This paper examines how people think about aiding others in a way that can inform both theory and practice. It uses data gathered from Kiva, an online, non-profit organization that allows individuals to aid other individuals around the world, to isolate intuitions that people find broadly compelling. The central result of the paper is that people seem to give more priority to aiding those in greater need, at least below some threshold. That is, the data strongly suggest incorporating both a (...) threshold and a prioritarian principle into the analysis of what principles for aid distribution people accept. This conclusion should be of broad interest to aid practitioners and policy makers. It may also provide important information for political philosophers interested in building, justifying, and criticizing theories about meeting needs using empirical evidence. (shrink)

People’s affective experiences can be influenced by multiple informational inputs. It remains unclear however how this occurs? In this paper, we investigate the construction of affective experience...

Press Release: Terrorism in Southeast Asia: An Interview with Abu Bakar Ba'asyir 10/03/2005 - In August, Dr. Scott Atran travelled to Southeast Asia and conducted extensive research on terrorist groups operating in the region. This interview with Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, alleged leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah organization, was conducted on August 13 and 15, 2005 from Cipinang Prison in Jakarta. Questions were formulated by Dr. Atran and posed for him in Behasa Indonesian by Taufiq Andrie. The interview took place in (...) a special visitor's room, where Ba'asyir had seven acolytes acting as his bodyguards, including Taufiq Halim, the perpetrator of the Atrium mall bombing in Jakarta, and Abdul Jabbar, who blew up the Philippines ambassador's house. Excerpts from the interview are below; click here to read the full interview. Q. In your personal view, what do you think of bombings in our homeland, namely the Bali, Marriott and Kuningan bombings? A. I call those who carried out these actions all mujahid. They all had a good intention, that is, Jihad in Allah's way, the aim of the jihad is to look for blessing from Allah. They are right that America is the proper target because America fights Islam. So in terms of their objectives, they are right, and the target of their attacks was right also. But their calculations are debatable. My view is that we should do bombings in conflict areas not in peaceful areas. We have to target the place of the enemy, not countries where many Muslims live. Q. What do you mean by “wrong calculation,” that the victims included Muslims? A. That was one them. In my calculation, if there are bombings in peaceful areas, this will cause fitnah [discord] and other parties will be involved. This is my opinion and I could be wrong. Yet I still consider them mujahid. If they made mistakes, they are only human beings who can be wrong. Moreover, their attacks could be considered as self-defense. (shrink)

El mundo estaba en guerra o, por lo menos, el resto del mundo cuando nacimos. No quedaba claro contra quien peleaban, pero sí que el gran vencedor apuntaban a ser los EUA -cuna de la democracia y la libertad-. Ese era el escenario mundial que nos aguardaba acompañado de la fecha fundamental para tod..

Decisions made so far by the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany have always been characterized by their writing and content, even down to details, precision, accuracy, professional legal style of writing, always clear in the elaboration and adjudication of cases from its competence, but surprisingly, in our country, only a few have paid attention to the German Court in a scientific context, which can be seen from the only few materials we possess in the Albanian language. The purpose of this (...) paper is to provide an overview of this Court, so that the comparative aspects can be made, highlighting its advantages and disadvantages, in case of dictating the state need for reform of the Constitutional Courts. Those who have institutionalized this constitutional institution know its value in the system of constitutional justice, which performs it in terms of protection of constitutions, its principles and value, and most importantly in the protection of freedoms and rights of human beings and citizens. The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, to this date, has conveyed the efficiency of the protection of the German legal order, the serious approach and law interpretation, for the protection of freedoms and human rights, which ranks this court into a high level among all other powers in the German law system. The author, in the following paper, gives an overview of this Court starting with its history, organization and functioning, which today undoubtedly constitutes one of the most important constitutional courts in the world. (shrink)

This study explored the perceptions of ethics among long-term care employees in order to test two hypotheses. A cohort cross-sectional survey examined employees’ perceptions of an ethics environment, racial-ethnic, and position disparities, and, secondarily, ethics in relationship to select, research-grounded work features measured as manage disagreements, effectiveness, work satisfaction, and opinions of care, the latter including intention to remain. Established questionnaires with robust psychometrics were employed. Response rate was 51%. Non-significant differences between sample and population on key variables supported extrapolation (...) of results. Statistically significant differences between racial–ethnic and work positions were revealed on ethics. Statistically significant relationships between ethics and employees’ work features also were found, confirming both hypotheses. Perceptions of ethics based on racial-ethnic and position disparities, as well as the robust links with employee work features, offered potential avenues for decreasing disparities at work and improving the quality of long-term care. Noted further on ethics item scoring were relatively low scores indicating less involvement in, and access to, ethics discussions and decisions. In contrast, the literature review substantiated the importance of empowerment and retention, which were enhanced by employee involvement in work, notably, discussions and decisions. Thus, implications of ethics committees in long-term care sites as ways to potentially enhance employees’ work and quality of care, especially work satisfaction and retention, were explored; relevant concerns raised by the Covid pandemic were, briefly, discussed. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to expand on the concept of semiocide which, in broad terms, is the destruction of signs and semiosis. Taking its point of departure from Ivar Puura’s article on the concept, this essay attempts to find conceptual parallels and historical examples of the term, expanding its range through a critique of its original conception. Departing from the initial conservatism of Puura’s definition, the article will argue for a more diverse understanding of the term, suggesting a (...) view that positions semiocide not just as a descriptor for lamentable losses, but also as a potential avenue for emancipatory praxis, whereby established, hegemonic and oppressive meanings can be undermined and new possibilities of representation and identity explored. (shrink)

Friends of the Emir: Non-Muslim State Officials in Premodern Islamic Thought By YarbroughLuke, xiv + 361 pp. Price HB £90.00. EAN 978–1108496605.

In this article, we describe an assignment undertaken by our third-year students at a University Business School in the United Arab Emirates. The assignment serves to introduce corporate social responsibility and ethics in the undergraduate curriculum and to raise student awareness of how corporate activity together with corporate social responsibility can impact a country’s social, political, and cultural landscapes. We outline the assignment, student response to it, and its contribution to student intellectual development in terms of ethical perspective, philanthropy versus (...) ethics, economic development, and cultural diversity. We discuss the implications of this learning experience for our students and their greater understanding of items within the United Arab Emirates government’s strategic directions, namely, creating a cohesive society and a sustainable environment. (shrink)

OBJECTIVES: To study the opinions of nationals (Emiratis) and doctors practising in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with regard to informing terminally ill patients. DESIGN: Structured questionnaires administered during January 1995. SETTING: The UAE, a federation of small, rich, developing Arabian Gulf states. PARTICIPANTS: Convenience samples of 100 Emiratis (minimum age 15 years) and of 50 doctors practising in government hospitals and clinics. RESULTS: Doctors emerged as consistently less in favour of informing than the Emiratis were, whether the patient was (...) described as almost certain to die during the next six months or as having a 50% chance of surviving, and even when it was specified that the patient was requesting information. In the latter situation, a third of doctors maintained that the patient should not be told. Increasing survival odds reduced the number of doctors selecting to inform; but it had no significant impact on Emiratis' choices. When Emiratis were asked whether they would personally want to be informed if they had only a short time to live, less than half responded in the way they had done to the in principle question. CONCLUSIONS: The doctors' responses are of concern because of the lack of reference to ethical principles or dilemmas, the disregard of patients' wishes and dependency on survival odds. The heterogeneity of Emiratis' responses calls into question the usefulness of invoking norms to explain inter-society differences. In the current study, people's in principle choices did not provide a useful guide to how they said they would personally wish to be treated. (shrink)

Student-centered learning has been conceived as a Western export to the East and the developing world in the last few decades. Philosophers of education often associate student-centered learning with frameworks related to meeting the needs of individual pupils: from Deweyan experiential learning, to the ‘pedagogy of the oppressed’ and other social justice orientations. Yet student-centered learning has also become, in the era of neoliberal education, a jingoistic advertisement for practices and ideologies which can be seen to lead to a global (...) devaluation of the educational profession, and the bolstering of the view of the student as a customer. In this article, I want to disentangle these views and explore some limitations of either model of student-centered learning. To add context, I consider education in the United Arab Emirates today, which provides an extreme example of the risks involved with prioritizing student’s self-identified needs and interests above all else, as in an idealized or exaggerated student-centered concept. I conclude with brief comments on amending the philosophical concept of student-centered learning to be useful in diverse contexts today. (shrink)

Normal 0 21 false false false ES X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabla normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} This paper discusses how the proposed musical Emir Kusturica & the no smoking orchestra , creates new forms of perception on situations of armed conflict (war in Bosnia-Herzegovina) and exclusion (relationship with the community Rom), which (...) change completely imaginary imposed by the media about such phenomena. This is seen from the view of aesthetic theory and policy Renciére Jacques, who believes that the purpose of politics is to make visible the failure of an universal order that can pick up all parts of society. (shrink)

This study examines the frequency of consanguineous marriage and the coefficient of inbreeding in the United Arab Emirates. The study was conducted in Al Ain and Dubai cities between October 1994 and March 1995. A sample of 2033 married UAE females aged 15 years and over participated. The degree of consanguinity between each female and her spouse, and the degree of consanguinity between their parents were recorded. The rate of consanguinity in the present generation was high with a coefficient of (...) inbreeding of 0·0222. The commonest type of consanguineous marriage was between first cousins. Double first cousin marriages were common compared to other populations. The consanguinity rate in the UAE has increased from 39% to 50·5% in one generation. The level of consanguinity was higher in Al Ain than in Dubai. (shrink)

Los trabajos arqueológicos llevados a cabo en El Tolmo de Minateda (Hellin, Albacete) han permitido sacar a la luz los vestigios de una ciudad visigoda y posteriormente islámica que fue abandonada durante la segunda mitad del siglo IX. En los contextos de uso, abandono y destrucción de la ciudad emiral se han exhumado una serie de monedas, tanto islámicas como acuñadas en periodos anteriores. La contextualización del registro numismático permite obtener una visión de conjunto de la circulación monetaria en esta (...) ciudad emiral y plantear algunas implicaciones de carácter histórico, numismático y arqueológico. (shrink)

In the past few years, there has been growing public awareness of the existence of slavery. This may be attributed in part to the media coverage of the civil war raging in the Sudan which, among other things, has revealed a bustling market in human trafficking. However, little or no attention has been directed to several other regions in the world, including, for example, the Arabian Gulf States, where rapid modernization tends to hide a gruesome reality of modern day slavery. (...) This paper examines three forms of slavery in the United Arab Emirates, used here as a case study—the exploitation of children as camel jockeys; the sexual enslavement of women; and the migrant workers who enslave themselves. By relating the data on present-day slavery to both the history of this ancient institution and to our current definitions of slavery, the author concludes that what is needed is a deeper awareness of the scope, nature, and forms of modern day slavery and a global effort to abolish it. (shrink)

Governments across the world appreciate the need for checks on the transfer or exportation of commodities, information, software, and technology considered of strategic value. In order to control exports, countries rely on laws, treaties, international arrangements and other related instruments. In the current case, the UAE is largely dependent on Federal Law No. 12 of 2008 while the UK depends on the Export Control Act of 2002. It is established that the legislations enact amendments to reflect the dynamic nature of (...) the state environment. However, the entry into international arrangements supports the view that the fight against trading in dual-use, military, or sensitive products require cooperative efforts from state parties in order to attain success. The current paper assesses export controls in the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. (shrink)

The aim of this study is to examine moral reasoning in a cross cultural Islamic context. The moral reasoning of female business students in the United Arab Emirates is described based on Kohlberg’s theory of Cognitive Moral Development. Business students were asked to participate in a brief individual interview which involved reading three moral dilemmas and answering open-ended questions. Results were analyzed based on each dilemma as well as acrossall three. Most students made their decisions at the first two levels (...) of Kohlberg’s stages, prioritizing how their decision would secure rewards for themselves and compliance with rules to maintain the social order. However, a fairly large percentage also scored at the highest stage of reasoning. Results are explored based on the sociocultural context and implications for ethics education are outlined, including an emphasis on examining conflicting cultural values and the use of context-specific dilemmas for teaching ethics. (shrink)

Migration is a global phenomenon growing in scope, and it can be associated with negative emotions such as sense of impending loss, fear of the unknown, and anxiety about those left at home. The objective of this exploratory study was to examine psychological distress and homesickness among Sudanese migrants in the United Arab Emirates. Participants were 1444 Sudanese migrants. The Second Version of the Dundee Relocation Inventory was used to assess homesickness, and the 28-item General Health Questionnaire was used to (...) measure psychological distress, depressive and anxiety symptoms, somatic symptoms, and social dysfunction. The results showed that older age and longer duration of residence in the UAE were associated with lower levels of homesickness, psychological distress, and depressive and anxiety symptoms. Further, homesickness was associated with higher psychological distress, somatic symptoms, and depressive and anxiety symptoms. Women and unemployed migrants had higher psychological distress, somatic symptoms, and depressive and anxiety symptoms compared with men and those employed, respectively. Being unmarried was associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms and homesickness, while those married or divorced/widowed showed lower levels of depressive symptoms and homesickness. It was concluded that there is a need to tackle unemployment among migrants in the UAE and address family reunion issues. (shrink)

This paper addresses the tension between the government policy to increase the number of citizens working in the private sector in the United Arab Emirates and the organizational preference for employing expatriate workers. Currently a dominant construal of the limited success of the policy is that the local workforce, traditionally employed largely in government positions, is unwilling to commit to the perceived greater rigor of the private sector. The author reconceptualizes the issue as one deriving from a principle of corporate (...) financialization in which companies claim the right to optimize their labor costs as much as possible. This paper briefly discusses corporate financialization, overviews the workforce localization program in the United Arab Emirates, termed Emiratization, highlights the reasons cited for its limited success, and argues that this is due to corporate strategy of selecting their workforce according to financial and rights-related criteria. The issue is an ethical one in that a local population, the natural labor force, is marginalized in a national context of immigration laws permitting the large scale importation of cheaper and more compliant foreign labor. (shrink)

The study examined the impact of students’ absolute age-position at the time of testing by grade level and gender on their achieved level of mathematics, reading and science performance. An analysis was conducted based on a sample of 11,500 15-year-old pupils in the United Arab Emirates who participated in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment 2012 study. In support of an absolute age-position effect it was found that the youngest age-at-test student grouping demonstrated significantly lower levels of mathematics, reading (...) and science performance than their older peers. It was also shown that grade level had a significant influence on the demonstration of functional knowledge by same-aged students. Lastly, the female students attained significantly higher levels of mathematics, reading and science performance than their male counterparts. (shrink)

This study was designed to examine the relative contributions of student and parents’ socio‐demographics, students’ beliefs about learning, parental support of children’s learning, peers’ attitudes towards learning, teacher–student interaction and curriculum content to students’ motivation to learn. The sample consisted of 275 school‐age children ranging from 12 to 16 years old. All measures were constructed for the purpose of this study. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to predict student motivation to learn. Results indicated that students’ beliefs about learning, teacher–student interaction (...) and curriculum content contributed to the United Arab Emirates middle and high school students’ motivation to learn. Implications for research are discussed. (shrink)