'Celebrity endorsement' is a strategy that is gathering increasing momentum in attempts to develop public awareness of the plight of the poor 1 . Understanding of public perceptions is clearly important for international organizations seeking to make use of celebrity in furthering their causes. This paper reports the results of a preliminary survey conducted among 100 members of the Irish public to evaluate levels of awareness of celebrity involvement in international development work and the public's opinions about such involvement. The survey instrument was semi-structured with some open-ended questions. The focus was on respondents' ability to identify celebrities associated with such work, and to elicit their opinions on those celebrities' perceived aims, knowledge of international development, and influence upon the respondent. It also requested opinions of the value of celebrity involvement more generally. The results suggest that respondents are generally able to distinguish between celebrities and their various causes. Most found their involvement to be valuable in raising the profile of charities, though only a small number claimed to be personally influenced by such activity. The respondents were fairly cynical as to the motives of most celebrities, whose involvement they felt served their own aims-namely publicity-first and foremost. Most respondents were more likely to be influenced by their perceptions of the character of the celebrity rather than their causes. They respected celebrities they felt were genuinely committed to the causes they espoused, but paradoxically, they felt such commitment was best demonstrated by the celebrity keeping a low profile and not actively seeking publicity. Long-term commitment to a given cause was also highly regarded. The results are discussed with regard to theories of social persuasion and the dilemma's facing celebrities who get involve in endorsement of charity aid or campaigns. More research is necessary to substantiate and further develop our findings.

In many developing countries, the value of knowledge is in its capacity to save and enhance human lives. The absence, loss or restriction of such knowledge impacts at the lowest levels of disadvantage and poverty, in death and disease. Essential components of an effective health service are medicines and skilled human resources. This paper highlights the restricted availability of these resources -a situation that arises because of deliberate policies that adversely affect knowledge flows towards the poor. We focus in particular on intellectual property rights and the mobility of highly educated health professionals (the 'brain drain') and how the ensuing knowledge flows affect health systems and their ability to respond to the often worsening health situation in many countries, particularly in the context of HIV/AIDS. We conclude that urgent steps need to be taken to address the facilitators of human resource outflows and the inhibitors of intellectual capital inflows in sub-Saharan Africa.

We describe a case of Epidemic Psychological Disturbance (EPD) involving 110 pupils at a Catholic Girls Secondary School in Malawi. The EPD 'syndrome' included 'outward' behaviours (screaming, continuous laughing, crying loudly, falling down and rolling, violently threatening classmates, speaking gibberish) and 'inward' behaviours (refusing to eat, withdrawal, hallucinating, hypersensitivity to noise, and headache at the base of the skull). These problems disappeared when most of the affected pupils were sent home. We consider a number of possible causes for this case of EPD, including physical, psychological, traditional, institutional, and political factors. It is suggested that the present case of EPD can be interpreted as reflecting a defence and protest against certain aspects of the rapid social and political changes which Malawi has witnessed over the past few years.

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