Legal Yoga

Author(s):  
Sunila S. Kale ◽  
Christian Lee Novetzke

India is well known as the point of historical origin for the worldwide practices of yoga. In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first speech at the UN in September 2014, he described yoga as ‘an invaluable gift’ of India’s ‘ancient tradition’. Yoga thrives in India today across a broad social spectrum, from dreadlocked, naked yogis meditating deep in the Himalayan mountains, to hot yoga studios scattered throughout India’s many vibrant urban centres. In the US alone, 36 million people practise yoga regularly and fuel an industry in America that is currently worth $16 billion annually. Yoga today is a phenomenon produced in a complex transnational relationship between the US and India. This global interconnection of histories, practices, cultures, and economies linking two liberal secular democratic superpowers is a difficult weave to unravel. This chapter selects one strand that joins both the US and India and reflects their engagements with yoga in the context of their political structures as secular democratic states. It focuses on moments when yoga has entered into the legal systems of these two countries, with particular attention to the one question that has risen in prominence in both contexts: what is the place of yoga in public education?

2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-290
Author(s):  
Robert E. Bedeski

After decades of intensive economic growth Japan is under pressure to translate its material success into international influence. This new role appears to be taking shape under Prime Minister Nakasone. The country faces rising protectionism sentiments from its major trading partners, and a growing military threat from the USSR. Nakasone has maintained a solid working relation with President Reagan, while adopting a hawkish stance towards the USSR. Nevertheless, Japan still remains under the US nuclear umbrella. Nakasone has pursued closer relations with South Korea. His first foreign visit as prime minister was to Seoul. The Chinese have been concerned about symptoms of remilitarization on the one hand, but also recognize that a greated Japanese security presence will help to diffuse the Soviet threat in the region, thus relieving pressure on Beijing. The first six months of Nakasone's administration thus indicated that Japan may be embarking on a diplomatic and defence course which has a higher profile than in the past.


1986 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Lemco

Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney is faced with a number of difficult choices concerning Canada's foreign policy in Central America. These choices are particularly problematic because their repercussions may have an important impact on Canada- US relations. On the one hand, the Prime Minister must heed public opinion in Canada which favors increased government concern about human rights and economic development in Central America. On the other hand, he must consider American security interests and not irritate or embarrass the United States and President Reagan in particular.Canada's middle power status puts it in a difficult quandary, for it seeks to retain an independent role in Central America, while it finds its influence circumscribed by its proximity to the US superpower. Its ability to wield tangible authority is thus severely attenuated. Canada's asymmetrical relationship with the United States allows it a certain degree of latitude in formulating foreign policy but imposes important constraints as well.


2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Ann Abate Michelle

This essay argues that in spite of their obvious Biblically-based subject matter, clear Christian content, and undeniable evangelical perspective, the Left Behind novels for kids are not simply religious books; they are also political ones. Co-authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins may claim that their narratives are interested in sharing the good news about Jesus for the sake of the future, but they are equally concerned with offering commentary on contentious US cultural issues in the present. Given the books’ adolescent readership, they are especially preoccupied with the ongoing conservative crusade concerning school prayer. As advocates for this issue, LaHaye and Jenkins make use of a potent blend of current socio-political arguments and of past events in evangelical church history: namely, the American Sunday School Movement (ASSM). These free, open-access Sabbath schools became the model for the public education system in the United States. In drawing on this history, the Left Behind series suggests that the ASSM provides an important precedent for the presence not simply of Christianity in the nation's public school system, but of evangelical faith in particular.


Author(s):  
Telmo Móia ◽  
Rui Marques

In this paper, we analyse two subtypes of related comparative constructions in Portuguese, with a focus on grammatical anomaly and change – whether expressed in translated text, as a result of calquing (from English), or in autochthonous text, evincing an area of grammatical instability and change in progress. These are: on the one hand, comparative clauses using multiplicative numbers or fractions, like the Portuguese counterparts of the president is twice as popular as the prime minister or women are four times less likely to develop coronary problems than men, and, on the other hand, nominal phrases resorting to the same quantifying operators, but in a non-clausal environment, like the counterparts of Spain has twice the level of unemployment of Portugal or this game console has four times the memory of the previous one. The observed anomalies – or disputed constructions – involve the non-canonical: (i) use of equative operators (tão/tanto, ‘as’) in comparative clauses with multiplicative numbers or fractions (likely, as a result of calquing from English); (ii) use of a connective (que/do que, ‘than’) in nominal phrases with quantifying operators similar to those of comparative clauses (likely, as a result of autochthonous hybridization); (iii) use of complex prepositional expressions like comparativamente com (‘in comparison with’) or em relação a (‘relatively to’) either instead of the connective (do) que in comparative clauses, or before modifiers inside nominal phrases with multiplicative numbers or fractions. Overall, an intriguing area of grammatical unrest is discussed, with a particular focus on its bearing on translating texts into standard Portuguese.


Author(s):  
Timur Ergen

This chapter brings together arguments from economics, sociology, and political economy to show that innovation processes are characterized by a dilemma between the advantages of aligned expectations—including greater coordination and investment—and those of diversity, including superior openness to new technological possibilities. To illustrate the argument, the chapter discusses a historical case involving one of the largest coordinated peace-time attempts to hasten technological innovation in the history of capitalism, namely the US energy technology policies of the 1970s and 1980s. Close examination of the commercialization of photovoltaics and synthetic fuel initiatives illustrates both sides of the dilemma between shared versus diverse expectations in innovation: coordination but possible premature lock-in on the one hand, and openness but possible stagnation on the other. The chapter shows that even the exploration and interpretation of new technologies may be as much a product of focused investment as of trial-and-error search.


2021 ◽  
pp. 205789112110211
Author(s):  
Zafar Khan

This article primarily focuses on how the increasing US–China competing strategies in Asia-Pacific affect the policies of South Asian rivals India and Pakistan when, on the one hand, the US as part of its offshore balancing grand strategy has been increasing its strategic partnership with India through the transfer of emerging technologies in terms of military modernization process, and on the other hand, China and Pakistan have improved their geo-economic and geostrategic partnership as part of the Chinese grand strategy via the Belt and Road Initiative while enabling Pakistan to produce effective countermeasures against its potential adversary. The article presumes that, in doing so, such competing strategies frame a quadrangle setting comprising of US and India to deter and contain China on the one hand and China and Pakistan to produce countermeasures and try to create a balance to potentially prevent the risk of conflict in South Asia out of such competing strategies at the quadrangle order conceived here. However, in fact, neither the US nor rising China would desire such a possibility of conflict otherwise unintendedly occurring from the intense US–China competing strategies while affecting the policies of the South Asian rivals. The article concludes that the shaping of this quadrangle framework may bring both opportunities and challenges for the South Asian rivals. It also concludes that the more intense the competition between the US and China becomes, the more intense its implications could be on the South Asian rivals, while the reduced tension between China and the US, although unlikely, would have reduced pressure on India and Pakistan relations as well.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahid Irshad Younas ◽  
Mahvesh Khan ◽  
Mamdouh Abdulaziz Saleh Al-Faryan

Purpose The purpose of the study is to explore the misconception that in developed countries, macroeconomic performance lead to sustainable firms or improves stakeholder well-being. The results may be the opposite or even worse. Design/methodology/approach This study examined this misconception using balanced panel data from 1,122 firms from different sectors of the US economy and data on macroeconomic performance from the World Bank. Findings The results of the one-step generalised method of moments indicate that most macroeconomic performance indicators had significant and negative impacts on firm sustainability and stakeholder well-being. Practical implications From a societal perspective, the results illustrate that the fruits of macroeconomic performance of the US economy do not reach stakeholders through firms’ sustainability. Thus, linking the economy’s macroeconomic performance with firm sustainability is vital for sustainably uplifting society and for stakeholder well-being. Originality/value From a policy perspective, this study reveals that the greater focus on macroeconomic performance in the USA over the past decades has resulted in lower firm sustainability because of the malfunctioning of social, economic, environmental and governance factors. This has negatively influenced stakeholder well-being in the country.


Virittäjä ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 125 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ildikó Vecsernyés

Tässä artikkelissa tarkastellaan, kuinka Suomen ja Unkarin pääministereitä puhutellaan Facebookissa. Tutkimuksen kohteena on se, mitä puhuttelukeinoja kommentoijat käyttävät kahdessa eri tarkoituksessa: toisaalta sympatian tai samaa mieltä olemisen, toisaalta erimielisyyden tai kritiikin ilmaisemisessa. Kahden sukukielen, suomen ja unkarin, puhuttelukeinot ovat samankaltaisia, mutta niiden käytössä on huomattavia eroja esimerkiksi sinuttelun ja teitittelyn yleisyydessä. Aineistona on viiteen Suomen pääministeri Juha Sipilän ja yhdeksään Unkarin pääministeri Viktor Orbánin vuosina 2015–2017 kirjoittamaan Facebook-päivitykseen tulleita kommentteja. Tarkastelun kohteena on 189 suomenkielistä ja 191 unkarinkielistä puhuttelumuotoa sisältävää kommenttia. Kommentit on jaettu myötäileviin ja vastustaviin ja näitä kahta kommenttityyppiä tarkastellaan kvantitatiivisesti ja kvalitatiivisesti pyrkimyksenä selvittää, mitä eroja puhuttelumuodon valinnassa ilmenee. Tutkimuksen teoreettis-metodisena taustana on aiempi sosiopragmaattinen puhuttelututkimus. Tutkimus osoittaa, että suomessa sinuttelu on hyvin yleistä riippumatta kommentin laadusta, mutta unkarissa sinuttelu on tavallisesti erimielisyyden osoittamisen keino. Tyypillinen kannustavan kommentin kirjoittaja käyttää suomessa sinuttelua ja pääministerin etunimeä, unkarissa teitittelyä, ön-teitittelypronominia ja pääministerin titteliä. Unkarin kielessä puhuteltavan yhteiskunnallinen asema vaikuttaakin puhuttelumuodon valintaan vahvemmin kuin suomessa. Toissijaisena strategiana unkarissa esiintyy jonkin verran myös uudenlaista kunnioittavaa sinuttelua yhdistettynä pääministerin etunimen käyttöön. Suomenkielisen aineiston vastustavissa kommenteissa esiintyy vielä todennäköisemmin sinuttelua kuin myötäilevissä kommenteissa sekä sinä-pronominia ja pääministerin sukunimeä, unkarinkielisessä aineistossa puolestaan sinuttelua, te ’sinä’ -pronominia ja pääministerin etu- tai sukunimeä tai nimenmuunnoksia. Toissijaisena strategiana joissain unkarin vastustavissa kommenteissa hyödynnetään ylikohteliaisuutta ja intentionaalista inkoherenssia. Aineiston perusteella näyttää siltä, että Facebook-kommenteissa käytetään suomessa etupäässä sinuttelua samoin kuin muissakin internetkeskusteluissa; kommentoijien mielipiteen ilmaisemisessa nominaalisilla puhuttelumuodoilla on tärkeä rooli. Unkarissa taas internetin yleisestä sinuttelupainotteisuudesta huolimatta tärkeimpänä keinona on sinuttelun ja teitittelyn vastakkainasettelu.   How to address a Prime Minister? Forms of address in comments to posts from the Prime Ministers of Finland and Hungary This article examines how the Prime Ministers of Finland and Hungary are addressed on Facebook. The aim of the study is to investigate which forms of address are used by commentators expressing, on the one hand, sympathy or consent, and on the other, disagreement or criticism. The repertoires of address forms of these two related languages, Finnish and Hungarian, bear many similarities, but the frequency and status of these forms are different. The data consists of comments on five posts written by Prime Minister of Finland Juha Sipilä and on nine posts written by Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán between 2015–2017, comprising a total of 189 comments in Finnish and 191 comments in Hungarian, all containing forms of address. The comments have been divided into two types: comments showing sympathy and comments showing disagreement or criticism. These two comment types have been analysed quantitatively and qualitatively aiming to determine how the address practices employed differ from each other. The theoretical background of this study is based upon previously conducted socio­pragmatic address research. The article shows that the use of T forms  is very common in Finnish, regardless of the type of comment, but that in Hungarian, T forms are typically used as a linguistic tool to express disagreement. In Finnish, a typical commentator showing sympathy will use T forms and address the Prime Minister by his first name, whereas in Hungarian V forms, the V form pronoun ön, and the title ‘Prime Minister’ are favoured. The social status of the addressee has a stronger effect on the choice of address forms in Hungarian than it does in Finnish. However, some Hungarian comments include a new, respectful type of T form used with the first name of the Prime Minister. In comments expressing disagreement in the Finnish data, writers favour T forms, especially T form pronouns, and the use of the Prime Minister’s surname, whereas in the Hungarian data T forms, the T form pronoun te ‘you’ and the use of the Prime Minister’s first name, surname or nicknames are the most typical address practices. In conclusion, commentators in the Finnish data seem to use mostly T forms on Facebook, thus imitating address practices common in other online conversations. Instead of the T/V opposition, nominal forms of address play an important role in expressing the commentators’ attitude. In the Hungarian data, despite the prevalence of the T forms in online chats, the most important resource in expressing relation to the Prime Minister seems to be the contrast between the T and V forms, reflecting their significant status in Hungarian.


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