Mines and ERW

Due to the history and nature of conflicts in the Ethiopia/Eritrea area, cleanup presents specific considerations and hazards. The lessons learned by the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea Mine Action Coordination Centre in mine/explosive remnants of war cleanup are presented, as well as recommendations on clearance operations for situations with mixed mine/ ERW like that in Ethiopia and Eritrea

Ethiopia and Eritrea Mine Action Coordination Center: UNMEE-MACC

The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, along with eight other local NGOs, are working to rid their lands of the mixture of AT and AP mines laid in conventional military patterns during conflicts dated back to 1935

The Military in Peacekeeping Operations

In 2003, the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) Mine Action Coordination Center (MACC) implemented a revised work plan that focused on mandate-specific activities and UNMEE Peacekeeping Force (PKF) demining assets. The novel and successful integration of the Force Mine Action Centre (FMAC) with the MACC represents a first in UN peacekeeping history, as Force demining assets are now coordinated by a single body and they work to International Mine Action Standards (IMAS). Unanticipated national events in mine action in Eritrea in 2002 prompted an opportune moment for the UNMEE MACC to demonstrate the key role that military demining components can play in humanitarian mine action, when effectively integrated

Wpływ wielochorobowości na sprawność funkcjonalną osób starszych

Introduction. Multimorbidity is defined as the occurrence of two or more chronic diseases and is the most noticeable feature of an elderly person. With age, an increase in the incidence of chronic diseases is observed. Somatic diseases frequently co-occur with mental illnesses. In most cases, chronic diseases result in seniors’ disability. The most common ones include cardiovascular system, locomotor system, sight and hearing disorders; neurological and mental diseases; and mental impairments. Aim. The aim of the paper was to assess the prevalence of multimorbidity in elderly people in their home environment and to determine the relationship between multimorbidity and seniors’ functional skills. Material and Methods. The method of a diagnostic survey was applied, with the direct questionnaire technique. A questionnaire of the authors’ own construction was used, as well as standardized tools, i.e. the Barthel and the Lawton scales. The study involved 504 people aged 66–94 years staying in their home environment. Results. Only 0.05% of the subjects did not report any disease. The average number of diseases was 2.98 (3.03 in women, 2.90 in men). A statistically significant correlation was found between the number of the declared diseases and the patients’ age (p<0.001). In addition, together with an increase in the number of diseases, a deterioration was observed in the results on the Barthel and Lawton scales (p<0.001), as well as in cognitive and emotional skills (p<0.001). Conclusions. The vast majority of people aged over 65 years living in rural areas experienced multimorbidity; the following predominated among the diseases: hypertension, osteoarthritis, circulatory insufficiency, atherosclerosis, and diabetes mellitus. Together with an increase in the number of diseases, a deterioration was observed in the patients’ functional, cognitive, and emotional skills. (JNNN 2024;13(1):17–22)Wstęp. Wielochorobowość (polipatologia) definiowana jest jako występowanie dwóch lub więcej chorób przewlekłych i jest najbardziej widoczną cechą starszego człowieka. Cel. Celem pracy była ocena występowania wielochorobowości u osób w podeszłym wieku w środowisku domowym oraz określenie zależności pomiędzy wielochorobowością a sprawnością funkcjonalną i psychiczną osób w starszym wieku. Materiał i metody. Badania przeprowadzono metodą sondażu diagnostycznego, posłużono się techniką wywiadu bezpośredniego. Wykorzystano kwestionariusz wywiadu własnej konstrukcji oraz wystandaryzowane narzędzia tj.: Skrócony Test Sprawności Umysłowej (AMTS), Skala Barthel i Skala Lawtona. Badaniami objęto 504 osoby w wieku od 66 do 94 lat w środowisku domowym. Wyniki. Zaledwie 1,98% badanych osób nie deklarowało występowania żadnej choroby. Średnia liczba chorób wynosiła 2,98 (u kobiet — 3,03, a u mężczyzn — 2,90). Stwierdzono istotną statystycznie zależność pomiędzy ilością deklarowanych chorób a wiekiem badanych (p<0,001). Ponadto zauważono, że wraz ze wzrostem u badanych liczby jednostek chorobowych pogarszały się ich wyniki na skali Barthel i Lawtona (p<0,001) oraz sprawność poznawcza i emocjonalna (p<0,001). Wnioski. Osoby po 65. roku życia mieszkające na wsi w zdecydowanej większości doświadczały wielochorobowości, a wśród chorób dominowały: nadciśnienie tętnicze, choroba zwyrodnieniowa stawów, niewydolność krążenia, miażdżyca i cukrzyca. Wraz ze zwiększaniem się liczby jednostek chorobowych pogarszała się sprawność czynnościowa, poznawcza i emocjonalna badanych osób. (PNN 2024;13(1):17–22

MIEJSCE I PAMIĘĆ W PÓŹNEJ TWÓRCZOŚCI MARKA NOWAKOWSKIEGO. PROLEGOMENA

Since 1990s Marek Nowakowski has systematically expanded the sphere of memoir-writing prose, which he built himself. In this prose it is spatial elements that first and foremost evoke images of the past, and a flâneur often becomes narrator. Gazing at architectural and urbanistic changes, he gives himself to memoirs. Various gastronomic establishments, understood as places of freedom, are particularly important goals of his journey to the past. Nowakowski also eagerly mentions specific individuals as well as types of their professions, which allowed for independence from the totalitarian rule of the Polish People’s Republic

DYSKUSJA WOKÓŁ PROJEKTÓW WYDAWNICZYCH W KORESPONDENCJI JERZEGO GIEDROYCIA I ALEKSANDRA WATA

A discussion on publishing projects in the correspondence between Jerzy Giedroyc and Aleksander Wat Having read a correspondence between Aleksander Wat and Jerzy Giedroyc from 1959–1967 (approximately 30 letters of each correspondent), the author notes that it concerns mainly professional issues, among others, Wat’s working in the post of the editor in Milan’s publishing house of Umberto Silva, who planned (the plans being carried out or not) to publish translations of books of Polish authors (among others, Noce i dnie by Maria Dąbrowska, Bolesław Chrobry by Gołubiew, Srebrne orły by Parnicki, Rodzinna Europa by Miłosz, Skrzydła ołtarza by Herling-Grudziński). An important topic – especially for Giedroyc – raised in these letters, is the picture of communism in the West, frequently wrongly interpreted there, and from the angle of this subject-matter Giedroyc organizes publishing plans in Literary Institute in Paris, among others he supports Wat in writing a book on a true facet of communist Russia – a collection Świat na haku i pod kluczem and Mój wiek [My Century], which were, however, to be published only after Wat’s death

Łazarz (w) później nowoczesności

Lazarus used to fascinate cultures mostly as the one who managed to return from the dead, the one who was called back from death, the only one who came back. He became an icon of return. Not only in painting but also in literature, including works by Dostoyevsky and Eliot. It is tempting to trace the  Lazarus of late modernity. Among others, he appears in a poem by Przemysław Dakowicz. This whic could be connected with the character of the “Historical Lazarus” or “Lazarus of the Gospel” – his function of an “icon of resurrection”, a witness to God’s power – is outlined in the poem not as a fact but as an unfulfilled project. The poem reveals a painful split between the mission of a person and its actual existence. This which can be perceived by this person as a moral obligation, a kind of an imperative of conscience, remains something painfully unfinished in his life. Although resurrection appears in the character’s horizon of experience, it is mostly the experience of the Mystery, while the emphasis is put on the painful tremendum rather than ecstatic fascinosum. The poet portraits the protagonist during his attempts to work through a boundary experience evasive to empiricism, unable to be tamed and interiorized. The poem is an image of a struggle of a post-modern seeker of sense in an obvious nonsense of the thing we know as death