The year is 1999. As Hong Kong collapsed in the years leading up to 1997, Asia became dangerously unstable. Civil war breaks out in China between North and South, Shanghai against Szechuan. A new North Korean leader follows in his father's footsteps and invades the prosperous miracle country of South Korea. The Western allies, committed to defending South Korea, are reluctantly drawn into a conflict not of their own making.
The Pacific has long been a site for debates over disciplinary approaches and the ethics and politics of research within neocolonial and postcolonial contexts. This volume makes a significant contribution to these debates and to the related and ongoing exchanges concerning area studies, the globalization of capitalism, and its attendant cultural, social, and political effects. In so doing, the authors link work from the Pacific with theoretical and methodological issues raised in other areas of the globe. This collection of the best from Contemporary Pacific will prove invaluable to scholars, students and all interested in the study of history, culture, and identity in the Pacific and in (post) colonial societies everywhere.
Congressman Eni Faleomavaega sets the intellectual and legislative agenda on Pacific issues for the next decade including Asian security and trade concerns.
This collection explores birthing in the Pacific against the background of debates about tradition and modernity. A wide-ranging introduction and conclusion, together with case studies from Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, and Tonga, show how simple contrasts between traditional and modern practices, technocratic and organic models of childbirth, indigenous and foreign approaches, and notions of "before" and "after" can be potent but problematic. The difficulties entailed confront public health programs concerned with practical issues of infant and maternal survival in developing countries as well as scholarly analyses of birthing in cross-cultural contexts. The introduction analyzes central concepts and themes: questions of survival, safety, and well-being; the significance of postures, practices, and sites; the role of midwives, traditional birth attendants, and nurses; and the role of men in birthing and reproduction. Contributors--four anthropologists, a historian, and a community health worker--offer insights into the ways mothers, midwives, and nurses relate the traditional and the modern, and how ideas of tradition and modernity have shaped representations of Pacific childbirth. The conclusion provides researchers with a guide to relevant literature from several disciplines. As a whole the collection warns against either a celebration of emancipation through biomedicine or a recuperative romance about women's past powers in reproduction. Contributors: Ruta Fiti-Sinclair, Margaret Jolly, Vicki Lukere, Shelley Mallett, Helen Morton, Christine Salomon.
Dive into the Worldsea in this epic Polynesian mythology series in the Eschaton Cycle historical fantasy universe. Queens clash … Worlds bleed. The octopus god has seized control of the mer kingdom of Mu, and Namaka will do anything to destroy him. In desperation, she seeks aid from the other god-queens of Sawaiki. Yet they are embroiled in an all-out war for control of the world above the waves, and can spare no effort for the benthic realm. A final battle is coming … with paradise hanging in the balance. Queens of Mana is the third novel of the Heirs of Mana series. It continues an epic melding Polynesian myths, Pacific Islander folklore, and dark fantasy in a world of endless ocean. For fans of Michael R. Fletcher, Zamil Akhtar, and Ben Galley, this is a dark mythological retelling filled with gods and monsters from the Oceanic world. This series serves as a prequel to Gods of the Ragnarok Era.
Troubled Transit considers the situation of asylum seekers stuck in limbo in Indonesia from a number of perspectives. It presents not only the narratives of many transit migrants but also the perceptions of Indonesian authorities and of representatives of international and non-government organizations responsible for the care of transiting asylum seekers. Fascinated by the extraordinary and seemingly limitless resilience shown by asylum seekers during their often lengthy and dangerous journeys, the author highlights one particular fragment of their journeys — their time in Indonesia, which many expect to be the last stepping stone to a new life. While they long for their new life to unfold, most asylum seekers become embroiled in the complexities of living in transit. Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is more than a location where people spend time waiting; it is a nation state that interacts with transiting asylum seekers and formulates policies that have a profound impact on their experience in transit there. Troubled Transit tries to explain the complexities faced by the transiting migrants within the context of the Indonesian government and its political challenges, including its relationship with Australia. The Australia-centric view of recent asylum seeker issues has tended to ignore the larger socio-political context of the migratory routes and the perspectives of transit states towards asylum seekers stuck in transit. This book hopes to direct the Australia-centric gaze northwards to take Indonesian policies and policymaking into account, thereby giving Indonesia more relevance as a transit country and as an important partner in regional protection schemes and migration management. Even though some Indonesian policies and practices are less than favourable for asylum seekers, and even reprehensible from a human rights perspective, more attention must be paid to ongoing developments that impact on transiting asylum seekers in Indonesia if any of the hardships they suffer there are to be alleviated.
