Search results for: chinese political connection

Authors: Bo Wan, Xiu Wen, Lingling An, Xiaoling Ding

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The paper describes a Chinese shadow play animation system based on Kinect. Users, without any professional training, can personally manipulate the shadow characters to finish a shadow play performance by their body actions and get a shadow play video through giving the record command to our system if they want. In our system, Kinect is responsible for capturing human movement and voice commands data. Gesture recognition module is used to control the change of the shadow play scenes. After packaging the data from Kinect and the recognition result from gesture recognition module, VRPN transmits them to the server-side. At last, the server-side uses the information to control the motion of shadow characters and video recording. This system not only achieves human-computer interaction, but also realizes the interaction between people. It brings an entertaining experience to users and easy to operate for all ages. Even more important is that the application background of Chinese shadow play embodies the protection of the art of shadow play animation.

Keywords: hadow play animation, Kinect, gesture recognition, VRPN, HCI

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Authors: William Feng, Qingyu Gao

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Despite the extensive discussions about Hong Kong’s sentiments towards the Chinese Mainland since the sovereignty transfer in 1997, there has been no large-scale empirical analysis of the changing attitudes in the mainstream media, which both reflect and shape sentiments in the society. To address this gap, the present study uses an optimised semantic-based automatic sentiment analysis method to examine a corpus of news about China from 1997 to 2020 in three main Chinese-language newspapers in Hong Kong, namely Apple Daily, Ming Pao, and Oriental Daily News. The analysis shows that although the Hong Kong press had a positive emotional tone toward China in general, the overall trend of sentiment was becoming increasingly negative. Meanwhile, the alignment and antagonism toward China have both increased, providing empirical evidence of attitudinal polarisation in the Hong Kong society. Specifically, Apple Daily’s depictions of China have become increasingly negative, though with some positive turns before 2008, whilst Oriental Daily News has consistently expressed more favourable sentiments. Ming Pao maintained an impartial stance toward China through an increased but balanced representation of positive and negative sentiments, with its subjectivity and sentiment intensity growing to an industry-standard level. The results provide new insights into the complexity of sentiments towards China in the Hong Kong press and media attitudes in general in terms of the “us” and “them” positioning by explicating the cross-newspaper and cross-period variations using an enhanced sentiment analysis method which incorporates sentiment-oriented and semantic role analysis techniques.

Keywords: media attitude, sentiment analysis, Hong Kong press, one country two systems

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Authors: Gordon James Knowles

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Historically the Chinatown district in Sandwich Islands has been plagued with the traditional vice crimes of illegal drugs, gambling, and prostitution since the early 1800s. However, a new form of psychologically addictive arcade style table gambling machines has become the dominant form of illegal revenue made in Honolulu, Hawaii. This study attempts to document the drive, desire, or will to play and wager with arcade style video gaming and understand the role of illegal game rooms in facilitating pathological gambling addiction. Indicators of police corruption by Chinese organized crime syndicates related to protection rackets, bribery, and pay-offs were revealed. Information fusion from a police science and sociological intelligence perspective indicates insurgent warfare is being waged on the streets of Honolulu by the People’s Republic of China. This state-sponsored communist terrorism in the Hawaiian Islands used “contactless” irregular warfare entailing: (1) the deployment of psychologically addictive gambling machines, (2) the distribution of the physically addictive fentanyl drug as a lethal chemical weapon, and (3) psychological warfare by circulating pro-China anti-American propaganda newspapers targeted at the small island populace.

Keywords: Chinese and Polynesian organized crime, china daily newspaper, electronic arcade style table games, gaming technology addiction, illegal compulsive gambling, and police intelligence

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Authors: Deretha Bester

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This article explores the recent military coups in Mali (August 2020) and Burkina Faso (January 2022), utilizing qualitative case study analyses to examine the pre-coup domestic contextual conditions that precipitated the events. By framing the research through the conceptual lens of state fragility, the research identifies key political, economic, and societal factors that converge to create an environment conducive for coups to occur. From the analyses, the study discusses several patterns that emerged, all revealing the significance of the core functions of governance. Through an in-depth exploration that brings the state back into the coup debate, the study provides rich insights into the complex dynamics of military intervention in political affairs, highlighting the urgency of understanding the underlying domestic factors that can lead to radical political changes. By illuminating these intricate dynamics, the article seeks to provide detailed insights needed to fully understand the challenges moulding the region's political terrain.

Keywords: governance failures, military coups, political dynamics, Sahel region, state fragility

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Authors: Zhuoran Shan, Li Wan, Xianchun Zhang

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With an increasing trend of regionalization and polycentricity in Chinese contemporary big cities, “sub-region life circle” turns to be an effective method on rational organization of urban function and spatial structure. By the method of questionnaire, network big data, route inversion on internet map, GIS spatial analysis and logistic regression, this article makes research on characteristic and formation mechanism of “sub-region life circle” based on human high-probability daily activity in Chinese big cities. Firstly, it shows that “sub-region life circle” has been a new general spatial sphere of residents' high-probability daily activity and mobility in China. Unlike the former analysis of the whole metropolitan or the micro community, “sub-region life circle” has its own characteristic on geographical sphere, functional element, spatial morphology and land distribution. Secondly, according to the analysis result with Binary Logistic Regression Model, the research also shows that seven factors including land-use mixed degree and bus station density impact the formation of “sub-region life circle” most, and then analyzes the index critical value of each factor. Finally, to establish a smarter “sub-region life circle”, this paper indicates that several strategies including jobs-housing fit, service cohesion and space reconstruction are the keys for its spatial organization optimization. This study expands the further understanding of cities' inner sub-region spatial structure based on human daily activity, and contributes to the theory of “life circle” in urban's meso-scale.

Keywords: sub-region life circle, characteristic, formation mechanism, human activity, spatial structure

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Authors: David Chao, John Lai, Alvin Wu, Carl Wang

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For lithium-ion batteries with multiple cell configurations, some use scenarios can cause uneven aging effects to each cell within the battery because of uneven current distribution. Hence the focus of the study is to explore the aging effect(s) on batteries with different construction designs. In order to systematically study the influence of various factors in some key battery configurations, a detailed analysis of three key battery construction factors is conducted. And those key factors are (1) terminal position; (2) cell alignment matrix; and (3) interconnect resistance between cells. In this study, the 2S2P circuitry has been set as a model multi-cell battery to set up different battery samples, and the aging behavior is studied by a cycling test to analyze the current distribution and recoverable capacity. According to the outcome of aging tests, some key findings are: (I) different cells alignment matrices can have an impact on the cycle life of the battery; (II) symmetrical structure has been identified as a critical factor that can influence the battery cycle life, and unbalanced resistance can lead to inconsistent cell aging status; (III) the terminal position has been found to contribute to the uneven current distribution, that can cause an accelerated battery aging effect; and (IV) the internal connection resistance increase can actually result in cycle life increase; however, it is noteworthy that such increase in cycle life is accompanied by a decline in battery performance. In summary, the key findings from the study can help to identify the key aging factor of multi-cell batteries, and it can be useful to effectively improve the accuracy of battery capacity predictions.

Keywords: multiple cells battery, current distribution, battery aging, cell connection

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Authors: Francis Wargirai

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Since gaining independence in 1975, Papua New Guinea`s core challenge has been the consolidation of democracy against a backdrop of enormous social, political and territorial diversity. Consequently, the government has implemented several political reforms including decentralization. Constitutional planners believed that national unity, would be better achieved by sharing state power over centralization. They anticipated that this would institutionalize a democratic civic culture by providing opportunities to groups and individuals to make political decisions within their jurisdiction. This would then eventually lead to confidence and participation in the larger entity of the state. In retrospect, civil society and community based groups are largely underrated and have had minimal influence on decisions at the local level, consequently contributing to nepotism, patronism and cynicism. By applying an elitist approach to analyze how national political leaders exert their influence and power within the local government system and local communities, this paper argues that decentralization has fragmented local communities. With an absence of political party roots and deeply divided ethnic groups, national political leaders have used divide and rule tactics resulting in mistrust among citizens. Through their influence and power within local governments to dictate projects and services to certain areas, this has resulted in skepticism and divisions among civil society along different cultural cleavages. This has been a contributing factor to anomalies in democratic consolidation and democratic political culture in Papua New Guinea.

Keywords: civic culture, cultural cleavages, decentralization, democratic consolidation

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Authors: Zarine Avetisyan

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Both in language and literature there exists the theory of recurrence of text and talk chunks which brings us to the notion of precedence. It must be stated that precedence as a pragma-linguistic phenomenon is yet underknown and it is the main objective of the present research to revisit and reveal it thoroughly. In line with the main research objective, analysis of political text and talk provides abundant relevant data for the illustration of the phenomenon of precedence. The analysis focuses on certain pragmatic universals (e.g. intention) and categories (e.g. speech techniques) which lead to the disclosure of the present object of study.

Keywords: intention, precedence, political discourse, pragmatic universals

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Authors: Felix O. Akinboyewa

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To say that Nigeria is faced with the problem of domestic terrorism is to say the obvious. The spate of political assassination during the fourth republic (1999-2010) is representative of what has become a growing trend. In this research, an attempt was made to examine the problems of political assassination within the context of significant categories of domestic-related terrorism in Nigeria Democracy. The central questions are: What exactly are the nature of political violence and terrorist act in the Nigeria nascent democracy? Was there any factor responsible for the politics of violence and terrorist act in the Nigeria democracy? What implications can the political violence and terrorist act have on democratic consolidation, national peace, and security? What solutions can be proffered to eradicate terrorist act and political violence in the Nigeria democracy? The study adopted a descriptive survey design which falls within the empirical research methodology. The sample size of the study consisted of 220 subjects randomly selected. The main instruments used were questionnaire and interview schedule. Data generated from the study were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as percentage and tables. The research findings showed that unemployed youths and the members of Nigeria Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) were the major actors in political violence in Nigeria. They have access to weapons and ammunitions which they use to terrorize the populace. The research showed that factors responsible for the political violence and terrorism in Nigeria are: poor electoral administration; election rigging; poor security system; religious and ethnic sentiment; problems of poverty and unemployment; over-exuberance and low level of education. The study also showed that electoral violence affects smooth running democracy in Nigeria. On the measures to be taken to eradicate political violence and terrorism in Nigeria, the research showed that provision of employment opportunities would go a long way to solving the problem. Civil society as an important institution can help to reduce incidence of political violence in Nigeria. Also, government has greater role to play. The study concludes that adherence to the proffered suggestions would reduce the level of political violence and terrorist act in Nigeria.

Keywords: consolidation, democracy, peace, security, terrorism, violence

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Authors: Jose Carlos Montemayor, Kendrick Thomas Angelo Santos

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Filipinos have been divided on President Rodrigo Duterte’s leadership ever since his election in 2016. This study aimed to gain a thorough, in-depth understanding of the opinions of Filipinos from different age and income brackets on these issues in order to address the lack of studies analysing the current Philippine political landscape. An interview tackling relevant national issues were conducted with twelve respondents from the intersections of four age groups and three income brackets. The government’s handling of some issues received mixed opinions, some had neutral viewpoints, while others had more unfavorable ones. The responses differed on three levels: (1) the general stance on an issue; (2) the strength of a stance; and (3) the factoring in of an issue in forming an overall perception on the administration’s performance. Contrary to previous studies on political thought, opinions varied greatly such that no unique set of viewpoints could be attributed to any of the defined age or income groups. These results will be most useful to political science researchers, political analysts, and candidates shaping their platforms for the upcoming elections. Future studies are recommended to tackle more national issues and to consider other factors that may affect political opinions and behavior.

Keywords: age groups, opinion formation, socioeconomic brackets, Philippine politics, Rodrigo Duterte

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Authors: Amanda Aliende da Matta, Maria del Pilar Fogueiras Bertomeu, Valeria de Ormaechea Otalora, Maria Paz Sandin Esteban, Miriam Comet Donoso

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This communication presents the preliminary emerging themes in a research on political participation of young women. The study follows a qualitative methodology; in particular, the applied hermeneutic phenomenological method, and the general objective of the research is to give an account of the experience of political participation as young women. The study participants are women aged 18 to 35 who have experience in political participation. The techniques of data collection are the descriptive story and the phenomenological interview. With respect to the first methodological steps, these have been: 1) collect and select stories of lived experience in political participation, 2) select descriptions of lived experience (DLEs) in political participation of the chosen stories, 3) to prepare phenomenological interviews from the selected DLEs, 4) to conduct phenomenological thematic analysis (PTA) of the DLEs. We have so far initiated the PTA on 5 vignettes. Hermeneutic phenomenology as a research approach is based on phenomenological philosophy and applied hermeneutics. Phenomenology is a descriptive philosophy of pure experience and essences, through which we seek to capture an experience at its origins without categorizing, interpreting or theorizing it. Hermeneutics, on the other hand, may be defined as a philosophical current that can be applied to data analysis. Max Van Manen wrote that hermeneutic phenomenology is a method of abstemious reflection on the basic structures of the lived experience of human existence. In hermeneutic phenomenology we focus, then, on the way we experience “things” in the first person, seeking to capture the world exactly as we experience it, not as we categorize or conceptualize it. In this study, the empirical methods used were: Lived experience description (written) and conversational interview. For these short stories, participants were asked: “What was your lived experience of participation in politics as a young woman? Can you tell me any stories or anecdotes that you think exemplify or typify your experience?”. The questions were accompanied by a list of guidelines for writing descriptive vignettes. And the analytical method was PTA. Among the provisional results, we found preliminary emerging themes, which could in the advance of the investigation result in meaning structures of political participation of young women. They are the following: - Complicity may be inherent/essential in political participation as a young woman; - Feelings may be essential/inherent in political participation as a young woman; - Hope may be essential in authentic political participation as a young woman; - Frustration may be essential in authentic political participation as a young woman; - Satisfaction may be essential in authentic political participation as a young woman; - There may be tension between individual/collective inherent/essential in political participation as a young woman; - Political participation as a young woman may include moments of public demonstration.

Keywords: applied hermeneutic phenomenology, hermeneutics, phenomenology, political participation

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Authors: Yasir Khan

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The continued growth in international students coming to China for higher education had a significant positive impact on trade and GDP in China. Student mobility may expend trade with their country of origin, owing to superior knowledge, or preferential access to market opportunities. We test this hypothesis using Chinese trade data from 1999 to 2017. In fully-modify (OLS) and dynamic (OLS) testing estimation, we find that a 1.24 percent increase in student inward mobility is associated with a 1 percent increase in Chinese export trade. On the other hand, we find that a 1.18 percent increase in the student inward mobility to China is associated with a 1 percent increase in import trade. In addition, we find that a 1.13 percent increase in international student inward mobility is associated with a 1 percent increase in the GDP. The outcome suggests that international students have a strong influence on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), exports and imports trade. However, the study holds that the government should attach great attachment and importance to the role of international students in the export and import trade.

Keywords: international student mobility, China, export, import, GDP, FMOLS, DOLS

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Authors: Ali Asghar Sotoudeh

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Mediation Diplomacy has emerged as one of the main pillars of China's foreign policy goals and practices, and Beijing has established itself as a peacekeeping force in regional conflicts and crises such as Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, and the Arab-Israeli peace process. China is deepening and intensifying its diplomatic interventions in the Middle East and trying to shape the security and political developments in the Middle East. On the other hand, economically, China has become one of the most important trading partners with Middle Eastern governments. China is also seeking to expand its foreign policy and economic interests in the Middle East through the New Silk Road initiative and has signed cooperation agreements with 17 Arab countries. In this regard, due to the importance of the subject, this research focuses on answering this question; what is the basis of China's political mediation and economic expansionism in the Middle East? In parallel with this question, this study follows the hypothesis that the mediating role of peace is a legitimate way for China to intervene in Middle East political crises, Without causing China to deviate from its traditional guiding principles based on non-interference in the internal affairs of other actors in the international system. This policy also promotes the security of economic interests and increases the country's political influence in the Middle East. The research method is descriptive-analytical based on the qualitative method, and the data collection method is library and internet resources.

Keywords: China, middle east, political mediation, economic expansionism

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Authors: Mohamed M. Ali, Adel Nofal, Amr Kandil, Mahmoud Agour

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High phosphorus gray iron (HPGI) is used to connect the steel stub of an anode rod to a prebaked anode carbon block in the aluminium reduction cells. In this paper, a complete characterization for HPGI was done, includes studying the chemical composition of the HPGI collar, anodic voltage drop, collar temperature over 30 days anode life cycle, microstructure and mechanical properties. During anode life cycle, the carbon content in HPGI was lowed from 3.73 to 3.38%, and different changes in the anodic voltage drop at the stub- collar-anode connection were recorded. The collar temperature increases over the anode life cycle and reaches to 850°C in four weeks after anode changing. Significant changes in the HPGI microstructure were observed after 3 and 30 days from the anode changing. To simulate the actual operating conditions in the steel stub/collar/carbon anode connection, a bench-scale experimental set-up was designed and used for electrical resistance and resistivity respectively. The results showed the current HPGI properties needed to modify or producing new alloys with excellent electrical and mechanical properties. The steel stub and HPGI thermal expansion were measured and studied. Considerable permanent expansion was observed for the HPGI collar after the completion of the heating-cooling cycle.

Keywords: high phosphorus gray iron (HPGI), aluminium reduction cells, anodic voltage drop, microstructure, mechanical and electrical properties

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Authors: Sze Yee Lee

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The death of a sibling in childhood leads to significant impacts on both the personal and family development of the surviving siblings. Yet, the effects of sibling loss in Chinese societies such as Hong Kong have been inadequately documented in the literature. In particular, there is a gap in the literature about the long term impacts on surviving siblings. This paper explores the experience of adult siblings encountering siblings’ death during childhood with the use of in-depth interviews. Through thematic analysis and in-depth interviews, the author explores the impacts on surviving siblings’ emotions, coping styles, struggles and challenges, and personal development. Furthermore, the influences on family dynamics are explored thoroughly, including the changes in a family atmosphere, family roles, family relationships, family communication, and parenting styles. More importantly, the author identifies (i) existing continuing bonds, (ii) crying, (iii) adequate social support, (iv) hiding own emotions as a gesture of protecting parents as the crucial elements pertinent to surviving siblings’ successful adaptation in the face of sibling loss. In addition, 'child-centered' and 'family-centered' interventions for families with siblings' death in a Chinese context are discussed. With the use of age-appropriate language and children’s participation in the preparation of death and after-death arrangements, surviving siblings could be assisted in transforming bereavement into opportunities for growth. In addition, the bereaved family could better cope with grief with open communication platforms, adequate social support, and family education resources. Meanwhile, life-and-death education at both school and community levels could enhance the public’s awareness and understanding of the bereaved individuals to prevent creating further harm to them.

Keywords: children and adolescent bereavement, children-centered, family-centered, sibling’s death

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Authors: Zarine Avetisyan

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The process of speech production and transmission naturally implies the occurrence of certain defective assumptions and erroneous formulations which may be both spontaneous, caused by haste, carelessness, etc., or deliberate. Whether deliberate or not, fallacies always act by way of “faux pas”. In the latter case, we deal with fake or deceptive arguments which are the focus of the given paper. The paper departs from the assumption that fallacies are arguments that prove nothing. Additionally and more importantly, political discourse becomes the main domain for scholarly “cultivation” while pinning down fallacies. The fallacy of telling the truth but deliberately omitting important key details in order to falsify the larger picture called “the half truth” captures special attention in the given paper.

Keywords: break in the information chain, fallacy, half truth, political discourse

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Authors: Milene Magalhães Pinto, Irlen Antônio Gonçalves

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This paper is within the area of History of Education in Brazil, having a descriptive and exploratory nature. It has been built on the belief that professional education is organized under political guidelines and solidifies through institutionalized discourses, allowing to know its mission concerning the society in which it operates by studying these speeches. Our purpose is to analyze how the Republican political culture yielded changes in public education through reforms to professional education in the First Republic, based on seven procedures of law that occurred in the Legislature of State of Minas Gerais. The Republican effort to reform the teaching was the result of a conception of society that aspired to advance the country by way of the national worker.

Keywords: professional education, republican political culture, education reforms, Brazil

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Authors: Xiaoxu Liu, Yuwen Chen

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In this study, we investigated ethnic minority students’ perception of the implementation of preferential policies in China. Using a mixed methods design, we surveyed 320 students from an institute of education for ethnic minorities and conducted further in-depth interviews with seven respondents. Although interviewees were from 30 ethnic groups, most of them were from mainstream high schools. We found that minority students from preparatory classes have an overall positive attitude towards preferential policies and preparatory class but lack sense of belonging to the university for various reasons. Findings indicate that although preparatory class is regarded as being helpful for minority students’ academic development, there are differences of attitude mainly depending on the high schools they graduated from and their ethnic identities. Our analyses suggest that ethnicity, high school graduated from, hometown and family income are more important than gender, religion, and political affiliation when accounting for their perceptions of the implementation of preferential policies in China.

Keywords: Chinese minority education, higher education, preferential policies, survey analysis

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Authors: Horng-Ji Lai

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The intuitive design features and friendly interface of smartphone attract older adults. In Taiwan, many senior education institutes offer smartphone training courses for older adult learners who are interested in learning this innovative technology. It is expected that the training courses can help them to enjoy the benefits of using smartphone and increase their life satisfaction. Therefore, it is important to investigate the factors that influence older adults’ behavior of using smartphone. The purpose of the research was to develop and test a research model that investigates the factors (self-efficacy, social connection, the need to seek health information, and the need to seek financial information) affecting older adult learners’ Internet behaviour and their life satisfaction with use of smartphone. Also, this research sought to identify the relationship between the proposed variables. Survey method was used to collect research data. A Structural Equation Modeling was performed using Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression for data exploration and model estimation. The participants were 394 older adult learners from smartphone training courses in active aging learning centers located in central Taiwan. The research results revealed that self-efficacy significantly affected older adult learner’ social connection, the need to seek health information, and the need to seek financial information. The construct of social connection yielded a positive influence in respondents’ life satisfaction. The implications of these results for practice and future research are also discussed.

Keywords: older adults, smartphone, internet behaviour, life satisfaction

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Authors: Umar Ubandawaki

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Political participation involves voluntary and deliberate efforts by the members of a political system to determine the kinds of political institution and individuals that will govern them and equally influence the mobilization and allocation of the available societal resources. Over the years, youths in Nigeria participated actively in political party rallies and voting to elect their leaders and representatives in governance. This paper examines categories and nature of participation in politics as well as factors that derived youths into politics in Sokoto State. Through the use of qualitative and quantitative data generated from focus group discussions, interviews and questionnaire, the paper find out that youth, in Sokoto State, have been induced in participatory activities that encourage political thuggery and manipulation of electoral outcomes. Moreover, they are neglected in the mobilization and allocation of the available resources of the society i.e they are denied dividends of good governance. The paper recommends that youths should be engaged into positive participatory activities for ensuring inclusiveness and promotion of good governance in Nigeria. It is hoped that this will enlighten youth and policy implementers on the constructive strategies in controlling youth’s participation in politics in Nigeria.

Keywords: democracy, governance, inclusivenes, participation and politic

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Authors: Pedro Cardoso Alves, Ana Lucia Galinkin, José Carlos Ribeiro

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Political participation, can be a somewhat tricky subject to define, not in small part due to the constant changes in the concept fruit of the effort to include new forms of participatory behavior that go beyond traditional institutional channels. With the advent of the internet and mobile technologies, defining political participation has become an even more complicated endeavor, given de amplitude of politicized behaviors that are expressed throughout these mediums, be it in the very organization of social movements, in the propagation of politicized texts, videos and images, or in the micropolitical behaviors that are expressed in daily interaction. In fact, the very frontiers that delimit physical and digital spaces have become ever more diluted due to technological advancements, leading to a hybrid existence that is simultaneously physical and digital, not limited, as it once was, to the temporal limitations of classic communications. Moving away from those institutionalized actions of traditional political behavior, an idea of constant and fluid participation, which occurs in our daily lives through conversations, posts, tweets and other digital forms of expression, is discussed. This discussion focuses on the factors that precede more direct forms of political participation, interpreting the relation between informational habits, ideology, and political efficacy. Though some of the informational habits can be considered political participation, by some authors, a distinction is made to establish a logical flow of behaviors leading to participation, that is, one must gather and process information before acting on it. To reach this objective, a quantitative survey is currently being applied in Brazilian social media, evaluating feelings of political efficacy, social and economic issue-based ideological stances and informational habits pertaining to collection, fact-checking, and diversity of sources and ideological positions present in the participant’s political information network. The measure being used for informational habits relies strongly on a mix of information literacy and political sophistication concepts, bringing a more up-to-date understanding of information and knowledge production and processing in contemporary hybrid (physical-digital) environments. Though data is still being collected, preliminary analysis point towards a strong correlation between information habits and political efficacy, while ideology shows a weaker influence over efficacy. Moreover, social ideology and economic ideology seem to have a strong correlation in the sample, such intermingling between social and economic ideals is generally considered a red flag for political polarization.

Keywords: political efficacy, ideology, information literacy, cyberpolitics

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Authors: Carla Lopes

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It is clear nowadays that the proper performance of different speech acts is one of the most difficult obstacles that a foreign language learner has to overcome to be considered communicatively competent. This communication presents the results of an investigation on the pragmatic performance of Portuguese Language students at the University of Macau. The research discussed herein is based on a survey consisting of fourteen speaking situations to which the participants must respond in writing, and that includes different types of speech acts: apology, response to a compliment, refusal, complaint, disagreement and the understanding of the illocutionary force of indirect speech acts. The responses were classified in a five levels Likert scale (quantified from 1 to 5) according to their suitability for the particular situation. In general terms, we can summarize that about 45% of the respondents' answers were pragmatically competent, 10 % were acceptable and 45 % showed weaknesses at socio-pragmatic competence level. Given that the linguistic deviations were not taken into account, we can conclude that the faults are of cultural origin. It is natural that in the presence of orthogonal cultures, such as Chinese and Portuguese, there are failures of this type, barely solved in the four years of the undergraduate program. The target population, native speakers of Cantonese or Mandarin, make their first contact with the English language before joining the Bachelor of Portuguese Language. An analysis of the socio - pragmatic failures in the respondents’ answers suggests the conclusion that many of them are due to the lack of cultural knowledge. They try to compensate for this either using their native culture or resorting to a Western culture that they consider close to the Portuguese, that is the English or US culture, previously studied, and also widely present in the media and on the internet. This phenomenon, known as 'pragmatic transfer', can result in a linguistic behavior that may be considered inauthentic or pragmatically awkward. The resulting speech act is grammatically correct but is not pragmatically feasible, since it is not suitable to the culture of the target language, either because it does not exist or because the conditions of its use are in fact different. Analysis of the responses also supports the conclusion that these students present large deviations from the expected and stereotyped behavior of Chinese students. We can speculate while this linguistic behavior is the consequence of the Macao globalization that culturally casts the students, makes them more open, and distinguishes them from the typical Chinese students.

Keywords: Portuguese foreign language, pragmatic failures, pragmatic transfer, pragmatic competence

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Authors: Mehdi Heydari Sanglaji

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The dramatic events of the 11 September, and their tragic repercussions, catapulted issues of the political violence in and from the ‘Muslim world’ onto the political discourse, be it in patriotic speeches of campaigning politicians or the TV and news punditry. Depending on what end of the political spectrum the politician/pundit pledges fealty to, the overall analyses of political violence in the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) tends towards two overarching categories: on the Right, the diagnosis has unanimously been, ‘they must hate our freedom.’ On the Left, however, there is the contention that the West has to be counted as the primary cause of such rage, for the years of plundering of lives and resources, through colonialism, the Cold War, coups, etc. All these analyses are premised on at least two presuppositions: the violence in and from the WANA region a) is always reactionary, in the sense that it happens only in response to something the West is or does; and b) must always already be condemned, as it is essentially immoral and wrong. It is the aim of this paper to challenge such viewpoints. Through a rigorous study of the historical discourses on political violence in the Leftist organizations active in Algeria and Lebanon, we claim there is a myriad of diverse reasons and justifications presented for advocating political violence in these countries that defy facile categorization. Inspecting such rhetoric for inciting political violence in Leftist discourses, and how some of these reasonings have percolated into other movements in the region (e.g., Islamist ones), will reveal a wealth of indigenous discourses on the subject that has been largely neglected by the Western Media punditry and even by the academia. The indigenous discourses on political violence, much of which overlaps with emancipatory projects in the region, partly follow grammar and logic, which may be different from those developed in the West, even by its more critical theories. Understanding so different epistemology of violence, and the diverse contexts in which political violence might be justifiable in the mind of ‘the other,’ necessitates a historical, materialist, and genealogical study of the discourse already in practice in the WANA region. In that regard, both critical terrorism studies and critical discourse analysis provide exemplary tools of analysis. Capitalizing on such tools, this project will focus on unearthing a history of thought that renders moot the reduction of all instances of violence in the region to an Islamic culture or imperialism/colonialism. The main argument in our research is that by studying the indigenous discourses on political violence, we will be far more equipped in understanding the reasons and the possible solutions for acts of terrorism in and from the region.

Keywords: political violence, terrorism, leftist organizations, West Asia/North Africa

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Authors: Eran Gusacov

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This article argues that, as a rule, having children and adolescents participate in adult public protests, in terms of educational thought, is ideological education, brainwashing or indoctrination, and not political education, as will be defined in the article. This is a modest argument in its scope: it does not declare categorically that from a perspective of educational thought, parents and teachers need to refrain from bringing children and teenagers to social protests. The perspective offered in this article neither automatically invalidates any indoctrination in educational activities nor does it oppose the legitimacy of protests initiated by adolescents. It does, however, argue that having children and teens participate in such protests is not political education – an argument that belongs to the educational field. Furthermore, the perspective offered here does not deal with the legal layer of the children’s rights to organize, to demonstrate and/or to protest or with issues of political thought. While the examples provided in the article mainly deal with the Israeli reality, it presents a general argument, which is relevant for wherever children participate in demonstrations.

Keywords: ideological education, indoctrination, political education, protest

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Authors: Hugh Battye

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In recent years, Muslim identity in China has strengthened against the backdrop of a worldwide Islamic revival. One discussion arising from this has been focused around the Hui, an ethnicity created by the Communist government in the 1950s covering the Chinese speaking 'Sino-Muslims' as opposed to those with their own language. While the term Hui in Chinese has traditionally meant 'Muslim', the strengthening of Hui identity in recent decades has led to a debate among scholars as to whether this identity is primarily ethnically or religiously driven. This article looks at the case of a mixed ethnic community in rural Gansu Province, Central Northwest China, which not only contains the official Hui ethnicity but also members of the smaller Muslim Salar and Bonan minority groups. In analyzing the close interaction between these groups, the paper will argue that, despite government attempts to promote the Hui as an ethnicity within its modern ethnic paradigm, in rural Gansu and the general region, Hui is still essentially seen as a religious identity. Having provided an overview of the historical evolution of the Hui ethnonym in China and presented the views of some of the important scholars involved in the discussion, the paper will then offer its findings based on participant observation and survey work in Gansu. The results will show that, firstly, for the local Muslims, religious identity clearly dominates ethnic identity. On the ground, the term Hui continues to be used as a catch-all term for Muslims, whether they belong to the official 'Hui' nationality or not, and against this backdrop, the ethnic importance of being 'Hui', 'Bonan' or 'Salar' within the Muslim community itself is by contrast minimal. Secondly, however, this local Muslim solidarity is not at present pointing towards some kind of national pan-ethnic Islamic movement that could potentially set itself up in opposition to the Chinese government; rather it is better seen as part of an ongoing negotiation by local Muslims with the state in the context of its ascribed ethnic categories. The findings of this study in a region where many of the Muslims are more conservative in their beliefs is not necessarily replicated in other contexts, such as in urban areas and in eastern and southern China, and hence reification of the term Hui as one idea extending all across China should be avoided, whether in terms of a united religious 'ummah' or of a real or imagined 'ethnic group.' Rather, this localized case study seeks to demonstrate ways in which Muslims of rural Central Northwest China are 'being Hui,' as a contribution to the broader discussion on what it means to be Muslim and Chinese in the reform era.

Keywords: China, ethnicity, Hui, identity, Muslims

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Authors: Hussain Hameed Mayuuf

Abstract:

The study is an attempt to investigate the conceptual metonymies is used in political discourse about COVID-19. Thus, this study tries to analyze and investigate how the conceptual metonymies in Johnson's speech about coronavirus are constructed. This study aims at: Identifying how are metonymies relevant to understand the messages in Boris Johnson speeches and to find out how can conceptual blending theory help people to understand the messages in the political speech about COVID-19. Lastly, it tries to Point out the kinds of integration networks are common in political speech. The study is based on the hypotheses that conceptual blending theory is a powerful tool for investigating the intended messages in Johnson's speech and there are different processes of blending networks and conceptual mapping that enable the listeners to identify the messages in political speech. This study presents a qualitative and quantitative analysis of four speeches about COVID-19; they are said by Boris Johnson. The selected data have been tackled from the cognitive-semantic perspective by adopting Conceptual Blending Theory as a model for the analysis. It concludes that CBT is applicable to the analysis of metonymies in political discourse. Its mechanisms enable listeners to analyze and understand these speeches. Also the listener can identify and understand the hidden messages in Biden and Johnson's discourse about COVID-19 by using different conceptual networks. Finally, it is concluded that the double scope networks are the most common types of blending of metonymies in the political speech.

Keywords: cognitive, semantics, conceptual, metonymical, Covid-19

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Authors: Narender Banwala

Abstract:

The study critically evaluates that the politics of foreign aid and its effect on Afghanistan. The study argues that dynamics of foreign aid to Afghanistan are not driven solely by the Afghan political, social, and economic realities but much more by the ephemeral political goals of international donor countries. The objective of this paper is to find out the political reality of foreign aid given to Afghanistan in a post 9/11 era. The study analyses the gap between the donor countries' interests and the Afghan government's priorities in aid coordination and management. The aid given to Afghanistan has been accompanied by the political interests of the major powers and therefore violated the core principles of humanitarianism, i.e., humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence. This research attempts to explain the areas which are of high priority, extremely vulnerable, and have been a neglected part since 2001. The study focuses on how as a result of politicization, foreign aid could not yield the expected results even after prolong presence of international donors in Afghanistan. Methodologically, the study includes both qualitative and quantitative data, which are collected by interviews with government officials and other government documents.

Keywords: Afganistan, aid, politics, security

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Authors: Yasemin Gülşen Yılmaz, Süleyman Hakan Yılmaz, Muhammet Erbay

Abstract:

Military interventions have an important place in the Turkish Political History. Military interventions are commonly called coup in the society. By coup we mean that the armed forces seize political power either by a group of officer in the army or by chain of command. Coups not only weaken but also suspend the democracy in a country. All periods of coup created its own victims. Two military coups which took place in May 27, 1960 and September 12, 1980 are the most important ones in terms of political and social effect in the Turkish Political History. Apart these, March 12, 1971, February 28, 1997 and April 27, 2007 e-memorandum are the periods when Army submitted a memorandum and intervened the political government indirectly. Beside the memorandums and coups there were also many coup attempts that have been experienced in the Turkish Political History. In this study, we examined the coup attempted by FETO’s military members in the evening of July 15, 2016 from the point of the Turkish Press. Cumhuriyet, Haber Türk, Hürriyet, Milliyet, Sabah, Star, Yeni Akit and Yeni Şafak Newspapers which have different publication policies were examined within the scope of the study. The first pages of the newspapers dated July 16, 2016 were examined using content analysis method. The headlines, news, news headlines and the visual materials used for news were examined and the collected data were analysed.

Keywords: July 15, news, military coup, press

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Authors: John Hardy

Abstract:

The early twenty-first century national security environment has been characterized by political coercion. Despite an abundance of political commentary on the various forms of non-state coercion leveraged against the state, there is a lack of literature which distinguishes between the mechanisms and the mediums of coercion. Frequently non-state movements seeking to coerce the state are labelled by their tactics, not their strategies. Terrorists, insurgencies and social movements are largely defined by the ways in which they seek to influence the state, rather than by their political aims. This study examines the strategies of coercion used by non-state actors against states. This approach includes terrorist groups, insurgencies, and social movements who seek to coerce state politics. Not all non-state actors seek political coercion, so not all examples of different group types are considered. This approach also excludes political coercion by states, focusing on the non-state actor as the primary unit of analysis. The study applies a general theory of political coercion, which is defined as attempts to change the policies or action of a polity against its will, to the strategies employed by terrorist groups, insurgencies, and social movements. This distinguishes non-state actors’ strategic objectives from their actions and motives, which are variables that are often used to differentiate between types of non-state actors and the labels commonly used to describe them. It also allows for a comparative analysis of theoretical perspectives from the disciplines of terrorism, insurgency and counterinsurgency, and social movements. The study finds that there is a significant degree of overlap in the way that different disciplines conceptualize the mechanism of political coercion by non-state actors. Studies of terrorism and counterterrorism focus more on the notions of cost tolerance and collective punishment, while studies of insurgency focus on a contest of legitimacy between actors, and social movement theory tend to link political objectives, social capital, and a mechanism of influence to leverage against the state. Each discipline has a particular vernacular for the mechanism of coercion, which is often linked to the means of coercion, but they converge on three core theoretical components of compelling a polity to change its policies or actions: exceeding resistance to change, using political or violent punishments, and withholding legitimacy or consent from a government.

Keywords: counter terrorism, homeland security, insurgency, political coercion, social movement theory, terrorism

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Authors: Ali Asghar Sotoudeh

Abstract:

Since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent regime change, internal conflicts between political and ethnic-religious groups have become a hallmark of Iraqi political dynamism. The most important manifestations of these conflicts are the Kurdish-central government conflicts, as well as fundamentalism since 2003. As a result, it seems not only US presence in Iraq under the pretext of fighting terrorism and expanding democracy has not had a positive effect on controlling fundamentalism and political stability in Iraq, but it has paved the way for the formation and continuation of geopolitical crises in the form of disputes over territory and sources of power. In this regard, given the importance of the study, the main purpose of this study is to examine the process of the impact of US regime-change policy on the formation and continuation of geopolitical crises in Iraq. The central question of this study is, what effect has the US regime change policy had on Iraq's domestic political processes? Findings show that regime change and subsequent imposed federalism have widened the gaps in Iraq's sectarian-ethnic system. As a result, the geopolitical crisis in the context of the dispute over geographical territory and sources of power between ethnic-religious groups has become the most important political dynamic in Iraq since the occupation. The research method in this article is descriptive-analytical, and the data collection method is library and internet resources.

Keywords: Iraq, united states, geopolitical crisis, ethno-religious conflict, political federalism

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