迎接21世纪

１９００年,当上一个世纪更替之际,美国劳动力中仅有１３％的人有“工作”。到１９７７年,美国劳动人口的９３％有了工作。工作的最终含义是,为某个组织做事,每天在特定的时间做专门的工作,以换取薪水和健康与退休保险。所有这些使工作者有“保障”,然而世界变了。当今,社会力量、经济力量,更重要的是技术力量的合流正将一个新的工作领域带到世人面前,在这个新的领域中,一个人就是一个“个体企业”。多数人可能仍为组织工作,但是到２１世纪的第二个１０年,拥有稳定工作收入和保险的人将成为少数。其他人可能还会在组织中工作,…     

贸易壁垒与发展中国家

目前,有40多亿人口居住在发展中国家,这个数字约占世界人口总数的80%,而发展中国家的国民产值在世界国民总产值中所占的比例,则不足17%。发展中国家的经济必须与世界经济实现一体化,而在此之前,其经济发展仍然要走漫长的道路。任何国家只有通过商品附加值的贸易方式,才能与世界经济实现一体化,否则在闭关锁国的条件下,其经济不可能得到迅速的发展。这一点已被发达国家的发展历程所证实。在过去的15年间,发展中国家在国际贸易中所占的份额,仍然维持在19%上下。制造业是发展最快的部门,1980—1987年,第三世界国家工业制成品所占的出口份额,从56%上升至73%。但发展中国家工业制成品的贸易额在世界同类产品贸易额中仅占12%。     

面临全球化的哲学

在人类思想的历史上,神话、宗教和科学都给出过对世界的解释,它们都曾占领过哲学的地盘.随着全球化进程的展开,世界进入一个全新时代.人类在当今的全球化时代遇到了前所未有的问题,神话、宗教和科学在这些问题面前无能为力.全球化世界及其问题需要哲学的反思.曾经被边缘化的哲学重新找回了自己的位置.与此同时,面临全球化的哲学义无反顾地转向了全球问题,全球化成了哲学的一个重要主题.面对全球化世界,哲学可以提供只有它才能作出的解释.     

康德和法西斯主义的起源

有一种意见认为,虽然康德痛恨奴性,颂扬自主,但是他的学说却非常不幸地有导致极权主义的危险。希特勒使康德的理性和义务论名誉扫地:一方面,纳粹德国可以说是理性梦的结果;另一方面,自从奥兹威辛之后,义务一词就获得了可以认可不管是多么可怕的任何事情的坏名声。康德认为,不管有什么后果,我们都必须无条件地服从理性的绝对命令,这是我们无可逃避的道德义务;他甚至说,由于说真话是一种理性命令,因而即使是     

Home birth and the National Australian Maternity Services Review: too hot to handle?

Background

In February 2009 the Improving Maternity Services in Australia – The Report of the Maternity Services Review (MSR) was released, with the personal stories of women making up 407 of the more than 900 submissions received. A significant proportion (53%) of the women were said to have had personal experience with homebirth. Little information is provided on what was said about homebirth in these submissions and the decision by the MSR not to include homebirth in the funding and insurance reforms being proposed is at odds with the apparent demand for this option of care.

Method

Data for this study comprised 832 submissions to the MSR that are publicly available on the Commonwealth of Australia Department of Health and Aging website. All 832 submissions were downloaded, coded and then entered into NVivo. Content analysis was used to analyse the data that related to homebirth.

Findings

450 of the submissions were from consumers of maternity services (54%). Four hundred and seventy (60%) of the submissions mentioned homebirth. Overall there were 715 references to home birth in the submissions. The submissions mentioning homebirth most commonly discussed the ‘Benefits’ and ‘Barriers’ in accessing this option of care. Benefits to the baby, mother and family were described, along with the benefits obtained from having a midwife at the birth, receiving continuity of care and having a good birth experience. Barriers were described as not having access to a midwife, no funding, no insurance and lack of clinical privileging for midwives.

Conclusion

Many positive recommendations have come from the MSR, however the decision to exclude homebirth from these reforms is perplexing considering the large number of submissions describing the benefits of and barriers to homebirth in Australia. A concerning number of submissions discuss having had or having considered an unattended birth at home due to these barriers. Overall there is the belief that not enabling access to funded, insured homebirth in Australia is a violation of human rights. It appears that homebirth was considered by the MSR as ‘too hot to handle’ and by dismissing it as a minority issue the government sought to avoided dealing with homebirth as a ‘sensitive and controversial issue.’     

Multiparous women's confidence to have a publicly-funded homebirth: a qualitative study

Background

Hospital birth is commonly thought to be a safer option than homebirth, despite many studies showing similar rates of safety for low risk mothers and babies when cared for by qualified midwives with systems of back-up in place. Recently in Australia, demand has led to the introduction of a small number of publicly-funded homebirth programs. Women's confidence in having a homebirth through a publicly-funded homebirth program in Australia has not yet been explored.

Aim

The aim of the study was to explore the reasons why multiparous women feel confident to have a homebirth within a publicly-funded model of care in Australia.

Methods

Ten multiparous English-speaking women who chose to have a homebirth with the St George Hospital Homebirth Program were interviewed in the postnatal period using semi-structured, open-ended questions. Interviews were transcribed, then a thematic analysis was undertaken.

Results

Women, having already experienced a normal birth, demonstrated a strong confidence in their ability to give birth at home and described a confidence in their bodies, their midwives, and the health system. Women weighed up the risks of homebirth through information they gathered and integration with their previous experience of birth, their family support and self-confidence.

Discussion

Women choosing publicly-funded homebirth display strong confidence in both themselves to give birth at home, and their belief in the health system's ability to cope with any complications that may arise.

Implications for practice

Many women may benefit from access to publicly-funded homebirth models of care. This should be further investigated.     

Life Shocks and Crime: A Test of the “Turning Point” Hypothesis

Other researchers have posited that important events in men's lives-such as employment, marriage, and parenthood-strengthen their social ties and lead them to refrain from crime. A challenge in empirically testing this hypothesis has been the issue of self-selection into life transitions. This study contributes to this literature by estimating the effects of an exogenous life shock on crime. We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, augmented with information from hospital medical records, to estimate the effects of the birth of a child with a severe health problem on the likelihood that the infant's father engages in illegal activities. We conduct a number of auxiliary analyses to examine exogeneity assumptions. We find that having an infant born with a severe health condition increases the likelihood that the father is convicted of a crime in the three-year period following the birth of the child, and at least part of the effect appears to operate through work and changes in parental relationships. These results provide evidence that life events can cause crime and, as such, support the "turning point" hypothesis.     

The problems of eligibility and endogenous confounders when assessing the mortality impact of a nationwide disease-prevention programme: the case of insecticide-treated nets in Togo

Evaluation of the mortality impact of nationwide disease-prevention efforts is complicated by potential endogeneity: programme recipients may have unobserved characteristics that simultaneously make them both more likely to become recipients and more likely to survive as a result of other health practices. This population-based study assesses the mortality impact of a nationwide programme that distributed insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) to mothers of children aged 9-59 months in Togo. By comparing mortality rates before and after the programme according to households' eligibility status, we demonstrate that a one-time programme that restricts eligibility to households with a surviving child excludes some households with a high risk of child mortality. We then apply simultaneous estimation models to untangle the mortality impact of ITNs from the effects of unobserved confounders and show that among eligible households, living in a household with ITNs significantly reduces mortality for children aged 20-59 months, even after controlling for endogeneity.     

Estimating the Effect of the One-Child Policy on the Sex Ratio Imbalance in China: Identification Based on the Difference-in-Differences

In China, the male-biased sex ratio has increased significantly. Because the one-child policy applies only to the Han Chinese but not to minorities, this unique affirmative policy allows us to identify the causal effect of the one-child policy on the increase in sex ratios by using a difference-in-differences (DD) estimator. Using the 1990 census, we find that the strict enforcement of the one-child policy led to 4.4 extra boys per 100 girls in the 1980s, accounting for about 94% of the total increase in sex ratios during this period. The robust tests indicate that the estimated policy effect is not likely confounded by other omitted policy shocks or socioeconomic changes. Moreover, we conduct the DD estimation using both the 2000 census and the 2005 mini-census. Our estimates suggest that the one-child policy resulted in about 7.0 extra boys per 100 girls for the 1991–2005 birth cohorts. The effect of the one-child policy accounts for about 57% and 54% of the total increases in sex ratios for the 1991–2000 and 2001–2005 birth cohorts, respectively.     

走向社会主义多元化

既然有民族和文化的多元化,那么就将有社会主义的多元化.利益多元主义是其理论基础,在这个基础上,作者从对社会主义世界历史进程的回顾和反思中,批驳了传统的社会主义单一模式给实际历史过程所带来的后果和不利因素,论述了社会主义必然走上多元化的客观依据.(1)计划和自我管理.从以下三个方面论述这一问题:合理计划必然具有多样性;由于人们的社会需求复杂和多变,决定了"市场"的多种含义;在实际工作过程中,物质上的和事实上的不平等,导致了既在社会阶级内又超出阶级范围的财富转让的复杂问题.在此基础上,作者论述了社会主义计划