Staging the past: landscape designs, cultural identity and Erinnerungspolitik at Berlin’s Neue Wache

The controversies surrounding the re-establishment of a national memorial in Berlin, the Neue Wache, are examined to discuss the process of public memory. After unification, West German media continued to define public debate. ‘Established’ interest groups (politicians, victims, historical experts and citizen groups) were included in media discussions whereas others (East Germans, marginalized groups) were not. Criticisms about the function, form and ‘forgetfulness’ of the memorial reflected West German memory politics (Erinnerungspolitik) about the historical uses of: national institutions, religious (but not gendered) national symbols, and social categories of victim and perpetrator. In response to criticisms, a plaque was added to the memorial. Locally, activists created inclusive spaces to address critically the meaning of the National Socialist past in contemporary landscapes. The memorial is thus both a material object and a site of negotiation; it remains ‘entangled’ with the ongoing creation of historical narratives, official visions, local memories and cultural productions

Wounded Cities: Memory Work and a Place-Based Ethics of Care

‘Project Prometeo: Acts I & II’, downtown Bogotá, December 2002 and 2003 A man in his late thirties wearing a tuxedo walks onto a stage with a lit torch. He sits down, sentinel-like as if at a doorway stoop, and begins to light matches. We are seated outdoors at night in downtown Bogotá; candles and spotlights illuminate the figures of the performers who move across a ‘stage’ in a very large empty field. Furniture brought in or improvised by the actors suggests rooms in now empty houses that once were occupied. Around the ‘stage’, former streets are marked out with candles in white paper bags. Behind the performers, two very large screens, each more than three-storeys high, project images and sound recordings of the neighborhood that once existed here, known locally as El Cartucho, as well as images of Project Prometeo: Act II as it is being performed (Fig. 1). The videos and sounds of El Cartucho include on-site interviews with residents, historical images, maps, and scenes of destruction

Staging the past: landscape designs, cultural identity and Erinnerungspolitik at Berlin’s Neue Wache

The controversies surrounding the re-establishment of a national memorial in Berlin, the Neue Wache, are examined to discuss the process of public memory. After unification, West German media continued to define public debate. ‘Established’ interest groups (politicians, victims, historical experts and citizen groups) were included in media discussions whereas others (East Germans, marginalized groups) were not. Criticisms about the function, form and ‘forgetfulness’ of the memorial reflected West German memory politics (Erinnerungspolitik) about the historical uses of: national institutions, religious (but not gendered) national symbols, and social categories of victim and perpetrator. In response to criticisms, a plaque was added to the memorial. Locally, activists created inclusive spaces to address critically the meaning of the National Socialist past in contemporary landscapes. The memorial is thus both a material object and a site of negotiation; it remains ‘entangled’ with the ongoing creation of historical narratives, official visions, local memories and cultural productions

Walls, Borders, Boundaries

Walls are built and then fall, borders are fortified and then shift, boundaries are demarcated and then transgressed. And then they are constructed all over again. As (post)moderns living in an age of globalization, we weary of our seemingly old-fashioned political and market-oriented boundaries: walls and fences are a nuisance to build and maintain, they invite vandalism and intrusion (rather than guarantee privacy or protection), and public surveys often reveal disapproval of national boundaries for moral, aesthetic, and economic reasons. Indeed, recently erected walls and borders intended to sever communities or fortify political and economic boundaries between neighboring countries rarely solve the underlying political problems; more often they result in increased criminal activity, violence, and alienation

Waiting ‘For the City to Remember’: Archive and Repertoire in ANU’s These Rooms

Walking from North King Street in Dublin's inner city, we arrived on Upper Dorset Street at the performance venue, the historic birthplace of Irish playwright Sean O'Casey. We bumped into Louise Lowe and 0wen Boss, artistic directors of ANU Productions who, in collaboration with artistic director of CoisCeim Dance Theatre, David Bolger, created These Rooms, the performance we had come to see. As the production was about to start, we headed to the fiont door to collect our tickets

Troubling national commemoration in Dublin, London and Liverpool: ANU Production and CoisCéim Dance Theatre’s These Rooms

The cultural production These Rooms challenged traditional nationalistic commemorations of war and rebellion during the ‘Decade of the Centenaries’. Created by the Dublin-based ANU Productions and CoisCéim Dance Theatre, and funded by the Irish and UK governments, this series of theatre/dance performances, installations and public outreach projects in unconventional urban venues ran from 2016 to 2019 in Dublin, London and Liverpool, cities with mixed British and Irish populations. Fragmentary, embodied stories about the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin communicated the perspectives of working-class Irish civilian women and confused young British soldiers through intimate domestic encounters that productively disrupted heroic narratives. Audiences were instead invited to create temporary communities of encounter and ‘unlearn’ dominant concepts supporting colonial, imperial and national spaces–times. As a critical agonistic artistic intervention, These Rooms offered more inclusive ‘potential histories’ and forms of belonging across political, social and temporal borders during the geopolitically uncertain times associated with Brexit

Embodied Geographies of the Nation

How do artistic practices and knowledges enhance scholarly interrogations of Irish pasts and presents, and contribute to more publicly-minded ways to remember possible futures? This special issue of The Irish Rcuicw, edited and \Vritten by Irish Studies scholars, artists and cultural geographers, builds upon recent work calling attention to the significance of place-based and embodied creative practices that imagine and perform alternative Irelands

Leading Change: Reproductive Rights, Empowerment and Feminist Solidarity in the Dublin Bay North Repeal the 8th Campaign

This article examines how the Dublin Bay North (DBN) Repeal the 8th activist group, an independent women-led, grassroots movement in the largest constituency in Ireland, practiced a collectivist approach to forms of ‘power-with’ and ‘power-to’ (Allen, 2018) that enabled the group to create an activist community based upon a feminist ethics of ‘caring-with’ (Tronto, 1993). In 2018 in Dublin, what had been a narrow majority in 1983 against abortion rights became a decisive 3:1 margin in favour. While this remarkable change can be attributed to the efforts of numerous feminist and reproductive rights activists working for many years, including those tied to the national Together for Yes campaign, less attention has been paid to new activist leaders participating at the grassroots level. This article focuses on the leadership roles adopted by first-time grassroots activists who became ‘team leaders’ and ran decentralised campaigns in their neighbourhoods. Using qualitative analyses of a survey of 125 members (June 2018), 16 semi-structured interviews with DBN team leaders and other key people within the campaign (October 2018 and March 2019), and the authors’ own experiences, we consider how new activists recruited and empowered others to tell their stories, canvass, and lead their own actions

Prenatal fluoride exposure and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in children at 6–12 years of age in Mexico City

Background Epidemiologic and animal-based studies have raised concern over the potential impact of fluoride exposure on neurobehavioral development as manifested by lower IQ and deficits in attention. To date, no prospective epidemiologic studies have examined the effects of prenatal fluoride exposure on behavioral outcomes using fluoride biomarkers and sensitive measures of attention. Objective We aimed to examine the association between prenatal fluoride exposure and symptoms associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Method 213 Mexican mother-children pairs of the Early Life Exposures to Environmental Toxicants (ELEMENT) birth cohort study had available maternal urinary samples during pregnancy and child assessments of ADHD-like behaviors at age 6–12. We measured urinary fluoride levels adjusted for creatinine (MUFcr) in spot urine samples collected during pregnancy. The Conners' Rating Scales-Revised (CRS-R) was completed by mothers, and the Conners' Continuous Performance Test (CPT-II) was administered to the children. Results Mean MUFcr was 0.85 mg/L (SD = 0.33) and the Interquartile Range (IQR) was 0.46 mg/L. In multivariable adjusted models using gamma regression, a 0.5 mg/L higher MUFcr (approximately one IQR higher) corresponded with significantly higher scores on the CRS-R for DSM-IV Inattention (2.84 points, 95% CI: 0.84, 4.84) and DSM-IV ADHD Total Index (2.38 points, 95% CI: 0.42, 4.34), as well as the following symptom scales: Cognitive Problems and Inattention (2.54 points, 95% CI: 0.44, 4.63) and ADHD Index (2.47 points; 95% CI: 0.43, 4.50). The shape of the associations suggested a possible celling effect of the exposure. No significant associations were found with outcomes on the CPT-II or on symptom scales assessing hyperactivity. Conclusion Higher levels of fluoride exposure during pregnancy were associated with global measures of ADHD and more symptoms of inattention as measured by the CRS-R in the offspring

Third generation cephalosporin use in a tertiary hospital in Port of Spain, Trinidad: need for an antibiotic policy

BACKGROUND: Tertiary care hospitals are a potential source for development and spread of bacterial resistance being in the loop to receive outpatients and referrals from community nursing homes and hospitals. The liberal use of third-generation cephalosporins (3GCs) in these hospitals has been associated with the emergence of extended-spectrum beta- lactamases (ESBLs) presenting concerns for bacterial resistance in therapeutics. We studied the 3GC utilization in a tertiary care teaching hospital, in warded patients (medical, surgical, gynaecology, orthopedic) prescribed these drugs. METHODS: Clinical data of patients (≥ 13 years) admitted to the General Hospital, Port of Spain (POSGH) from January to June 2000, and who had received 3GCs based on the Pharmacy records were studied. The Sanford Antibiotic Guide 2000, was used to determine appropriateness of therapy. The agency which procures drugs for the Ministry of Health supplied the cost of drugs. RESULTS: The prevalence rate of use of 3GCs was 9.5 per 1000 admissions and was higher in surgical and gynecological admissions (21/1000) compared with medical and orthopedic (8 /1000) services (p < 0.05). Ceftriaxone was the most frequently used 3GC. Sixty-nine (36%) patients without clinical evidence of infection received 3Gcs and prescribing was based on therapeutic recommendations in 4% of patients. At least 62% of all prescriptions were inappropriate with significant associations for patients from gynaecology (p < 0.003), empirical prescribing (p < 0.48), patients with undetermined infection sites (p < 0.007), and for single drug use compared with multiple antibiotics (p < 0.001). Treatment was twice as costly when prescribing was inappropriate CONCLUSIONS: There is extensive inappropriate 3GC utilization in tertiary care in Trinidad. We recommend hospital laboratories undertake continuous surveillance of antibiotic resistance patterns so that appropriate changes in prescribing guidelines can be developed and implemented. Though guidelines for rational antibiotic use were developed they have not been re-visited or encouraged, suggesting urgent antibiotic review of the hospital formulary and instituting an infection control team. Monitoring antibiotic use with microbiology laboratory support can promote rational drug utilization, cut costs, halt inappropriate 3GC prescribing, and delay the emergence of resistant organisms. An ongoing antibiotic peer audit is suggested