Summary

As the controversy over the “Great Reset” being advocated by supporters of globalization continues, those who consider the prospect of a centralized monetary system controlled by unelected and largely unknown people to be profoundly undesirable will be greatly strengthened in their resistance if they can agree on a preferable alternative. What is needed most of all is a means of reducing the vulnerability of smaller countries to destabilization by large financial corporations and government organisations. This book advocates close consideration of the politically and economically simple initiative to implement the Grondona system, which enables individual countries to improve the working of existing monetary policy arrangements incrementally, notably by stabilizing the real value of their national currency in terms of a range of industrial commodities. Eminent economists have argued in favour of this policy for more than a century, but without offering a satisfactory means of implementing it.

Constitution-making: The round table model, popular participation & constituent assemblies

<p>In this paper, I will argue that the round table model is the ideal constitution making process. This is primarily because it gives clarity to the respective powers of the institutions involved in the process, and may prevent a dominant group or individual from unilaterally imposing a constitution. In building my argument, I outline the theory of constituent power and its corollaries of unlimited constitution making power and popular participation. I endeavour to portray the shortcomings of the theory itself, and, the dangers of its practical manifestation. Following this, I introduce the round table model as a preferable alternative, both theoretically and practically. To buttress my argument, I examine the Bolivian, Venezuelan, Russian and South African constitution making episodes.</p>

Constitution-making: The round table model, popular participation & constituent assemblies

<p>In this paper, I will argue that the round table model is the ideal constitution making process. This is primarily because it gives clarity to the respective powers of the institutions involved in the process, and may prevent a dominant group or individual from unilaterally imposing a constitution. In building my argument, I outline the theory of constituent power and its corollaries of unlimited constitution making power and popular participation. I endeavour to portray the shortcomings of the theory itself, and, the dangers of its practical manifestation. Following this, I introduce the round table model as a preferable alternative, both theoretically and practically. To buttress my argument, I examine the Bolivian, Venezuelan, Russian and South African constitution making episodes.</p>

Development and implementation of a computational tool for the multi-criteria decision analysis method proppaga: case study of the sorting of hospital assistance ships of the brazilian navy to face the COVID-19 pandemic / Desenvolvimento e implementação de uma ferramenta computacional para o método multicritério de análise de decisão proppaga: estudo de caso da classificação dos navios de assistência hospitalar da marinha brasileira para enfrentar a pandemia de COVID-19

The multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods seek to support the decision-maker in choosing the most preferable alternative among the various possible ones, considering the criteria that characterize this preference. However, this task can become very complex, depending on the method used. This is because the algorithms of the methods are not always of a simple application. In this way, it is indispensable to develop computational tools that apply the algorithms of MCDA methods, making it feasible to use them. In this context, the computational tool presented in this article was developed. It uses the PrOPPAGA method in the selection problem of the Brazilian Navy's Hospital Assistance Ship Class of (HAS) to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. The main contribution of this article is to present a tutorial for using this tool, to make its use feasible by society.

Physician perspectives on placebo ethics

Clinical use of placebos is controversial among bioethicists. While placebos have been shown to provide benefit for patients with some conditions, offering placebos to patients without disclosing that they are placebos raises ethical concerns, including the concern that this lack of transparency about the nature of placebos amounts to deceiving patients. Some have proposed open-label placebos (OLPs) as an ethically preferable alternative: patients are offered placebos and told that the treatment being offered is a placebo. To contribute to the ongoing discussion about the ethics and feasibility of clinical use of placebos, we conducted focus groups to explore physician attitudes about clinical use of placebos, including non-disclosed and OLPs, and physician attitudes about the underlying ethical issues. We found that while the non-transparency and deceptiveness of offering non-disclosed placebos was a concern for some physicians, their primary focus when considering both non-disclosed and OLPs was identifying and weighing potential harms and benefits to patients. Some participants also felt further research and training in prescribing OLPs would be needed before they would be willing to use them in their practice.

Interpretation Approaches For Biblical Apocalyptic Literature: An Evaluation

Apocalyptic literature is one of the literature that has been subjected to numerous exegetical approaches due to the difficulty of understanding its content. This has resulted in misinterpretation among Christians. After discussing the available models for apocalyptic literature in this study, it was understood that the eclectic approach remains a preferable alternative for interpreting apocalyptic literature. Its steps must be utilized as a whole to yield intended results for a sound interpretation of apocalyptic literature for both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Keywords: Apocalyptic literature, Preteristt Approach, Idealist Approach, Futuristic Approach, Historicist Approach, Propheticist Approach, Eclectic Approach, Revelation.

THE CHALLENGE OF ETHICAL-CULTURAL PLURALISM TO THE UNIVERSALITY OF HUMAN RIGHTS

One of the main criticisms directed against the legitimacy of internationally recognized human rights is that they are ethnocentric or parochial. The examination of this objection leads to the conclusion that it is not relativism but cultural-ethical pluralism the main challenge to the universal validity of human rights. Ethical pluralism queries that the justification of human rights that has prevailed since the approval of the UDHR has arbitrarily given, under a deceptive appearance of universality, a weight far superior to individualistic values than to collectivistic. After examining some of the main attempts to overcome this challenge (the constructive theory of human rights and justificatory minimalism), the one based on the defense of a kind of ethical individualism compatible with a moderate ethical objectivism is defended as a preferable alternative.

Ventriloquism and accountability

François Cooren’s ventriloquist pragmatism aims to do justice to the richness and complexity of communication and is informed by a wide range of communication theories. While I share Cooren’s pragmatist intuitions, I am less certain about his ventriloquist pragmatism (or pragmatist ventriloquism). I therefore ask, first, what we gain from the ventriloquism metaphor; and, second, how pragmatism serves as a meta-perspective and how ventriloquism facilitates a dialogue between the seven traditions of communication theory he identifies. Finally, I consider a Habermasian theory of communicative action as a possibly preferable alternative.

A response to ‘Assessing levels of endangerment in the Catalogue of Endangered Languages (ELCat) using the Language Endangerment Index (LEI)’, by Nala Huiying Lee & John Van Way

The Catalogue of Endangered Languages (ELCat) is one of several similar responses to a perceived need for better data on language vitality. My remarks here are framed as a direct reply to Lee & Van Way's article, but really address larger issues in the ongoing debate about a perceived need to classify, inventory, and enumerate endangered languages. Lee & Van Way focus on one aspect of ELCat, the Language Endangerment Index (LEI), discussing a number of shortcomings in other current models. As an instrument for determining the level of language endangerment, the LEI is presented as a preferable alternative to other metrics, including Fishman's (1991) Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (GIDS), or EGIDS, the Expanded scale, based on the work of Lewis & Simons (2010), or UNESCO's (2003) expert scale. Lee & Van Way's discussion presupposes that such metrics are needed, and that it is beneficial to have a method for measuring vitality. Specifically, they argue that ‘for those concerned with preserving the world's fragile linguistic diversity, it is desirable to be able to quantify language vitality’. This is the underlying assumption of not only ELCat and LEI, but of other language catalogues, such as the Ethnologue (Lewis, Simons, & Fennig 2015), UNESCO's Atlas (Moseley 2010), and other vitality metrics, as discussed in Lee & Van Way.