Overlapping zones of exclusion: carbon markets,corporate hydropower enclaves and timber extraction in Cambodia

ABSTRACT

This contribution looks at the interplay of different logics of governing the environment, resources and people in Cambodia that materialise in overlapping zones of exclusion, thereby co-producing new relations of resource control in a complex frontier constellation: a frontier for water, forest and carbon commodities and also for state control. Focusing on three Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) hydropower dams, the paper analyses a partly unintentional, but significantly consequential coalescence of distinct spaces of governing located in the Cardamom Mountains: a forest conservation zone, the CDM technological zone, an enclaved corporate hydropower zone and a semi-official timber logging zone. While the CDM element has exposed the projects internationally, it has obscured several problematic aspects and dynamics of resource politics connected to the dams that are revealed in this paper. These include the vulnerabilisation of local fisher communities, incarceral labour practices on the dams’ construction sites and accelerated logging in the conservation zone. The paper also shows how the interaction of the studied zones takes place through their distinct mechanisms of exclusion with the effects of more centralised resource control and the bracketing of the associated dispossessions.     

A new approach to upper cervical injuries

Severe injuries to the upper cervical region can be the cause of death. Standard autopsy techniques are inadequate for examination of this area. Therefore a technique has been developed that gives excellent visualization and allows removal of the brain and spinal cord in one piece. With the body prone a midline incision is made from the top of the head to the sacrum. The skull is sawed in a circle from one side of the foramen magnum around the top of the skull to the other side of the foramen magnum. The lamina of the neural arches of the vertebral column are sawed. With the removal of the piece of skull and the posterior portions of the neural arches, the posterior half of the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and entire spinal cord are exposed. The entire brain and spinal cord can be removed as a unit. Cases are selected by history, X-ray examination, or floppy head. Four cases in which this approach has been helpful are briefly mentioned.     

RELIGIOUS MINORITIES IN THE MEDIA SPACE OF THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA

The roots of armed conflicts that spread over the territory of the Former Yugoslavia in 1990＇s had been largely connected with the religious differences among members of the Orthodox Church （Serbs and Montenegrins）, the Catholic Church （Croats） and Muslims （Bosniaks）. During the time of war in the involved States （Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro）, the media significantly contributed to spread hatred and intolerance among religious groups. In the post-war period, the situation has gradually improved. So nowadays, there is a complex network of laws and rules intended to protect and respect the rights of religious minorities in Croatia. Moreover, a wide range of laws regulate the rights of religious minorities access to the Croatian public television and radio. However, despite a well-defined legal framework, religious minorities continue to be dissatisfied with the way the media deal with religion and relevant issues in practice. Their plea for impartial and neutral media is easy to undarstand if we take into consideration the fact that the media have an utmost importance in raising public awarness in the area of rights of religious minorities, the improvement of their status and tolerance of majority population in that respect.     

Reconciling Trade and Culture: A Global Law Perspective

This article provides an overview of the most essential issues in the trade and culture discourse from a global law perspective. It looks into the intensified disconnect between trade and culture and exposes its flaws and the considerable drawbacks that it brings with it. It is argued that these drawbacks become especially pronounced in the digital media environment, which has strongly affected both the conditions of trade with cultural products and services and cultural diversity in local and global contexts. In this modified setting, there could have been a number of feasible “trade and culture” solutions—i.e., regulatory designs that while enhancing trade liberalization are also conducive to cultural policy. Yet, the realization of any of these options becomes chimerical as the line between trade and culture matters is drawn in a clear and resolute manner.     

The Alabama Structured Assessment of Treatment Completion for insanity acquittes (The AlaSATcom)

The most complex and risky decisions made by forensic psychiatrists revolve around the decision to release insanity acquittes from custody. This decision has several levels of risk, including the potential liability to the psychiatrist as well as the possible risk to the community. A single bad outcome, even if not predictable, can have disastrous results, not only for victims, but also for the releasing facility. Since predicting violence has so many problems, we chose to look at completeness of treatment instead, so we could say to the Court, "We don't know about violence, but we do know that he has vastly improved." Since many NGRI (Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity) patients spend years in the hospital, they are also expensive. They have rights, as well; therefore the complex assessment must be done as quickly and as accurately as possible. We have developed a spread sheet program to compare these multiple factors, and have compared it against the clinical decisions we have made in more than 100 discharges. We believe this gives a framework for decision-making that will increase the consistency of this process.     

Intolerance Toward Immigrants in Switzerland: Diminished Threat Through Social Contacts?

Intolerance toward immigrants has recently reached noticeable highs in Switzerland. Referring to the conflict theory, the perception of a specific group as a threat tends to lead to intolerance toward that group. The expectation of a negative relationship between threat and tolerance is nevertheless not assumed to be universally valid for all members of society. In particular, the contact theory assumes that intercultural encounters should promote positive attitudes toward culturally different individuals and groups. Using a new and unique data set, our Heckman selection models reveal that Swiss who view rising immigration to mean a loss of economic privileges and an erosion of Swiss cultural values are less tolerant toward immigrants. Moreover, our results indicate that contact with immigrants may moderate this effect. However, not all group settings are able to reduce the perceived threats in a similar way, and not all sorts of social contact are able to foster tolerance toward immigrants.