Children with Hydrocephalus and Spina Bifida in East Africa: Can family and community resources improve the odds?

Hydrocephalus and spina bifida are life-threatening conditions that often result in severe disabilities. Risks are much reduced by immediate surgery and careful management, but neither has been available for most of the sub-Saharan African population. This paper traces the growth of solutions and some socio-cultural resources that historically have supported family and community care for children with severe disabilities, mainly in Tanzania, and nearby Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Some community-based rehabilitation (CBR) work with children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus is described, and challenges to the CBR approach are noted from the increased survival of people with disabilities requiring complex care. More appropriate information, recognition of indigenous knowledge, enlistment of community resources and financial assistance are needed to enhance the lives of East Africans with hydrocephalus, spina bifida and other severely disabling conditions.     

A Quantitative Assessment of the Risks from Illegally Imported Meat Contaminated with Foot and Mouth Disease Virus to Great Britain

Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is considered by many as the most important animal disease in the world. FMD is highly contagious and outbreaks incur significant costs as affected countries are severely limited in their ability to trade. A number of trade commodities may be contaminated with FMD virus (FMDV) including animal products, for example, meat. As a member of the European Union, Great Britain (GB) has put in place a number of regulations to prevent the importation of pathogens in imported meat products. However, the illegal importation of meat provides a route by which safety controls may be circumvented and meat from FMD affected areas may be imported. This study assesses the FMD infection risk posed to the livestock population of GB from the illegal importation of meat, and estimates the major contributors to this overall risk, through the development of a quantitative risk assessment model. From model results, the total amount of illegal meat entering GB each year is estimated on average to be 11,875 tonnes. with 90% certainty that this is between 4,398 and 28,626 tonnes per year; of which between 64.5 and 565 kg are contaminated with FMDV. This flow of illegal meat results in an estimate of a frequency of FMD infection in GB livestock of 0.015 cases of infected animals per year, with 90% certainty it is between 0.0017 and 0.053. Imports from the region Near and Middle East account for 47% of this risk, and 68% of the risk is attributed to bone-in and dried de-boned products.     

Engaging with the Disability Rights Movement: the experience of community-based rehabilitation in southern Africa

This paper argues that unless community-based rehabilitation CBR programmes enter into genuine consultation with the disability rights movement they are in danger of repeating the mistakes of institution-based rehabilitation. Partnership between CBR programmes, and disabled people's and parents' organisations in southern Africa has led to the development of a more consumer focused approach to CBR Where disabled adults and parents have been fully involved in the design and implementation of programmes, CBR workers have a clearer understanding of disability as a development issue. Education, employment and poverty alleviation have been given a higher priority than medical rehabilitation in these programmes. The evolving concept of CBR and its relationship with the disability rights movement has been observed and documented by The Save the Children Fund, and forms the basis of this paper.     

Passing Encounters East and West: Comparing Japanese and American Pedestrian Interactions

This study examined the microinteractions of pedestrians in Japan and in the United States as they walked past a confederate. Specifically, the effects of culture, condition (avoid, look-only, and look plus smile) and sex of confederate on glances, smiles, nods, and greetings by passing pedestrians were examined in a field study on over 1000 participants. The hypotheses of (1) lower responsiveness in Japanese pedestrians than in American pedestrians and (2) increased responsiveness as a function of condition were supported in a series of log-linear analyses of pedestrian glances, smiles, nods, and greetings. Both of these main effects were, however, qualified by Culture X Condition interactions on smiles, nods, and greetings, with the large condition effects present in the American pedestrians, but absent in the Japanese pedestrians. The results are discussed in terms of the functions of glances, smiles, nods, and greetings in these brief encounters and how differing cultural norms affect Japanese and American responsiveness. Finally, the limitations of this study and the broader utility of this research paradigm are discussed.

Stories of Non‐Becoming: Non‐Issues,Non‐Events and Non‐Identities in Asexual Lives

In contrast to conventional models of positively “becoming” an identity through social interaction, this article explores the inverse, negational process of “non‐becoming,” whereby actors start but do not continue along an identity career trajectory. Through cumulative attrition, interactions and encounters at key moments create an overall pattern of non‐progression. Using asexuality as an example, we identify three main trajectory stages of non‐awareness, communicative negation and non‐consolidation, each involving interactional contingencies. With a wider applicability to other repudiated identities, this model shows how even negational symbolic social objects (non‐issues, non‐events, and non‐identities) are constituted through social interaction.     

Resolutions: Working with Families Where Responsibility for Abuse is Denied

Current thinking suggests that little productive work can be undertaken with families where serious physical or sexual abuse of children has occurred in the absence of a clear acceptance of responsibility for that abuse. This means that children are often removed from their families because of the perceived risks, with the disadvantages that being looked after in local authority care often brings. Alternatively, children may be left in the same environment where serious abuse has taken place with little or no work being undertaken with the family. Either approach fails children, especially those who have made clear and believable allegations in the hope of bringing about a process of change and protection. This article describes the work of a pilot project at the Avon NSPCC in Bristol working with families where the alleged abuser disputes responsibility for maltreating the child. Key to this approach is the support of the non-abusing carer and the child/ren while the concerns of the professional agencies are addressed. The work has two main phases. The first looks for structural change in the organization of family life. The second part asks carers to role-play a ‘similar’ hypothetical family where child abuse has been established. This enables difficult issues raised by the abuse to be addressed and provides an opportunity for carers to express thoughts and feelings to their partner regarding abuse without the seriousness of the concerns being lost.     

The Unlived Life Is Worth Examining: Nothings and Nobodies behind the Scenes

This paper explores how people talk about the things that have not happened in their lives. I argue that we can perform reverse biographical identity work upon our unmade selves by exploring the meanings of unlived, non-experience. Challenging one's own rehearsed life story is an act of narrative self-transgression, involving negative responsibility assumption. Drawing on my symbolic interactionist theory of “nothing,” I consider how negative social phenomena (no-things, no-bodies, and non-events) are interactively accomplished and retrospectively made sense of in personal accounts. Themes of lost opportunities, silence, invisibility, and emptiness emerge from an analysis of twenty-seven stories. These tales reveal a mixture of emotions: not only sadness, stigma, shame, and regret, but also relief, pride, acceptance, and gratitude. Narratives of nothing are often ambivalent in tone, reflecting the complexity of storied life behind the scenes.