Focusing on contemporary debates in philosophy and legal theory, this ground-breaking book provides a compelling enquiry into the nature of human dignity. The author not only illustrates that dignity is a concept that can extend our understanding of our environmental impacts and duties, but also highlights how our reliance on and relatedness to the environment further extends and enhances our understanding of dignity itself. Against the background of current global threats to the realisation of rights, including severe environmental degradation and depleted reserves of essential natural resources, this innovative book considers whether dignity has any role to play in addressing these new problems, as well as in securing environmental rights and greater environmental care. The author provides an astute examination of important developments in human and environmental rights across a range of jurisdictions and levels, and considers whether human dignity should play a more central role in judicial considerations regarding environmental rights and environmental threats to human rights. Eminently engaging, this forward-thinking book will prove a critical read for legal academics and scholars with an interest in human dignity and environmental rights, as well as judicial reasoning and legal philosophy more widely. Its practical presentation of recent developments will also be of great importance to practitioners and policy-makers working in human rights and environmental law.

To date, there is a dearth of surveillance data on the prevalence of HIV and associated risk behaviours among men who have sex with men (MSM) in South Africa. This is particularly true for data collected from several sites using the same sampling approach. This study called the Marang Men's Project was undertaken to fill this information gap. It was implemented among MSM in the three largest cities of South Africa, namely, Cape Town in the Western Cape, Durban in KwaZulu-Natal and Johannesburg in Gauteng. The high HIV prevalence estimates found in our study among MSM in each of the three study cities call for a need to implement a national HIV bio-behavioural surveillance programme for MSM. The Marang Men's Project has demonstrated that there is an urgent need for interventions, which respond not only to the heterosexual HIV epidemic but also to the HIV epidemic among MSM in South Africa. This survey therefore provides valuable information to SANAC, the national and provincial Departments of Health (DoHs), and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) organisations to both implement and advocate for improved programmes for the health of MSM.

Narratives of contemporary Spanish writer Soledad Puertolas (1947-), inducted into the Real Academia Espanola in 2010, depict the psychological struggles of the individual in postmodern democratic European society. Puertolas's realist style emphasizes storytelling and character portrayal, and her urban middle-class characters seek satisfying interactions with others and a sense of purpose. Memory aids characters in their quest for meaning and identity, and their use of memory reveals their self-perception and outlook on life. This book maps four ways in which Puertolas's narratives use memory to approach the fundamental problem of the individual's search for purpose and identity. Some characters are burdened by memory in certain texts, especially Dias del Arenal (1992) and Burdeos (1986). Reflection upon a painful self-defining memory affects their present mood and behavior. For some, this burden causes them to withdraw or to act irresponsibly; others accept and overcome the scars of the past. A second type of character takes an escapist approach to memory, as seen in Queda la noche (1989). Their nostalgic retreat indicates a restless dissatisfaction with the present. In a third type of memory, a secondary character provides the organizing force behind a protagonist's reminiscences, often an extroverted foil to highlight the protagonist's introspective nature. Memory of the relationship motivates the protagonist to mentally order his or her own life through the life review process; Una vida inesperada (1997) and La senora Berg (1998) provide examples. Finally, in the amnesic mode, Puertolas departs from realism to experiment with different forms of amnesia, as in La rosa de plata (1999) and Si al atardecer llegara el mensajero (1995). Memory loss highlights the centrality of memory to personhood and identity, while at the same time it draws attention to the inadequacy of memory to explain the totality of existence.

Done correctly, Total Quality Management (TQM) will increase your profits and preserve your resources, make your customers and employees happy, and it is the ethical thing to do. The key, of course, is to do it right. Unfortunately, when quality efforts fail to fulfill their potential, business leaders begin to doubt the efficacy of making the pursuit of quality a primary organizational priority. The most consistent mistake: starting small and implementing only part of the plan. Examples of partial efforts ending in disappointment or disaster abound. As a result, the only thing "total" about TQM processes has been the level of frustration. Quality is Everybody's Business makes it possible for people at all levels of your organization to understand the underlying theory and the specific mechanics of continual improvement. In an easy-to-read style, the book shows you how to untangle seemingly complex theory into guidelines for everyday managing and leading. The authors provide a comprehensive presentation of the practical details and the reasoning behind defining, implementing, and maintaining a 100% employee involvement process. Taken as a whole, the articles presented in this book address the theory and the practice of TQM in an integrated manner. Once your customers experience quality, they will continue to look for the quality option. Done correctly, TQM can be defined and implemented in six-to-eight months - and that includes actively involving everyone on the payroll in the process and seeing positive bottom line results virtually immediately. Whether your organization has a TQM process in place or is just beginning to implement one, Quality is Everybody's Business gives you thetools to make it a complete quality process.