalities and on multiple occasions. Cyberstalking and other forms of online harassment were common, and politicians felt they (and their families) had become more exposed as a result of the Internet. Half of MPs had been personally approached by their harassers, 48% had been directly threatened and 15% had been attacked. Some of these incidents were serious, involving weapons such as guns, Molotov cocktails and blunt instruments. One in three politicians had been targeted at their homes. Respondents believed the majority of those responsible for the harassment exhibited signs of mental illness. Conclusion: The harassment of politicians in New Zealand is common and concerning. Many of those responsible were thought to be mentally ill by their victims. This harassment has significant psychosocial costs for both the victim and the perpetrator and represents an opportunity for mental health intervention

Growing scar tissue around the memory of that day : Sites of Gendered Violence and Suffering in Contemporary South African Literature

In the words of renowned criminologist Antony Altbeker, South Africa is suffering from a “crisis of crime.” The outworking of tensions from the perceived inadequacies of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission have seen an explosion of violent crime, which has little improved in the two decades since the end of the Apartheid-state. Contemporary South African literature has spoken to this violent reality in myriad ways, from the violence of South Africa’s most written about novel, J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, to the more recent trends in crime fiction and true-crime genres. The novels considered here, Disgrace and Margie Orford’s Like Clockwork, work together to form an aesthetic of violence. Where Orford’s work is bounded by generic convention to solve crime and seek restitution, Coetzee leaves us in a state of uneasy non-resolution. The growing popularity of the “crime-fiction” genre then, speaks to a desire to make sense of a violent reality. If protagonist Clare Hart can restore order and enforce clear boundaries within the space of 300 pages, can readers feel assured in “a country at war with itself”

What the Black Panther Party did for you

David W. Levy Prize finalist, Fall 2017In October of 1966 Bobby Seale and Huey Newton founded the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, a socialist, multi-racial, black nationalist group that endeavored to awaken the black community and unify it in activism against the 'pigs' and political figures that disenfranchised blacks. Unlike other black nationalist groups, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense was an organization that unified communities and sought to seek out against whites and black alike that held the community down rather than lifting it up. The Panthers carried an image of brutality for their many violent encounters with law enforcement and direct ties to the doctrines of Karl Marx and Mao. It makes sense that this type of organization would have a bad reputation, considering the borderline brainwashing ideologies. Why, though, would it have office buildings, and several eager members? An organization with so many moving parts cannot be boiled down the simple concept of "kill whitie," as Bobby White, a former Panther, asserted in an interview. In addition to taking the law into their own hands, members of the party provided community-oriented services such as the breakfast program, medical services, and discouraging the community's youth from participating in drug use and prostitution.undergraduat

Teaching Effective and Empathetic Communication Amongst Social Service Volunteers

Some volunteers working with homeless clientele may lack effective communication skills needed while working with this population. As a result, volunteers may not form a trusting relationship with the clients and limit their ability to provide effective services. As a result, I have created a one-day training for volunteers at the Gathering For Women in Monterey, California

Sharpness of teeth in man and other primates

Analyses of wear characteristics on the teeth of a young adult male baboon, a male native human from New Guinea and a male Caucasian from New Zealand are made, and their inseparable relationship to behavior emphasized. These characteristics provide evidence of the evolution of precise anatomical and innate behavioral tooth-grinding mechanisms specific to the production of sharp teeth. Although the teeth on eruption have some degree of morphological sharpness, the tooth-grinding behavior perfects this sharpness and subsequently maintains it throughout the functional life of the teeth. The male baboon, used here as broadly representative of man\u27s non-hominid relatives and ancestors, has a specialized, sickle-like, vertically oriented upper canine, sharpened specifically as a slashing weapon. The lower anterior premolars are the honing tools which grind against the upper canines in a motion opposite to that of the masticatory stroke. These premolars are noticeably specialized for this tooth-to-tooth grinding action by their enlarged buccal crown-faces, thickened enamel gingival extensions, and by paired roots placed perpendicular to the whetstone faces. In contrast, man\u27s short-canine condition has evolved to provide a specialized, horizontally sharp shearing device. The continuous rows of even, constantly sharpened teeth, vertically oriented and firmly anchored in jaws which provide greater force at the biting teeth, give man the capacity for powerful, lethal, segmentive biting. Thus man\u27s dentition is seen not as generalized , and certainly not as regressed or weakened , but as highly specialized. The significance of the short-canine condition (currently regarded as a diagnostic feature of hominids) is not that man has become biologically defenseless, but that the hominid dental mechanism has harnessed attritional wear to provide a more stable and durably functional weapon. It is concluded that tooth-sharpening and related phenomena are evidence of innate behavior related to a specialized, viable, biological weapon in Homo sapiens, and because this weapon — the teeth — is the primary one and has been overlooked it emphasizes a corollary: intraspecies use of the teeth is strictly controlled by genetical determinants, whereas such control of the secondary weapon —the hand — is slight

The Effects of Incentive Initiatives on Teacher Retention in Tanzania: A Case of the Rukwa Region

Availability of teachers at Secondary schools is one of the major factors that enhance students and general school performance. Despite this fact, there is high teacher reluctance in taking teaching position in remote areas. Different policy initiatives have dramatically improved the state of education in Tanzania, particularly in terms of classroom infrastructure and student enrollment. The increased students’ enrollment has increased the national demand for secondary school teachers and training of teachers has not mirrored this growth. There is a very high teacher shortage in secondary schools particularly those located in remote areas. In 2004, in the National Strategy for Growth and Deduction of Poverty (NSGRP) cluster two, Tanzania clearly stipulated its goal to motivate and attract secondary school teachers to work in remote areas. Although the country has not yet taken any action to implement this goal, in 2007, Rukwa region responded to this high teacher shortage by initiating Rukwa Civil Servant Facilitation Fund (RCSFF) program to attract and retain Secondary School teachers at the region. This study examines the effects of this incentives program for these teachers in the Rukwa region on retention rate in comparison to a neighboring region, Kigoma. The societal model (3C’s) for teacher retention proposed by Sher (1983) grounds this study. Under this model Sher claims that teacher retention is the function of teacher Characteristics, working Conditions and Compensation. I used mixed research design. The interviews with 24 teachers and educational officers and a total of 40 reviewed Tanzanian Secondary School forms from both Rukwa and Kigoma provide the qualitative and quantitative data respectively. Both descriptive analysis and SPSS software were used to analyze these data. The research results show that the RCSFF was a strong inducement tool but teacher retention is still questionable. Suggestions and recommendations are offered