Ebola and War in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Avoiding Failure and Thinking Ahead

The Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is exceptionally dangerous, occurring within active armed conflict and geopolitical volatility, including a million displaced persons. With 421 cases, 240 deaths, and the numbers increasing, this Ebola outbreak is the second deadliest in history. Recent spread to Butembo, home to 1.2 million people, raised concerns. The DRC, World Health Organization (WHO), and partners are leading a vigorous international response, yet despite deploying an experimental vaccine, cases doubled in October 2018 and many cases had unknown origin. Uncontrolled Ebola outbreaks can expand quickly, as occurred in West Africa in 2014. Averting that outcome in the DRC requires rapid action including a strengthened public health response, security, and community outreach. If violence escalates, it could compromise a fragile response. Yet resources are insufficient. The United States and other countries are not permitting personnel deployment to the epicenter, including from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and US Agency for International Development (USAID). In this Viewpoint, we review recommendations of experts convened by Georgetown University and listed at the end of this article. The United States and international community should launch high-level political mobilization, with diplomatic, human, and economic resources. It is critical to recognize that future health crises will occur in fragile, insecure settings. To prepare, the international community needs long-term planning and enhanced capacities to improve the safety and effectiveness of epidemic response operations

Is New Hampshire\u27s climate warming?

This Carsey brief looks at temperature anomalies across New Hampshire and shows that not only is the state warmer than it has been in the past, but it is also warming faster than much of the planet. Sociologist Lawrence Hamilton, research associate professor Cameron Wake, and former NH state climatologist Barry Keim analyzed over 100 years of temperatures across the state to produce this data for the Carsey Institute in August 2010

International Englishes, Dialects and Glocalized Englishes: Translanguaging in South Korea

English has spread across the world as the language of business, education, science and travel. Americans, British and other native speakers living in Inner Circle countries speak English as a Native Language (ENL). Nigerians, Jamaicans, Singaporeans and others living in Outer Circle countries speak ‘World Englishes (WEs)’, but what do Koreans, Chinese, Japanese and others living in the Expanding Circle speak? Koreans learn English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) but they also speak Konglish, and they can see and hear English in Korean music, advertisements and products, indicating that English is not really a ‘foreign’ language. They often do better at communication with Chinese or Japanese business contacts than native speakers who do not know how to modify their English. In this dissertation I introduce the concepts of ‘Glocalized Englishes (GEs)’, ‘English as a Glocalized Language (EGL)’ and ‘International Englishes (IEs)’ to account for the relationships between different varieties of English. GEs cover Konglish, Chinglish, Janglish, and other hybrid languages which emerge through translanguaging in Expanding Circle countries. EGL expands the simple binary of ESL/EFL, and IEs describe the modified languages of native speakers and fluent English learners that are used for international communication. I propose a Pyramid Continuum model to represent these languages, with GEs on the bottom with the narrowest usability, ENL and WEs in the middle with moderate usability, and IEs on the top with the widest possible usability. I demonstrate how language ideologies coalesce together to form indexical configurations of EFL and EGL. The case study focusses on a South Korean university and includes taped interviews, written homework assignments, a survey on taking an English name, over 10 years of participant observation, and an analysis of the ‘linguascape’: the linguistic soundscape in videos of buildings and streets, and the linguistic landscape in photographs of buildings, streets, products, road signs, public literature and graffiti. Discussion of future implications include how to do further studies of other GEs, what linguistic features are indicative of IEs, and why language testing must include the recognition and production of IEs