BEGGING AS A MEANS OF LIVELIHOOD: CONFERRING WITH THE POOR AT THE ORTHODOX RELIGIOUS CEREMONIAL DAYS IN ADDIS ABABA

The present ethnographic account, written with insight and sympathy, of the life and problems of the poorest beggars examines life on the street corner, a frontier that was beginning to be made to forcedly and violently vanish by the government after the field work for this study was completed. As such, attempts were made to picture the life of the urban poor on the streets and churchyards of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. The problem of beggary has a lot to do with the country's socio-economic and historical trajectories of poverty characterized by low incomes, high unemployment rates, fast-rising cost of living, high rates of population growth, inappropriate public policies and continued rural-urban migration and displacement. The beggars as impoverished underclass presently find themselves in extreme and multifaceted destitution: chronic food shortage and insecurity, illiteracy, homelessness or poor housing often on unsuitable land, disease, unsanitary living conditions, death and above all marginalization and exclusion. The actions and reactions of the destitute beggars are largely restricted to their own habitat; in the social milieu in which they are surviving by themselves within the limits of the larger society by which they are surrounded, from which they are, in large part, outcasts. Social interactions, lacking depth both in the past and in the present, are reflected in terms of support, competition and conflict. Ownership of the poverty agenda, short-term and long-term planning and programming, and sustainability are not likely to come about unless people, and particularly the elites are aware of the dimensions of the problem, have considered and discussed the many causes involved, and have themselves developed programmes and organizational structures for monitoring poverty and implementing pro-poor policies

EEG-Based Empathic Safe Cobot

An empathic collaborative robot (cobot) was realized through the transmission of fear from a human agent to a robot agent. Such empathy was induced through an electroencephalographic (EEG) sensor worn by the human agent, thus realizing an empathic safe brain-computer interface (BCI). The empathic safe cobot reacts to the fear and in turn transmits it to the human agent, forming a social circle of empathy and safety. A first randomized, controlled experiment involved two groups of 50 healthy subjects (100 total subjects) to measure the EEG signal in the presence or absence of a frightening event. The second randomized, controlled experiment on two groups of 50 different healthy subjects (100 total subjects) exposed the subjects to comfortable and uncomfortable movements of a collaborative robot (cobot) while the subjects’ EEG signal was acquired. The result was that a spike in the subject’s EEG signal was observed in the presence of uncomfortable movement. The questionnaires were distributed to the subjects, and confirmed the results of the EEG signal measurement. In a controlled laboratory setting, all experiments were found to be statistically significant. In the first experiment, the peak EEG signal measured just after the activating event was greater than the resting EEG signal (p < 10−3). In the second experiment, the peak EEG signal measured just after the uncomfortable movement of the cobot was greater than the EEG signal measured under conditions of comfortable movement of the cobot (p < 10−3). In conclusion, within the isolated and constrained experimental environment, the results were satisfactory

‘Political gladiators’ on Facebook in Zimbabwe : a discursive analysis of intra-ZANU-PF cyber wars; Baba Jukwa versus Amai Jukwa

Abstract: The period leading to Zimbabwe’s elections in July 2013, is remembered for the cyber wars pitting Facebook characters Baba Jukwa and Amai Jukwa. Both characters joined Facebook in March 2013, with Amai Jukwa being the first to appear. Both characters still existed at the time of authoring this paper although the frequency and significance of their Facebook posts had largely diminished. Edmund Kudzayi, editor of the state controlled Sunday Mail and his brother Phillip were, in 2014 arrested on suspicion that they were among a syndicate of people behind the Baba Jukwa page. They faced and denied charges of “attempting to commit an act of insurgency, banditry, sabotage or terrorism, undermining the authority or insulting the President and publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the state” (Mathuthu 2014)1. In the intense media coverage that followed, Mduduzi Mathuthu, editor of the statecontrolled Chronicle claimed that Edmund Kudzayi was Amai Jukwa, not Baba Jukwa. The court case is beyond the scope of this paper

No Expo Network: multiple subjectivities, online communication strategies, and the world outside

Technological devices are supporting the convergence of individuals and groups, sharing and implementing common repertoires of contention: these opportunities redefine possibilities for arranging at distance, defining a common minimum frame, and allowing multiple adhesion paths and ways of participation. Moreover, the ability to attract political and media attention and the maintenance of the internal solidarity play a strategic role both for successful protests and resistant movements. According with the theoretical framework deepened in the first part, this paper analyses the mobilization against the Universal Exposition 2015 held in Milan. After a brief overview of the context and the mapping of the main organizations belonging to No Expo Network, an assessment of their involvement in the coalition is presented. Thereafter, the online communication strategy is explored through a systematic analysis of the No Expo website and its visibility in websites, blogs and social network sites of the various groups belonging to the Network. In a mixed perspective, both as scholars and as activists, in this article our purpose is, on the one hand, to describe and also to critically analyse the coalition and its dynamics; on the other hand, to underline the main criticalities of Universal Expositions, by supporting the No Expo arguments

Environmental Awareness: Environmental Accidents as an Example to be Avoided. A Summative International Analysis

The wealth of environmental problems, plaguing us globally, requires special attention, largely due to the frequent indifference of citizens in the environmental decision-making process. Young people, as the future generation of decision makers, should receive proper education to prevent further environmental degradation. A summative international analysis of how the media framed when reporting man-made environmental disaster news has been conducted. Our aim is to provide an evaluation of the media's role in the dissemination of information related to national and international environmental regulations, disaster responses, and the legalities surrounding compensation and recovery of the ones affected. A literature review and surveillance of news response and reporting related to environmental accidents’ disasters was conducted, starting from the 1950s. A number of notable trends were identified. News response and coverage were upgraded as years went by. The diversity of news, the number of stories, the consequences’ awareness and the use of social media services in disaster response, all showed a growing tendency as far as promotion of responsible environmental behavior through the media news, around the globe. Investing further on media communication and engagement during and after environmental accidents, as well as in building a strong environmental interest, seems to be the way to have resilient communities

An enlightenment perspective on balkan cultural pluralism the republican vision of Rhigas Velestinlis

Journal URL: http://www.imprint.co.uk/Cultural pluralism in the Balkans has often been considered as the source of conflict in the region. Against this perspective it is suggested that Enlightenment political thought in southeastern Europe, as represented by the radical republicanism of Rhigas Velestinlis (1757-98), incorporated the idea of cultural pluralism in a project for a unitary democratic state, modelled on the 'Republic of Virtue', that was expected to replace despotism and to transform its subjects into free citizens. The political culture of this state would be provided by the principles of republican Hellenism while its ethnic pluralism would be located in its civil society. It is stressed that republican Hellenism was a political and moral, not an ethnic, roject. This political project however, was preempted by the emergence of cultural nationalism that cancelled the Enlightenment vision of democratic citizenship, equality and recognition for individuals as well as ethnic groups in a unitary republic