A chocolate-coated case for alternative international business models

Large companies have accelerated their control of the basic commodities markets in the last decade. The author describes what this means for smallholder farmers in the developing world who depend on these markets for some cash income each year. The consequences of the growing power of distributors (the grocery or supermarket chains) and dominant brand-owners are persistent rural poverty and the ideological and economic devaluation of the sustainable and small-scale agricultural production methods that are so essential to the 70 per cent of the world's poor who live in rural areas. The author traces the story of a successful business partnership started in 1992 linking cocoa farmers in West Africa and fair-minded chocolate lovers in the UK and USA. This initiative was launched in the face of direct criticism and harsh competitive pressure from the global chocolate giants, but it has mobilised a new kind of coalition and constituency.     

Dance Films Association is Still Growing

Abstract

Reluctant Bureaucrats: The Struggle to Establish the National Endowment for the Arts Charles Christopher Mark Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall Hunt, 1992, 239 pages, paper $19.95

The Audience for American Art Museums J. Mark Davidson Schuster Research Division Report #23, National Endowment for the Arts Washington: Seven Locks Press, 1991, 46 pages, paper $10.95

21 Voices, The Art of Presenting the Performing Arts Naomi Rhodes Washington, D.C.: Association of Performing Arts Presenters, 1991, 324 pages, paper $20.00 members, $24.00 nonmembers.

Workpapers I: Rethinking and Restructuring The Arts Organization Nello McDaniel and George Thorn, eds. New York: FEDAPT, 1990, 141 pages, paper $16.95.

Workpapers II: Arts Boards: Myths, Perspectives and New Approaches Nello McDaniel and George Thorn, eds. New York: FEDAPT, 1991, 86 pages, paper $16.95.     

Inconsistencies in children's recall of witnessed events: The role of age,question format and perceived reason for question repetition

Purpose. Children's inconsistencies when answering repeated questions about past events are a source of concern in forensic, educational, and other contexts. Theoretical accounts of these inconsistencies have predominantly assumed that children shift because they infer adult dissatisfaction with their initial answer. This study aimed to test this account via examination of the effects of question format on shifting, as well as via direct questioning of children. Method. Four‐, five‐, and seven‐year‐olds (N = 226) were asked 17 recall questions about a recent classroom activity, with eight target questions repeated in one of four formats: no‐correct (mildly misleading questions to which the correct answer was ‘no’), yes‐correct (mildly misleading questions to which the correct answer was ‘yes’), specific open wh‐ questions, and forced‐choice questions. They were then asked about the adult's reasons for repetition. Accuracy, shifting, and interpretations of question repetition were examined. Results. Shifting from accuracy decreased with age, and was affected by question format in 4‐year‐olds only, who shifted more to no‐correct than to forced‐choice questions. Shifting towards accuracy was more common in forced‐choice questions than either no‐correct or open questions, but there were no significant age differences. First‐answer‐unsatisfactory interpretations of question repetition were rare, especially in the two younger groups. The oldest group offered a wider range of interpretations and also showed some evidence of an association between first‐answer‐unsatisfactory interpretations and shifting. Conclusions. Overall, our findings present a challenge to first‐answer‐unsatisfactory explanations of young children's shifting in recall settings, at least where overt pressure to shift is low. Forensic implications are considered.     

In search of a leftist democratic imaginary: what can theories of populism tell us?

It might seem that Herbert Marcuse was right: leftist politics can no longer avoid the challenge of devising its own positive normative grounds. The neoliberal political rationality that is now hegemonic must be taken on by a new imaginary: radical, leftist and democratic. This article explores what major theories about new populism have to offer to a radical leftist attempt to reinvent itself. The regeneration of populist movements across the globe appears to offer signposts to guide a new radical politics. Yet I argue that populism is no ideologically empty mobilizing strategy able to be harnessed to all manner of political purposes. Embedded in its demagogic form are key presumptions about the character of democratic justification that collude with a neoliberal political project. Theories of new populism help us to shed light, instead, on the challenges that face the Left in its own self-reconstitution amidst liberal democratic crisis. Circumspection concerning the ideological load that is carried by a populist rendering of democratic politics needs to be united with an insight into how the rise of populism itself issues a warning about aspects of a social democratic past that cannot be reclaimed unchanged.     

Subaortic Pseudoaneurysm of the Left Ventricle Complicating Staphyloccal Endocarditis*

Abstract: Subaortic pseudoaneurysms are rare but can be a cause of sudden death in young individuals. This case report involves a 20‐year‐old Vietnamese male who died suddenly from rupture of a subaortic pseudoaneurysm with resultant hemopericardium with tamponade. He had a history of bicuspid aortic valve with recent but healed Staphylococcal endocarditis. A review of the literature reveals few similar cases and enlightens the association between aortic bicuspid valve, endocarditis, and subvalvular aortic aneurysm. The pathogenesis as well as recent studies that identified aneurysm predisposing genes in patients with bicuspid aortic valve will be discussed.     

Pacemaker/defibrillator evaluation at Los Angeles County Department of Coroner*

Pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) are implanted medical devices for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. These devices are now commonly encountered in the postmortem situation. The Los Angeles County Department of the Coroner uses the services of a cardiac electrophysiology consultant to interrogate pacemakers and ICDs, producing a detailed picture of the cardiac events recorded by the device. We have used this method to evaluate 20 cases where the ICD or pacemaker provided significant information. We report four forensic cases to illustrate the different applications of pacemaker interrogation and its contribution in forensic investigation. This technique was used to establish identification of the decedent, to determine the cause and time of death, and to determine whether device malfunction could have played a role in the death. We conclude that detailed evaluation of the pacemaker or ICD in selected cases may provide essential information to the forensic pathologist.