Youth employment and post-war development in Jaffna,northern Sri Lanka

Jaffna District in northern Sri Lanka has recently emerged from three decades of violence and isolation, leading to a diverse array of political, social and economic issues. This article critically analyses the links between youth employment and the post-war reconstruction and development of this region. Unemployment among youth is regarded as a potential threat to the stability of the country during the post-war period, and it is argued that only through the active engagement of Sri Lanka’s youth population can the threat of a resurgence in violence be fully eliminated. The article, which is based on recent field research, examines the extent of youth unemployment within Jaffna District, and considers how government, non-government and community-based actors are working together to solve related problems.     

Clinical change in psychopathic traits after the PSYCHOPATHY.COMP program: preliminary findings of a controlled trial with male detained youth

Journal of Experimental Criminology - To assess the preliminary efficacy of the PSYCHOPATHY.COMP in reducing psychopathic traits among male detained youth. In this controlled trial, a treatment...     

The land exclusion dilemma and Sumatra’s agrarian reactionaries

Even as millions of rural workers have organized into agrarian movements, their efforts to benefit from progressive social mobilizations often fail. To understand how agrarian movements can overcome these difficulties, this contribution acknowledges a dilemma: As agrarian movement members create ties to land they necessarily confront new forms of exclusion. We discuss this exclusionary land dilemma, with a focus on Sumatra’s agrarian reactionaries as an elite class possessing a potent exclusionary force that seeks to erase agrarian movement legitimacy and block rural workers’ mobilizations to reclaim and occupy land. We trace these agrarian reactionaries’ public life across a state–corporate–criminal apparatus and their repression of two agrarian movement mobilizations. We find agrarian reactionaries’ actions offer a partial explanation for the still-limited gains of Sumatra’s rural workers’ movements. Agrarian reactionaries legitimize their exclusions with nativist, ethno-territorial ideas that co-opt indigenous rights claims. In response, laborers and agriculturalists are now refining a more inclusive land politics – one of greater unifying influence that does not depend upon claims of indigeneity – to overcome reactionary repression.     

Epidemiology of completed suicides in Singapore for 2001 and 2002

This study provides an analysis of 640 completed suicide cases in Singapore for the years 2001 and 2002, compared to previous years and in relation to demographic and socioeconomic factors, as well as to the characteristics of a subgroup of suicide victims with prior psychiatric illness. There was little change in the suicide pattern over the 2 years studied compared to previous years. The sex ratio was constant at 1.5. Population-adjusted ratios were 1 for Chinese, 0.5 for Malays, and >1 for both Indians and other ethnic groups. Falling from heights ranked first in terms of method adopted for both years. A disproportionately higher number of suicides were recorded for the 25-34 and the > or =75-year-old age groups. A total of 47 (17.2%) in 2001 and 74 (20.2%) in 2002 of the cases had a history of prior psychiatric illness, with psychotic disorders being the most common diagnostic category. There was also a statistically significant correlation between unemployment and incidence rates. Although the overall rate of elderly suicides had gone down since the 1990s, prevention strategy should focus on the elderly as this rate is still about 3-4 times the national average.     

A Cross-National Comparison of the Internal Effects of Participation in Voluntary Organizations

This article draws on two recent and largely untapped sources of data to test empirically the Tocquevillian argument about the impact of involvement in civic organizations on individual attitudes and behaviors. Our analysis is based on two related studies – the European Social Survey (ESS) and the US 'Citizenship, Involvement, Democracy' (CID) survey – that incorporate innovative and detailed measures about respondents' involvement in voluntary associations in nineteen European countries and in the United States. These surveys provide us not only with rich individual-level data within a cross-national comparison, but they also allow us to develop and test a new measure of civic involvement that distinguishes between different levels of participation. After employing our 'civic involvement index' in pooled and individual country analyses, we find general support for the Tocquevillian argument. On average, those persons with greater levels of involvement in voluntary organizations also engage in more political acts, have higher life satisfaction and are by and large more trusting of others than those who do not. These findings highlight the general importance of actual involvement as opposed to nominal membership.     

Determination of ibogaine and noribogaine in biological fluids and hair by LC-MS/MS after Tabernanthe iboga abuse Iboga alkaloids distribution in a drowning death case

Tabernanthe iboga belongs to the Apocynaceae family. In this study, we report the case of a 37-year-old black male working as a security agent in Paris and found dead naked on the beach in Gabon after consumption of iboga. Autopsy revealed a drowning fatality and a myocardial abnormality (myocardial bridging). Samples of blood, urine, bile, gastric content, liver, lungs, vitreous, spleen and hair were taken. Biological fluids were liquid-liquid extracted with saturated NH4Cl pH 9.5 and methylene chloride/isopropanol (95/5, v/v) in presence of clonazepam-d(4), used as internal standard. After decontamination with dichloromethane, hair was cut into small pieces then sonicated for 2h in saturated NH4Cl pH 9.5 before extraction by methylene chloride/isopropanol (95/5, v/v). After evaporation the residues were reconstituted in methanol/ACN/formate buffer pH 3, from which 10 microL were injected into an ODB Uptisphere C(18) column (150 mm x 2.1mm, 5 microm) and eluted with a gradient of acetonitrile and formate buffer delivered at a flow rate of 200 microL/min. A Quantum Ultra triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer was used for analyses. Ionization was achieved using electrospray in the positive ionization mode (ESI). For each compound, detection was related to three daughter ions (ibogaine: m/z 311.4-->122.1, 174.1 and 188.1; noribogaine: m/z 297.4-->122.1, 159.1 and 160.1; clonazepam-d(4): m/z 319.9-->218.1, 245.1 and 274.1). Ibogaine and noribogaine were detected in all autopsy samples. Hair segmentation was not possible as hair was very short and frizzy. Concentrations of 1.2 and 2.5 ng/mg, respectively were detected. Neither other licit or illicit drugs nor alcohol were found. The presence of ibogaine and noribogaine in all autopsy samples was consistent with the recent absorption of Tabernanthe iboga, which was assumed to be responsible of the drowning fatality. The history of exposure, regarding hair analysis, is discussed. LC-MS/MS appears to be the best method for analyzing complex and poorly volatile alkaloids in autopsy samples and particularly in hair, due to the presence of a nitrogen ring and the relatively low concentrations to be measured.