Sentenced for the season: Jamaican migrant farmworkers on Okanagan orchards

Despite perfunctory characterisation of Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) as a ‘triple win’, scholars and activists have long admonished its lack of government oversight, disrespect for migrant rights and indentureship of foreign workers. This article contends that the SAWP is predicated upon naturalised, deeply engrained and degrading beliefs that devalue Black lives and labour. Based on twenty months’ ethnographic fieldwork in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada, it reveals the extent to which anti-Black racism permeates, organises and frustrates workers’ lives on farms and in local communities. It situates such experiences, which workers characterise as ‘prison life’, in the context of anti-Black immigration policy and the workings of racial capitalism. This ethnography of Caribbean migrants not only adds perspective to scholarship hitherto focused on the experiences of Latino workers, but it also reinforces critical work on anti-Black racism in contemporary Canada.

Two Birds, One Policy: The Establishment of the National Supervisory Commission as a Factional and Centralizing Tool

Xi Jinping has made “anti-corruption” campaigns a hallmark of his leadership. The campaigns promise to target both “tigers” - senior party, government, and military leaders - and “flies” - local party and government officials. This practice has included a drastic restructuring of China’s anti-corruption and judicial agencies, culminating in their centralization under the National Supervisory Commission (NSC) in 2018. Many scholars have debated whether Xi’s campaigns and the NSC are genuinely intended to combat corruption or are instead a tool to eliminate political opponents and consolidate power. The NSC’s establishment is considered in relation to the two predominant models of anti-corruption drives conducted in China, the “Chongqing” model, and the “Guangzhou” model. By deliberately reproducing the Chongqing model’s accountability defects, eliminating political opponents appears to be a core objective of the NSC’s establishment. However, owing to its centralized nature, the NSC also strengthens the central party’s power over local authorities. Local party branches are far less trusted by the population than their national counterparts. Thus, strengthening the party’s credibility - including a genuine attempt to decrease corruption - and strengthening local government oversight appears to be another objective of the NSC’s establishment.

Motion Sickness

This chapter focuses on India’s public transport system. If cities are democratic laboratories that nurture free and equal motion, then India fails the test every day. In Mumbai, for example, up to sixteen people can find themselves packed into a one-square-metre space inside a carriage during peak hours as Indian Railways fails to provide enough trains and coaches to the financial capital’s arterial rail network. Travelling like animals, risking their lives for livelihood, has been the lot of Mumbai’s daily commuters for as long as they can remember. Away from the cities, where 70 per cent of India lives, the picture is even bleaker, with virtually no state-run public transport system—buses or trains. The daily indignities and inconveniences of travelling prevents citizens from freely accessing goods, services, and social networks that are key to the pursuit of their chosen life strategies. By hindering everyday mobility, hazardous and insufficient transport options have the anti-democratic effect of perpetuating social inequities and dispersing communities into isolated silos that prevent collective assembly, deliberation, and action. Other than dilapidated or non-existent public transport systems, elitist policies, and poor government oversight hinder movement—and democracy—in various other ways.

Identifying tobacco retailers in the absence of a licensing system: lessons from Australia

ObjectivesTo estimate the proportion of retailers that sell tobacco in the absence of appropriate local government oversight, and to describe the characteristics by which they differ from those that can expect to receive such oversight.MethodsA database of listed tobacco retailers was obtained from a regional Victorian local government. Potential unlisted tobacco retailers were added using online searches, and attempts to visit all retailers were undertaken. GPS coordinates and sales type information of retailers that sold tobacco were recorded and attached to neighbourhood-level data on socioeconomic disadvantage and smoking prevalence using ArcMap. Logistic regression analyses, χ2 tests and t-tests were undertaken to explore differences in numbers of listed and unlisted retailers by business and neighbourhood-level characteristics.ResultsOf 125 confirmed tobacco retailers, 43.2% were trading potentially without government oversight. Significant differences were found between listed and unlisted retailers by primary business type (p<0.001), and sales type (p<0.001) but not by the other characteristics.ConclusionsThe database of tobacco retailers was inaccurate in two ways: (1) a number of listed retailers no longer operated or sold tobacco, and (2) 43.2% of businesses confirmed as selling tobacco were missing. As no form of licensing system exists in Victoria, it is difficult to identify the number of retailers operating, or to determine how many receive formal regulatory oversight. A positive licensing system is recommended to regulate the sale of tobacco and to generate a comprehensive database of retailers, similar to that which exists for food registration, gaming and liquor-licensed premises.

The Trouble with Development

This chapter traces how, with limited federal and city funds at their disposal, Democratic and liberal officials in late 1960s and 1970s New York came to embrace generous tax and incentive policies to directly spur sagging development and rehabilitation. Though municipal officials had for decades used tax exemptions, these new incentives empowered the private sector to take the dominant role in economic development with little government oversight. As these policies began to face criticism for unnecessarily subsidizing development in gentrifying neighborhoods, officials turned to a new strategy: binding subsidies to developers’ commitments to make local improvements (such as street repairs). Doing so at once continued to diminish tax coffers and helped shift neighborhood improvement projects from the public to the private sector.

Cholinergic Capsules and Academic Admonitions

Herein, I intend to capture highlights shared with my academic and research colleagues over the 60 years I devoted initially to my graduate and postdoctoral training and then to academic endeavors starting as an assistant professor in a new medical school at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). During this period, the Department of Pharmacology emerged from a division within the Department of Medicine to become the first basic science department, solely within the School of Medicine at UCSD in 1979. As part of the school's plans to reorganize and to retain me at UCSD, I was appointed as founding chair. Some years later in 2002, faculty, led largely within the Department of Pharmacology and by practicing pharmacists within UCSD Healthcare, started the independent Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences with a doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) program, where I served as the founding dean. My career pathway, from working at my family-owned pharmacy to chairing a department in a school of medicine and then becoming the dean of a school of pharmacy at a research-intensive, student-centered institution, involved some risky decisions. But the academic, curricular, and accreditation challenges posed were met by a cadre of creative faculty colleagues. I offer my experiences to individuals confronted with a multiplicity of real or imagined opportunities in academic health sciences, the related pharmaceutical industry, and government oversight agencies.

Winning the Digital War: Cyber Ideology and the Spectrum of Conflict

Cyberspace allows ideology to dictate who wins a war. That technological medium has marginalized violence to such an extent that a belligerent must make a cognitive effort a priority. That focus means humanity has at last reached a coveted threshold where ideas determine a war’s outcome. This article traces that evolution along the “spectrum of conflict,” a military categorization encompassing all of war. This act of reductionism must confront cyber realities that alter an understanding of war as one driven by acts of violence. This feat means a digital peace finds an equal footing with war arising from a cyber ideological conflict. That conflict rests on cyber rebellions derived from an online interface contested in content but able to withstand the pull of government oversight. Stripped of violence as an absolute defining war, cognitive war becomes of paramount importance as a broad intellectualism compels a state of war. Ideology comes less from a meaning shaped by political context and more from online access impacting political norms. This contest in cyberspace means winning the digital war requires an open interface to pressure authoritarian regimes into reform, all the while allowing for much of this same friction that arises in states favoring democracy. Finding that balance arrests the endless process of war as the chief means of human interaction.

Political sensitivity and government oversight in the US corporate bond market: evidence from federal contractors

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the political cost hypothesis and the effects of political sensitivity-induced governance in the US bond market by using yield spreads from bonds issued by a diverse sample of US government contractors. Design/methodology/approach Fixed effects regression analysis is used to test the relation between the political sensitivity of government contractor firms and their cost of debt. Findings Results illustrated that government contractors with greater political sensitivity are associated with larger yield spreads, indicating that bondholders require a premium when firms endure the costs of increased political oversight and the threat of outside intervention, reducing the certainty of future income. However, despite the overall positive impact of political sensitivity on bond yield spreads on average, the authors found that the additional government oversight is associated with lower spreads when the firm is facing greater repayment risk. Practical implications Despite the benefits of winning a government contract, this paper identifies a direct financial cost of increased political sensitivity because of additional firm oversight and potential intervention. Importantly, it also finds that this governance is valued by bondholders when faced with increased risk. Firms must balance their desire for government receipts with the costs and benefits of dependence on those expenditures. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature in its exploration of political sensitivity as an important determinant of the cost of debt for corporate government contractors. Specifically, the authors document a significant risk premium in bond pricing because of the joint effects of the visibility and importance of government contracts to the firm.

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY IN RELATION TO THE SPORTS POLICY OF MALUKU PROVINCE GOVERNMENT

The development of sports in Maluku in its implementation is always based on Law Number 3 of 2005 concerning the National Sports System, that "Local Governments have the authority to regulate, foster, develop, implement, and supervise the implementation of sports in the regions". This means that the government based on institutional functions is given full authority as a policy maker. The purpose of this study is to describe the extent of the Implementation of Government Authority to the Sports System in Maluku Province. The results of the study found: (1) That the sports policy in Maluku has not been a priority in regional development and in its implementation delegated to the relevant agencies / organizations / federations. (2) The role of the Maluku provincial government in sports development is divided into three scopes, namely educational sports, recreational sports and achievement sports. Guidance on recreational sports and educational sports is handled and managed by the Department of Youth and Sports (DISPORA) in coordination with the Department of Education and Culture (DISDIKBUD), the Federation of Indonesian Community Recreational Sports (FORMI) and the National Paralympic Commission (NPC) Maluku to synergize programs from the center to the center to region. Whereas the fostering and development of sports achievements are bestowed and implemented by KONI Maluku and its members. (3) That the Maluku provincial government provides operational assistance with the APBD, through DIPA SKPD and Grants to agencies / organizations / federations namely achievement sports through KONI, Sports education through DISDIKBUD and DISPORA in coordination with FORMI and NPC Maluku. (4) The Government Oversight Function on the implementation of sports in Maluku is carried out in two ways, namely internal and external. Internal supervision is carried out by sports institutions to achieve consistency between policies and implementation, while external supervision by the Inspectorate and the Financial Supervisory Agency (BPK) to ensure the use of the budget is on target and in accordance with reporting.