The origins of international child sponsorship

International child sponsorship typically involves the pairing of an individual, identifiable child, or young adult in a developing country with an individual donor or sponsor in a relatively wealthy country. Regular payments by sponsors, accompanied by the exchange of personal information, characterise a fundraising phenomenon which currently links sponsors to more than eight million children globally. Although child sponsorship underpins a multi-billion dollar flow of funds to developing countries, its origins have become obscured by the passing of time, to the point where many international NGOs utilising it as a fundraising mechanism are unaware of the aims and context of its early use. This article argues that the pairing of individual children with international donors was initiated by the UK-based Save the Children Fund and the Society of Friends Relief Mission in post-First World War Austria in 1919. Unlike the long-term support that would characterise later programmes, early sponsorship funded the short-term assistance of children and avoided the creation of dependency.     

On the Postcapitalist Nature of Learning Spaces

This paper uses the concept of learning spaces to reflect on the pedagogies that will help humans acquire the wisdom to support a transition to a durable postcapitalist socioeconomy. Since Plato’s Academy dedicated “academic” spaces have been set aside from economic life. While humans naturally learn all the time, access to higher status learning remains restricted. Most learning is informal and outside academic spaces. An example is given from a novel published more than 100 years ago of an unpromising workplace becoming a space for deep learning about socialist resistance. I will suggest that all spaces occupied by humans at every scale from the room to the globe, and not just those of formal education, are learning spaces. The question is how they can be linked up to form a global space of exchange that could be called a learning society or, alternatively, postcapitalism, socialism, communism, or the society of associated producers. The ideas outlined here were presented in a module on Geographies of Education that I designed and taught at the University of Brighton until my recent retirement.     

Magnesium, potassium, sodium and calcium in post-mortem vitreous humour from humans

Levels of magnesium, potassium, sodium and calcium in post-mortem vitreous humour from human controls, fire fatalities and drowning victims have been determined. The effects of time-related internal changes, external environmental parameters and different causes of death are evaluated. Despite the positive correlation and marked increase of potassium and, to a lesser extent, of magnesium and calcium with the length of the post-mortem interval, individual biological variability severely limits the usefulness of predictions of post-mortem interval based on electrolyte metal data. At best, there is only a 2/3 chance of a prediction being within 12 h of the true value. Vitreous humour metal concentrations are affected by external influences, such as the elevated temperatures of fires which increase the rate of release of intracellular magnesium and potassium. In cases where drowning is suspected, establishment or exclusion of this cause of death is not possible on the basis of vitreous humour electrolyte metal data because of possible post-immersion diffusion across the permeable membrane of the eyeball. It appears, however, that magnesium in salt-water cases and sodium in fresh-water cases are related, albeit erratically, to the length of the immersion period.     

The hidden origins of enorm lesion

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