Asia-Pacific news

This column provides a country by country analysis of the latest legal developments, cases and issues relevant to the IT, media and telecommunications' industries in key jurisdictions across the Asia-Pacific region. The articles appearing in this column are intended to serve as ‘alerts’ and are not submitted as detailed analyses of cases or legal developments.     

Asia-Pacific news

This column provides a country by country analysis of the latest legal developments, cases and issues relevant to the IT, media and telecommunications' industries in key jurisdictions across the Asia Pacific region. The articles appearing in this column are intended to serve as ‘alerts’ and are not submitted as detailed analyses of cases or legal developments.     

DOMAIN NAMES — HONG KONG: DOMAINS OF THE DAY: PROPOSALS FOR THE OVERHAUL OF THE ADMINISTRATION AND ASSIGNMENT OF DOMAIN NAMES IN HONG KONG

This article explains the proposed overhaul of the domain name system in Hong Kong and what further needs to be done before the plans can be implemented.     

Parent-child attachment working models and self-esteem in adolescence

The degree of continuity over time in the quality of parent-child attachments and the relationship between these attachments and current self-esteem was investigated. Subjects were 218 nonparent college students. The attachment working model styles were determined by modified versions of two attachment measures. Epstein's Mother-Father-Peer Scale of 1983 yielded separate scores for independence-encouraging and acceptance, and Hazan and Shaver's 1987 Rocky Mountain Survey indicated secure, avoidant, or ambivalent attachment patterns. Self-esteem was measured by Coopersmith's Self-Esteem Inventory of 1967. Data collected indicated support for Bowlby's 1988 theory of continuity over time of attachment. Self-esteem was related to both childhood and adolescent working model styles of attachment and to the dimensions of independence-encouraging and acceptance. The two attachment measures were related. Subjects who classified their parent-child attachment as secure rated their parents as high in independence-encouraging and acceptance.This paper is based, in part, on the first author's thesis for the M.A. degree at Georgia Southern University. Portions of this paper were presented at the Biennial Conference on Human Development, Atlanta, Georgia, April 1992.Received M.A. in psychology from Georgia Southern University in 1991. Major research interests include attachment theory and nontraditional students.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Georgia State University in 1980. Primary research interests are social competence development, peer relations, and mother-child attachment.     

The Politics of Land Acquisition in Haryana: Managing Dominant Caste Interests in the Name of Development

ABSTRACT

Anti-Special Economic Zone (SEZ) mobilisation in Haryana failed to generate a mass movement. This is despite the political strength of farmers and their deep resentment of the government’s policy to build up land reserves for industrial purposes. This article argues that there are two main reasons for this outcome. First, the state government put in place a series of significant policies to compensate landowners and give them a stake in the industrial project, primarily through payment of an “annuity.” Second, the main anti-SEZ movements were led by dominant landowning castes who did not incorporate the concerns of landless labourers and tenant farmers who faced equally or even more dire consequences from the government’s land acquisition policy. Moreover, mobilisation relied on traditional caste institutions such as khap panchayats and farmer unions strongly associated with Jats, rather than adopting a more broad-based approach. Entrenched caste animosity and pre-existing conflicts of interest between landed Jats and Dalits, who have traditionally worked as agricultural labourers, further explain the limited scope of the mobilisation among rural groups. The analysis underscores how hierarchical relations shape social movements, define the claims they make and ultimately impact their effectiveness.     

Why we must end insurance discrimination against mental health care

In this Policy Essay, Representative Patrick Kennedy argues that insurance discrimination against those suffering from mental illness constitutes a serious and often overlooked deficiency of the modern American health care system. While the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 was an important step toward resolutions of this issue, many loopholes remain that allow insurance companies to deny much-needed coverage to those suffering from such illnesses. This Essay details how improving access to health insurance for the mentally ill is not only socially beneficial, but also economically sound; the cost of instituting mental health parity is far outweighed by the costs that employers bear because of the reduced productivity of untreated mental illness sufferers. Representative Kennedy recommends that these problems may be addressed by additional mental health policy legislation--specifically, the proposed Paul Wellstone Act.