Higher Education and Corruption: Macedonian Alumni Experiences

Corruption (lat. corruptio, corrumpere, pervert) means dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery. The most general meaning of corruption, as systematic phenomena (Dinkovski, 20012: 12), is impurity, infection, or decay. It is abuse of public power for personal interests that distort the social institutions. This destructive phenomenon is very present in the Balkan countries. Some 50 % of the population of the Western Balkan believe that corruption practices occur often or very often in a number of public institutions (from central and local government, parliament, hospitals, judiciary and the police). One in six citizens of the Western Balkans citizens had either direct or indirect exposure to a bribery experience with a public official. (Bisogno, 2010: 9, 15) This research is done in 2012 and includes interviews with 25 alumni from different universities in Macedonia, treating the abovementioned issue from clients’, i.e. student’s perspective, based on the experience of corruption during the years of studies. From the analytical approach we concluded that other forms of corruption (favoritism, book buying, sexual services) are more present than bribery or direct payment in our universities, that reporting corruption cases is not occurring from revenge fear and that all student declare that corruption damages education and their future prospect

Termination of the teaching of the Continuous Cursive Handwriting in Schools

Handwriting is a skill that is a requirement for all individuals, however, there is a deep and decisive debate about whether or not the cursive handwriting is necessary in this era of technological innovations. While the necessity of compulsory cursive handwriting education is generally addressed by educators and politicians, there is no consensus on it, and the opinions of the people with interest or concern in education (e.g. teachers, students and parents) are not so often asked. For this reason, the aim of this study is to reveal the views of teachers, students and parents on the cursive handwriting education. 57 classroom teachers, 230 primary school fourth grade students and 14 parents participated in the study from four public primary schools in Ankara. Data were collected using ‘Personal Information Form’, ‘Cursive Handwriting Education Attitude Scale’, ‘Parent Questionnaire’ and ‘Student Questionnaire’. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics techniques and qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis. According to the findings of the study, teachers and parents are not satisfied with the use of cursive handwriting. While teachers indicated that they would prefer print letters instruction if they had given a chance to choose.  Parents affirmed that they could not give support to their children during their writing education. On the other hand, most of the students stated that they had difficulty in reading even their own handwritings, although most of them declared that they like to write with the cursive handwriting

"The Linguistics of Ethnic Nationalism in the Western Balkans"

The Western Balkans socio-political discourse is heavily focused on the exclusive and radical ethnic nationalism and ideology. In this regard, the media and the political elites, through their focus on symbols, myths, ethnicity, tradition, history, language and culture play an important role in shaping the public opinion. Consequently, the daily newspapers in reporting the views of the political elites, within linguistic, discursive, socio-political and ideological contexts, can influence the masses who usually do not analyze the news critically. The paper also seeks to examine and interpret differences in language use by selected Western Balkans political leaders and the way their language choice influenced public opinion. Political, nationalist and ideological discourses promoted by the political elites are very specific and the journalists should report such discourses objectively. Therefore, it is significant to compare and contrast the role played by the media and the political elites in their linguistic, discursive and socio-linguistic choices in the text that may carry ethnic nationalist and ideological meanings. The theoretical and conceptual framework of the paper was based on Fowler’s (1989; 2003; 2010) works: “Language and Power”, “Analyzing Discourse” and “The Critical Study of Language”. In order to test research objectives on the coding and analyzing ethnic nationalism and ideology in the Western Balkans newspapers, the research employed critical discourse analysis for N=534 randomly selected news from the following four newspapers: Dnevni avaz (Bosnia and Herzegovina), “Večernji list” (Croatia), “Večernje novosti” (Serbia), “Vijesti” (Montenegro), limited to a period between 2016 and 2018

The Conflict Resolution, Security and State-Building Process in Libya

The aftermath of the Libyan conflict and the country instability continues due to the internal political division echo of the Arab Spring and the overall fragile regional context strongly influenced by external powers seeking to impact on the direction the country takes socio-economically and politically. In post-Qaddafi Libya the long transition to sustainable institutions and peace remains fragile. The tensions between political parties, armed groups and non-state security actors with different ideological preferences resulted in the full-scale civil war that broke out in the mid-2014. The large arsenal inherited from Qaddafi regime fell under the armed groups and non-state security actors control increasing the already vast proliferation of weapons escalating political tensions and polarization between religious and secular actors. This research aims to examine the transition process in the post-conflict Libya assessing the political developments within the broader aspects of regional peace, stability and security and in reverse how the political instability in Libya affects broader regional security, the growth of violent extremism and uncontrolled acute forced migrations through Libya’s porous border. Libya is a strategic partner and an international player for the EU engaged with the emerging power in the Mediterranean region and the Middle East. The EU interest focuses - beside foster a sustainable economic system – on preserve peace and prevent conflict strengthening its relations with its neighboring countries to maintain security in the region. To reach national, regional and international security is necessary to recognize security as a political matter to be reflected in a long-term process part of the governance reform and economic development through a coherent and effective inter-policy approach

Subjective dimensions of poverty in Albania

Subjective measurement is another important aspect of poverty and wellbeing measurement method. The estimation through self assessment is another non monetary poverty that takes into consideration the monetary and non monetary aspects. The self assessment is estimated taking into consideration qualitative and quantitative measure. In this paper there are estimated three dimensions of subjective poverty, qualitative one, estimated with minimum income needed and two others expressed with categories, happiness and assessment in scale. The research aim to study and to find the best methods of the subjective measurement, as an important dimension of non monetary poverty is to analyze trend and correlation with objective poverty and to define factors that influence in the probability of feeling poor. It is supposed that this assessment is influenced by different socio-economic indicators like household characteristics, income declared, education, employment, etc. The analyses is based on data from the Living standard Measurement Survey and there are presented methods how to calculate different dimensions of subjective assessment in order to update further on with other sources

The Importance of Globalization in the Economic Integration of the Countries in the Region: The Case of Kosovo

Globalization represents an unavoidable phenomenon in the history of mankind, which is making the world smaller and smaller by increasing the exchange of goods, services, information, knowledge and cultures between different countries. Globalization is a process that has changed a lot in our everyday lives. This multidimensional and contradictory process brings to life the hopes and achievements that life can bring to it. The rush for greater competition is one of the main objectives of globalization. Such a thing can only be reached with market liberalization, economic integration and technology development. It is important for us to benefit from globalization. Therefore, during this paper we will discuss the importance of globalization for the integration and development of countries in the US and as a case study for Kosovo. Globalization is an unstoppable process for Kosovo, and a hope for integration and development that will impact on economic development and integration into the European Union. Following the Declaration of Independence of Kosovo on 17 February 2008 and the entry into force of the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo on 15 June 2008, the same objectives, more than before, were introduced in Kosovo. Like other transition countries, Kosovo also declared membership in the EU not only objective of foreign policy, but also a strategic social and state goal. The definition of this decision puts Kosovo at the forefront of the transition, reform and harmonization process with EU criteria

The Bureaucracy Accountability in Implementing Free Education Program in Education Service Department in Makassar

This research used deductive qualitative approach through a case study. The data was collected through observation, interview, and documentation. The data was analyzed by using technique of data reduction, data presentation, data interpretation, and verification. The accountability of an organization perceives a hierarchical relationship and follows the report format provided by the superior in reporting the accountability report. The accountability report of Education Service Department of Makassar was done once in three months. Meanwhile the accountability reports from schools sometimes were delayed since the disbursement of free education fund was delayed too. Bureaucracy accountability can be seen from the achievement of the objectives and goals of accountability in the implementation of free education system at the Education Service Department of Makassar. The achieved objectives are the accountability reports of every elementary school, junior high school, and senior high school /vocational school from public and private institutions in Makassar. While the achieved target is the realization of disbursement of free education budget to every elementary school, junior high school, and senior high school/ vocational school either in public sector or in private sector can be used properly with reference to juklak and juknis of implementation of free education program at Makassar Education Service Department

The Western accounts on early Albanian-Serbian interactions and the Kosovo myth

For most of the last millennium, the Balkan region, has been associated with conflicts, wars and instability. Indeed, even today, the situation is very tense. Finding the causes of it, is imperative, but that still does not resolve the deep divisions that are ingrained. The aim of this study is to explore what the Western literature reveals about Balkan enmities, more specifically Albanian-Serbian hostilities throughout past centuries, by focusing at certain periods or events that had a great impact in historical context. The study focuses extensively on Kosovo myth, but also on other specific episodes of Albanian- Serbian interaction, namely Serbian Empire, 1389 Kosovo battle, the description event of Murat I death, and 1806 Serbian Revolution among others. One must bear in mind that Albanians and Serbs presented a united front in certain battles and fights (namely in 1389 and 1806), but later turned guns against each other, resulting in thousands unnecessary deaths. This occurred not because their respective citizens wanted so, but was largely incited through government myths and insincere propaganda. Taking exclusively the Western perspective in this context, whose exploration of events in the Balkans is pretty detailed, only enriches the quality of this study. This research concludes that the region should and must learn from past mistakes that living with myths, wars and propaganda leads to nowhere. The Balkan more than ever needs proactive and creative leaders that shift the minds of Balkan people towards elimination, or at least diminishing, of both physical and mental boundaries against each other

The contribution of prosecutors to the failure of damage claims of victims in war crimes trials at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina

According to definition and laws, the role of the prosecutor is to represent public goods. In the cases of war crimes, that public good is not exhausted with criminal prosecution of the perpetrators of the criminal offences, but it also covers reparation of the damage to the victims. This is not part of the judiciary praxis of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although there is a clear obligation to collect evidence that would support damage claims of the victims as prescribed in the Criminal Procedure Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CPCBH), in reality prosecutors fail to fulfill this obligation. In few cases, settled before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the court had awarded compensation to the victims of war crimes, merits for that are to be given to the victims who have, on their own initiative and with their own limited resources, hired attorneys and other experts who acted as prosecutors. To prevent this from happening in the future, having in mind hundreds of potential pending cases (with thousands of victims) waiting for trial, this practice needs to be changed. In that way, although mostly only declaratory in nature in criminal codes and during war crimes trials, more “realistic” and “humane” justice could be achieved for those directly affected by these crimes

Globalization process and its impact on Kosovo’s tourism development

Unlike modernization, globalization is a process somewhat independent from the will of its adhering participants. This thesis represents Robertson sociologist giving a description based on which capital, ideas and cultural codes, with the help of new communication tools, expand worldwide. With rapid development of media and mass electronic communications is eliminated the importance of space and leads to shrinking (narrowing) of time and space which is a serious threat to national cultural identities. Fukuyama in his apology of liberal democracy warns "final political neutralization of nationalism" in terms of overall centralization and linguistic unity of the world