CONTROL OF LAND AND LIFE IN BURMA

The most significant land problems in Burma remain those associated with landlessness, rural poverty, inequality of access to resources, and a military regime that denies citizen rights and is determined to rule by force and not by law. A framework to ensure the sustainable development of land is needed to address social, legal, economic and technical dimensions of land management. This framework can only be created and implemented within and by a truly democratic nation.Agriculture and state -- Burma, Land use, rural--Burma, Land use, rural--Government policy--Burma, Agricultural policy -- Burma, Land administration -- Burma, Agricultural and Food Policy, Land Economics/Use,

‘Semen Contains Vitality and Heredity, Not Germs’: Seminal Discourse in the AIDS Era

Perspectives of public health generally ignore culture-bound sexual health concerns, such as semen loss, and primarily attempt to eradicate sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Like in many other countries, sexual health concerns of men in Bangladesh have also received less attention compared to STIs in the era of AIDS. This paper describes the meanings of non-STI sexual health concerns, particularly semen loss, in the masculinity framework. In a qualitative study on male sexuality, 50 men, aged 18–55 years, from diverse sociodemographic backgrounds and 10 healthcare practitioners were interviewed. Men considered semen the most powerful and vital body fluid representing their sexual performance and reproductive ability. Rather than recognizing the vulnerability to transmission of STIs, concerns about semen were grounded in the desire of men to preserve and nourish seminal vitality. Traditional practitioners supported semen loss as a major sexual health concern where male heritage configures male sexuality in a patriarchal society. Currently, operating HIV interventions in the framework of disease and death may not ensure participation of men in reproductive and sexual health programmes and is, therefore, less likely to improve the quality of sexual life of men and women

Mandalay - city of Buddha, centre of diversity, or whose city now?

Mandalay, a multi-cultural city was a globally connected city in the 19th century. It has undergone many changes since its creation (occupation by British and Japanese) isolation during the socialist reign and now is in the process of another grand cultural re-formation through the work of the military ruling elite who seek to promote the ‘real Myanmar cultural heritage’. This paper aims to understand and expose the multiple cultural heritages of Mandalay as identified and described in the terms of the contemporary residents of the city. It is proposed that while the distinct and characteristically unique Burmese feature of Mandalay lies in its universal Buddhist peaceful potential, its complex multiplicity of life’s meanings, and its impermanence,Mandalay now represents a city of many separate lives as a result of a brief 150 years of transformations.The paper concludes that the complexity of urban cultural heritage demonstrates that no one simplistic perspective of urban identity makes sense for Mandalay. Life here is a tangle of an elusive cultural heritag

Australia Limits Refuge for the Refugee

Antonio Guterres (2008), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) characterized the twenty-first century as one of mass movements of people, within and beyond their borders, escaping conflicts and upheavals. War and human rights violations propel millions of people beyond their borders searching for safety. Climate change, environmental degradation, and economic instability prompt many to search for better life opportunities. Attempts by governments to devise policies to pre-empt, direct, manage, prevent these movements have been erratic. Australia, for example has implemented a series of laws to control movement of asylum seekers, prevent their access to Australia, while choosing a quota driven number of people from refugee camps. Uniquely in the developed world Australia ignores international human rights laws and puts all asylum seekers in mandatory detention. Some countries claim ethnic or religious conflict, national security, or upsetting the population balance due to lack of tolerance among citizens. Politicians appear to believe that being tough on refugees makes their own populations feel more secure. Whatever the reason for nonadmittance, refugees are often denied their internationally recognized human rights forced into desperate lives in refugee camps or in detention centres where they are unable to move, to work, or to enjoy any freedoms. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT

A restricted image of man

Résumé : Conçue traditionnellement comme une science positive, la géographie se veut maintenant plus critique et plus réfléchie. La présente étude se penche sur ce changement de conception. Depuis Descartes la logique de la science reposait uniquement sur la connaissance des phénomènes ou des objets mesurables. La biologie n'a pas pu émerger comme science de l'homme; elle ne se préoccupait pas des réalités bioanthropologiques, parce qu'elle ne considérait pas les questions de significations, de valeurs, et encore moins d'éthique. Une scission s'est donc développée entre la pensée objective, technique, logique, empirique et la pensée mystique, magique et imaginaire. Avec Comte, l'homme est devenu le sujet de la science sociale. Mais la méthode employée a éliminé tout ce qui le caractérise pour faire ressortir sa seule rationalité. Les fondements de son existence (l'ontologie) se virent remplacés par une insistance sur la façon d'appréhender l'environnement (l'épistémologie) propre aux sciences naturelles. C'est à ce moment qu'apparut la distinction entre sciences et humanités. L'étude retrace les racines positivistes de la pensée géographique en Grande Bretagne, en France, en Allemagne et en Amérique du Nord. Elle avance l'hypothèse que la géographie traditionnelle a eu tendance à adopter une perspective de "génie social", avec le résultat qu'elle se fondait sur une conception de l'homme et de son univers beaucoup trop étriquée. Le géographe aborde le paysage culturel par le biais d'interaction entre l'homme et son environnement physique. L'auteur examine un certain nombre de façons d'étudier le paysage élaborées dans les pays mentionnés précédemment. Ces travaux aboutirent à des formes de pensée plus humanistes. L'homme et son environnement sont souvent présentés comme des réalités distinctes. Les géographes sous l'influence de la psychologie de la Gestald ont tenté de mettre au point une approche plus "subjective" de l'homme. L'auteur fait une critique de quelques études de perception et de comportement spatial et dégage leur signification pour une meilleure compréhension du rôle créateur de l'homme dans le monde. Toute réflexion sur le monde nous oblige à le décrire en quelque sorte et à l'enfermer dans des catégories mentales. L'homme prête une objectivité au monde avant d'entrer en relation avec lui, et dès qu'il entre en relation, il s'en sépare par le fait même. Les géographes continuent d'explorer les significations données à l'espace, ainsi que les rapports existant entre elles, de façon à comprendre leur impact sur le paysage. Elles sont à la base de l'importance des relations d'espace, des visions personnelles de l'espace et de l'interprétation que fait l'homme de la terre comme son habitat. L'approche existentialiste ouvre la porte à un choix d'images de l'homme plus vaste. Les descriptions subjectives et l'interprétation de paysages en littérature et dans les arts constituent des contributions valables à l'étude humaniste de l'espace. En révélant les diverses facettes de l'expérience humaine, l'art sert les fins de la géographie. Il établit un équilibre entre le subjectif et l'objectif et présente un modèle de synthèse pour la pensée géographique. Si, la géographie parvient à pénétrer les dimensions plus profondes, comme l'esthétique, le sentimental et le symbolique, elle disposera d'une base méthodologique plus étendue et donnera une image enrichie de l'utilisation de l'espace par l'homme..||Abstract : The author examines the transition in geography from a traditional and a positive conception of science to a more critical, reflective one. The logic of science, at least since Descartes, demanded knowledge only of phenomena or quantitatively measurable objects and not consider transcendent meanings, values, or ethics. Comtean or positivist social science made man the center of study. The method used to understand man removed all human characteristics except rationality. Man was studied as a product of the en-vironment, (physical or social). Questions of meaning and purpose of existence were not a matter of concern for science, but for religion, philosophy, the arts. The nature of being (ontology) was replaced by an emphasis on the method of knowledge (epistemology) of the natural sciences. A split occurred between explanation and wisdom, and between object and subject. A major distinction developed between the sciences and the humanities. The author traces positivistic roots of geographic thought in Britain, France, Germany and North America. The thesis is that geography has tended toward a social engineering' approach which results in a too restricted view of man and his world. The cultural landscape has been studied by geographers as the interaction of humans with their physical environment. The author pursues different approaches to landscape study. More humanistic forms of thought developed with these approaches. Man and his environment were often studied as separate entities. Due to the influence of gestalt psychology geographers attempted a subjective research by studying man directly. The author discusses some environmental perception and behavioural studies and the implications for a deeper understanding of man's creative role in the world. We cannot think about the world without describing it in some way, and making categories. Man objectifies the world, then starts relationships with it. To have a human relationship is to indicate a separation. Geogra-phers continue to explore meanings of space, their interrelationships and to understand their impacts on the landscape. All of these meanings deter-mine the significance of spatial relations, personal views of space and man's interpretation of the earth as his home. The existentialist approach offers the choice of a wider image of man. The subjective descriptions, meanings of landscape in literature and art are valid contributions to a humanistic, geographic study of space. Art serves the geographer by exposing possible modes of human experience and relationships. It offers a balance between the subjective and objective as a model for geographic synthesis. If geography delves into wider aspects of study (aesthetic, sentimental, symbolic), the results could be a broadened methodological base and a richer image of the human use of the earth