Book Review: Mirror of Dew: A Collection of Poems by Alam-Taj Zhale Qa\u27em-Maquami (1883-1946)

Review of Mirror of Dew: A Collection of Poems by Alam-Taj Zhale Qa’em-Maquami (1883-1946), translated with an introduction by Asghar Sayed-Ghorab. Harvard University Press, 2014

Voice as a Parameter of Emotional and Physical Health

This article provides basic information about voice and laryngeal health to fellow educators and professional voice users with the hope that it can make a difference in their lives. I tackle voice from a multi-dimensional approach integrating research and clinical practice. What follows is based on extensive research that I have reviewed over the years, on coursework that I have taught in related areas (including anatomy and physiology of speech, language and hearing; phonetics, linguistics, and neurological bases of speech, language and hearing) and on my own experience as a licensed speech language pathologist who has diagnosed and treated patients with voice disorders for more than 14 years

The Profits of Power: Commercial Realpolitik in Europe and Eurasia

Abstract is not available

To Judge Leviathan: Sovereign Credit Ratings, National Law, and the World Economy

Recent decades have witnessed the remarkable rise of a kind of market authority almost as centralized as the state itself – two credit rating agencies, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. These agencies derive their influence from two sources. The first is the information content of their ratings. The second is both more profound and vastly more problematic: Ratings are incorporated into financial regulations in the United States and around the world. In this article we clarify the role of credit rating agencies in global capital markets, describe the host of problems that arise when their ratings are given the force of law, and outline the alternatives to the public policy dilemmas created when ratings receive a public imprimatur. We conclude that agencies designated for regulatory purposes should be required to provide more nuanced ratings exposing their perceptual and ideological underpinnings (especially for sovereigns), and facilitating consideration of alternatives to ratings-dependent regulation

The Problem of Ethical Obligation Toward the Environment in The Developing Countries

This study aims to discuss why there is a problem of ethical obligation toward the environment in the developing countries. The main argument is how the contemporary environmental ethics paradigm is not adequate to provide an active ethical relationship between humans and their environment in developing nations. Many aspects are to support this claim. The first aspect analyzes that developing countries have their own specificity that cannot be reduced to general environmental ethics. The second aspect illustrates the necessity to analyze environmental politics within the paradigm of environmental ethics. The third aspect focuses on the obstacles of normative ethics that formulate contemporary environmental ethics. Descriptive ethics paradigm is a suggested alternative ethical paradigm that can provide hybrid environmental ethics account for developing countries. In the final section of the study, an application of this suggested ethical paradigm. This application analyzes water ethics in Egypt to show the overlapping relationship between environmental politics and general ethical system. The conclusion of this study formulates a paradigm where ethical relationship toward the environment is more reachable

From the Mosque to Satellite Broadcasting: A Historical Perspective of Hamas Media Strategy

The media keeps the Palestinian dream of a homeland and quest to end the occupation alive. Thus, the media has been a potent weapon in the story of the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom. This thesis examines the Hamas media strategy in three different periods, and in its historical and analytical context. The first period begins with the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada in 1987 and ends in 1993. In this period, Hamas was strictly a secret/underground organisation. The second stage is from 1994 to 2005. This period witnessed the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority in 1994 and the second intifada. The third period begins after the 2006 elections, where Hamas came to the power after its victory in the PLC elections. The thesis uses an empirical investigation, which relies on two qualitative methods: interviews and document analysis. It illustrates how the Hamas media strategy developed over the mentioned periods and outlines the overall media strategy. The research critically assesses four elements of the Hamas media strategy, which were the media message (discourse), the media objectives, the infrastructure, and the target audience. The present research concludes that Hamas, since 1987, has developed a media strategy based on the four mentioned elements. In particular, it finds that the idea of the resistance is the key element of the Hamas media discourse. Political and ideological/religious agendas and impulses drive Hamas’s discourse. Second, it finds there are two types of objectives tactical and strategic. The former are subject to the context, while the latter is based on ideological political agendas. Third, it finds there are five ‘circles’ of the target audience, which Hamas considers in its media strategy. Finally, it finds that the Hamas media infrastructure expanded from 1987 to the present by using the maximum capacity of the media outlets and benefited from the new media institutions under the rubric of the ‘independent media’. Overall, the thesis is the first in-depth academic study on Hamas' media strategy