There Will Be Trouble

It is perhaps more relevant now than ever before to prepare the ground for a pedagogical discussion on theater curation. Theater festivals have recently become prominent in India. It is true that India has cherished a ubiquitous tradition of festivals—utsavs and mahotsavs—for hundreds of years. Take, for example, the staging of Kudiyattam at ancient Sanskrit koothambalams, which would last several weeks in a festival atmosphere; the touring circuit of Assam mobile theater, which has created festival-like events since the 1950s; or the Marathi (political) theater, which has an active culture of more than a century of traveling and festival-like events. These are not the kind of festivals I am interested in for the purpose of this article—they have a “traditional” logic built into their purpose—but the kind that have emerged along secular lines in post-independent and urban India. These “new” theater festivals are primarily sponsored by the state, are supported by public funds at the regional and national level, and are therefore open to public participation and scrutiny. These festivals, wherever they are held, commonly include a multilingual and multicultural itinerary of plays. The intent behind the selection is largely driven by the post-colonial project, which is to “put together” an idea of modern India by including plays that have a critical outlook—these could be contemporary scripts, modern adaptations of classical plays, and works that explore contemporary vocabularies of performance (body-based, post-dramatic, experimental, etc.). Currently, India has over a dozen of these new theater festivals of varying scale; each running annually, each claiming to show the best of contemporary theater. In the absence of a touring circuit, these festivals provide artists with the opportunity to travel, to seek new audiences, to mingle with peers and masters, to be written about, and to woo award committees. Festivals are now doing for theater what exhibitions have done for visual art; they are highly visible events that offer immense resources and the promise of further influence. Festivals seem to bestow legitimacy on artistic work of a kind not seen before.

The Analysis of Public Funds Utilization Efficiency for Climate Neutrality in the European Union Countries

The aim of this article was to assess the efficiency of the utilization of public funds for climate neutrality. It was concluded that the data gathered in public statistics are not adapted to current challenges and hinder the direct measurement of climate policy objective implementation progress. Due to that, an innovative approach to public intervention efficiency analysis was proposed for the sake of decreasing CO2 emission in 27 European Union (EU) countries, based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method and soft modeling. Statistical data are derived from the Eurostat database and pertain to the years 2005–2019. It was demonstrated that activity efficiency of the particular EU countries on climate neutrality varied and that together with the increase in public funds spent on environmental protection, the growth of effects in the field of reaching climate neutrality objectives was not observed. The greatest positive impact on achieving climate neutrality objectives was revealed for activities connected with building renewable sources of energy (RES) and there was no correlation detected for expenditures connected with transport infrastructure, which means that public funds used for their construction did not influence climate neutrality. It was established that, in the analyzed period, the decisions on allocating public funds were not taken on the basis of the expected amount of reduction in relation to the volume of outlays. In order to track the reasons for detected inefficiency, 52 projects were analyzed within the case study, which covered 3738 investments in the replacement of heating sources in one region of Poland. It was revealed that the efficiency of those investments varies; however, due to the full availability of data of the acquired results and outlays devoted to them, a synthetic index of efficiency measurement was established that presents the amount of CO2 reduction for EUR 1. When comparing the analyses carried out on macro and micro scales, it was observed that on the scale of the EU, there is a lack of uniform measurements or benchmarks of projects in the field of CO2 emissions reduction. Meanwhile, from the whole EU’s perspective, it should be reasonable to undertake projects with the highest economic efficiency, irrespective of political and geographical aspects. The results obtained should be utilized by decision-makers to elaborate reference methodologies and good practices in order to successfully implement climate objectives and especially the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). What should be established are universal, on the EU scale, measurements and rules for gathering and counting data as well as benchmarks for the particular project types.

Graft claims will dog Congo’s old and new presidents

Significance The investigations were based upon some 3.5 million leaked confidential bank files, which together document the apparent misappropriation of at least USD138mn in public funds by Kabila's family and allies. Impacts The scandal has emerged early enough that Tshisekedi’s 2023 re-election hopes will hinge in part on his perceived action on this file. Any sense among Kabila’s camp that Tshisekedi may pursue them vigorously could prompt retaliatory actions. Tshisekedi will also face intensified pressure to act on mounting allegations of corruption within his own administration.

Corruption, Credit Risk, and Bank Profitability

The economies of African countries are generally characterized by inefficient management of resources, strong heterogeneity in the rate of economic growth, as well as high levels of corruption and embezzlement of public funds, clearly highlighting the need to consider the role of government in the performance of the economic environment. Corruption is characterized by three key behaviors—bribery, embezzlement, and nepotism—characteristics that can influence the performance of any financial system. The objective is to examine the effect of corruption on credit risk in Angola. The result of the feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) estimation suggests that corruption increases non-performing loans in the Angolan economy; additionally, the authors find that the larger the bank's assets (bank size), the more averse to credit risk they become, and the smaller the state's stake in the banking system, the lower the non-performing loans.

The productivity of performing art organisations versus labor costs

Motivation: The study of the problem of “cost disease” contributes to the possibility of creating a model for effective subsidy to cultural institutions operating in the field of performing arts from public funds. The study also forms a part of a broader reflection on the values of culture, the humanism of culture and the economy in general. Aim: This article is to examine the connection between productivity and labor costs in public theatres in Poland. We investigate what the level of productivity depends on. We check whether it is based on costs or the so-called income gap or another factor. We verify whether costs in PAOs in Poland increase according to the theory of Baumol’s cost disease and whether labor costs are particularly significant in total costs. Results: Labor costs should be taken into account when subsidizing performing art organizations, as productivity growth depends on having funds to cover labor costs and increasing employment.

Comparing the Performance and Management Style of Retirement Pension Funds before and after the Private Pension Activation Plan

We analyzed and compared the performance and management style of retirement pension funds before and after the private pension activation plan (PPAP). First, we found that retirement-pension funds showed better performance than public funds before the PPAP. However, after the PPAP, the retirement-pension market size increased and the difference in performance disappeared. Second, we found that the difference between top and bottom performance group in the retirement pension fund becomes more significant after the PPAP. Third, we found that various investment strategies such as small-medium size stock investment and sector investment are offered in the retirement-pension fund only to result in the inferior performance. Finally, when we compared the management style, the retirement-pension funds showed a smaller value factor compared to public funds for the period after the PPAP. Therefore, we argue that the fund selection has become a more significant factor in determining the retirement fund performance after the PPAP. However, considering that the average retirement-pension holders’ financial knowledge is rather low, the expansion of fund choices may adversely affect the pension holder’s performance. Therefore, a retirement-pension provider’s role as fund selection authority has become more critical, and it is necessary to establish an institutional device that can manage, supervise, and monitor their activities.

Zamówienia publiczne w II Rzeczypospolitej

Following Poland’s regaining of independence in 1918, the country had to face a considerable range of challenges virtually at all levels of government functioning. Rebuilding the Polish state involved major expenditure, which, on the one hand, implied raising public resources in a sustainable way, while, on the other hand, the need to prioritizeand use public funds efficiently while implementing public undertakings set by the state. The huge scale of the needs coupled with limited financial resources forced Poland’s government, as it were, to develop suitable legal arrangements in the 1930s. Those measures were designed to spend public funds on the country’s reconstruction in a manner that was efficient, purposeful, economical, and competitive. The key legal measure at that time was the Act of 15 February 1933 on Supplies and Works for the Benefit of the Treasury, Local Government and Public Law Institutions. Moreover, the relevant implementing act was Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 29 January 1937 on Supplies and Works for the Benefit of the Treasury, Local Government and Public Law Institutions. Both acts implemented innovative legal measures in terms of public-service contracts which were in force not only until the outbreak of the Second World War (they were subsequently repealed by the rules established in PRL — Polish People’s Republic), considering that they also provided a basis for the new rules governing public spending implemented after 1990 and set out in the Act of 10 June 1994, Public Procurement Law.

Women’s Healthcare Services since the Covid-19 Pandemic Outbreak in Poland

The COVID-19 pandemic had a direct impact on the extent of guaranteed healthcare services. Many gynecologists’, obstetricians’, and midwives’ offices were closed, laboratories suspended their activities, the collection of necessary tests was delayed, and women had to wait much longer for test results than they had to previously. General women’s healthcare prophylactic programs were suspended or delayed. In 2020, screening financed by public funds covered less than one-seventh of the female population in Poland. As medical teams, professionals, clinicians, and scientists, we have been facing a challenge to help, protect, and care for one of the most vulnerable population groups, pregnant women. A significant part of that challenge has been in preventing the spread of severe COVID-19, along with other preventable diseases, among women who are pregnant, who are in labor, or who have recently given birth.