Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Impact Of Computerisation On Productivity: The Case Of Two State Utility Corporations In Botswana, Ayoku A. Ojedokun, Kgomotso H. Moahi

The African Journal of Information Systems

The study investigated the impact of computer technology on productivity improvement as reflected in the billing process and total quality bills invoiced per month in the Gaborone headquarters of Botswana Power Corporation and Water Utilities Corporation. It examined the input-output relationship with computers as one of the inputs. The other input is labour represented by the Meter Reading Hours and the Supervisory Hours. The study drew on the economic production theory and time series approach to determine the contributions of the inputs to output. The study relied on unpublished information and interviews rather than the use of publicly or commercially …

Le Théâtre Amateur Marocain. Trajectoire D’Un Théâtre Alternatif, Omar Fertat

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Modern Moroccan theatre was born with non-professional artists and has remained intimately linked to this milieu. Unlike professional playwrights, non-professional artists have never bowed to the demands of political authorities, whether it be the French administration or the local Makhzen. They used this artistic medium as a forum for debate and resistance against the oppressor. This freedom of expression operated not just at the political level but also at the aesthetic level. Since non-professionals were not constrained by the need to please an audience fond of social comedies and melodramas, they could explore more risky avant-garde paths. In spite of …

Le Roman Africain : Drame Or Histoire, Bernard Mouralis

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

For a long time, African novelists claimed filiation with realism. But there is in realism a deep contradiction between the will of describing the social world and the will of changing it. From this contradiction, the paper studies : the relation between theatre and novel ; the question of citizenship in the novel ; the place of the novel in front of knowledge and action. The novel shows dynamics and characters living in the time. So, it tends to wander from the principle of knowledge and self-consciousness.

Mutations Politiques Et Processus De Légitimation Culturelle : Considérations Sur Le Théâtre Populaire Camerounais, Pierre Fandio

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

All forms of theatre have never been perceived the same way in contemporary Cameroon. Whereas the written theatre relatively received an acceptable treatment from the official instances of recognition, the non-written one has always been excluded. This communication sets out to show how, from this marginalized position and palpably inspired at the same time from the Italian commedia dell’arte, the French vaudeville and the African traditional dramaturgic shape, a new and popular form of theatre came to existence. Thanks to the exceptional capacity of adaptation and innovation of its discourse and thematic, the offer of this “street dramaturgy” rather matches …

La Dramatisation De L’Écriture Chez Sony Labou Tansi, Georges Ngal

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

As an author always articulates his writing with idioms that reflect a specific time period and a given social group, Sony Labou Tansi talks about “tropicalité”, and gives himself the goal to create multiple “tropicalités”.

L’Écriture De La Perte Chez Assia Djebar, Lila Kermas

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This study proposes a reflexion on the feeling of “loss” as a source of literary creation. The different tensions generated by an hybrid identity of a character in a quest, especially in La disparition de la langue française (“disappearance of the French language”) by Assia Djebar ; what matters here is to see how the feeling of crisis and the split reveals itself and how it dissolves in and through (the process of) writing.

De La Parole Poétique À La Parole Politique Dans Les Oeuvres Théâtrales D’Aimé Césaire Et De Sony Labou Tansi, Virginie Darriet-Féréol

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Aimé Césaire and Sony Labou Tansi wished for acting and voicing for their people both on the political and literary level. By choosing the drama, they presented the language. By creating a new language, a new literature, a new artistic aesthetics, consequently a new trend of thinking, their writing served policy.

L’Art De L’« Écrire » Chez Patrick Chamoiseau, Savrina Parevadee Chinien

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

In the works of Patrick Chamoiseau, the act of writing is a main, recurrent theme. The narrator, often, tries to define himself through his writings which have their own autonomy in the novel. This character questions his writing and is torn by the dissatisfaction he feels to get close to the “breath” of the creole storyteller : the chasm between orality and writing creates suffering. He, then, advocates l’“écrire”, closer, according to him, to the utterance of the storyteller and free of the “constraints” of an occidental writing, which he considers as stamped by the ideology of the Universal.

Ict Usage In Microfinance Institutions In Uganda, Joseph Kaumba Ssewanyana

The African Journal of Information Systems

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) are always often faced with high operating costs to provide financial services to the poor people and Small and Medium Enterprises. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has been found to promote the dual objective of microfinance - sustainability and outreach to the poor people. Using a quantitative survey and descriptive research approach, this paper has established the extent to which ICT has been used in the microfinance institutions in Uganda. Despite the barriers, ICT usage in MFIs has been on the rise; and different applications and technologies have been adopted by some MFIs to control costs, create …

The Hidden Costs Of Terror, Cath Collins

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In this month’s featured article, former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) gives a thoughtful and insightful account of how post-atrocity accounting and reconstruction feels ‘from the top’. What can an incoming head of state possibly do or say that will redress and repair the social and human costs of decades of violence? What about the centuries of injustice and inequality that fueled the flames? In fact Toledo did perhaps as much as he could, and more than many thought he would be able to, in recognising and beginning to address the ethnic, class, and institutional faultlines that tore Peru apart …

The Peruvian Precedent, Katherine Hite

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In the early days of September 2009, former Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) president Salomón Lerner received a series of sick anonymous messages: “We will do to you what we did to your dogs.” Lerner’s two pet dogs had been fatally poisoned. The poisoning and the death threats against Lerner joined other vicious retaliations, including continuous attacks on another powerful human rights symbol, Lika Mutal’s “The Eye that Cries,” a sculpture in Lima that mourns the tens of thousands of Peruvian victims of internal armed conflict. In a twisted way, the poisoning, death threats, and attacks show that Peruvian …

November Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

Healing the Past, Protecting the Future. By Alejandro Toledo. Americas Quarterly. July 13, 2009.

From Atrocities To Security: A Parable From Peru, Stephen James

Human Rights & Human Welfare

I have no expertise on the domestic politics of Peru, but I know that its often violent past shares much with its Latin American neighbours. Though not a practice confined to this region, I also know that events in the region have made notorious the chilling euphemism “disappearances.”

The Limits Of Executive Action For Human Rights, Henry Krisch

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Between 2001 and 2006 Alejandro Toledo served as President of Peru. He entered office committed to, in his words, “restoring the democratic institutions that had suffered from a steady deterioration during the previous decade,” (that is, during the rule of former President Alberto Fujimori). Moreover, he took up the task of providing Peruvian society with “a full accounting of the atrocities that had occurred in previous decades.” This personal commitment to re-establishing a functioning democracy based on the rule of law, a commitment based in part on his participation in the anti-Fujimori demonstrations, lead him to seek an honest accounting …

Repression And Punishment In North Korea: Survey Evidence Of Prison Camp Experiences, Stephan Haggard, Marcus Noland

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The penal system has played a central role in the North Korean government’s response to the country’s profound economic and social changes. Two refugee surveys—one conducted in China, one in South Korea—document its changing role. The regime disproportionately targets politically suspect groups, particularly those involved in market-oriented economic activities. Levels of violence and deprivation do not appear to differ substantially between the infamous political prison camps, penitentiaries for felons, and labor camps used to incarcerate individuals for misdemeanors, including economic crimes. Substantial numbers of those incarcerated report experiencing deprivation with respect to food as well as public executions and other …

Review Essay: Johann P. Arnason, Civlization In Dispute. Historical Questions And Theoretical Traditions, Toby E. Huff

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

A Mixed Methods Analysis Of Social Capital Of Liberian Refugee Women In Ghana, Alice Boateng

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article reports on a mixed methods study of Liberian refugee women at the Buduburam refugee camp in Ghana. The study examined the role and impact of social capital on the women's well-being. Three types of social capital - bonding, bridging, and linking - were examined. The study's findings revealed that although the women had some bonding social capital, they possessed very little bridging social capital, and linking social capital was non-existent. These findings suggest that the refugee women may benefit from national and internationalp olicies andp rograms that seek to both strengthen existing and create new sources of social …

September Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

The Rape of the Congo. By Adam Hochschild. The New York Review of Books. August 13, 2009.

From Armchair Reading To Action: Acknowledging Our Role In The Horror Of The Democratic Republic Of The Congo - And Doing Something About It., Shareen Hertel

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Reading Adam Hochschild's extraordinary account of ordinary people caught up in the horrific ravages of a civil war raging in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), I was struck by how incongruous my own encounter with this suffering is. I read his article over lunch, safe in the comfort of my own home. As a woman, I live largely without fear of the kind of brutal sexual violence that Hochschild opens his article with, as he related the story of a Congolese NGO worker who is herself a victim of multiple rapes.

Human Rights Law On Trial In The Drc, William Paul Simmons

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The ongoing tragedy in Eastern Congo contains so many tragic lessons that it should shake to their very foundations all comfortable ideologies about human rights and politics. The atrocities in the DRC should implicate all but have so far resulted in almost limitless impunity. Here, I briefly put human rights law on trial for its role in perpetuating this tragedy.

Natural Resources And Wealth Of The Democratic Republic Of Congo (Drc): Of Benefit To Whom?, Nicola Colbran

Human Rights & Human Welfare

When asked to discuss the humanitarian tragedy in the DRC, the question really is where to start? The article by Adam Hochschild discusses some of the most horrific events and experiences imaginable: widespread killings of unarmed civilians, rape, torture and looting, the recruitment of child soldiers, and the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. The immediate human response is who is to blame, how did it happen and how can the world apparently do nothing?

If They Just Weren't So Rich!, Anja Mihr

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The deadliest war on earth-as it is called-in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will only end when the country's richness fades or is kept under surveillance. Human rights and peace might have a chance if Congo's lucrative diamond, gold or coltan mines were under shared control by non-profit agencies or international organizations with the intention to spread the mines' benefits and wealth among the Congolese people. Wishful thinking? Most likely it is, but what other alternative is there? The country's extraordinary wealth in natural resources is the main reason for the immense corruption, the extermination of entire villages, the …

On Religious Freedom In The Slovak Republic, Lubomir Martin Ondrasek

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Christian Faith, Nonviolence, And Ukraine's Orange Revolution: A Case Study Of The Embassy Of God Church, Svetlana Filiatreau

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Differences In Evaluation Of Post-Communist Worldview Shift Model By Parachurch Ministries Leaders Of Ukraine, Sergei Golovin

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Murzaku's "Returning Home To Home: The Basilian Monks Of Grottaferrata In Albania" - Book Review, Francesco La Rocca

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Justice After War: Sri Lanka And The Rights And Duties Of A Vanquisher, William Paul Simmons

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Human rights scholars, attorneys, and activists will deservedly focus on the human rights abuses committed by the Sri Lankan military as the decades - long civil war against the Tamil Tigers came to a crushing end this past spring. The military’s brutality, especially its failure to discriminate combatants from non-combatants, should be investigated by both domestic and transnational institutions. It remains to be seen whether such wanton disregard for civilian collateral damage will become the norm for regimes embroiled in civil wars and present yet another realpolitik threat to humanitarian law, or will Sri Lanka and other regimes face accountability …

July Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

What Next for Sri Lanka's 2.5 Million Tamils? by Amantha Perera. Time. May 26, 2009.

and

How to Defeat Insurgencies: Sri Lanka's Bad Example by Bobby Ghosh. Time, May 20, 2009.

The War Goes On - No Reconciliation At This Stage, Anja Mihr

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The victorious Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaska has been quite bold to pass a reconciliation note after he declared the thirty year war over. Can he be taken seriously?

Moving Beyond Conflict In Sri Lanka: The Economic Rights Dimension, Shareen Hertel

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Much of the literature on transitional justice underplays the role of economic rights in shoring up peace. The case of Sri Lanka demonstrates the urgency of addressing them. Until a month ago, Sri Lanka was the country with Asia’s longest running civil war. Since independence in 1947, the island nation has been wracked by conflict between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority—a conflict that has eroded political stability and aggravated internal inequalities. The struggle was marked not only by inter-ethnic and religious tensions but also by a fight for control over land and resources.