Promoting an endogenous approach to education at the local community level

A major postulate of this paper is that education is a subordinate component in a larger system of societies’ development. This means that any educational policy for any country should stem from a long‐term strategy to support this aim. The main focus of the study that this paper is based on is to develop a theoretical framework that identifies an educational model which would support endogenous development at the local community level. This framework is ‘indigenous community‐based education’. It is analysed in terms of its indigenous features and sharing applications, with reference to actual experiences of communities who have undertaken this type of programme.     

Distribution of Household Income in America: Effects of Source of Income,Inflation, and Cost of Living Differentials

This study focuses on four aspects of theinequality of average household income amongthe American states. First, we document changein the inequality of nominal average householdincome between 1979 and 1990. Second, weidentify states contributing to the observedinequality. Third, we examine the pattern instate income convergence-divergence whenspatial and temporal state price differentialsare accounted for. Fourth, we provide estimatesof impacts of alternative income components onincome inequality. We find that inequality inreal income is smaller than that in nominalincome. Also, we conclude that traditionalincome measures that exclude transfer paymentsand other types of income overstateinequality.     

Beginning street life: Factors contributing to children working and living on the streets of Khartoum, Sudan

Understanding why some children work on the streets while others live there, and how causal factors differ by gender, is important in developing effective services for them. This study examined these questions in Sudan using participant observation, qualitative interviews, and surveys of working boys (n = 1025), working girls (n = 192), street boys (n = 397), and street girls (n = 35). Street children were less likely than working children to have local families (66% and 77%, p < 0.001), and more likely to have experienced some prior hardships, e.g. a mother's death (17% and 10%, p < 0.001), or coming from the war-torn south (30% and 10%, p < 0.001). 70% of street children and 10% of working children had abused (i.e. sniffed and sucked) glue (p < 0.001); initiating glue abuse often coincided with a transition from working to living on the streets. Within groups, conditions ‘pushing’ girls to street life were often harsher than for boys. For working girls, these included death of both parents (10% and 3%, p < 0.001), and/or insufficient food at home (59% and 43%, p < 0.001). For street girls, they included having a homeless family (23% and 9%, p = 0.019), and/or insufficient food at home (63% and 40%, p = 0.008), but street girls also more often reported boredom at home (80% and 48%, p < 0.001). Services should be tailored to the particular needs of each group by gender, including community-based prevention, street-based health and safety interventions, and street child counseling and re-integration programs.     

Differences in consumption patterns of single-parent and two-parent families in the United States

Different patterns of single-parent and two-parent families in six major expenditure categories are examined using the 1989 Consumer Expenditure Survey. Comparisons are made of the influence of permanent income, family size, region, race, gender, age, and education of the head of the family on the expenditure categories. The results show that with the exception of expenditures on shelter, the two groups differ significantly in their consumption patterns.1991 Visiting Professor at the Family Economics Research Group, Agricutural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Current research interests include consumption economics and time-use allocation.Current research interests include the economic status of American households.     

Promoting online media relations: Public relations departments’ use of Internet in the UAE

This paper discusses the use of Internet by public relations departments in the United Arab Emirates, to reach their key publics online and to gather information and monitor data to perform their tasks and to promote and develop their relations with the news media. Findings of the study show that all 24 organizations have a homepage, but only two thirds of them are posting their publications on the net, and only one third are using electronic newspapers to monitor their coverage in the media and to gather news, data and information of importance for the various tasks they perform. Only three organizations out of 24 have an online newsroom, and only two have a virtual tour about the organization. None of the surveyed organizations’ Web site has a film or videos. Organizations in the United Arab Emirates still have a lot to do to take advantage fully and rationally of what interactive communication, Internet and online publications are offering for a better performance and more effective public relations.     

Patterns of Spending Behavior and the Relative Position in the Income Distribution: Some Empirical Evidence

A model integrating the permanent income and relative income hypotheses was employed to explain consumer expenditure behavior in the U.S. The model was empirically tested using data from the interview survey portion of the 1996 and 1997 Consumer Expenditure Survey. The results indicate that household expenditure behavior is generally explained by both hypotheses when integrated in one model.     

House demolition and mental health: Victims and witnesses

The research examines the immediate effects of losing one’s home and witnessing the demolition of others houses on the mental health of Palestinian adults and children. The loss group consisted of 47 adults whose homes were demolished, the witness group of 24 adults who witnessed the house demolition, and the control group of 33 adults. The groups were compared for their anxiety, depression, and paranoiac symptoms. In addition, 38 children in the loss group, 36 children in the witness group, and 50 children in the control group were compared for their psychological symptoms. The results showed that adults who were exposed to house demolition showed a higher level of anxiety, depression, and paranoiac symptoms than the witness and control groups. The children in the loss group showed a higher level of psychological symptoms than the children in the witness and control groups. The witness group differed from the control group in having more depression among women and from anxiety, depression, and paranoiac symptoms than men in the loss and witness groups but not in the control group.     

Annual mortality rates and excess deaths of children under five in Iraq, 1991-98

Data from two parallel household surveys conducted in Iraq by UNICEF in 1999 show that under-5 mortality declined steadily from 1974 to 1990, reaching about 63 per 1,000 live births in the period 1986-90. It then rose dramatically to 118 per 1,000 in 1991, the year of the Gulf War. The number of 'excess' under-5 deaths (i.e., the number in excess of the number predicted from past trends) in Iraq between 1991 and 1998 was calculated assuming that, instead of the rates measured by the 1999 survey for this period, either (a) average mortality rates for the period 1986-90 had been maintained, or (b) mortality had continued to decline at the rate observed between 1974 and 1990. According to these calculations, the estimated number of excess deaths resulting from the Gulf War and its aftermath up to 1998 was between 400,000 (assumption a) and 500,000 (assumption b).