Repurposing the Great Grain Robbery in Canada

The "Great Grain Robbery" was a term applied to describe the 1972 Soviet-American grain sales when the Soviets bought large quantities of U.S. grain at low prices. Due to their high demand being hidden by the requirements for secrecy in the sale, market prices did not increase to match the increased Soviet demand. As a result many American farmers concluded they missed out on the true value of their grain. Canadian farmers, however, sold their grain through the single-desk Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) which used pooling. They consequently benefitted from the Soviet purchases and did well from the increased Soviet demand. The "Great Grain Robbery" term was resurrected in the 1990s during the highly polarized debate over the value and continued relevance of the single-desk Canadian Wheat Board. It was also repurposed so that it no longer meant the 1972 Soviet-American grain sales. Instead, the "Great Grain Robbery" became a code-term that encompassed all the perceived problems with the Canadian Wheat Board. It became the main focus of the western Canadian agricultural community in the debate over agricultural policies, in particular "marketing freedom" by those opposed to the CWB

The Harmful Side Effects of Drug Prohibition

Some drugs make people feel good. That is why some people use them. Some of these drugs are alleged to have side effects so destructive that many advise against their use. The same may be said about statutes that attempt to prohibit the manufacture, sale, and use of drugs. Advocating drug prohibition makes some people feel good because they think they are “doing something” about what they believe to be a serious social problem. Others who support these laws are not so altruistically motivated. Employees of law enforcement bureaus and academics who receive government grants to study drug use, for example, may gain financially from drug prohibition. But as with using drugs, using drug laws can have moral and practical side effects so destructive that they argue against ever using legal institutions in this manner. This Article will not attempt to identify and “weigh” the costs of drug use against the costs of drug laws. Instead, it will focus exclusively on identifying the harmful side effects of drug law enforcement and showing why these effects are unavoidable. So one-sided a treatment is justified for two reasons. First, a cost-benefit or cost-cost analysis may simply be impossible. Second, discussions by persons who support illegalizing drugs usually emphasize only the harmful effects of drug use while largely ignoring the serious costs of such policies. By exclusively relating the other side of the story, this Article is intended to inject some balance into the normal debate. The harmful side-effects of drug laws have long been noted by a number of commentators, although among the general public the facts are not as well known as they should be. More importantly, even people who agree about the facts fail to grasp that it is the nature of the means—coercion—chosen to pursue the suppression of voluntary consumptive activity that makes these effects unavoidable. This vital and overlooked connection is the main subject of this Article

The Social Banditry in the Rural Areas of Rembang by the End of the 19th Century and at the Beginning of the 20th Century

The social banditry is the act of crime committed by the residents of a village or the people in the low economic and social stratum in order to fulfill their basic needs. Such an act is done due to the structural pressure which depresses the people in accessing the natural resources that support their lives. This structural pressure kept increasing in the rural areas of Rembang by the end of the 19th century, particularly after the issuance of the law on forestry in 1865 that enabled the forestry capitalism to be established. The limitation in the people’s access to the state forest as the manifestation of the domain concept and the exploitation of the teak forests done by the private businessmen became the trigger to the increasing acts of crime in the rural areas of Rembang. The scarcity of the local economic resources due to such natural factors as barren land and structural factors as the result of the penetration of the external power became the main trigger to the social banditry to take place in Rembang. There were many kinds of social banditry, such as illegal logging, robbery, “kecu” (burglary), theft of possessions, etc. which were done against the assets owned by both the state and the individuals/groups. KEY WORDS: Social banditry, forest village, Rembang area, economic resources, and colonial exploitation

A Tale of Three Cities: Crime and Displacement after Hurricane Katrina

When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in August 2005, it greatly disrupted both the physical and social structures of that community. One consequence of the hurricane was the displacement of large numbers of New Orleans residents to other cities, including Houston, San Antonio, and Phoenix. There has been media speculation that such a grand-scale population displacement led to increased crime in communities that were recipient of large numbers of displaced New Orleans residents. This study was a case study of three cities with somewhat different experiences with Katrina\u27s diaspora. Time series analysis was used to examine the pre- and post-Katrina trends in six Part I offenses (murder, robbery, aggravated assault, rape, burglary, and auto theft) to assess any impact of such large-scale population shifts on crime in host communities. Contrary to much popular speculation, only modest effects were found on crime. Social disorganization theory was used to frame both the analysis and the interpretation of these result

Menyingkap Peradaban Islam Kontemporer di Anak Benua India

Civilization and culture in the arm of the continent of India hadundergone the rise and fall since the colonialism era until theindependence day. It can be illustrated by the domination of political map which had existed since the arrival of foreign nation, especially England until they got their indepence. The condition of Indian society at that time was full of contradiction, religion coflicts, quarrelling, robbery, various race, certain group interest dominating, and etc. From this condition, it born many great islamic political figures like Syeh Ahmad Sirhindi, Shah Waliyullah and the next generation, Sayyid Ahmad Khan and the next generation, Indian Moslem League. Which finally made India and Pakistan Independence (1947 M) and Bangladesh\u27s (1971M). Next, these three countries, which arethe same in term of historical country have also various dynamic and sophisticated improvement of Islam

Two Sides of a Sargasso Sea : Successive Prosecution for the Same Offence in the United States and the United Kingdom

This article analyzes the U. S. constitutional law interpreting the concept of “same offence.” Included is a survey of the Supreme Court\u27s attempts to interpret constitutional text in order to provide adequate protection for the underlying double jeopardy interest against vexatious reprosecutions, which have frequently produced inconsistent and illogical results. Part III of this article analyzes U.K. law relating to the concept of “same offence,” where the same narrow double jeopardy protection adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court is supplemented with a broad discretion to prevent unfair successive prosecution that constitutes an abuse of process. Part IV draws lessons from a comparison of U.S. and U.K. law that might serve to rationalize and clarify the U.S. Supreme Court\u27s jurisprudence by supplementing the narrow same-elements interpretation of the Double Jeopardy Clause with a due process or supervisory-power protection against oppressive multiple prosecutions