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This article explores the discrimination practices encountered by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals in education, income, employment, and health care in Turkey. Limited quantitative data on LGBT individuals are available in Turkey. This study collected data from 2,875 LGBT individuals through a Web-based survey. The findings suggest that LGBT individuals report perceived direct and indirect discrimination in accessing education, employment, and health care. In a country where LGBT rights are not yet recognized and antidiscrimination legislation covering sexual orientation and gender identity is still nonexistent, findings demonstrate perceived discrimination of LGBTs rarely turns into a legal complaint. Even when they do, most LGBTs in our sample report that they did not feel that the justice system addressed their grievances.

"Educational development has played a role in rapid economic development in East and Southeast Asia.... Australia faces problems in common with countries of the region, including the need to provide greater equality of educational opportunity to students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and to find the appropriate disciplinary mix in tertiary education. The massive growth of the numbers with secondary and higher education in the region will provide opportunities to market our education, pose issues for Australian immigration policy, and provide both risks and opportunities in building a favourable image of Australia.", (excerpt)

Several events in Zambia this year have marked the development of an integrated approach to reproductive health. A team met in March to draw up a national safe motherhood policy, plus strategies and guidelines. These were completed by April and are being distributed for comments. Clinical guidelines for safe motherhood in health centers have also been developed. These aim to reduce mortality and morbidity among mothers and infants by helping health workers to provide quality care to women at every stage of pregnancy and delivery. A reproductive health workshop was held in Ngwerere in May to create awareness of the concept of reproductive health, identify reproductive health problems in the area, propose solutions and outline activities. The 75 participants included community health workers, community leaders, teachers, youth leaders, and community members, as well as health workers and policymakers. The workshop was conducted in the local language so that those present were able to participate fully. June 1997 saw the official launch of Zambia's new policy framework, guidelines and strategy on family planning within reproductive health. The country's Minister of Health, Dr. Katele Kalumba, said the family planning guidelines were a sign of the government's commitment to providing a basic health care package for all Zambians. To promote widespread discussion of the whole concept of reproductive health, local newspapers printed feature articles with the headline "Let's talk reproductive health." The articles raised a variety of sensitive issues that ranged from safe sex and adolescent sexuality to safe motherhood and HIV prevention. Plans are going ahead in Zambia for drawing up a national training curriculum for safe motherhood and family planning. The curriculum for health workers will cover both pre-service and in-service training., (full text)

"A tax-transfer system deals with redistribution a PAYGmong generations and corrective taxation a PAYGt the same time. Since such a policy is a government's task, we take a normative approach and pose the question: Which tax-transfer system should a government apply to maximize social welfare? The framework we consider allows for endogenous demographic aspects...: first, fertility has a great impact on a PAYG [pay-as-you-go] financed pension insurance; and second, through education human capital is accumulated.... We analyzed the optimal extent of a public pension scheme in the presence of external effects of fertility and education on the net domestic product." Pension schemes in Germany and the United States are compared., (excerpt)

"This article examines the Japanese training system for foreign workers from developing countries. While providing foreign trainees with the opportunities to acquire skills and knowledge at enterprises, the system concurrently serves as an adjustment function in the labor market....The fundamental problem derives from the gap between a strict immigration policy and the Japanese economy's structural dependence on foreigners. A clear national consensus must be established on whether or not Japan should accept semi- and unskilled foreign labor. The immigration policy should reflect this in formulating its long-term vision. The training system needs reformation to fulfil its functions appropriately and to protect trainees from abuse.", (excerpt)

The State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) in Haryana has adopted a stimulating approach in propagating messages of population -- through poetry. Through a project called Students Poetical Symposiums, the first phase convened around 20 teacher poets to participate in a workshop. In this workshop, 300 poems regarding six population themes were developed by the teachers. In the second phase, the developed poems were finalized by the experts and 108 poems were selected for publication in a booklet. The poems were classified according to the following themes: population and its effects on resources, effects of population growth, population growth and environment, population growth and economic aspect, population and social aspect, and population and emotional aspect. Each of these sections has 18 poems. The booklet also provides the users with guidelines for conducting Students' Poetical Symposiums. In the third phase, 36 schools were selected and oriented about this project. Students Poetical Symposiums were organized first at school level and later at the district level. More than 500 student poets recited the poems on the population education themes during 42 symposiums at the school and district levels to an audience numbering around ten thousand, comprising both students and the public., (full text)

"After a brief discussion of the geographical, cultural, and historical characteristics of Southeast Asia [and Hong Kong], a review is provided of the evolution of Australian immigration policy which, in our view, is a strong pull factor. This is followed by stock and flow analyses of Asian-born residents in Australia. The motivations for emigration in countries which exhibit substantial emigration rates are considered next and the article ends with the conclusion that demand factors and social networks play a decisive role in the decision to emigrate." Factors affecting migration significantly include political conditions and ethnic relations in countries of origin, and educational and career opportunities in the country of destination., (excerpt)

"This article examines the UN policies encouraging emigration from the Palestinian refugee camps through educating Palestinians and sending them for work abroad. Data show that emigration is more related to certain types of employment, especially skilled labor and white-collar jobs, than to employment per se. The data were collected, through personal interviews, from Dair El Balah refugee camp in Gaza Strip in 1986. There are 291 observations representing individuals who are 19 years old or over. A major conclusion of this study is that the educational policies initiated and operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) contributed to the dispersion of about one third of the refugees in the 1960s and the 1970s.", (excerpt)