The Political Potency of Tibetan Identity in Pop Music and Dunglen

Since their beginnings in the 1980s, Tibetan pop music and dunglen (lute songs of northeastern Tibet) have shown strong expressions of Tibetan identity. They also represent a flourishing area of Tibetan language cultural production. This is significant after the repetitive propaganda songs of the Cultural Revolution and given the pressures and restrictions in Tibet on language and religion in particular. However, in this article, I critique straightforward interpretations of the Tibetanness of Tibetan popular music as representing a zone of assertion or resistance, arguing instead that the political potency of Tibetan pop music and dunglen is far more double-edged, coopted and complex. Drawing on ethnography, I describe how state institutions and largely Tibetan cultural workers have in fact played the leading role in its genesis and production and are still a powerful force in its production and dissemination. Moreover, while it is often said that the state is against Tibetan identity and culture, in fact, the attitude is far more ambivalent and contradictory, with China a unitary multi-ethnic state where 55 minority nationalities with distinct culture and identity are recognized, including Tibetans. I argue through the analysis of song lyrics that expressions of Tibetan identity per se are not censored; rather, it is when these expressions are linked to particular political demands. As I explore, a number of reasons can be identified as to why the state does not censor Tibetan pop music and dunglen more harshly, and furthermore, there are reasons why Tibetan language assertion has had so much more success in the realm of pop music than it has had in schools

Elephants

Existing models of open-access resources are applicable to non-storable resources, such as fish. Many open-access resources, however, are used to produce storable goods. Elephants, rhinos, and tigers are three prominent examples. Anticipated future scarcity of these resources will increase current prices, and current poaching. This implies that, for given initial conditions, there may be rational expectations equilibria leading both to extinction and to survival. Governments may be able to eliminate extinction equilibria by promising to implement tough anti-poaching measures if the population falls below a threshold. Alternatively, they, or private agents, may be able to eliminate extinction equilibria by accumulating a sufficient stockpile of the storable good.

The Role of Seaweed Antimicrobials in Selection for Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotic resistance is quickly becoming one of the biggest modern-day threats to human health. It has not only been observed in the clinic but in natural environments as well. Selection for antimicrobial resistant bacteria in the marine environment has been shown to be driven factors such as low concentrations of antibiotics entering the environment through discharge from wastewater treatment plants and run off from agricultural sites. However, antimicrobial resistance is likely to not be solely due to anthropogenic pollution, as it is an ancient mechanism and has been found in environments with minimal human exposure. Here we investigated whether natural antimicrobial producers, i.e. seaweeds, select for antibiotic resistant bacteria. We used both culture-based and molecular techniques to characterise the bacterial communities associated with different seaweed species, focusing on the human pathogens Vibrio, E. coli and S. aureus. Vibrio was harboured by all the seaweeds tested but E. coli and S. aureus were not. For the first time, we tested if Vibrio isolated from seaweed are locally adapted to their host macroalgae using a novel seaweed media assay. Our results showed Vibrio did not display local adaption. We tested the resistance profiles of bacteria isolated from seaweeds and found Vibrio showed cross-resistance to antibiotics and natural antimicrobial, in the form of methanolic seaweed extracts. We can conclude seaweeds harbour antibiotic resistant bacteria, but specific species of seaweeds do not select for specific antibiotic resistance. We quantified the prevalence of a biomarker for antibiotic resistance, the intI1 gene, and found seaweed select for antibiotic resistant bacteria independent of anthropogenic pollution, suggesting seaweed-associated bacterial resistance is an intrinsic mechanism. Using metagenomics, we characterised possible antimicrobial resistance genes associated with different seaweed species from which we were able identify eflamycin, aminocoumarin and fluoroquinolone resistance genes on all the seaweeds tested. Two of the antibiotic classes are produced by Streptomyces, which is present on seaweeds. Suggesting resistance on seaweeds is selected for by bacterial community or the genes characterised show cross-resistance to seaweed antimicrobials

Crying Out for Two Lords: Sex and Supplication in Wulf and Eadwacer

This article provides a significant reinterpretation of Wulf and Eadwacer, departing from a new understanding of the function of the word eadwacer as an apt compound to refer to the Christian God. This is demonstrated through a survey of compounds that take ead-as their first element elsewhere in the Old English corpus, alongside a discussion of the possible pastoral implications of wacer. The concluding lines of the poem can, consequently, be understood more positively as a prayer of supplication on the part of the speaker, who repudiates her wretched relationship with the inconstant Wulf in favour of intimacy with God, providing the poem with a moment of consolation at its close, as is typical of the Old English elegies more generally. The article concludes with an extrapolation of the argument advanced up this point, in testing this soteriological reading’s productivity in relation to Wulf and Eadwacer’s ambiguous opening lines

DETERMINING THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN FIRST NATIONS SCHOOLS: A COMPARISON OF THE FIRST NATIONS EDUCATION ACT WITH THE POLICY OF THE ASSEMBLY OF FIRST NATIONS

In this article, I explore the incongruence between the federal government’s proposed First Nations Education Act and the approach of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) regarding language and culture education. I also examine research concerning potential outcomes of their approaches to determine what would be most beneficial to learners. Language and culture inclusion in schools has been shown to impact significantly on academic and social outcomes for Aboriginal youth, and there are substantial financial and practical differences involved in creating and maintaining different types of language and culture programs. Therefore, this incongruence is of great practical importance for policy makers and education practitioners.

Scaffolding social and emotional learning within ‘shared affective spaces’ to reduce bullying: A sociocultural perspective

A sociocultural perspective (Vygotsky, 1978) framed the qualitative study, to understand how to create 'shared affective spaces' as an enabling factor to scaffold within the zone of proximal development (ZPD). Social and emotional learning is conceptualised as a social concept, focusing on the collective knowledge of the peer group. The longitudinal study was conducted with thirty-one students 9-10 years of age in a composite Year 4/5 classroom. There were 17 students in the Year 5 cohort drawn from sixty students distributed across four similar classes to cope with volume of antisocial behaviour. The teacher/researcher implemented sociocultural strategies such as the weekly class meetings to scaffold students to make connections with their emotions and the impact of bullying behaviour on the perpetrators and victims. Rogoff's (1995) analytical planes frame the discussion of students' participation and the case study of Lindsay, a Year 5 student who was a bully. Lindsay's journey exemplifies the positive outcomes for teacher scaffolding of understandings about making friends and prosocial behaviour to reduce bullying, using holistic classroom practices that made explicit the affective aspects of learning. Future research is required to develop teachers' expertise in understanding the scaffolding process to enlist students' emotions as an enabling factor

Reporting Values, Partnership with Parents and the Hidden Curriculum: A Qualitative Study

The Australian government funded the West Australian project ‘Reporting Values to Parents’ as part of ‘The Values in Action Schools Project’ (2009). The two aims of the qualitative study were to develop a common values language supported by observable behaviours and an appreciation that values education is fundamental to schooling. Teachers used an action research process to create authentic values activities and involve parents in the assessment process. Parents shifted their perspectives to ratify teachers’ role to teach values explicitly. Students experienced a deeper sense of connection and belonging at school. Educators can adapt the activities in this paper to infuse values into their teaching. Future research is warranted to support and retain preservice teachers by examining the ‘hidden curriculum’ and personal biases to create inclusive classrooms. All students have a right to access an education that reflects their interests and values and teachers need urgent support for this quest