Interview with Ali Eteraz

Ali Eteraz is the author of the debut novel Native Believer, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice selection. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Children of Dust, which was selected as a New Statesman Book of the Year, won the Nautilus Book Award Gold, and was long-listed for the Asian American Writers Workshop Award. Previously, he wrote the short story collection Falsipedies and Fibsiennes. Other short stories have appeared in The Adirondack Review, storySouth, Chicago Quarterly Review, and Forge Journal. Eteraz is an accomplished essayist and has been spotlighted by Time Magazine and Pageturner, the literary blog of The New Yorker. During his visit to Butler University as part of the Vivian S. Delbrook Visiting Writers Series, Eteraz took the time to speak with Manuscripts staff member Elena DeCook

Mapping immaterial flows : how consumption invisibilizes labor : the satellite and shipping container

The kiosk system went down and everyone missed their flight. I had this experience recently at Chicago O’Hare International airport when I was flying to Austin. It affirmed the importance of understanding networks and how their working (or in this case, the lack thereof) immobilizes goods and people. Usually, when you check in for a flight, there is a kiosk, a station where you can print out your ticket, bag tags, and receipt. This automation of airline customers and their luggage is routine and due to its speed, allows a lot more people to obtain services. A standard of speed and ease of access is therefore coupled and expected. When this automation is no longer available, people lose their shit or more elegantly stated, the artifice of entitlement becomes gruesomely apparent. I understand everyone has a place to go and we won’t get their soon enough. However, the system is down and the airline workers are doing their best. Of course, once the network is back in place, the kiosks will resume operation and yes, they will arrange a later flight. But in a global economy where networked spaces are equated solely to make money at an expedient pace, how do we get people to understand other ways to respond to a malfunction? The common assumption is that systems are supposed to be perfect and a glitch or a malfunction is an exception, however it is quite the reverse. What if networks weren’t based on dualism? The binary being either: an all digital internet of everything kind of space or a cyberpunk infused reversion to the analog. Instead, what should be thought of and put into place is a multiplicity of network configurations such as A to Z, alif to bari yay, 1 to a 1000, uno to millón. This is what I propose in my research and arts practice: how do we build multiplicity and equity in systems? Networks are not arbitrarily put into place, they have funders, users, buyers, beneficiaries, and losers involved. Therefore, they are porous flows, exchanges, and axioms, always open to change. My research lies in between histories of media, technology, and globalization. I investigate these themes through performance, sculptural installations, reading groups, and workshops that focus on the role of technology. Specifically, my practice is focused on objects that are produced from global circuits and their embedded codes, encompassing both the technological and sociological. I investigate the history of objects such as the satellites and shipping containers and make immaterial streams tangible. The specific objects of the satellite and shipping container carry information that frames notion of historic and present day globalization facilitated by technology. The sections of this text are not necessary meant to be read sequentially, there are organized like nodes. In the first node, I will examine the role of satellites in my projects, Satellites and TELL A STAR. Satellites project examines Our World, the first global transmission (1967) through a sculptural installation, video and website. This project critiques the notion of techno-utopianism, a idea that technology will resolve all inequalities plaguing humanity. Then, I will review TELL A STAR, a 3-channel installation, where I divert the history of the first American satellite, Telstar (1962) through the lens of Afrofuturism, archival research and fluidity of identity. In the second node, I will review my project, Con-tain-er, its installation and performative elements and the role of “flows” within global shipping networks. Near the ending node, the role of networks, “junk,” and the use of workshops will be examined as part of my arts practice. Demanding the creation of more inclusive and divergent networks is central to imagining fluidity. It is within reach, we need to imagine it.Studio Ar

Jurisdiction and powers of the civil courts

When the court has appellate jurisdiction, it may only review the proceedings of the trial court. Generally, some of the above-mentioned courts are conferred with only original jurisdiction while others have several types of jurisdiction such as original, appellate, supervisory and revisionary, referential and advisory jurisdictions. Some courts may have specialised jurisdiction to only hear certain matter

The judiciary and the bar (Syariah)

Based on the above, this chapter will focus inter alia, on the Syariah judiciary, the appointment of members of prosecution and representation11 and the qualifications to be a Syarie lawyers

Technology and delivery of justice

The main business of the Judiciary is to interpret and enforce the laws enacted by the Legislature including the Federal Constitution, State Constitutions and any other source of law recognised by the legal system. The courts perform their task in accordance with the oath taken by judges to uphold the Constitution and the enacted laws. ‘The courts are the final arbiter between the individual and the State and between individuals inter se, and in performing their constitutional role, they must of necessity and strictly be in accordance with the Constitution and the law be the ultimate bulwark against unconstitutional legislation or excesses in administrative action.’ If that role of the Judiciary is appreciated, then it will be seen that the courts have a duty to perform in accordance with the oath taken by judges to uphold the Constitution and to act within the provisions of and in accordance with the law.’3A judge must ‘maintain the highest traditions of judicial rectitude, independence and impartiality.’4 He should have an open mind and should not be biased against the person whom the action is sought to be taken nor should he be someone who has prejudged the issue

Ali Smith interviewed by Caroline Smith

Inverness-born Ali Smith’s first collection, Free Love and Other Stories (1995) was awarded Saltire Society Scottish First Book Of The Year Award. Her short stories and novels including the Man Booker Prize nominated Hotel World (2001) and 2005 winner of the Whitbread The Accidental (2004) are known for their visceral language play and dynamic shifts in view point and time scale delivered in a tightly constructed form. She often treats universal themes – love, death, guilt and illness – with a fleshy, fresh touch that surveys the commonplace and idiosyncratic alongside the monumental. She is currently working on a rewrite of a myth for Canongate’s myth series

Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA reductase inhibition with simvastatin in acute lung injury to reduce pulmonary dysfunction (HARP-2) trial : study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a common devastating clinical syndrome characterized by life-threatening respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation and multiple organ failure. There are in vitro, animal studies and pre-clinical data suggesting that statins may be beneficial in ALI. The Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA reductase inhibition with simvastatin in Acute lung injury to Reduce Pulmonary dysfunction (HARP-2) trial is a multicenter, prospective, randomized, allocation concealed, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial which aims to test the hypothesis that treatment with simvastatin will improve clinical outcomes in patients with ALI

Insolvency – Temporary management of an insolvent bank

In this paper the author analyses the arguments put forward by parties in the case of Century National Merchant Bank v Davies before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council pursuant to an appeal from the Court of Appeal of Jamaica [1998] 2 WLR 779 (PC). Article published in Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and its Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London