Birth and death in a new land attitudes to infant death in colonial Australia

The goldrush colony of Victoria, Australia, was a favoured destination for aspirational emigrants from nineteenth-century Britain. Yet the persistence of high rates of infant mortality blighted the happiness of many first and second generation immigrant families alone in a new land. Drawing on birth, death and inquest records this paper interrogates the experience of infant death amongst the poorest families in the capital city popularly known as ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ during the second half of the nineteenth century. Although few infants died alone, the familial and community networks in which they were enmeshed were not always committed to their survival. While the paper argues that there was a hierarchy of value which determined the degree to which the death of a child would be welcomed or mourned, it also contests popular notions that evil baby farmers and unfeeling mothers were a major cause of infant death.     

Those Who Hesitate are Lost: The Case for Setting Behavioral Health Treatment and Disability Standards, Part II

In the first article of this three-part series, an overview of systematic problems related to behavioral health (BH) treatment and disability was discussed. In this second article of the series, I discuss a number of factors that contribute to the lack of standardization regarding the work of all professionals in the area, including those in the BH field, which serve to introduce imprecision into the BH treatment and disability determination processes. From how professionals are trained and continuing to those who are providing clinical treatment, it is essential to understand how the lack of standardization impacts the treatment itself as well as treatment outcomes. This lack of standardization contributes to poorly identified mental health (MH) conditions, no identification of psychosocial issues, and an overreliance on subjective information, including professional clinical opinion, which leads to poorly defensible professional decision-making as well as poorer outcomes in treatment. In this litigious age, it is not sufficient to employ clinical opinion alone as the basis for treatment decisions. The more sophisticated professional recognizes the importance that one's assessment and treatment decisions may later be questioned in court or in a disability determination hearing. The importance of standardization and utilizing the current scientific standards has become imperative in today's professional evaluation and treatment in the area.     

‘An interesting and plausible proposal’: Bruce Lockhart,Sidney Reilly and the Latvian Riflemen,Russia 1918

The details of the plot by Lockhart and Reilly to overthrow Lenin in summer 1918 are well established, as is the role played by the Cheka in infiltrating it. One element remains unclear, however: why did Britain's Russia expert and her ‘master spy’ think that Lenin's ‘praetorian guard’, the Latvian Riflemen, might be ‘turned’. New evidence reveals that anti‐Bolshevik sentiment was growing among Latvian troops in autumn 1918, giving good grounds to embark on the enterprise. It was ‘an interesting and plausible proposal’, which failed partly because of Cheka penetration but also because Reilly changed the nature of the original proposal.     

NGOs and advocacy: How well are the poor represented?

There is a widespread perception that Southern non-governmental organizations (NGOs) best represent the authentic voices of the Southern poor. This article challenges this perception, arguing that poor people in general, and children and women in particular, continue to be disenfranchised, while NGOs-both Northern and Southern-offer a poor imitation of their voices. It argues that what is needed, given the current global economic paradigm, is an authentic 'joint venture' between NGOs in the North and the South and the authentic voices of poor people themselves, that would bring the poor into the mainstream; and a new approach to capacity-building that would seek to empower them better to advocate for themselves. It concludes that, to achieve this, economic advocacy should perhaps take greater precedence over political advocacy.     

Good Governance and Bermuda’s Public Access to Information Act

Abstract

This paper examines the context surrounding, and debates concerning, freedom of information-type legislation in the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda. It situates the law within a wider push by the British Government for good governance in the British Overseas Territories. It explores the expectation for more ‘open and transparent’ government held by international government organisations, the British Government, and the Bermudian electorate. It analyses the resultant political debates, which are framed by traditions of governance that encouraged secrecy and legacies of distrust between political parties formed soon after universal suffrage was introduced in the 1960s. It investigates the implementation of the Act in response to global, metropolitan and local pressures.