Networks as transnational agents of development

During the past two decades, engaging local capacities in development operations has become commonplace within general development thinking. Within humanitarian mine action (hma), however, this trend has not been dominant. This article looks at recent examples of local engagement in hma operations, sketching some of the opportunities for and constraints on improved integration of local capacities. The article argues that local capacities are too often disregarded and overlooked, but also cautions that any integration of such capacities must rest on a well functioning support system in order to ensure safety for the community.     

Rapid assessment of existing HIV prevention programming in a community mental health center

In preparation for implementation of a comprehensive HIV prevention program in a Community Mental Health Center for persons with mental illness who are also abusing substances, a rapid assessment procedure (RAP) of existing prevention services that may have developed in the setting over time was undertaken at baseline. In addition to an ecological assessment of the availability of HIV-related information that was available on-site, in-depth interviews and focus groups were conducted with Center administrators, direct-care staff, and mental health consumers. Results indicated that responses regarding available services differed depending upon type of respondent, with administration reporting greater availability of preventive programs and educational materials than did direct-care staff or mental health consumers themselves. But overall, formalized training on HIV prevention by case managers is extremely rare. Case managers felt that other providers, such as doctors or nurses, were more appropriate to deliver an HIV prevention intervention.     

Implementing Public Utility Commission Web Sites: Targeting Audiences, Missing Opportunities

Research demonstrates that some government agencies are more accomplished than others when it comes to e-government. More generally, various scholars suggest that e-government is moving forward at a relatively slow pace, especially in relation to the sophistication of government Web sites. With these issues in mind, this research utilized interviews with state public utility commission staff members to explore their agencies' experiences with staffing, funding, coordinating, and prioritizing their e-government efforts, particularly their Web site activities. Assessing such efforts in both quantitative and qualitative terms, this research found that a mix of various factors, including financial resources, knowledgeable staff, and administrative oversight, related to better performance. Moreover, although public utility commissions have a clear mission to serve both consumers and regulated utilities, this research indicates that the commissions are focusing more of their e-government efforts on industry rather than citizens.     

Improving soft skills and communication in response to youth unemployment

Several studies have been conducted into the high rates of graduate youth unemployment in South Africa. Results from these investigations have isolated some determinants which can be categorised under three broad headings – government, business practices and graduate attributes. the article focuses on graduates’ attributes that negatively impact on their employability. One attribute that was identified was their soft skills, particularly, their communication ability or their levels of pragmatic language usage. Pragmatic competence is an ability which is not always consequential to ordinary language development; there needs to be explicit instruction for such development. This is a reflective article with the objective of examining the nature of communication in the workplace and what strategies can enhance graduates’ communication ability, and in turn improve their employability. this article concludes that enhancing graduates’ communication skills should be a cooperative venture involving all the stakeholders in education – students, parents, higher education institutions, business and government.     

Violence-Related Attitudes and Beliefs: scale construction and psychometrics

The 50-item Violence-Related Attitudes and Beliefs Scale (V-RABS) includes three subscales measuring possible causes of violent behavior (environmental influences, biological influences, and mental illness) and four subscales assessing possible controls of violent behavior (death penalty, punishment, prevention, and catharsis). Each subscale demonstrates good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Thus, the V-RABS and its component subscales can be valuable research tools for understanding people's beliefs about the causes and controls of violent crime.     

Jain lives of Haribhadra: An inquiry into the sources and logic of the legends

Conclusions I have attempted here to trace the development of Haribhadra's biography. My contention throughout has been that there is a basic incongruity between what one can discern from the actual works about the author Haribhadra and the legends that came to be associated with him. I have argued that the legends initially came from elsewhere in part from the legends of the arrogant monk who challenges the schismatic Rohagutta, and in part from the stories told of Akalanka, who probably was Haribhadra's contemporary. The question must inevitably arise as to why these stories were attached to Haribhadra, when they so poorly match what we can clearly know to be the attitudes displayed by the writer of the works associated with his name. That is a question I cannot satisfactorily answer, although I suspect that in general the hostile attitude of the prabhadhas and related texts towards Buddhism is a late, deliberately contrived and very political stance.³⁰ It would seem that these legends of Haribhadra and the stories told of others which are also replete with examples of Jain hostility to the Buddhists came to take shape around the 12th century A.D., during a period when Jainism was making significant Hindu conversions, particularly among royalty. We know that the prabandhas were primarily written for royal audiences or for ministers close to the kings. A natural question is then whether we can discern anything specific in the relationship between Buddhism and royal power during the 12th century in India that might have led Jain writers deliberately to cast the Buddhists in an unfavourable light and portray Jains as the extirpators of the Buddhist menace and thus as champions of the true faith. In fact the mid -12th century was a low period for the fortunes of Buddhism in its final stronghold in Bengal. Valllasena of the Sena dynasty came to power c. 1158 A.D. His Dnas-agara was completed in 1169 A.D. and gives ample evidence of the strong emphasis on orthodox Hinduism and promotion of the cause of the Brahmins that historians have associated with the Senas.³¹ It is tempting to see in the prabandhas, which were addressed to the ruling class, and in the legends of Jain religious and intellectual leaders which emphasize the conflict between Jainism and Buddhism, a continued attempt to separate Jainism radically from Buddhism which was anathema to these kings in Bengal. Hindus had historically regarded Jains and Buddhists as equally outside the Hindu fold and outside the fold of civilization. That Jains in the 12th century devise biographies with a distinct emphasis on the Jain triumph over a Buddhist enemy requires some explanation. That the collections of these biographies were usually addressed to kings and their ministers suggests that courting the royal court may have had something to do with the tone of the biographies. The most obvious historical circumstance that suggests itself by way of explanation for the anti-Buddhist tone of medieval Jain biographies is the contemporary Hindu revival in Bengal with its decidedly anti-Buddhist stance. Perhaps Jain writers in seeking to win royal patronage for their faith and indeed royal converts felt the need to divorce Jainism from the religion with which it had been so closely associated and which became so obviously out of royal favour elsewhere in the country. I offer this only as a suggestion which must await further research for confirmation.     

Bringing Soul to International Negotiation

In this article, the author calls for a shift in training for international commercial negotiation, away from the standard Western linear, rational, fact-oriented style toward training that makes room for "soul." As used here, the term "soul" combines several concepts that integrate learning on human cognition, cultural intelligence, and effectiveness in international management. The article discusses soul in terms of three components: emotion and subjectivity, deep narratives rooted in faith and ethnic traditions, and cultural intelligence. The article presents three negotiation scenarios from around the globe, contrasting first-generation training approaches to next-generation training approaches that would value the unconscious processes of decision making.