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The monetary system of the Southern Song period was characterized by distinctive regional monetary circuits and multiple currencies, including bronze and iron coin, paper money, and silver. Although bronze coin remained the standard unit of account in government finance and private trade throughout the Song, during the Southern Song period a new monetary standard emerged based on paper money. Moreover, silver developed into a key component of the Southern Song fiscal system. Silver acquired particular importance as the hard currency reserve that backed the new paper currency. Thus, by the beginning of the 13th century, silver had begun to usurp the place of bronze coin as a store of value. Bronze coin remained the standard unit of account, but its circulation diminished over the course of the Southern Song period. Indeed, I argue that the substitution of paper money and silver for many of the functions once performed exclusively by bronze coin was a catalyst for the massive export of Song coin to Japan during the 13th century (and later to Southeast Asia as well), and paved the way for the creation of the purely paper currency monetary system of the Mongol-ruled Yuan dynasty.

Land cover associated with the fallow phase of swidden / fallow or shifting cultivation farming systems, e.g. grass, bush, bamboo and different types of tree cover, are transition land covers and difficult to accurately map. This is true whether one uses digital image processing of satellite imagery or visual interpretation techniques to map the land cover. Partially because of this, these land cover categories are often not found on regional and country specific land cover and land-use planning maps. Rather these land cover types are grouped into ‘unclassified’, ‘barren’, or ‘wasteland’ land cover categories. The swidden / fallow land use that would be indicated by these land cover types, and which is found throughout the region and is most likely the dominant form of land use in the region’s montane highlands, also do not show up on land use maps in the region. This talk will present the results of using a hybrid classification model that makes use of two chronosequences of Landsat TM imagery to classify swidden/fallow land use vs. other land use types for the Ca River basin in north-central Vietnam for the early 1990s and early 2000s. The results of the classification are compared to official, Vietnamese, land use maps for the region and regional land cover maps. The hybrid classification model will be discussed as well as the similarities and differences found on the maps.

This presentation examines the relative contributions of government performance and economic growth to advancing human development (HD) in India and China over the period from 1950 to 2005. Within human development I focus on maternal and child health (MCH) and compulsory elementary education (CEE) achievements as crucial indicators of poverty reduction and future development in these two nations. To empirically assess the impact of good governance as distinct from economic growth I examine government effectiveness for HD at the macro and micro levels through public finance and policy implementation. Contrary to neo-liberalism and other growth-centered development explanations, I find that government performance and social equality explain as much or more of HD performance than economic growth

This presentation will seek to examine the effects of neo-liberal globalization and the war on terror upon human security in South Asia. It will be argued that economic liberalization in South Asia in general and its most populous country, India, in particular has resulted in unbalanced growth which has disproportionately benefited, and politically empowered, members of the dominant classes, religious communities and castes at the expense of the rural and urban poor. This has had profound consequences for members of South Asia's religious minorities and subaltern castes and classes who find themselves increasingly marginalized by national discourses derived from the majority religious tradition. These trends have been reinforced by the post 9/11 political climate and the introduction of anti-terrorism legislation which has contributed to a greater securitization of society in general and the targeting of ethno-religious minorities.

Summoning his younger brother Andrew (John Lloyd Cruz) to the city of Dubai, the financially stable Raffy (Aga Muhlach) -- a Filipino citizen who's spent several years overseas -- hopes his sibling can find work so that they can finally move to Canada. Unfortunately, Raffy doesn't expect Andrew to go falling in love with his ex-girlfriend, Faye (Claudine Barretto) -- a woman Raffy, in fact, still cares for very much.