EDITORIAL: Free speech in Fiji

Editorial Atypical Speech Georg

One of the most important aspects of spoken language is its large degree of variability. Variability in speech is caused by many different sources, for instance, changes of the acoustic environment or transmission channel and differences between speakers or various speaking styles. Successful speech processing systems typically combine several different means to cope with the unwanted variabili...

Free Speech in China

Editorial: Bridging Reading Aloud and Speech Production

The study of how people can speak or read started from the beginning of the modern era of psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics (e.g., Lichteim, 1885; Huey, 1898) and continues to this day. However, the two lines of research—speech production and reading aloud—have followed two separate and parallel paths: While they both concern language production, they seldom meet. Both have produced detail...

Social Policies in Fiji

In this paper we review Fiji's social development policies and strategies in the postindependence period, drawing on various development plans. We conclude that Fiji has followed a fairly good set of social development strategies over the last 40 years. Education and health, which were prioritized from the colonial period, have received continued government commitment. The strategies and focuse...

Low Decision Space Means No Decentralization in Fiji; Comment on “Decentralisation of Health Services in Fiji: A Decision Space Analysis”

Mohammed, North, and Ashton find that decentralization in Fiji shifted health-sector workloads from tertiary hospitals to peripheral health centres, but with little transfer of administrative authority from the centre. Decisionmaking in five functional areas analysed remains highly centralized. They surmise that the benefits of decentralization in terms of services and outcomes will be limited....