The Things We Carry

A soldier’s wife describes the burdens of silence and heartache. Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences of military experience so both writer and audience may benefit

Sending Our Petitions to God : Nigerian Immigrant Healthcare Worker Settlement, Gender and the Role of Religious Networks

This paper provides a brief overview of a study aimed at understanding the lived experiences of health care migrants from Nigeria now living in Canada and their individual perceptions regarding their migration experience. We report here on an interesting finding of the research that highlights how Nigerian women migrants cope with the isolating effects of migration of resettlement through a profound attachment to spirituality and religious community networks

Colonial Figures: Memories of Street Traders in the Colonial and Early Post-colonial Periods

This article explores post-colonial memories about street traders among individuals who lived in the former colony of the Dutch East Indies. It argues that these narratives romanticize the relationship between Europeans and indigenous peoples. Street vendors are also used to differentiate between periods within colonial and post-colonial history. The nostalgic representation of interracial contact between Europeans and traders is contrasted with representations of other figures such as the Japanese and the nationalist. A recurring feature of these representations is the ability of Europeans to speak with street traders and imagine what they wanted and needed. The traders are remembered as a social type that transgressed politics and represented the neutrality of the economic sphere as a place for shared communication. The article concludes that the figure of the street vendor contributes to the nostalgic reinvention of the colony but is also used in narratives to differentiate between and mark changes across the colonial and post-colonial periods

Creative Women in Advertising Agencies: Why So Few “Babes in Boyland”?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore reasons why there are so few women in creative departments of advertising agencies and to discuss what impact that might have on the work environment of those creative departments and advertising messages they create. Design/methodology/approach – Provides a review of published research and plus opinions of professionals who cover the advertising industry or work in agency creative departments. Personal observations from the authors’ time working in the advertising industry are also included. Findings – Themes gleaned from the literature look at the gender gap, the creative department of advertising agencies as an “old-boys network,” reasons why women leave creative jobs, and why advertising targeting women as consumers is so bad. Practical implications – Women opt out of advertising agencies for any number of reasons – more than just having babies. Keeping women’s voices in creative departments would give a better balance to the messages agencies create. Originality/value – Changing creative departments to be more accommodating and flexible to women’s needs might not only make them better for women, but also better for men and for families. In addition, the messages from those creative departments may be more compelling to consumers

Visual Layout of Print Questionnaires: Effect on Responses of Middle School Students

A three-page questionnaire was modified to a one-page format. Questionnaires were administered in classroom groups to 300 middle school students. Classrooms were randomly divided into two groups, with one group receiving the original three-page format and the other receiving a single-page version of the same questionnaire. The visual layout of the two versions was different, and included variations in font, placement of response options, and spacing. Item non-response was greater for the single-page format. No statistically significant differences were detected between response patterns or internal consistency of the two versions of the questionnaire. Implications for school counselors are discussed

Voluntary Contributions to Personal Pension Plans: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey

In this paper, we use data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) for the years 1992 to 1998 to study the determinants of saving in the form of voluntary contributions to personal pension plans (PPPs). We first estimate a probit model with selection for the probability of making these voluntary contributions. We then estimate a random-effects tobit regression for the amounts contributed and compare the results with those of a similar regression for conventional saving. Our findings suggest that voluntary contributions to PPPs are made essentially for retirement purposes, whereas conventional saving is undertaken for precautionary motives. The former type of saving is thus unlikely to offset the latter completely.

The Fragile Balance of Power and Leadership

The aim of this article is to first define effective leadership and power, highlighting the differences between the two. The focal point is that power and effective leadership are not interchangeable and should not be treated as such. Power is a tool while effective leadership is a skill. Simply because a person wields power does not necessarily mean that he or she is an effective leader. Conversely, we will discuss how a leader is unquestionably endowed with a certain degree of power in order to maintain that particular position. Finally, because leaders have power at their disposal, we will explore ways in which power can negatively affect a leader, rendering that individual largely ineffective and exposing the extremely fragile relationship between these two terms

Removing Maturity Effects of Implied Risk Neutral Densities and Related Statistics

When studying a time series of implied Risk Neutral Densities (RNDs) or other implied statistics, one is faced with the problem of maturity dependence, given that option contracts have a fixed expiry date. Therefore, estimates from consecutive days are not directly comparable. Further, we can only obtain implied RNDs for a limited set of expiration dates. In this paper we introduce two new methods to overcome the time to maturity problem. First, we propose an alternative method for calculating constant time horizon Economic Value at Risk (EVaR), which is much simpler than the method currently being used at the Bank of England. Our method is based on an empirical scaling law for the quantiles in a log-log plot, and thus, we are able to interpolate and extrapolate the EVaR for any time horizon. The second method is based on an RND surface constructed across strikes and maturities, which enables us to obtain RNDs for any time horizon. Removing the maturity dependence of implied RNDs and related statistics is useful in many applications, such as in (i) the construction of implied volatility indices like the VIX, (ii) the assessment of market uncertainty by central banks (iii) time series analysis of EVaR, or (iv) event studies.