Unbowed

In her autobiography, the late Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement and Nobel Peace Prize winner, talks about the village where she spent her childhood. Through her very personal and beautiful testimonial, Wangari allows us to capture the whole cycle of life, how water, plants, food and livelihoods are interconnected.Dans son autobiographie, Wangari Maathai, fondatrice du mouvement de la Ceinture Verte (Green Belt Movement) et Prix Nobel de la Paix 2004, évoque le village où elle a passé son enfance. Avec ce magnifique témoignage très personnel, Wangari Maathai nous fait découvrir le cycle de la vie et la manière dont l’eau, les plantes, les aliments et les moyens de subsistance sont étroitement liés.En su autobiografía, la difunta Wangari Maathai, fundadora del Movimiento Cinturón Verde y ganadora del Premio Nobel de la Paz, habla sobre la aldea de su infancia. A través de su hermoso y muy personal testimonio, Wangari nos permite captar todo el ciclo de la vida, cómo el agua, las plantas, los alimentos y los medios de subsistencia están interconectados

Unbowed

In her autobiography, the late Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement and Nobel Peace Prize winner, talks about the village where she spent her childhood. Through her very personal and beautiful testimonial, Wangari allows us to capture the whole cycle of life, how water, plants, food and livelihoods are interconnected.Dans son autobiographie, Wangari Maathai, fondatrice du mouvement de la Ceinture Verte (Green Belt Movement) et Prix Nobel de la Paix 2004, évoque le village où elle a passé son enfance. Avec ce magnifique témoignage très personnel, Wangari Maathai nous fait découvrir le cycle de la vie et la manière dont l’eau, les plantes, les aliments et les moyens de subsistance sont étroitement liés.En su autobiografía, la difunta Wangari Maathai, fundadora del Movimiento Cinturón Verde y ganadora del Premio Nobel de la Paz, habla sobre la aldea de su infancia. A través de su hermoso y muy personal testimonio, Wangari nos permite captar todo el ciclo de la vida, cómo el agua, las plantas, los alimentos y los medios de subsistencia están interconectados

The African intellectuals’ project

Soon after taking the position of editor of IJARS at the beginning of 2019, I was contacted by the dean of Unisa’s College of Graduate Studies (CGS), Prof. Lindiwe Zungu, who informed me that the university’s principal and vice-chancellor, Prof. Mandla Makhanya, had decided to revive his project, the African Intellectuals’ Project (AIP). I was asked to coordinate this project, through which Makhanya sought to invite scholars, academics, and intellectuals, both on and outside of the African continent, to deliver presentations reflecting on the ills afflicting Africa and, at the same time, to offer possible solutions. In pursuing the AIP, Prof. Makhanya was carrying on a perennial tradition

People's choice of healthcare provier: policy options for rural Karnataka in India

The main objective of this paper is to examine the people's choice of health care provider in rural India and the policy concerns in engenders. This is estimated through the Logit Model by using the rural household survey on health in Karnataka state in India. The study also explores the heuristic approach through observation and informal discussion with rural people about their opinion on existing health care services. The analysis shows that the private health care provider has emerged as the people's choice. However, the choice is significantly linked with socio-economic conditions of the rural people. The discussion suggests that policy makers in India should take serious note of the growing popularity of the private sector in providing health care services, and that it would be advisable to opt for a private-public mix for regulatory and supportive policy interventions. This would inevitably promote this sector's viable and appropriate development

Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World

An impassioned call to heal the wounds of our planet and ourselves through the tenets of our spiritual traditions. Maathai draws inspiration from many faiths, celebrating and renewing their mandates to repair the world. It is so easy, in our modern world, to feel disconnected from the physical earth. Despite dire warnings and escalating concern over the state of our planet, many people feel out of touch with the natural world. Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai has spent decades working with the Green Belt Movement to help women in rural Kenya plant--and sustain--millions of trees. With their hands in the dirt, these women often find themselves empowered and at home in a way they never did before. Maathai wants to impart that feeling to everyone, and believes that the key lies in traditional spiritual values: love for the environment, self-betterment, gratitude and respect, and a commitment to service. While educated in the Christian tradition, Maathai draws inspiration from many faiths, celebrating the Jewish mandate tikkun olam ( repair the world ) and renewing the Japanese term mottainai ( don\u27t waste ). Through rededication to these values, she believes, we might finally bring about healing for ourselves and the earth. --Publisher\u27s description.https://scholar.dominican.edu/cynthia-stokes-brown-books-big-history/1089/thumbnail.jp

Determinants of cost efficiency of public and private hospitals of Karnataka in India

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the determinants of cost efficiency of public and private hospitals of Karnataka State in India. This is estimated\ud through the parametric (stochastic frontier) and nonparametric (data envelopment) methods by using the Hospitals Facility Survey (2004) in Karnataka. The findings indicate that the choice of methods did not make any\ud significant difference in the results and they are robust. The analysis infers that (a) hospitals (both public and private together in the analysis) are cost inefficient\ud in the State, which is due to technical and allocative system of resources of the hospitals; (b) the private hospitals appear relatively less inefficient than the public\ud hospitals; and (c) the main determinants of the technical and allocative inefficiencies of the public hospitals are inappropriate interventions of inpatient days care, share of medical personnel, beds capacity, quality indices, and choice of the locations; while in the case of private hospitals, it relates only to beds capacity and quality indices. It emphasizes that hospitals need to maintain the\ud quality of healthcare services under the emerging competitive environment in the State; otherwise, it would be subject to financial vulnerability since private\ud hospitals highly depend on the user fee payment of the patients. Need based financing through "capitation fee" and an effective alternative payment mechanisms such as user fee with a protected social justice criteria for poor in\ud the public hospitals are the worth considering options in the State

Willingness to pay for rural health insurance through community participation in India

The main objective of this article is to examine the willingness to pay for a viable rural health insurance scheme through community participation in India, and the policy concerns it engenders. The willingness to pay for a rural health insurance scheme through community participation is estimated through a contingent valuation approach (logit model), by using the rural household survey on health from Karnataka State in India. The results show that insurance/saving schemes are popular in rural areas. In fact, people have relatively good knowledge of insurance schemes (especially life insurance) rather than saving schemes. Most of the people stated they are willing to join and pay for the proposed rural health insurance scheme. However, the probability of willingness to join was found to be greater than the probability of willingness to pay. Indeed, socio-economic factors and physical accessibility to quality health services appeared to be significant determinants of willingness to join and pay for such a scheme. The main justification for the willingness to pay for a proposed rural health insurance scheme are attributed from household survey results: (a) the existing government health care provider's services is not quality oriented; (b) is not easily accessible; and, (c) is not cost effective.\ud \ud The discussion suggests that policy makers in India should take serious note of the growing influence of the private sector and people's willingness to pay for organizing a rural health insurance scheme to provide quality and efficient health care in India. Policy interventions in health should not ignore private sector existence and people's willingness to pay for such a scheme and these two factors should be explicitly involved in the health management process. It is also argued that regulatory and supportive policy interventions are inevitable to promote this sector's viable and appropriate development in organizing a health insurance scheme