Making Globalisation Inclusive of People: A Trade Union Prespective

The greatest tragedy is to treat the unequal as equal”, says Aristotle. In a different perspective, similar concerns have found an echo centuries later—” the free play of market forces between unequal trading partners would only punish poorer commodity exporters at the same time as it brings advantages to the rich industrial countries”.1 New modalities of participation for developing countries in the trading system were suggested decades ago to attack the persistent trade imbalance and to create essential external conditions for accelerating the rate of economic growth. These included: (1) guaranteeing price stabilisation and improving market access for primary exports; (2) allowing greater policy space to develop local industries and reducing barriers to their exports; (3) establishing more appropriate terms of accession to the multilateral system, and (4) reducing the burden of debt-servicing. The developments as unfolded over the years, and more so since 1990s, are found as largely drifting away from these assertions of yester years. Market access to the agricultural products still has to materialise. Greater policy space to developing countries almost stands abandoned. Debt burden of the developing poor countries, the HIPC initiative notwithstanding, remains at volatile level.

The Formation Process for Civil Society in Northeast Thailand: A Social Research Case Study of Two Villages

Using a process-oriented methodology, this paper examines the ongoing interdependent processes of both macro and micro civil society using a case-study undertaken in two villages in Northern Thailand. Two forms of civil society are theoretically defined and examined in this paper. The first form, ‘grass-roots’ civil society, was formed in Thoongpong of the villager’s own initiative. The second form, ‘top-down’ civil society, was created in the village of Phandon through government initiative. Survey data collected shows that following the government instability and subsequent lack of continuous support for village civil society groups and projects, the politically autonomous and independently formed ‘grass-roots’ civil society of Thoongpong has continued to thrive in contrast to the ‘top-down’ civil society of Phandon, which has dried up without continued government support. While further research into this subject is necessary, it is the author’s opinion that given the current Thai political climate, ‘grass-roots’ civil society is more sustainable in rural Thailand and should thus be promoted more than ‘top-down’ civil society projects at present

Poor tolerance of beta-blockers by elderly patients with heart failure

Despite the well-understood importance of beta-blocker therapy in heart failure, it is sometimes not possible to use beta-blockers in elderly patients due to poor tolerance. In this report, we describe the case of an 83-year-old patient with severe systolic heart failure complicated by aortic valve stenosis and atrial fibrillation. A simple therapeutic approach involving discontinuation of beta-blockers remarkably alleviated the symptoms such as left ventricular ejection fraction, and improved the chest radiography and laboratory findings; further, atrial fibrillation converted to sinus rhythm. It is important to carefully administer beta-blocker therapy to elderly patients with heart failure, especially after considering cardiac output

Community Organizations in Mangrove Forest Management, Paklok Bay, Phuket, Thailand.

This paper focuses on the foundation and the role of community organizations and mangrove forest management in the area of Paklok Bay, Phuket, Thailand. The research was quality research, by interviewing, observation, and using documentary. The study result was found that the foundation of community organization can be classified in two step. The first step, beginning to realize the problems of deterioration of mangrove forest after severe trespassing of economy for trade, and then jointly established conservation group. The second step, making the stability to members and villagers. Role of community organization there are 2 kinds of organization, that are direct managing organization such as coastal resources reservative organization and youth club and indirect managing organization, making the stability that villagers such as saving group, rice group, etc. Keywords: community organization, mangrove forest management, Paklok Ba

Does the change of educational strategy for chest compression based on the change of guidelines affect on the quality of prehospital chest compression?

Background and Aims. International guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) changed their strategy with respect to the rate of chest compression (CC) and ventilation from 15:2 to 30:2. The object of this study was to clarify the effect of this change on the quality of CPR. Subjects and Methods. We recorded the frequency of CC and ventilation performed by Emergency Life Support Technicians (ELSTs) during CPR in ambulances, and compared the period when ELSTs performed 15:2 CPR with that when they performed 30:2 CPR. Results. During the first period, ELSTs actually performed CCs 15 times per 7.2 sec (128.1 times per minute), and performed 2 ventilations per 4.5 sec. Thirty-six percent of patients received appropriate CCs (100-120/min), while 43% received high-frequency CCs (120-150/min) and 13% received CCs that were too fast (more than 150/min). During the second period, ELSTs performed CCs 30 times per 18.1 sec (101.6 times per minute), and performed 2 ventilations per 4.3 sec. Conclusions. The change in the CC-to-ventilation ratio for CPR in the international guidelines from 15:2 to 30:2 can improve the exactness of the frequency of CCs. However, ELSTs may not be able to perform CCs exactly as recommended. It is important to evaluate the exact frequency of CCs by ELSTs or paramedics in ambulances and to evaluate the relationship between the frequency of CCs and patient outcome

SOS Message Distribution for Searching Disaster Victims

This chapter presents the design and implementation of the SOSCast application which enables SOS message distribution for searching victims in a disaster-damaged area. During catastrophic disasters such an earthquake or tsunami, people may be injured or trapped in fallen buildings and debris. In situations like these, it is critical that rescue operations must be done within the first 72 h to save many lives. It is also during these events where communication infrastructures are severely damaged, and thus, makes it difficult for victims to ask for help due to the absence of communication channels. By using the SOSCast application in such scenario, victims are able to exchange SOS messages automatically by communicating directly among smartphones with less operation. By collecting these SOS messages, rescuers can find the existences of the victims as mapped on their smartphones. We have shown in our preliminary experiment within a residential area that SOSCast is capable of determining the existence of a propagator based on the collected SOS messages