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    The political battle over health policy in Indonesia
    Rosser, A (Ear to Asia: an Asia Institute podcast, 2021-10-12)
    Ear to Asia podcast What’s at stake and who are the stakeholders in steering health policy in Indonesia? While the right to health for all Indonesians has been embraced by progressive, populist and technocratic political forces in recent years, oligarchic elites with ties to business and the military are now reemerging to thwart further improvements in healthcare for ordinary people. Political economist Prof Andrew Rosser and public policy specialist Dr Luky Djani join presenter Peter Clarke to examine the politics of healthcare in Indonesia. https://www.melbourneasiareview.edu.au/podcasts/the-political-battle-over-health-policy-in-indonesia/
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    Restoring the Place of Imagination in Education: How to escape the trap of rationality-based realism
    Reuter, T (Index Copernicus, 2022-06-30)
    Henri Corbin accorded the imagination its own unique and important noetic or cognitive function, giving us access to an ontological sphere that without imagination remains closed and forbidden to us. Meanwhile, for rationalist science philosophy, as Corbin notes, the imagination has long been understood as nothing but the unreal, the mythic, the marvellous, the fictive and fanciful. In this paper I argue that rationalist modernism, along with mass education in keeping with this modernist ‘spirit of the times’ has led to a collective imprisonment within the real, the concrete, and robbed us of the capacity to reflect and transform ourselves and our relationship to the world. This state of affairs will ensure humanity’s rapid demise given the challenges we now face, that is, unless we can reinstate the faculty of imagination within scientific epistemology and in education, and thus escape our entrapment.
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    Arbitrary Detention in Indonesia: Buru Prison Island, 1969-1979
    Setiawan, KMP (BRILL, 2022-01-01)
    Between 1969 and 1979 Indonesia'.s New Order regime consigned some 12,000 leftist political prisoners to a penal settlement on the island of Buru in eastern Indonesia. The prisoners were sent there without trial as part of a mass detention campaign undertaken by the state security organisation, Kopkamtib. Once on the island, they were expected to create a new, viable settlement by clearing jungle and planting crops. The authorities had no intention of releasing the prisoners, but rather expected then to settle on the island for good. In order to enhance the '.normalcy'. of the settlement, the authorities persuaded and coerced the families of some prisoners to move to Buru. Although conditions were better in Savanajaya, the settlement allocated to families, than in other parts of the penal colony, the family members of detainees were subject to many of the same rules of detention. Prisoners and their families suffered both from difficult conditions on Buru and from harsh ill-treatment by camp guards. Under international pressure, the New Order regime dismantled the settlement in 1979, and most of the detainees returned to Java.
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    Vulnerable but Resilient: Indonesia in an Age of Democratic Decline
    Setiawan, KMP (Routledge, 2022-11-25)
    Recent years have seen a consensus emerging that Indonesian democracy is in regression. Nonetheless, there continue to be developments that point towards Indonesia’s democratic resilience. This article examines key events of the past year that support resilience, including the passing of the landmark Law on Sexual Violence, the rejection of rumoured plans to extend President Joko Widodo’s term in office and a moderation of polarisation. At the same time, Indonesian democracy remains vulnerable, illustrated by legal developments that undermine executive accountability, ongoing militarisation in Papua, as well as persistent pressure in areas of freedom of expression and minority rights. The article will conclude with an examination of Jokowi’s efforts to secure his presidential legacy, particularly through infrastructure development and foreign policy. The article identifies two sources for democratic resilience—public opinion and elite support—and argues that while democratic decline continues, the process of regression is more uneven than commonly emphasised in assessments of Indonesian politics.
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    Learning in the Language of Cinema: A Case Study of the Impact of Humanities Subjects on Chinese International Student’s Critical Thinking Ability
    Zhou, Y ; Zhou, S ; Liu, G ; Zhou, S ; Xu, H (Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press, 2020)
    Chinese students make up the largest portion of international students in Australia, yet we know relatively little about their study experience in the humanities and the impact of Australian humanities subjects on their critical thinking ability. Through a qualitative analysis of the academic performance of two cohorts of Chinese international students enrolled in two film studies subjects, this study has revealed that Chinese international students benefit considerably from an Australian-style training, as evident in their improved analytical skills and critical thinking ability. However, English proficiency remains a major challenge for them in obtaining higher scores, which they could have otherwise achieved in a native language educational environment. This study has also discovered that Chinese international students are generally adept at using multi-media tools to present and communicate ideas. Distanced from their home country, Chinese international students are more motivated to study if they feel a cultural or emotional connection with the course content. Communicating in a language that students can resonate with, be it more visual or culturally sensitive, will help both students and educators achieve better outcomes.
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    Diaspora organizations, political settlements, and the migration-development nexus: the case of the Indonesian Diaspora Network
    Rosser, A (Oxford University Press (OUP), 2022-09-08)
    This article examines the Indonesian Diaspora Network (IDN), an organization that seeks to ‘facilitate’ and ‘empower’ Indonesia’s diaspora and enhance its contribution to the country’s development. IDN portrays itself as an expression of the collective will of a unified and coherent Indonesian diaspora that is working to promote development-for-all, while critics suggest it is the instrument of elite and professional elements within the diaspora pursuing narrower interests and agendas. By contrast, this article suggests that IDN is a political settlement between these and other elements within the diaspora, each of which has distinct interests and agendas with regard to Indonesia’s development. Its impact on Indonesia’s development is consequently much less clear-cut than existing analyses suggest while also being contingent on processes of political and social struggle. In theoretical terms, the article encourages an understanding of diaspora organizations in terms of political settlements analysis.
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    Transnational linkages, political dynamics, and the migration-development nexus: Towards a political settlements approach
    Rosser, A (Elsevier, 2020-10-01)
    This paper examines how transnational researchers have incorporated political dynamics into their analyses of transnational linkages and their impacts. It argues that they have done so in ways that have focused on conflict and contestation between migrant/diasporic communities and homeland states/communities rather than within them. At the same time, in construing transnational linkages as instruments of particular actors, they have presented a narrow conception of how transnational linkages interact with political dynamics. As an alternative, the paper proposes a political settlements approach which views transnational linkages as institutions embedded in power relationships between competing groups defined in class, racial, ethnic, religious and gender terms. This approach, it is argued, overcomes these two problems by presenting a more disaggregated view of the actors, interests and agendas involved and construing transnational linkages as simultaneously instruments and arenas of contestation.
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    Genome-wide meta-analyses reveal novel loci for verbal short-term memory and learning
    Lahti, J ; Tuominen, S ; Yang, Q ; Pergola, G ; Ahmad, S ; Amin, N ; Armstrong, NJ ; Beiser, A ; Bey, K ; Bis, JC ; Boerwinkle, E ; Bressler, J ; Campbell, A ; Campbell, H ; Chen, Q ; Corley, J ; Cox, SR ; Davies, G ; De Jager, PL ; Derks, EM ; Faul, JD ; Fitzpatrick, AL ; Fohner, AE ; Ford, I ; Fornage, M ; Gerring, Z ; Grabe, HJ ; Grodstein, F ; Gudnason, V ; Simonsick, E ; Holliday, EG ; Joshi, PK ; Kajantie, E ; Kaprio, J ; Karell, P ; Kleineidam, L ; Knol, MJ ; Kochan, NA ; Kwok, JB ; Leber, M ; Lam, M ; Lee, T ; Li, S ; Loukola, A ; Luck, T ; Marioni, RE ; Mather, KA ; Medland, S ; Mirza, SS ; Nalls, MA ; Nho, K ; O'Donnell, A ; Oldmeadow, C ; Painter, J ; Pattie, A ; Reppermund, S ; Risacher, SL ; Rose, RJ ; Sadashivaiah, V ; Scholz, M ; Satizabal, CL ; Schofield, PW ; Schraut, KE ; Scott, RJ ; Simino, J ; Smith, AV ; Smith, JA ; Stott, DJ ; Surakka, I ; Teumer, A ; Thalamuthu, A ; Trompet, S ; Turner, ST ; van der Lee, SJ ; Villringer, A ; Voelker, U ; Wilson, RS ; Wittfeld, K ; Vuoksimaa, E ; Xia, R ; Yaffe, K ; Yu, L ; Zare, H ; Zhao, W ; Ames, D ; Attia, J ; Bennett, DA ; Brodaty, H ; Chasman, DI ; Goldman, AL ; Hayward, C ; Ikram, MA ; Jukema, JW ; Kardia, SLR ; Lencz, T ; Loeffler, M ; Mattay, VS ; Palotie, A ; Psaty, BM ; Ramirez, A ; Ridker, PM ; Riedel-Heller, SG ; Sachdev, PS ; Saykin, AJ ; Scherer, M ; Schofield, PR ; Sidney, S ; Starr, JM ; Trollor, J ; Ulrich, W ; Wagner, M ; Weir, DR ; Wilson, JF ; Wright, MJ ; Weinberger, DR ; Debette, S ; Eriksson, JG ; Mosley, TH ; Launer, LJ ; van Duijn, CM ; Deary, IJ ; Seshadri, S ; Raikkonen, K (SPRINGERNATURE, 2022-11)
    Understanding the genomic basis of memory processes may help in combating neurodegenerative disorders. Hence, we examined the associations of common genetic variants with verbal short-term memory and verbal learning in adults without dementia or stroke (N = 53,637). We identified novel loci in the intronic region of CDH18, and at 13q21 and 3p21.1, as well as an expected signal in the APOE/APOC1/TOMM40 region. These results replicated in an independent sample. Functional and bioinformatic analyses supported many of these loci and further implicated POC1. We showed that polygenic score for verbal learning associated with brain activation in right parieto-occipital region during working memory task. Finally, we showed genetic correlations of these memory traits with several neurocognitive and health outcomes. Our findings suggest a role of several genomic loci in verbal memory processes.
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    Transgender youth inclusion in healthcare in Southeast Asia: Insights from Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines
    Wolter, A ; Hegarty, B (Youth LEAD, Asia Pacific Network of Young Key Populations, 2022)
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    How coalitions of multiple actors advance policy in China: ecological agriculture at Danjiangkou
    Zhen, N ; Zhao, Y ; Jiang, H ; Webber, M ; Wang, M ; Lamb, V ; Jiang, M (ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2022-11-02)