Historical Material in Maurice Gee's The Fire-Raiser

Award-winning New Zealand writer, Maurice Gee, has written five realistic novels for children, each set during a defining period in New Zealand history. This essay examines Gee’s use in The Fire-Raiser of historical material, particularly that related to Nelson Central School and its lively headmaster, F. G. Gibbs. Through his accurate reproduction of precise detail Gee vividly evokes small-town New Zealand during World War I. But Gee also adapts historical material in order to pursue his ideal of balance.Vivien van Rij is a lecturer in Victoria University's Faculty of Education, specialising in children's literature and literacy.Correspondence about this article may be directed to the author at [email protected]

Non-isothermal flux penetration in type II superconductors

The development of thermal instabilities in a single niobium crystal has been studied experimentally under various external conditions. The observed flux jump behaviour cannot be explained in terms of existing theoretical models. A new model, taking account of surface currents only, is introduced. The results of model calculations agree well with the experimental results

Zicht op het venster

rede Afscheidsrede Prof. dr. G. van Rij hoogleraar Oogheelkunde Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Uitgesproken 19 november 201

Improving Institutions for Green Landscapes in Metropolitan Areas

Improving Institutions for Green Landscapes in Metropolitan Areas investigates how various institutions for green landscapes in metropolitan areas work, which problems hamper them, and how these institutions can be improved. Themes, theories and methods have been selected as a response to the case studies. The following themes were formulated: landscape and institutional developments, the market or government dilemma, the network or hierarchy dilemma, the relation between spatial planning and land development, and Slow Planning and incremental institutional change. Except from the Flemish Park Forest Ghent project, a reflection case, this research examined the Dutch situation and in particular the land consolidation and contemporary developments in Midden-Delfland, the cross-subsidy approach in the Bloemendalerpolder and the National Landscape Laag Holland. The most important methodological recommendation for research in the field of planning, law and economics is to use a multi-theory approach and to select methodology and theory based on the case study data

Towards a New Human Trafficking Strategy: Proactivity at the Heart of the Ps Paradigm

For years the main approach in the fight against human trafficking has been that of the four P paradigm. Prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnerships have been leading the way for many working in the field of anti-human trafficking. Prevention being the primary goal as the anti-trafficking movement aims for a total eradication of the crime itself. Protection is aimed at strengthening the position of the victim by reducing risk and by making resocialisation possible. Improving the success rate of the prosecution of human traffickers should help deter the crime from happening and foresee in reparations for the victims involved. Partnerships are a means as human trafficking is a crime that effects all and therefore all should take responsibility in the fight against human trafficking. Even though this paradigm shapes the fight against human trafficking, the effects differ over time and location but the (positive) effects are seemingly decreasing. The crime of human trafficking, due to the legal construction of its definition, continues changing strategies fuelled by international advising bodies, change in leadership and challenges in focus requires necessary adaptivity in vision and work in order to remain successful in the fight against human trafficking. One of the ways to adapt is to have a better information position on how human trafficking in its many types manifests itself within society. This can be done by explaining the applied modus operandi, assessing the nature and extend of the crime and continuously rethinking the effectivity of prevention and prosecution. In that sense the four P paradigm needs a well-earned update which conceptualizes the possibilities of the implementation of the four P paradigm in practice by using the knowledge of the results and effects from the past. The way forward is that of bringing the four P paradigm out of its reactive way of how it is currently being implemented and used and by applying pro-activity at the centre of each of the four Ps to renew their worth and move back to the initial goals of the paradigm, knowingly that of an effective comprehensive integrated approach to fight human trafficking. To support this step forward, this article examines each of the four Ps and tries to take them out of the reactive way in which they are currently being used and into a proactive implementation of thoughts, ideas and methods for different partners involved in the fight against human trafficking. This article discusses the necessity of the change to a proactive approach in support of the goals of the Ps paradigm and by using practical examples it tries to give insight in what is possible within the current conditions and available means. At the same time, it gives constructive criticism of some fundamental elements within the fight against human trafficking and the use of the four P paradigm

From the Personal to the Political, Religious, and a Vision of Socialism in Maurice Gee’s Orchard Street, a New Zealand Novel for Children

This article considers Orchard Street, a novel for children by award-winning New Zealand author, Maurice Gee, and his use of history in depicting New Zealand during the 1951 conflict between the Waterside Workers, and the ship-owners and National government. The article focuses first on Gee’s childhood during the 1940s in Henderson, West Auckland, and on Newington Road where he and his family lived as a model for the creation of Orchard Street. It then looks at the integration of the 1951 conflict into this realistic setting, and Gee’s charging of the street with a political significance. A self-proclaimed socialist, Gee is firmly on the side of the Wharfies, as is his protagonist, the thirteen-year old Ossie Dye who is on the brink of adulthood, and faced with difficult choices. While supporting his parents’ socialist ideals, and delivering illegal propaganda at night, Ossie imagines he is the solitary American cowboy, Zane Grey’s Lone Star Ranger (p. 13), and excludes the lonely Bike Pike from his gang of friends. The article briefly examines Gee’s use of an older Ossie as the first person narrator who, looking back from 1991 to the 1951 conflict, forms a circular frame that modifies its depiction. Also considered is the influence of neo-liberalism and the social and political reforms of the 1980s-1990s on Gee’s writing. The article finally argues that the multi-layered timeframe and geometrical structure of the novel are evidence not only of the author’s preoccupation with division but, more predominantly, of his socialist ideology and search for wholeness and balance