"This book is a compilation of papers first presented at the workshop "The palm oil controversy in transnational perspective" that took place in Singapore, 2-4 March 2009. The workshop was jointly organized by the Institute of Oriental and Asian Studies, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universit'at, Bonn and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore. It was funded by Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)"--Preface.
With its unparalleled coverage of English slang of all types (from 18th-century cant to contemporary gay slang), and its uncluttered editorial apparatus, Cassell's Dictionary of Slang was warmly received when its first edition appeared in 1998. 'Brilliant.' said Mark Lawson on BBC2's The Late Review; 'This is a terrific piece of work - learned, entertaining, funny, stimulating' said Jonathan Meades in The Evening Standard.But now the world's best single-volume dictionary of English slang is about to get even better. Jonathon Green has spent the last seven years on a vast project: to research in depth the English slang vocabulary and to hunt down and record written instances of the use of as many slang words as possible. This has entailed trawling through more than 4000 books - plus song lyrics, TV and movie scripts, and many newspapers and magazines - for relevant material. The research has thrown up some fascinating results
The oil palm industry has transformed rural livelihoods and landscapes across wide swathes of Indonesia and Malaysia, generating wealth along with economic, social, and environmental controversy. Who benefits and who loses from oil palm development? Can oil palm development provide a basis for inclusive and sustainable rural development? Based on detailed studies of specific communities and plantations and an analysis of the regional political economy of oil palm, this book unpicks the dominant policy narratives, business strategies, models of land acquisition, and labour-processes. It presents the oil palm industry in Malaysia and Indonesia as a complex system in which land, labour and capital are closely interconnected. Understanding this complex is a prerequisite to developing better strategies to harness the oil palm boom for a more equitable and sustainable pattern of rural development.
The combination of international privatization trends coupled with advancements in computer and communication technology have transformed the conduct of international business. The result has been a consolidation of players in all aspects of business, including banking, aviation, insurance, and mass media. This book discusses one such player -- the Transnational Media Corporation (TNMC). Long remembered as a time of rapid growth and expansion for international business, the decades of the '80s and '90s were a period characterized by major mergers and acquisitions. Good examples of this include Time Inc.'s 1989 merger with Warner Communication for $11.2 billion and Walt Disney's 1996 purchase of Cap Cities/ABC for $19.5 billion. According to the late Steven Ross, former co-chief executive officer of Time-Warner, "In order to succeed in business today, you must be in all the major markets of the world." TNMCs have indeed become salient features of today's global economic landscape. This volume asks the most basic of questions: What makes a global corporation global? And, to what extent do TNMCs affect the marketplace of ideas? This book, then, is intended for the business professional or student who is interested in understanding the business and operations of transnational media. Part I examines the regulatory and economic reasons prompting the formation of a TNMC. It seeks to explain why such companies engage in direct foreign investment and further considers how transnational operations affect the development of new media products in terms of cost, quality, and availability. The TNMC is unique among global corporations given the fact that its primary business is the creation of information and entertainment products. This book also examines the highly complex relationship between TNMCs and the host nations in which they operate. It further considers such specific issues as cultural trespass, transborder data flow, and the effects of transnational media on the marketplace of ideas. Part II of this volume provides a series of case study analyses of five leading TNMCs including Time-Warner Inc., Sony Inc., Bertelsmann AG, the Walt Disney Company, and News Corporation Ltd. Specific attention is given to the history, business philosophy, and economic performance of each of these companies.
Accomplished stories of daring intention by the author of Scribe and Boleto The twin standards of human love and human sexuality, separate but reflective of one another, and indissolubly linked, run like the double helix through Alyson Hagy’s debut story collection, Madonna on Her Back, first published in 1986. Her characters stand convicted of humanity, futile and grand, ripe for disaster and ready for glory. In each of these eight stories, Hagy leads her reader into another field of the human spirit, in locales that vary from the rural south to Michigan to West Africa. She reveals how the rituals of human affection are as mannered, grotesque, silly, and appealing as those of wading birds, and only marginally less predictable in their result. “This first collection by a winner of the Hopwood Award for Short Fiction consists of eight finely crafted and intensely realized stories about people, often women alone or deprived, who must find outlets not only for their sexuality but also for their very being. . . . Hagy gives voice and texture to the passionate intensity with which often dreamy characters face the daily business of their lives.”—Publishers Weekly
Indonesia's forests make up one of the worlds most biologically diverse ecosystems. They have long been harvested by local people to meet their daily needs. Since the 1970s, a combination of demographic, economic and policy factors has driven forest exploitation at the industrial scale and resulted in growing deforestation. Key factors behind the forest loss and land use change in present-day Indonesia are the expansion of oil palm, plywood production and pulp and paper industries. Oil palm has been one of the fastest-growing sectors of the Indonesian economy, increasing from less than 1 million hectares in 1991 to 8.9 million hectares in 2011. The plywood and pulp and paper industries have also expanded significantly since the log export ban in 1985. All three sectors have contributed to deforestation. Several measures are being taken to reduce the loss of tropical forests in Indonesia. These measures are driven by growing global concern about the impact of deforestation on biodiversity and global warming and the Indonesian governments commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A major policy initiative revolves around developing renewable energy from biomass that can be sourced from oil palm, sugar, cassava, jatropha and timber plantations. This paper analyzes these measures and assesses the conditions under which they may be most effective.
This volume examines how states and citizens have been able to address globalization in different ways across the Global North and South. Authors examine the state as it forms policies in agro-production, contends with critical constituencies, and rebuilds capacity to act in the popular interest after forty years of neoliberal assault.
[BookStrand Contemporary Romance] Jake has nothing to offer Frankie, but he can't keep away. He has to see her one more time. To know she's moved on. And she has. She's now a single mother, running a successful business, and still hating Jake for letting her down so badly. Until she sets eyes on him. Jake is still way too sexy for his own good, or hers. And after twelve years, Frankie's hormones are suddenly out of control. But Jake knows she's strictly off limits. His past still haunts him and the deal he once made is in danger. Secrets he's kept from her for twelve, long years threaten to destroy any relationship they might ever have. ** A BookStrand Mainstream Romance
