Post-election shifts will test Uganda opposition unity

Significance The move has attracted fierce criticism from supporters of opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi (better known as ‘Bobi Wine’), who accuse Besigye of trying to cling to the leadership of the opposition, even after Wine’s emergence as his de facto successor. Impacts Protests may initially focus on the government’s handling of the pandemic, or proposed reforms to land tenure and bail eligibility. Recent government crackdowns on civil society may complicate efforts by the Front to enlist their participation in its protest campaign. The Front’s leadership will be dominated by long-time Besigye allies or prominent figures that lost to Wine’s party in the recent polls.

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shi Min ◽  
Jikun Huang ◽  
Hermann Waibel

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of farmers’ risk perceptions regarding rubber farming on their land use choices, including rubber specialization and crop diversification. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional survey data of some 600 smallholder rubber farmers in Xishuangbanna in Southwest China is employed. This paper develops a general conceptual framework that incorporates a subjective risk item into a model of farmers’ land use choices, thereby developing four econometric models to estimate the role of risk perceptions, and applies instrumental variables to control for the endogeneity of risk perceptions. Findings The results demonstrate that risk perceptions play an important role in smallholders’ decision-making regarding land use strategies to address potential risks in rubber farming. Smallholders with higher risk perceptions specialize in rubber farming less often and are more likely to diversify their land use, thereby contributing to local environmental conservation in terms of agrobiodiversity. The land use choices of smallholder rubber farmers are also associated with ethnicity, household wealth, off-farm employment, land tenure status, altitude and rubber farming experience. Originality/value This study contributes to a better understanding of the implications of farmers’ risk perceptions and shows entry points for improving the sustainability of rubber-based land use systems.


2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-232
Author(s):  
Tareq Na’el Al-Tawil ◽  
Prabhakar Gantasala ◽  
Hassan Younies

Purpose This paper aims to discuss the benefits and disadvantages of the law on the expansion of the jurisdiction of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Court. The major role of DIFC Courts in the Arab community is to handle cases related to commerce and business. For a long time, the court had been acting only in their geographical area until a new law was enacted to extend their jurisdiction all over the world. Afterward, a lot of criticism emerged as for why and how the court will benefit from such actions. The law has drawn a harsh response, although most benefits have also been experienced since the court received quite a large number of new signings. Interaction at the world business forum has benefited the economy of Dubai thanks to the law. Design/methodology/approach The following study focuses on a description of such benefits and drawbacks. The study does not evaluate a factual process of expansion but indicates the most distinct evidence of positive, as well as negative consequences of the expansion. Findings It is appropriate to make a general comment on the fact that the expansion of DIFC Court is not sufficiently effective at the current stage. Needless to say, it contains numerous positive aspects, but the gaps are evidently essential because they place the entire Court in a hard circumstance. The Court does not have a well-developed legal framework for its new area of jurisdiction as long as its limited volume of prior precedent is a distinct sign of the Court’s dependence on the UAE’s Law. In such way, DIFC Court will not be able to address issues within new fields of jurisdiction, as it simply lacks an expertise and international law in its legal framework. Moreover, the jurisdiction over new areas of international business was not verified with a plain system of mediation, which is why a current expansion of DIFC Court has to be recognized as redundant. However, its advantages are tending to produce their effects provided that the Court manages to address its current problems. Originality/value The study has described the basic benefits and drawbacks of DIFC Court expansion. To speak about the main benefits, they can be depicted as appliance of the common law, unification of English language for proceedings, presence of a preliminary arbitration and guarantees of award enforcement. In a similar way, the drawbacks of the expansion have been issued. The study has identified such drawbacks as lack of international and sophisticated expertise, untested legal framework, strong influence of forum non conveniens, and existence of a limited volume of prior precedent. The paper has not assessed a success of a factual expansion of DIFC Court jurisdiction, but it has managed to fulfill its primary purpose. Thus, the paper has identified a certain tendency concerning the expansion.


Significance Although President Cyril Ramaphosa has publicly committed to increase funding to combat what he calls South Africa’s “second pandemic”, there is a lack of transparency in how the government disburses funds linked to its National Strategic Plan (NSP) on Gender-based Violence and Femicide. Impacts Civil society groups will increase pressure on the government to make expenditure on GBV programmes more transparent. A new private-sector fund to contribute to the NSP has received strong early support, but its management structure is opaque. High levels of GBV will not only have significant humanitarian and social costs but may deter much-needed foreign investment.


Significance Such programmes contribute not only to Indonesia’s efforts to boost the cyber readiness of its booming digital economy, but are also designed to maintain China's friendly relations with South-east Asia’s largest economy amid the intensifying technology tensions between China and the United States. Impacts The Personal Data Protection Law would need to clarify key provisions and concepts to be effective. The BSSN’s extensive powers will fuel civil society concerns about excessive state surveillance. Turning down Chinese technology suppliers carries cost and wider economic ramifications for Jakarta.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Temitope Owolabi ◽  
Tunde A. Alabi ◽  
Sofiat A. Busari-Akinbode

Purpose This study aims to investigate female commercial drivers in the Lagos metropolis. The study sought to know the circumstances that motivated women to venture into commercial driving; the experiences they encounter whilst engaging with other stakeholders in the public space; the dimension of the conflict between work and family, and the coping strategies used and finally, the health concerns of female commercial drivers. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a cross-sectional design and a qualitative method of data collection. An in-depth interview guide was used to elicit information from 18 female drivers drawn from three sectors of commercial transportation in Lagos State. Findings It was found that the major motivation for engaging in commercial driving is the need for survival and family support; although participants acknowledged that they cannot be in the profession for a long time. Married women had less time to engage in commercial driving due to other family responsibilities. Women drivers have experienced mixed reactions from other road users. Commercial driving is physically demanding and poses threat to the health of female commercial drivers. Originality/value The findings highlight the circumstances behind women participating in commercial driving. Despite the challenges encountered in this course of this activity, they are still bent on continuing because of the need to take care of their children, a majority of their spouses are not fully contributing to the maintenance of the home.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-62
Author(s):  
Hecate Vergopoulos

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to tackle the issue of the meaning of tourism as it is being crippled by the economic crisis in Greece. Design/methodology/approach To do so, it brings together the findings of three different fieldworks related to tourism in Athens in times of crisis. Each one of these focuses on a specific player of tourism: a linguistic and semiological analysis led mainly on travel guides and ad campaigns deals with the industry of tourism; a linguistic analysis of tourists’ posts on a French web forum deals with the tourists themselves; and an ethnographical approach of alternative guided tours of Athens focuses on local players (associations and cooperatives offering out of the beaten tracks tours). Findings The whole study reveals that there is a misunderstanding between the industry and the consumers toward what the tourist practice should mean: whereas the tourists are in search of an ethical meaning, the industry claims there is no room for such issues. The alternative players, however, offer a political perspective that embraces the ethical issues raised by tourists. Originality/value They thus might, in the end, show us the way a so-called “civil society” could also have its own role to perform in tourism.


Author(s):  
Tolga Aksoy ◽  
Feride Gonel

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to give a good overview of the relationship between industrial growth and industrial pollution in Turkey. The question is to what extent dirty industries have been affected by the regulations on the control of environmental degradation. Design/methodology/approach – The approach for this study uses all regulations which serve for protecting human and its environment from danger arising from dirty industries in Turkey. After presenting brief explanations on green industry, next sessions explain and compare the situations of the Turkish dirty industries and its relationship with related regulations in the European Union (EU). Findings – The authors offer three solutions. First, clean consumption should be stimulated in Turkish society. Second, Turkish Government should conduct more joint projects with the EU. Third, EU funds should be directed to cleaner production technologies to subsidize dirty industries during the negotiation process. Originality/value – Green industry can be assessed as a steep road to build a sustainable future. For a long time, the unsustainability of current forms of industrial production has been discussed in Turkey. As a solution some argue that if governments support, industries can finance their own transformation more rapidly. However, these arguments do not mean that industries voluntarily accept these changes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 395-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric King-man Chong

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare and analyse the role and implementation of nationalistic education in Hong Kong and Macau special administrative regions (SARs) since their respective handover of sovereignty to China in the late 1990s. Both SARs face the educational need to cultivate a Chinese national identification among the students after the sovereignty changes. While Macau SAR has enjoyed a relatively smooth implementation of nationalistic education towards which Macau’s schools and students are largely receptive to nationalistic programmes since its handover in 1999, Hong Kong SAR Government’s nationalistic education was met by reservation from some parents, students and civil society’s groups under allegations of “political indoctrination” and “brain-washing”. The Hong Kong civil society’s resistance to National Education culminated in the anti-Moral and National Education protest in Summer 2012 and then Hong Kong schools and society. This paper attempts to provide an overview and analysis on the development of nationalistic education in both Hong Kong and Macao SARs, and to give some possible explanations on the factors that lead to differences of perceiving and responding to the nationalistic education between both places. Design/methodology/approach After conducting a literature review, this study utilises different sources of data such as curriculum guidelines, previous studies and other scholarly findings in examining the development of civic education and national education policy in both SAR societies, as well as in discussing the possible developments of nationalistic education in both SARs by making references to previous studies of citizenship and nationalistic education. Findings This study found out that different relationships between the two SAR Governments and their respective civil society, the extent of established socio-political linkages with China, as well as the introduction of a core subject of Liberal Studies in Hong Kong secondary schools, which emphasises on multiple perspectives and critical thinking skills, are some plausible factors that explain different stories and developments of implementing nationalistic education in Hong Kong and Macao SARs. Research limitations/implications For giving suggestions for a nationalistic education in both Chinese SARs, first, there should be an exploration of multiple citizenship identities. This will allow people to choose their identities and thus facilitate their belongingness in terms of local, national and global dimensions. In addition, there should be an exploration of a Chinese national identification with different emphases such as knowledge orientation and critical thinking so as to cater for youth values. Promoting the idea of an informed and reasonable-in-thinking patriot could also be a way to ease the concern that building a national identity negates a person’s freedom of thinking. Originality/value This paper attempts to compare and analyse the different responses to the same policy of enhancing nationalistic education development in both Hong Kong and Macao SARs of China. Some plausible explanations were given based on political, social and educational factors, as well as youth value oritentations. This paper would be an attempt to show that a top-down single-minded orientated nationalistic education may not work well a society such as Hong Kong, where civil society and youth values are quite different than that can be found in China.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (15) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tingting Xiang ◽  
Rui Liu ◽  
Jing Xu ◽  
Cailing Xu ◽  
Nuo Wang ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Serratia marcescens SCQ1 is a red-pigmented bacterium isolated from silkworm larva with septicemia. Pigment-deficient spontaneous mutants arise when S. marcescens SCQ1 is incubated under relatively stable laboratory conditions for a long time. Here, we present the complete genome sequence of SCQ1 and the resequenced genomes of four spontaneous pigment mutants.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Subhash Abhayawansa ◽  
Carol A. Adams ◽  
Cristina Neesham

PurposeDrawing on Adams (2017a) conceptualisation of value creation by organisations published in the Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, the purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptualisation of how national governments can create value for society and the economy through their approach to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Design/methodology/approachAn initial conceptual framework was developed from literature situated at the intersection of accountability, public policy and sustainability/sustainable development. The authors' review of extant research on national policy development on value creation, sustainability and the SDGs identified gaps in (understanding of) approaches to national accountability and national governance (by state and civil society) processes. The subsequent thematic analysis of 164 written submissions made to the Australian Senate inquiry on the SDGs between December 2017 and March 2018, together with transcripts of five public hearings where 49 individuals and organisations appeared as witnesses during the second half of 2018, focussed on addressing these gaps.FindingsInput to the Australian Senate Inquiry on the SDGs overwhelmingly emphasised the importance of transparency and stakeholder participation in accountability systems, commenting on data gathering, measuring and communicating. There was an emphasis on the need to involve all parts of society, including business, investors and civil society, and for strong central co-ordination by the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. These data allowed the authors to refine the conceptualisation of how national governments can enhance social and economic value through a focus on the UN SDGs and their approach to accounting, accountability and governance.Practical implicationsThe findings have implications: for national governments in developing approaches to achieve sustainable development; and, for supranational bodies such as the UN in developing agreements, frameworks and guidance for national governments.Originality/valueBuilding on the extant literature about how global governance should be engaged to improve accountability in achieving the SDGs, the conceptual framework developed through the study shifts focus to national governance and accountability, and provides a blueprint for national governments to create value for the economy and society in the face of global sustainable development issues.


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