Trends and challenges of mathematic education in Mozambique (1975-2016)

Mathematics has always been a difficult issue, especially in the African countries. Mozambique is not an exception. This country had been colonized by Portugal until 1975. When the independence was obtained, a socialist regime was adopted (1977). The learning of mathematics entered the struggle against colonial and imperialistic ideas. Its best ally was Paulus Gerdes, one of the most relevant ethnomatematicians of the world, who carried out an intense promotion of this approach to mathematics in Mozambican school system. Albeit the great international impact of Gerdes’ ideas, Mozambique never implemented his methodology. When, at the end of the 80s, the country changed from socialism to liberalism, voting a democratic Constitution in 1990, its school system was aligned to the measures of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB). The most recent ones are represented by the Millennium Development Goals. Despite the various reforms of Mozambican school system, the results of Mozambican children in mathematics are among the worst in Africa. The reasons of such a failure are here explained, through a historical approach based on national documents. The most recent experiences of school reform carried out by international agencies together with national institutions are stressed. The negative results obtained by the Mozambican learners as to mathematics are due to several reasons: 1) a lack of consideration of the Mozambican cultural substrate; 2) an improper massification of the school system, where the quality of instruction has been neglected; 3) the specific choice to marginalize mathematics education.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

When public managing fails. The housing question in Europe

If one seeks to rent a house for spending some months in a European city, or just some days on holiday, an aspect becomes immediately clear: the quasi-monopoly of an on-line platform, which proposes interesting and innovative solutions, from an entire apartment to a single room. This on-line platform is Airbnb, created in 2007 in San Francisco and which in 2009 assumed the current denomination. Airbnb operates in 200 countries and about 8.100 cities, launching 5 million announcements yearly and hosting – through its associated structures – about 300 million people per year (Rubino, 2018), having reached in 2018 the target of 500 million people (AIRBNB, 2019).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The management of linguistic and cultural minorities in a national state

This short reflection aims to present how Italy has managed the linguistic and cultural differences inside its national territories, considering three fundamental historical steps: the first period of unification; the Fascism; the period after the end of the Second World War, culminating in the approval of the first organic law that protects its historical linguistic minorities.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Short reflections on the history of African communication

This article aims to propose a chronological subdivision in the history of African communication. African communication today is one of the most important axes for implementing development strategies, sustaining education, health, and schooling programmes, and so on. However, many of these programmes fail due to a lack of or ineffective communication between international organisations, local elite and lay people. The reasons for this situation must be found in Africa's history of communication, which has undergone radical transformations in its different phases. Using the functionalist analysis drawn up by Jakobson, this article proposes a new chronological subdivision of Africa's history of communication, reflecting on the current contradictions in contemporary communication in Africa.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Risk management and risk communication in Mozambique: the case of arms and ammunition depots of Malhazine

Risk management and risk communication affect everybody’s daily life. Local authorities have the duty to manage public structures, to inform civilians of the risks coming from these structures, to implement prophylaxis procedures. Military storage sites are fully included in this category. This article presents – through a qualitative methodology based on risk analysis – how risk management and communication in weapons and ammunition warehouses is managed in a “partially free” country, using as a case-study, the Malhazine depot in Mozambique, which resulted in more than 100 deaths. In 2007, an extraordinary accident related to the management of obsolete conventional weapons occurred at the Malazhine warehouse. In this circumstance, the Mozambican Government adopted a policy of classifying the information “highly confidential”. This policy aimed at obscuring facts and responsibilities by hiding the causes of such a huge tragedy. This article concludes with the consideration that a high level of confidentiality in treating issues of public interest, such as the one kept in regard to Malhazine, does not help public authorities to effectively manage and prevent similar risks from occurring again, with resulting negative impacts on local populations.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A history of Italian citizenship laws during the era of the monarchy (1861-1946)

This article aims to present the evolution of Italian citizenship from political unification to the end of the Second World War, which in Italy corresponds with the end of the monarchy and the advent of the Republic. In this long period, the central definition of Italian citizenship was given by the Civil Code (1865), the basis of which was Ius sanguinis and the patrilineal system. The 1912 Law on Citizenship changed some aspects of the previous legislation, but did not alter the general legal scenario, despite great pressure from some organised movements such as those formed by Italian expatriates in the Americas. With the advent of fascism (1922), the discourse on the Italian nation became radicalised, but Mussolini’s regime did not pass any organic laws on citizenship. The innovations introduced under fascism were relatively modest; many were directed towards limiting the rights of particular categories of citizens, such as political opponents and Jewish people. Italy reached the beginning of the republican period with a legal apparatus on citizenship that was very similar to the one established for the first time in the Civil Code of 1865. This shows how Italian political classes have given more attention to the orthodoxy of the law than to the need to adapt it to the numerous transformations in Italian society.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mozambique: changing fortunes for the ruling party

Recent municipal elections in Mozambique show that the ruling party in Mozambique, Frelimo, may not be as strong as it would like to think. Luca Bussoti reports that low voter turnout and an impressive showing by the opposition suggest all is not well for Frelimo

Managing the risk of violating human rights under industrial resettlement programs

The purpose of this reflection is understanding what approaches towards human rights are applied in the case of industrial resettlement programs, and, to investigate what policy could be employed to better protect rights of people who experienced un-voluntary relocation event caused by industrial pressure in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

O rap “exótico” na Itália contemporânea: entre direitos negados e nova cidadania

A entrada tardia da cultura hip-hop e da música rap na Itália não impediu o surgimento deste gênero musical nos principais centros urbanos da península. Depois da Golden Age do rap italiano, nos anos 1990, e uma subsequente crise, no início da década de 2000, novos rappers emergiram. Entre eles, os ditos rappers “exóticos”, de língua e cultura italianas, mas de origens geralmente africanas ou asiáticas. O presente artigo procura analisar a contribuição que, primeiro, os rappers da rede G2, e depois os rappers (e trappers) mais novos, como Laioung e Ghali, deram à cena hip-hop italiana. O estudo resulta de uma pesquisa com abordagem qualitativa, usando como principais técnicas de recolha das informações a análise do discurso aplicada às letras das composições de rap selecionadas, juntamente com entrevistas e declarações dos rappers “exóticos” presentes na esfera pública. Também foi utilizada uma escassa literatura especializada sobre o assunto, além do auxílio de material audiovisual e radiofônico.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A gestão do "risco político" na democracia moçambicana: análise e perspectivas

O artigo visa proporcionar uma leitura crítica da democracia moçambicana, desde 1992 (Acordos Gerais de Paz em Roma entre Renamo e Governo) até hoje. A ideia básica do artigo assenta no conceito de “risco político”. As etapas evolutivas identificadas visam assinalar as modalidades de gestão desse risco no seio de um sistema bipartidário, formado pelo partido no poder, a Frelimo, e o da oposição, a Renamo, que deu origem às ambiguidades típicas de uma democracia “bloqueada”, cuja natureza somente em 1999 é que foi revelada em pleno, em ocasião das segundas eleições gerais. Com a eleição, em 2004, do atual Presidente Armando Guebuza, e ainda mais com o X Congresso da Frelimo, em setembro de 2012, o risco político foi gerido de forma ainda mais dura: o processo de “desdemocratização” do país acentuou-se, e Moçambique transformou-se num país semi-ditatorial. A gestão do risco político e social tornou-se sempre mais repressiva, usando qualquer meio disponível, embora tendo o cuidado de não infringir de forma patente a lei. A reação do Governo às manifestações populares de 2008 e 2010, assim como os processos eleitorais de 2009 e 2013, todos em detrimento do terceiro partido, o MDM, representam os principais exemplos dessa nova estação. Com base nessa análise, o artigo pretende perspectivar possíveis cenários, refletindo sobre como o “risco político” poderá ser gerido futuramente