A State of Rightlessness: the Egregious Case of North Korea

This essay steps into the relative dearth of popular and legal academic treatment to analyze this egregious state of rightlessness (an intentional neologism) and concludes with reflections upon possible judicial redress options. Experts in the human rights field have averred that the human rights situation in North Korea is the worst in the world. The North Korean government denies any human rights abuses, insisting “that 'there is no human rigths [sic] problem in North Korea.'" This academic work challenges this outright denial by providing an analysis of various human rights abuses persisting north of the most heavily armed border in the world. Contrary to the constant denial of the North Korean government, this essay seeks to help establish the case for this state of rightlessness, the egregious case of North Korea. It lays the foundation for a subsequent article regarding judicial redress of these gross and systematic violations of human rights. Before any need for judicial redress raises itself for consideration, the case that cries out for such a forum must receive delineation: this essay proposes to expound on the major violations of human rights in North Korea together with the context that makes such violations possible

Examining mindfulness-based training effects upon uncertainty reduction in initial interaction between strangers

2015 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.This research project is meant to supplement the extant literature on initial interaction between strangers. The central inquiries of this study examine whether individuals can reduce relational automaticity found in initial interactions and, in turn, embody more openness toward strangers. The study investigates the growing field of mindfulness practice, known for reducing behavioral automaticity and boosting pro-social effects, and determines how it impacts the relational outcomes in initial interaction. To accomplish this, it compares the performance of two experimental groups in initial interaction, one group that is exposed to a mindfulness treatment and one control. By analyzing the participants' uncertainty reduction strategies, this research aims to determine whether mindfulness plays a moderating role for uncertainty reduction in initial interaction

The Process-Outcome Mindfulness Effects in Trainees (PrOMET) study: protocol of a pragmatic randomized controlled trial

Background: Mindfulness has its origins in an Eastern Buddhist tradition that is over 2500 years old and can be defined as a specific form of attention that is non-judgmental, purposeful, and focused on the present moment. It has been well established in cognitive-behavior therapy in the last decades, while it has been investigated in manualized group settings such as mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. However, there is scarce research evidence on the effects of mindfulness as a treatment element in individual therapy. Consequently, the demand to investigate mindfulness under effectiveness conditions in trainee therapists has been highlighted. Methods/Design: To fill in this research gap, we designed the PrOMET Study. In our study, we will investigate the effects of brief, audiotape-presented, session-introducing interventions with mindfulness elements conducted by trainee therapists and their patients at the beginning of individual therapy sessions in a prospective, randomized, controlled design under naturalistic conditions with a total of 30 trainee therapists and 150 patients with depression and anxiety disorders in a large outpatient training center. We hypothesize that the primary outcomes of the session-introducing intervention with mindfulness elements will be positive effects on therapeutic alliance (Working Alliance Inventory) and general clinical symptomatology (Brief Symptom Checklist) in contrast to the session-introducing progressive muscle relaxation and treatment-as-usual control conditions. Treatment duration is 25 therapy sessions. Therapeutic alliance will be assessed on a session-to-session basis. Clinical symptomatology will be assessed at baseline, session 5, 15 and 25. We will conduct multilevel modeling to address the nested data structure. The secondary outcome measures include depression, anxiety, interpersonal functioning, mindful awareness, and mindfulness during the sessions. Discussion: The study results could provide important practical implications because they could inform ideas on how to improve the clinical training of psychotherapists that could be implemented very easily; this is because there is no need for complex infrastructures or additional time concerning these brief session-introducing interventions with mindfulness elements that are directly implemented in the treatment sessions. Trial registration: From ClinicalTrials.gov, Identifier: NCT02270073 (registered October 6, 2014

Alternative explanation of North Korea's survival: successful application of smart power

The original contribution of this study is to demonstrate how North Korea survives by using smart power. The existing literature has offered partial explanations, but many have lost their explanatory power over time and there seems to be no definitive answer to explain how North Korea survives. This multi-case study was designed to explore how the North uses smart power by examining its provocations from the Korean War to August 2015. The rationale for this study is to increase understanding of Pyongyang’s behavior and offer recommendations to bring long-term stability to the Korean Peninsula. This study purposefully began with the Korean War because it was assumed that, without understanding the origin of North Korean provocations, it would be difficult to provide the proper temporal context for other provocations. This study reveals that Kim Il-sung and his guerrillas consolidated power and established totalitarian rule dominated by his Juche ideology (self-reliance). Subsequently, they waged a long war of reunification from 1948 to the 1980s. Although Kim’s smart power attempts failed to achieve his principal aim of reunification, when Beijing and Moscow abandoned him in the early 1990s he focused on regime survival. He bolstered his weak hand by playing the nuclear card to buy more time to ensure the hereditary succession by his son Kim Jong-il, who defied predictions he would not survive and proclaimed Songun (military-first) to deal with the changing international environment. He demonstrated his own skill by exploiting Seoul’s Sunshine Policy and successfully negotiating three nuclear agreements with the U.S. After his death, Kim Jong-un waged a reign of terror to consolidate power and manufactured crises to bolster his legitimacy and demonstrate his leadership. He also invoked his grandfather’s anti-Japanese legacy and the Byungjin policy (simultaneous development of nuclear weapons and the economy) to legitimize his rule. The evidence shows he is rational and that offers opportunities to resolve the North Korea issue

Beyond the Inward Light: The Quaker Poet in Community

It\u27s a privilege to be granted a chance tq address a gathering like this: a room full of people whose Quaker way of life and thought are so very central to their work that they spend time and resources to get together and talk about it. We\u27ve been blessed with a common gift, and it isn\u27t a small one. That said, I suspect I\u27m not the only one here who sometimes wonders how, or even if, what I do matters. Yet even among you, my group of fellow self-doubters, I must lobby for my own elevated position: as a poet and a teacher of poetry writing, I have the privilege of practicing the discipline most often used to exemplify the frivolous. That I don\u27t accept the characterization of poetry as frivolous· should go without saying, though sometimes in discussions I can do little more than bite my lip and try to recall the words of William Carlos Williams

Effective evangelistic strategies for North Korean defectors (talbukmin) in South Korea

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/1493/thumbnail.jp

Prolonged encounters

This thesis chronicles my journey as an observational landscape painter exploring how to contend with the constant change that fascinates me as an observer, but previously frustrated me as a painter. Investigating my subjects through series and repetition, my work becomes a record of my experience of sustained engagement with consistently fluctuating environments

Fintech as financial innovation – the possibilities and problems of implementation

There is a growing competition between banks and fintech not only in advanced economies, but also in the emerging markets. However, it is yet to be observed in Latvia to the same extent. This paper aims to evaluate fintech’s level of development in Latvia compared to Europe. The paper identifies financial services using innovative technologies offered by fintech companies, analyses the advantages and disadvantages of these services in comparison with services offered by the traditional financial sector companies (banks, insurance companies, institutions involved in asset management and investment, etc.), and evaluates how prepared are consumers to use fintech services. This paper documents the results of the survey aiming to clarify how well-informed consumers in Latvia are about fintech services, their convenience, speed and safety, as well as the consumers' current satisfaction with banking services. The hypothesis of this paper is that Latvian society is not ready to use services provided by fintech, but prefers banking services instead. Survey results provide some evidence in favour of this hypothesis: they show that respondents are generally unaware about fintech services in Latvia and their associated innovations and new financial products. This paper makes several recommendations for managers of fintech enterprises, association of start-up enterprises and risk capital funds as well as state institutions.peer-reviewe