Vanessa Davies: Law, Geography, Human Behaviour

New experiences, brighter futures

2012-01-31T06:59:00.000-08:00

It has been 9 months since my last post. It was not a result of being too busy or neglectful or unstimulated, but the result of doing client work that required me to keep a lower profile. As a law student I am bound by solicitor-client privilege and regulated by the Law Society of Upper Canada.

The January semester was one of discovery for me. I discovered the thrill of international trade law. I took a 3 week course in International Trade Negotiation taught by the Centre for Trade Law and Policy housed in Carleton University. The first two weeks of the course covered substantive trade in goods and services as well as negotiation techniques. The last week involved a simulation with students at the University of the West Indies in Cave Hill, Barbados. I had heard about the course in December 2010 and saved my summer earnings and successfully registered by lottery in July. I took my friend, Alicia, who is not a law student and we stayed at the Almond Beach Club and Spa in St. James, a mere 8 minute bus ride (on a yellow, calypso-blaring bus - awesome way to start the morning!) to the University.

Jeanelle Clarke, Alicia Breck and Vanessa Davies after the negotiation

There have been a few TED talks that have resonated with me over the Fall semester and I crystallized their messages during this negotiation. The most influential was Sheryl Sandberg's talk about too few women leaders. Because of her, I consciously decided to "sit at the table" and "keep my hand raised". I was the only person on my team, the CARICOM (stands for Caribbean Community, a single market economic trading area) team, to put my candidacy forward for Chief Negotiator. Because I did so, my team sensed my leadership skills and unanimously supported me. The course was largely female-dominated and there are distinct social tensions that arise with female leaders. I eschewed them by supporting my teammates' ideas, listening supportively, giving credit where it was due, keeping them part of any strategizing I did and commending them at the end of each of the four days we were together. As a result, we worked better together which enabled us to make significant gains in our negotiation against the team representing Canada. I also employed similar strategies when dealing with the other Chief Negotiator, which defused tensions that arose in the plenary sessions. I was straightforward with concerns, we shared personal stories, I was not afraid to ask questions or seek clarification. It became apparent to me that "Canada's" Chief Negotiator was on our side and could meet many of our needs if we were to frame it creatively. So I went back to my team having cultivated trust on both sides in order to brainstorm better solutions.

CARICOM Ambassador and negotiation coaches in the classroom at UWI Cave Hill, Barbados

This was an incredible learning experience: I gained experience managing people, creating and pursuing a vision, learning which negotiating tactics to avoid and employ, and balancing priorities in our mandate. Representing the underdog in a negotiation is an upward battle, but by employing the right tactics we made significant gains. On the last day of the negotiation, we presented our Economic Development Agreement to the Ambassador of CARICOM and their Agriculture representative. They took notes and asked excellent questions about how we pitched and balanced our priorities. They were impressed with the overall structure of the agreement. Real life free trade negotiations between Canada and CARICOM are stalled, and CTPL and the Department of Foreign Affairs have asked the students to report back about our creative solutions and problem solving skills. We all learned so much in a short week and I have emerged with new friends and colleagues.

Hey, Rapunzel, what's your Facebook (TM) status?

2011-05-16T18:33:00.001-07:00

California is considering a bill that would give parents access to their children's Facebook (TM) pages. From the article, I think there are more weaknesses than strengths to the proposed bill. I agree that the security settings should default to most secure. I have a list of weaknesses however.

First, parents would supposedly have to ask Facebook to remove content only and it appears to only deal with text, not photos or apps (personally, the idiotic apps and comments my eleven year old cousin disseminates reflect more ridiculously than her atrociously spelled updates). Would the override extend to the "Account" in addition to the "Page"? Could a parent be able to manipulate more than just content? There is also no mention of whether or how the parent's reach would change once the child would become of age, whether Facebook monitors the child's coming of age, or whether the content is completely destroyed or merely cached & stored on a FB server (potentially outside the parent's own jurisdiction, ie California). Facebook also sounds like it would be surrendering its proprietary rights over the posted content to parents, which is inconsistent (and unfair) to the proprietary rights it maintains over other users' content. Finally, there does not seem to be a mechanism (other than charging someone with fraud) to prevent one from posing as a parent to gain access to another's Facebook page.

This raises interesting questions about Lisa Austin's individual right to self-presentation (Austin 2010)* as well as invasions of privacy and trespass. As we've seen, torts of invasion of privacy are recognized in some circumstances and not others and court orders impeding accessing an individual's Facebook page have been upheld. I think it may be recognized in this case, although the arguments for child safety may stymie them. I think some of the comments make good points about the need to be an involved parent, but one who doesn't need to rely on indirect channels to parent their kids. What I do find troubling is the automatic assumption that children deserve reduced privacy. I come from the perspective that treating kids with dignity, respect and integrity ensures positive communication that would render moot the need for asking Facebook for more control. I guess I also think that the steps taken depend on the age of the child/adolescent.

Photo credit: Rapunzel in the castle from Johnny Gruelle's illustration for the Gutenberg Project, Wikimedia Commons 2011. The image is fitting because Rapunzel was trapped by her witch-mother in a castle and told the world was a scary place to be and that the only person she could trust was her controlling mother. Unfalsifiable, clearly.

* Lisa Austin, "Privacy and the Private Law: The Dilemma of Justification," (2010) 55 McGill L J 165 at 203.

Summarizing history

2011-02-22T19:15:00.000-08:00

On February 10th, I volunteered to report on history as it unfolded in an Ontario Superior Court of Justice courtroom on a freezing cold Ottawa afternoon.

The Canadian Centre for International Justice (CCIJ) canvassed the University listserv for volunteers to follow and report on the Mungwarere Trial. Jacques Mungwarere was charged with committing genocide during the Rwandan Genocide. He was located near Windsor, ON, in 2009. Following the prosecution of Desire Munyaneza, he is the second person to be prosecuted in Canada under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act (Department of Justice).

The first week was an intense week of procedural motions and on Monday, February 11th, the Crown was scheduled to move for an indictment. It was an exciting opportunity to witness the practice of international law firsthand and to apply (and learn the French equivalents of) some of the legal terms I learned over the last few months. Students listened to the proceedings in pairs and then prepared a summary. It was a great learning and mentoring opportunity that also enabled me to contribute to the CCIJ's important work.

Shipping Rates and the end of cheap oil

2011-01-20T08:18:00.001-08:00

Shipping rates have increased drastically recently. I purchase my gifts online and generally look for the estimated cost of shipping to factor into my price. Using online market places like Amazon make it easy and relatively convenient, except when it comes to international shipping rates. Those babies just pop up at the end of the transaction. Surprise! An extra 50$ on your order. I alternate between using my co.uk, .com, and .ca accounts to see where I can get the most savings, both on product price and shipping. However, then I am hit with a 5$ international transaction charge by my credit card. It is beyond me how they can charge me on top of the price I am already paying. The sellers have agreements with credit card companies to use online credit card payment services in the first place. There is still little difference in price for me, which means shipping has gone up substantially in the last 4 years since I started using Amazon. US sellers advertise in canadian dollars at higher prices despite the equal exchange rate and the Canadian purchaser is stuck with import duties and higher shipping prices. Where are the rising tides, Smith? What happened to the fruits of globalization and NAFTA where goods would move freely and consumers would have a choice about shipping rates? Even standard shipping is ridiculous. One seller quoted a 30-40 week estimation for a book. This past Christmas, instead of ordering a gift online, I returned to my local retailer where I paid the same price for the product without double the cost of shipping. If more customers think like me, online shopping revenues should decrease. Convenience is coming at a higher price and I predict a return to an era of localization and the end of online shopping as we know it.

Why Chinese Mothers are Superior WSJ 8 Jan 2011

2011-01-16T08:45:00.000-08:00

Amy Chua's article, (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754.html), has sparked a debate in the Wall Street Journal, as well as in parenting and psychology literature. There is an articulate rebuttal by a Jewish mother http://abcnews.go.com/Health/jewish-author-responds-wsj-chinese-mothering-controversy/story?id=12623592. Parents have a hard job and as this psychologist suggests, : http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/what-the-wild-things-are/201101/chinese-parent-western-parent-superior-parent-have-we-figured-i, a balance between disciplinarians and laissez-faire is necessary for optimal results

As someone who was raised with "Asian values" along what I will call a cultural faultline (Caucasian-caribbean-indian) and lived to tell the tale, the story she tells is pretty accurate (minus the 3 hours of piano a night), but one-sided. The problem with her model is that it is traumatic for children to live with the culture-bashing, allegations of assimilation and berating between parents and parents and children. Is it worth it to yell til you're hoarse just to demonstrate to the world that you can mimic antiquated hallmarks of elitism? I don't think so. And when does telling your daughter "stop eating so much fatty" stop exactly? From my experience it doesn't because those horrible things live on long after they're said and because parents have diffculty distinguishing their grown 22 year old daughter from the 7 year old in their mind, they feel like they can 1. always say those things and 2. get away without consequences from saying those things because of parental immunity. Kids in this environment grow up accepting and not questioning until they are pushed to their limit; living in perpetual fear, irrationally seeking control, and self-flagellating with blame and guilt. This manifests itself in eating disorders, higher suicide rates between the ages of 15-24 (as the rebuttal cites), obsessions with materialism, and an inability to adapt and deal with the chaos intrinsic to human life. By understanding the cultural differences and deconstructing them, I have overcome this behaviour and have banished the shame and silence it requires to be effective. There are constructive ways to raise children to be determined, thoughtful, self-sufficient confident members of society, and this isn't it. What's more is all that yelling is in vain: the parenting research illustrates that parenting has very little to do with how your child turns out; personality and friends determine that, and forbidding friends, striking down sense of self-worth have the reverse effect (ie. kids go running to the wrong types of people who give them what they can't get at home). Secondly, in order to curb adolescent rebellion and inspire self-sufficiency, we need to give children a meaningful stake in contributing to society.

Also striking to me is her willing stereotypical bifurcation of cultures, although she tries to smooth it out by combining Asian values with Indian, Caribbean and irish values. But these mothers exist in all races, in all cultures in all eras and I think she sets up a straw man argument that is easily dismantled with ethnography and longitudinal surveys.

Finally, I think parents should be aware of the assault scheme in Canadian criminal law if they are going to use some of the tactics advocated by Ms. Chua. Section 265 of the Criminal Code states:

265. (1) A person commits an assault when

(a) without the consent of another person, he applies force intentionally to that other person, directly or indirectly;

(b) he attempts or threatens, by an act or a gesture, to apply force to another person, if he has, or causes that other person to believe on reasonable grounds that he has, present ability to effect his purpose; or

Application

(2) This section applies to all forms of assault, including sexual assault, sexual assault with a weapon, threats to a third party or causing bodily harm and aggravated sexual assault.

Consent

(3) For the purposes of this section, no consent is obtained where the complainant submits or does not resist by reason of

(a) the application of force to the complainant or to a person other than the complainant;

(b) threats or fear of the application of force to the complainant or to a person other than the complainant;

(d) the exercise of authority.

Accused's belief as to consent

(4) Where an accused alleges that he believed that the complainant consented to the conduct that is the subject-matter of the charge, a judge, if satisfied that there is sufficient evidence and that, if believed by the jury, the evidence would constitute a defence, shall instruct the jury, when reviewing all the evidence relating to the determination of the honesty of the accused's belief, to consider the presence or absence of reasonable grounds for that belief.

Appealing to parental authority is not a defence, as evidenced by subsection 3(d). Furthermore, parents should also keep the principles outlined by the Supreme Court in Canadian Foundation for Children, youth and The Law v. Canada in mind when punishing children. Punishment or parental strongarming must be corrective but reasonable and not be "outbursts of violence motivated by anger or animated by frustration" and must be the "education or discipline of the child". The child must be able to benefit from the application of force; if incapable of doing so, the application of force is void. Any force, verbal or physical, must be reasonable. Parents can also be sued for battery and negligence for tortious conduct in childrearing. Parents should and must be accountable for the choices they make in raising their children and I disagree with the parental immunity Chau implies and supports. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child "requires state parties to ensure that '[n]o chld shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." These are important limits and guidelines for parents to remember as they impose their own limits and guidelines on their children.

Bilingualism of Supreme Court Justices

2010-05-26T09:28:00.000-07:00

The debate about possible limits of Canada's bilingualism laws has re-emerged in the debate over its Supreme Court justices. Lysianne Gagnon published an article in the Globe and Mail about the potential problems with the proposed legislation that would compel SCC judges to be bilingual, or limit appointments to bilingual candidates.

The SCC judges are currently appointed and hold the post until the age of 75.

Law School

2010-04-21T13:48:00.000-07:00

On Monday, April 19, I was offered admission to the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law's English Common Law Program, to commence studies in Fall 2010.

This is a prestigious programme with incredible opportunities to grow, including the opportunity to pursue a joint Juris Doctorate program in the United States.

I am extremely excited about embarking on this new phase in my career.

Democracy in Africa and its effect on Refugees

2010-02-27T11:45:00.000-08:00

Photo of Darfur Refugee Camp in Chad, taken by Mark Knobil, 2005 via Wikimedia Commons

I attended a talk recently by Professor James Milner at Carleton University which examined how responses to refugees varied before and after the end of the Cold War. The lecture is part of a series hosted by the Political Science department which examines how the world has changed since the end of the Cold War.

The aspect I found most profound in his talk was the effect of democratic transition in African countries on protracted refugee situations within countries, such as Tanzania. Protracted refugee situations have been used as leverage in political campaigns. As quickly as one leader can promise expulsion to garner a majority of votes, thus scapegoating refugees - many of whom only know life in a camp - another leader uses the opposite rhetoric and hands out citizenship in mass ceremonies, clearly admitting that refugee populations have significant and meaningful contributions and ties to a particular region. I came away curious about the arbitrary choices between expulsion and naturalization that some of these countries demonstrate. If it's so easy to naturalize citizens, why isn't it a widespread practice? What does naturalization actually mean for the refugees who have spent one or two generations in a camp? How are they, in fact, received by host populations? What are the economic calculations, if any, to naturalize, deport, or resettle refugees? I believe these are the questions we need to be seriously considering as we reconsider the future of the refugee regime and the inadequacy of present responses in light of changing characteristics of forced migration.

One sinister theme that emerged from Professor Milner's presentation was the growing restrictions, including freedom of mobility within the receiving country, guaranteed by the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Less developed countries follow the example of developed countries and impose stringent and illegal restrictions on Convention refugees. The disturbing pre-emptive measures (such as carrier restrictions, interception, and extraterritoriality meaning that you have to be cleared by an embassy in your home country and not crossing an international border which is central to the 1951 Convention definition of a 'refugee') taken by such countries as Canada, the UK, the US and the EU to restrict flows of refugees has been extrapolated in such places as Thailand and Tanzania so that refugees are under lock-down situations in contravention of international law.

This photograph is of a United States Coast Guard cutter, that intercepted and transported the Haitian refugees who fled the turmoil in their country, in the port at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in 1992. More than 14,000 refugees attempted to reach the United States by boat and were picked up by the Coast Guard in international waters and transported to the base at Guantanamo Bay. Courtesy of Wikimedia images - this image was taken by a US Official during duty and is therefore in the public domain.

SCC Decision on Omar Khadr

2010-01-29T12:59:00.000-08:00

Today, the Supreme Court of Canada overturned what could have led to the repatriation of Omar Khadr from the Guantanamo Bay detention centre where he has been held for more than 6 years. (CBC News).

While deeply dismayed at the continuing injustice, what the SCC called Khadr's "[continued violation] of rights to life, liberty and security of person", the SCC reflected an hesitation to overstep its jurisdiction. It concluded that the precedent of forcing the government to overstep its boundaries in international relations outweighed Khadr's Article 1 Charter rights. The SCC outlined the severity and urgency of the situation, as well as the initial violation of Khadr's rights at the initial stages of interrogation including the exchange of information to American authorities that resulted in his imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay. There is late-blooming public outcry to release Khadr from US custody and have him tried in Canada. It is hoped that the government, in light of the evidence, will make the decision to return Khadr to Canada.

There are disturbing implications for the SCC decision. First, in light of questionable interrogation tactics, charges of torture, extraordinary rendition and the persistence of the death penalty, it is shocking that Canada would have handed over Khadr to American authorities, let alone allow him to remain in their custody. The arguments articulated in opposition to the Safe Third Country Agreement are absent in this case it would seem. It is hypocritical that Canada maintains its reputation as a refuge from US extradition for Americans facing the death penalty or the draft, while simultaneously refusing to help one of its own citizens - regardless of his actions.

Secondly, there has been little or no action taken on the basis that Khadr was charged as a minor and should, therefore, be entitled to be treated as such, including protection under laws governing the rehabilitation and prosecution of child soldiers, in accordance with the principles set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Third, the government's inaction, similar to the inaction on the Kazemi and Arar cases, is a further reminder that no Canadian anywhere or at anytime can be assured of their protection by Canadian authorities overseas. Furthermore, the indication that the Khadr case will continue to be a political football flies in the face of our civic values and demonstrates the shameless self-promotion of Canada's political parties.

One wonders at the ability of the SCC to, on the one hand, strike down the use of security certificates but draw the line at Khadr.

The Supreme Court decision indicates that balance of power is alive and well in Canada, and that healthy debate about the future of human rights and civic values is still to come. This is coming at a very high cost to the action taken on human rights law. Similar to the Arar case, it seems like the Court is only delaying the inevitable reparations the Canadian government will have to make for the wrongful betrayal and imprisonment of one of its own by not sending a stronger message to the government to repatriate Omar Khadr.

New Horizons

2010-01-22T08:17:00.000-08:00

It was a busy fall. With proroguement nigh, I am looking forward to getting back to working on resubmitting my Master's thesis for journal publication.

I submitted my law applications to seven schools in North America, so I should hear back in the Spring. I am hoping to specialize in Public International Law and/or Human Rights. With the applications under my belt, I am working on scholarship applications to offset the cost of law school.

I joined Amnesty International's RefNet in September and was pleased to assist with research on my first case over the holidays.

Mapping the Recession

2010-01-19T09:55:00.000-08:00

This link was shared with me and I think it does such a great job at looking at how unemployment is spreading across the US that I wanted to share it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9jBNyysbho&feature=player_embedded

James Milner Speaks on Burundian Refugees in Tanzania

2010-01-14T07:38:00.000-08:00

African Studies Brownbag Seminar Series talk, co-sponsored by the Ottawa Migration and Refugee Research Network (OMRRN):
"Understanding solutions for African refugees: The case of Burundians in Tanzania"
with
James Milner
Carleton University (Political Science/Institute of African Studies)
Wednesday, January 20 at 1:00- 2:30 pm
433 Paterson Hall, Carleton University
This is part of the African Studies Brownbag Seminar Series
(http://www.carleton.ca/africanstudies/)

Urgent Action

2010-01-13T08:32:00.000-08:00

UA 10/10
AI Index: ASA 26/001/2010 of 13 January 2010

LAOS: REFUGEES FORCIBLY RETURNED FROM THAILAND
The Thai authorities forcibly returned around 4,500 Lao Hmong, including 158 recognized refugees, to Laos at the end of 2009. The Lao government is refusing to permit UN and other monitors access to them.

On 28 and 29 December, the Thai military forcibly returned to Laos around 4,500 Lao Hmong, in breach of international law. Most had been in a camp in Phetchabun province. Some 158 recognized refugees arbitrarily detained in Nong Khai Immigration Detention Centre, near the Lao border, were also forcibly returned, despite offers from four other countries to accept them for resettlement.
The Thai and Lao governments had given assurances that the 158 would be resettled in third countries once they had transited through Laos. However on 10 January, a Lao government spokesperson told journalists that "all of the Hmong decided to live in their homeland forever," and no longer wanted to resettle abroad. At the same time the government is refusing all requests to give UN monitors unfettered access to the refugees, to assess their wellbeing and ensure that their wishes to resettle in third countries are considered.
The UN Refugee Agency UNHCR had verified that the 158 have a well-founded fear of persecution in Laos, and granted them refugee status. As the Thai government refused UNHCR access to the Phetchabun camp, it is not known how many people there had fled persecution and should therefore have been recognized as refugees.
Since 2005, forcible returns of Lao Hmong from Thailand have led to enforced disappearances, torture and arbitrary detention. The Lao government have consistently denied this, but have not provided any comprehensive information to support their claims or allowed independent monitors to investigate these reports.
Around 20 of the 158 refugees have been seen at a designated resettlement village, Phalak, around 70km north of the capital, Vientiane. The whereabouts of the others is not known. However, hundreds of returnees have been seen in what has been described as an army camp north of Paksan town, around 20km east of Vientiane. The returnees, mostly women and children, were not free to come and go from the facility, which was fenced in with razor wire.

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in your own words, using English, Lao, French or your own language. Call on the authorities
* to allow UN monitors unfettered access to the returnees from Thailand immediately, whether or not they have refugee status;
* to honour their agreement to allow any refugees to settle in third countries;
* to expedite and help with any preparations required for third country resettlement;
* to allow those who choose to remain in Laos, rather than be resettled, to participate in decisions about their place of residence and livelihood;
* to ensure that none of the around 4,500 returnees are arbitrarily detained, tortured or subjected to enforced disappearance.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS TO:
Minister of Foreign Affairs:
Thongloun Sisoulit
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
That Luang Road, Vientiane, Laos
Fax:   011 856 21 414 009
Email:   cabinet@mofa.gov.la
Salutation: Dear Minister
Minister of Justice:
Dr Chaleuan Yapaoher
Ministry of Justice
Lane Xang Avenue
Vientiane, Laos
Fax:   011 856 21 414 009 (This is c/o Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Salutation: Dear Minister
WITH A COPY TO
His Excellency Phiane Philakone
Ambassador for the Lao People's Democratic Republic
2222 S Street N.W.
Washington, DC 20008, USA
Fax:   (202) 332-4923
Email:   laoemb@verizon.net

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Around 5,000 Lao Hmong people, including an unknown number of asylum-seekers, had been living in a camp in Phetchabun, Thailand, since 2004. The vast majority did not have the opportunity to seek asylum. The Thai military returned them under an agreement between the Thai and Lao governments. Many of those who had been returned before this last group were sent to villages designated for people returned from abroad after going through "re-education". The Lao authorities have arranged several visits to Phalak resettlement site for diplomats and local journalists, but have refused to allow anyone to approach the returnees unaccompanied.
The group of 158 refugees forcibly returned to Laos, more than half of them children, had been arbitrarily detained at Nong Khai Immigration Detention Center for more than three years. The governments of Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and the USA had offered to accept them for resettlement, but the Lao authorities intervened with the Thai authorities to prevent this happening.
Most Hmong refugees and asylum-seekers in Thailand claim to have some connection to groups living in isolated pockets in the Lao jungles since the Viet Nam war ended in 1975.
Laos ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) on 25 September 2009. This means they are obliged to guarantee all people in Laos the right to be free from torture, to liberty of movement and freedom to choose their residence, and the rights to freedom of expression and assembly. They must also provide safeguards for the treatment of detainees.
The Lao Hmong asylum-seekers were previously the subject of UA 324/06 (ASA 39/017/2006), 29 November 2006, and follow-ups.

Urgent Action Office   Amnesty International Canada
1992 Yonge St, 3rd floor   Toronto, Ontario M4S 1Z7
(416) 363 9933 ext 325   /   Fax (416) 363 3103   /   www.amnesty.ca/urgentaction

AIDSLEX.org

2009-10-17T09:23:00.000-07:00

I am a member of the HIV/AIDS Legal Network. The Network recently launched a database of experts and information for those working on the multiple facets of HIV/AIDS. Check it out if you need answers to questions about AIDS, law, drugs, access and human rights.

www.aidslex.org

If you would like to know more about the work of the HIV/AIDS Legal Network, click here.

Don't Waste Student Work

2009-10-13T19:21:00.000-07:00

I saw this talk recently and wish so much that I could have furthered projects that reached a wider audience. I can't think of the vast number of summaries I had to produce for courses during my undergraduate degree, all of which did nothing other than to make me aware of an argument or fact and give my evaluator an even playing field to evaluate students.

Jim Davies Presents: Don't Waste Student Work, September, 2009 from Jim Davies on Vimeo.

CBC News - Money - UN calls for better deal for migrant workers

2009-10-05T12:33:00.001-07:00

CBC News - Money - UN calls for better deal for migrant workers

Shared via AddThis

How Long to Form a Habit?

2009-09-29T12:42:00.000-07:00

How Long to Form a Habit?

Re-engineering how we manage the swine flu pandemic

2009-09-27T07:13:00.001-07:00

As the swine flu pandemic descends upon the province of Ontario, officials and health practitioners are scrambling to vaccinate and advertise prevention strategies. Flu pandemics appear to be increasing in frequency and the more information that is available, the better. However, I believe there are a few structural changes that need to be made that greatly affect human behaviour and, consequently, the spreading of contagious disease. I make these recommendations not as an epidemiologist, or an architect or even a social anthropologist. I am a legal anthropologist. I am interested in how people react to new policies, how they understand and navigate contracts and how they respond to new legislated forms of control and power.

Since the bubonic plague, public health has been a justification to exert social control and invasive yet performative surveillance methods (Hörnqvist 2004; Elden 2003). Public health is a utilitarian approach to reconfiguring social bonds: it undermines the individualist bases of risk and harm that underpin western society by instilling peer pressure or a sense of responsibility to one's larger community. It justifies, to a certain degree, compromising personal liberties to protect the whole: we see this in campaigns encouraging hand washing, condom usage, compulsory vaccinations, regular STD testing. These are not bad things - merely behaviour modifications that result in better quality of life and lower mortality rates. In the age of large scale rapid migration in small confined spaces, like airplanes, it is time to think beyond just the development of chemicals and products and examine how germs and the people that carry them interact in space.

From the grocery store, to the lobby of the building I work in, to every bathroom I visit, there are signs posted about proper hand washing. This is good, but it is not the whole story. Entire departments are drawing up Swine Flu policy strategies about how to handle absenteeism. How many of them are changing the taps in the washroom to motion censors to avoid people touching them with clean or dirty hands? Anything that requires a switch should be changed to motion-detection systems to avoid hand-germ-surface contact: lights, doors. What good is it to wash one's hands, if one still has to touch the swinging door handle? I recommend replacing doors with open, maze-like entrances that are still private but avoid hand-germ-surface contact that is easily spread. And what about doors to cars, steering wheels and homes? We need to innovate new solutions that is not only about changing human behaviour, but minimizing its impact. This image, from Information is Beautiful blog is an effective visual tool for understanding disease control. This shows the fatality rate associated with infectious disease and the maximum survival rates outside of the body (how long they can be infectious). As you can see, swine flu is low on the scale. If I understand this correctly, this means that there are few fatalities and that the disease has a short span of survival outside of the body.

I mentioned earlier that hand sanitizer is proliferating everywhere I go. Most people don't know how to use it. Again, here we see the asymmetrical distribution of information: we are told hand sanitizer that is alcohol based can protect us by killing germs on our hands, but we are not instructed as to how or why it works. When using hand sanitizer, the rubbing action loosens bacteria on our fingers. Allowing the alcohol to evaporate is what kills the bacteria, though, so taking the time to allow your hands to dry is the only way to kill the bacteria properly. We are also told that hand washing will kill bacteria and to avoid anti-bacterial soaps because of adaptive capabilities of bacteria. We are not told that we need to wash our hands in running water with regular soap for at least 30 seconds and to rub our hands vigorously to wash bacteria and dirt out of wrinkles, nooks, or folds - or the worst source - under our nails. Knowledge to change behaviour is only effective if it is complete. It is not enough to tell people to use hand sanitizer or wash their hands.

Voice-over technology has also advanced rapidly and should be considered a major ally in combating the spread of germs in the workplace especially. Assigning individual, unshared, headsets and having to speak, rather than type, at computers would also minimize hand-germ-surface contact. I share a keyboard at work presently because I work shifts. Voice-over technology would be a great way to protect myself and my colleagues from spreading disease.

Air quality and air transfer is another area that needs addressing. I read an article a few years ago that said air quality has deteriorated on airplanes since smoking was prohibited (for an example and larger discussion, see Hocking and Foster (2004)). I get sick every time I fly. The lack of sleep, confined space, the high passenger-bathroom ratio and lack of fresh air are definitely contributing factors that facilitate airborne germs. Removing carpet on airplanes and having pressurized doors on bathrooms would be a good way of minimizing bacteria growth and transfer. We also hear that hospitals are full of air borne or surface-borne bacteria. I haven't found any information about changes to hospital ventilation architecture or even altogether redesigning first response delivery (people who enter clinics or emergency rooms with virus symptoms) sharing the same building as women giving birth or people having heart transplants. Part of fixing the health care system is addressing how architecture organizes mechanisms of triage in order to prevent vulnerable patients and care-workers from infection.

Social pressure, as I mentioned before, makes public health work effectively. People are full of advice and admonishments, and while they may not like being on the receiving end, they certainly don't hesitate to pass it on. How many of us haven't glared at the person who didn't wash their hands when they left the bathroom? We need people to be better informed about which germs spread which way in order to better protect themselves and minimize the spread of disease which takes a toll on the health care system. Part of this is changing popular perceptions about what is acceptable behaviour. My parents used to scold my brother and me if we coughed into our shirt. Now, this is the practice health practitioners are recommending to stem the spread of the flu, rather than coughing into one's hands. We are also a culture that is used to shaking hands or kissing to greet each other. These are socially difficult or awkward behaviours to change or relinquish, but it is much appreciated when I hear someone decline a physical greeting due to illness. The more we take responsibility for ourselves and our behaviour, the better off everyone will be.

Lastly, we need to reassess our economies of risk as well as how personal risk affects our economy. What I mean by this is that people weigh their choices. Risk compensation is one problem when we are talking about health care and infectious disease: people will engage in more risky behaviour if they perceive they have taken "adequate" precautions. If people think hand sanitizer is more effective, they may be more likely to not wash their hands. If these "adequate" precautions are based on misinformation, then we have people taking higher risks with little or no real precautions, which can definitely lead to widespread infection.

How does the flu pandemic affect our economy? This is an easy question to answer: it comes down to the numbers. The Economist (30 April 2009) cites costs to the Mexican economy at $55 billion a day because of cancelled schools, sporting events and decreased consumer sales. According to research by the WHO in 1999, a pandemic affecting 15-35% of the population would cost $71 billion and $166 billion. In 2006, Warwick McKibbin and Alexandra Sidorenko found in a study for the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney that even a mild pandemic could shave 0.8% off world GDP (The Economist , 30 April 2009). This is a lot for an already faltering global economy. If we compare this to the costs of vaccines, resources (like body bags, hand sanitizer, coffins), we need to realize that encouraging people to take a few days off work will be better in the long run because they will not spread the flu. In order to do so, we need better compensation packages for people who work, especially in jobs where there are no benefits available. I suggest a tax rebate for businesses that continue to pay their workers when they are off sick due during an officially recognized pandemic. The system goes into effect from the day the public officer of health issues advisories. Short term costs of paying people will mean overall long term productivity. People need to stay home and rest, for the sake of public health and a recovering economy. Earlier, I made recommendations about changing the architecture and tools in a workspace. This sounds expensive. The fact is that it will save money in the long run because it will minimize the spread of disease.

Managing the flu pandemic is difficult and expensive. There are some costs that cost more in the short run, but deliver stability and growth in the long run. These are the changes we need invest in, and they can only be done with complete knowledge and a reconfiguring of how germs and people interact in space.

References:

Magnus Hörnqvist (2004). "The birth of public order policy." Race & Class. 46(1). pp. 30-52.

Stuart Elden (2003). "Plague, Panopticon & Police." Surveillance & Society. 1(3). pp. 240-253.

Martin B. Hocking, Diana Hocking (eds). Air Quality in Airplane Cabins and Similar Enclosed Spaces. Berlin: Springer, 2005.

Martin B. Hocking and Harold D. Foster. (2004). "Common cold transmission in commercial aircraft: Industry and passenger implications. " Journal of Environmental Health Research. 3(1).

Further Reading about Medical Anthropology:

Didier Fassin. (2001). "Quand le corps fait loi: la raison humanitaire dans les procédures de régularisation des étrangers." Sciences sociales et sante. 19(4).

JP Dozon et Didier Fassin. Critique de la sante publique: une approche anthropologique. Balland, 2001.

Didier Fassin. (2005) "Compassion and Repression: The moral economy of immigration policies in France." Cultural Anthropology. pp. 362-387.

Miriam Ticktin. (Feb. 2006). "Where ethics and politics meet: The violence of humanitarianism in France." American Ethnologist in France. 33(1). pp. 33-49.

Margaret Lock and Nancy Scheper-Hughes, (1996). "A Critical-Interpretive Approach in Medical Anthropology: Rituals and Routines of Discipline and Dissent." in C.F. Sargent and T.M. Johnson (Ed.), Medical Anthropology Contemporary Theory and Method: pp. 41-70. (Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.), 1996.

Image: colorized negative stained transmission electron micrograph (TEM) depicted some of the ultrastructural morphology of the A/CA/4/09 swine flu virus, Photo Credit: C.S. Goldsmith and A. Balish, CDC. Source:

http://www.cdc.gov/media/subtopic/library/diseases.htm

via Wikimedia Commons, images, "flu virus." (Accessed 27Sept09)