WHAT DOES CHINA’S EARLY RECOVERY FROM THE NOVEL CORONAVIRUS MEAN FOR THE GLOBAL ORDER?

Despite being the official origin of the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, China has managed to recuperate with relatively minimal health and economic damages while the United States and other big global players in Europe are still grappling soaring cases and facing immense economic hardships. The current global hegemon—the United States—has suffered the severest damages in terms of human mortality and increased unemployment rates. Such hardships coincided with its gradual withdrawal from numerous international engagements. At the same time, China is deepening and expanding its global presence and visibility through foreign infrastructure investment and diplomatic ties both at multilateral and bilateral levels. Considering such, the paper discusses the likely impact of China’s early recovery on the future of the global order. The discussion demonstrates that China has utilised the pandemic to showcase its ability to become a global protector. The country has played a pivotal role in the supply of pharmaceutical equipment required to slow down the spread of the disease and has played a significant role in providing the information and advice regarding practical methods to prevent the virus from wide spreading. Economically, China has been the first big global player to register positive economic growth since the pandemic’s outbreak and yet did not provide any stimulus packages to support businesses as other big economies have done and are still doing. With such, many commentators suggest that China is likely to replace the United States as the new global economic superpower since the United States is receding from in its global engagements and suffering economic uncertainties. However, the author of this paper believes that, despite the adverse impact of the coronavirus on the world's leading economies, the shrinking US's interest in international affairs, and the global role of China during the coronavirus period—the roots of US's influence on the international scene are too deep to uproot as of now. The US remains robust militarily, economically, and politically abroad. Besides, the country has a chance to turnaround its international reputation should the November 2020 presidential election result in a new white house occupant. Article visualizations

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON SECURITISATION OF MIGRATION AND MOBILITY IN THE UNITED STATES

This article examines transformations in migration and security, arising from COVID-19 prevention measures. It utilises the Copenhagen school to theorise and illuminate the changes in the securitisation of migration and mobility in the United States. The focus on the United States was based on the fact that the country has, on top of being the world's most securitised, been the most severely affected by the pandemic, considering numerical statistics of infected and affected persons, deaths, and socio-economic impact. In doing so, the paper utilised relevant information sourced from online publications such as newspaper articles and other relevant institutional websites of the key agencies in the fight of the COVID-19 pandemic, chiefly the World Health Organisation, Centre for Disease Control, and the United States federal and state governments and academic journal articles. The main argument of the paper is that the COVID-19 pandemic will produce similar effects on migration and security as the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. The lessons gleaned from the current pandemic will most likely be a significant factor in shaping future politics and policies on the securitisation of migration and human mobility. The pandemic's portrayal as a security threat to human health has resulted in significant changes like travel embargoes, suspension of issuance of specific visa categories, and internal mobility controls, and now many countries are demanding for negative test results before allowing in any foreign arrivals into their territories. The paper concludes that the pandemic has ushered in alternative securitisation measures that would cause a shift in migration and security discourse from human-to-human aggression, notably terrorism, to the contagion of the pathogens like the coronavirus. Article visualizations

Essential Approaches to Christian Religious Education

Teaching Christian religious education at the lower secondary school level is complex. It involves the interweaving of content knowledge, pedagogical skills, a knowledge and appreciation of the multifaceted nature of students and finally the evaluation skills that help the teacher to arrive at the conclusion that the intended key learning outcomes have been achieved. Personal characteristics too are integral in the overall portrait of a professional Christian religious education teacher, especially for those people who believe that today there is the paradigm shift between providing instruction and producing learning between imparting knowledge and facilitating learning. An examination of the available literature reveals that many books have been written about how religion should be taught in schools. This book is not about any particular religion; it addresses the deficiency of materials related directly to the essential approaches that should be employed when teaching Christian religious education at the lower secondary school level in Uganda

Craft globally, Blame locally: How Global Neo-Liberal Development Cartographies Obfuscate Social injustices Against the Poor in Sub-Saharan Africa

For over two decades now, Sub-Saharan Africa has been superimposed in a coercive and contradictory neo-liberal development economism agenda. According to this paradigm, markets and not states are the fundamental determinants of distributive justice and human flourishing through the promotion of economic growth that is believed to trickle down to the poor in due time. Despite the global intellectual criticism of this neo-liberal development economics orthodox of measuring development and wellbeing in terms of market induced economic growth, autocratic states in Sub-Saharan Africa that have accumulated un-dimensional growth continue to be applauded as role models on poverty reduction, wellbeing and social justice by donors and global development institutions such as the World Bank and international monetary fund (IMF). This is basically because they have wholly embraced the implementation of the anti-pro-poor neo-liberal structural adjustment tool kit. This study uses a critical hermeneutics methodology to expose the distortions embedded in neo-liberal gross domestic product (GDP) growth cartographies and how these disguise the social injustices against the poor in Sub- Saharan Africa with particular reference to Uganda. The study contends that in measuring development and wellbeing, human rights and social justice must take precedence over economic efficiency and GDP growth for that matter

Costs and benefits of electricity subsidies in Uganda

Electricity subsidies in Uganda have been pervasive in support of industrial output and government revenues since 2005, until their reduction in January 2012. While economic theory suggests that market mechanisms maximise social welfare, the necessity for subsidies arises when a markets fail. However, market failure alone is not a sufficient condition to provide subsidies, as they are costly, and therefore have to be properly targeted and justified. This research seeks to establish the relationship between electricity subsidies, on the one hand and industrial output and government revenues in Uganda. It also attempts to ascertain the equitability of the electricity subsidy policy. Information and data was gathered from secondary sources in Uganda on electricity subsidies, industrial output and revenues during the period 2005 to 2012. For an empirical investigation of the costs and benefits of electricity subsidies in Uganda, certain logical relationships are identified in the study to guide the empirical investigation and the analyses. It is assumed that government revenues were dependent on electricity subsidies and industrial output during the period under investigation, in order to maintain social welfare. It was also argued that the maintenance of industrial output through electricity subsidies support was justified given that about one third of Uganda total revenues are contributed by the manufacturing sub-sector. To ascertain the extent of vertical equity, the research also investigated the benefit incident of electricity subsides, from a macro-level standpoint. This is pertinent given that only 11 per cent of Ugandans have access to grid-power and electricity use favours higher income, urban end-users. Secondary data on excise and corporate tax collections and electricity subsidies provided to end-users in Uganda during period are statistically analysed for relational effects using Ordinary Least Square regression models. The respective estimators in the relationship reveal very strong relationships between excise and corporate tax revenues, on the one hand, and electricity subsidies. Electricity subsidies were found to be positively related to both excise and corporate tax revenues and industrial output during the period under study. From the evidence, the overall objective of the electricity subsidy policy seems to have been attained, in as far as revenues base was protected and industrial output was maintained. The evidence also reveals that at a macro-level, end-user beneficiaries of subsidies in the manufacturing sub-sector continued to make profits, enabling them meet their corporate tax obligations

Audiology and community-based rehabilitation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: development of the first hearing screening tools for infants and children

Abstract This study is aimed at developing the first hearing test tool, adapted to national languages, for the early detection of children at risk of hearing loss in the DRC. Specific objectives included adapting and evaluating the effectiveness of the LittlEARS Auditory Questionnaire (LEAQ) as a screening tool for hearing loss in children aged 0–24 months in the DRC; constructing and validating the Kiswahili versions of the Adaptive Auditory Speech Test (AAST) for children aged 3–4 years and older; and determining the role of the LEAQ and the AAST as hearing screening tools in the community-based rehabilitation (CBR) programme. v Methods A cross-sectional design was used to select a total of 1.501 participants for the study. The sample included children, adolescents and adults including parents. For validation of the LEAQ, norm data were collected from (N=723) babies for the Lingala version and (N=648) babies for the Kiswahili version for children (0–24 months). In order to investigate the effectiveness of the LEAQ as a screening tool for children aged between 25–36 months, norm data was collected from (N=114) babies for the Lingala version and (N=82) babies for the Kiswahili version. In order to determine the Kiswahili version, AAST norm data were collected from N=130 (male: n=62, female: n=68). Results The results for the regression curve generated with age as an independent variable and total scores as dependent variables for the LEAQ showed the Kiswahili version as being very similar, r=0.81 (p=< 0.001) to the original German version r =0.91, and the Lingala version as being a little different but also very similar to the German version, r= 0.77 (p=< 0.001), whereby a value of 0.7 or higher shows a high correlation .These results legitimize the use of the LEAQ to screen for hearing loss in the DRC in infants and children from 1-24 months and vi above. The constructed version of the version of the Kiswahili Adaptive Auditory Speech Test (AAST) was used to find out the Speech Reception Threshold (SRT) in quiet and in noise conditions with the aim to determine the norm values in children aged 3-4 years and older. Conclusion The adapted Lingala and Kiswahili version of the LEAQ can be used for the screening and diagnosis of hearing loss in children under and over 3 years in the DRC. The study confirms that, the Kiswahili version of the AAST has an approximate difference of 10.2 dB observed between the year 4 old and 10 years old children in quiet, with a significant improve as the age increase. In addition, the LEAQ and the AAST can be used as screening tools in infants, but it may also be important to point out that, despite the UNHS being the gold standard , the procedures for these other 2 tests will represent an approximation if the UNHS cannot yet be introduced in the DRC due to cost and organizational reasons. This can have a positive implication by generating concrete data that will have considerable impact in influencing the legislation and integration of the LEAQ as a screening tool in the primary health care packag

Records: First record of the Wattled Crane Grus carunculatus in Uganda

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The impact of indirect benefits (reduced travel time, fuel use and emissions) in cost benefit analysis of road safety countermeasures

OBJECTIVE: In cost benefit analysis of road safety countermeasures, all relevant effects on safety, travel time and environment have a substantial impact during economic appraisal. However, in the most widely used road safety appraisal tools such as SafetyAnalyst and International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), indirect effects related to travel time and environment are not considered. Most economic appraisal studies conducted for road safety countermeasures consider only the safety benefits and ignore the indirect benefits due to lack of models to evaluate them. This study attempts to document the quantitative impact of indirect benefits during economic appraisal of road safety infrastructure investments particularly from the angle of reduced crashes.METHODS: To this effect, data from 9 European countries and the 20-year infrastructure improvement programme developed for the Netherlands are applied to demonstrate the impact of these indirect benefits through a quantitative study.RESULTS: The results show that indirect benefits increase the value of benefits by 7%, which improves the cost effectiveness of countermeasures. Consequently, the number of countermeasures selected for implementation are increased due to addition of these benefits. Travel time benefits constitute the largest share of indirect benefits with a contribution of 6% to the overall benefits due to countermeasure implementation.CONCLUSION: In conclusion, indirect benefits have a substantial impact on the computation of benefits and countermeasure selection process. In order to present improved business cases for road safety infrastructure investments, there is need to include these benefits during economic appraisal process. Travel time benefits have the highest portion of all indirect benefits compared to vehicle operating costs (VOCs) and emission benefits. The study recommends conducting more research related to travel time benefits due to countermeasure implementation.</p

The International Criminal Court and Africa : a fractious relationship assessed

For many African states, the latest iteration of Western colonialism is the International Criminal Court. All the Court’s prosecutions have involved African conflicts, and the continent’s initially strong support for its creation has in recent years notably weakened. Leaders from Museveni to Kenyatta and Zuma to Bashir have excoriated the Court for its partiality, and only a change of government in The Gambia reversed a serious threat to quit its jurisdiction. Under pressure from Burundi and South Africa, the African Union has made increasingly militant noises about a mass withdrawal of member states. How should blame be apportioned for the turbulence of this relationship between the Court and the current generation of African leaders? Where does it leave a continent blighted by conflict, egregious human rights abuses and perceptions of the impunity of the ‘big man’ at the top? A research project, funded by the British Academy, has examined attitudes in civil society in Uganda and Kenya towards the ICC and asked whether human rights abuses could be effectively addressed by any other means. Researchers from three universities in Kenya, Uganda and the UK have interviewed judges, lawyers, NGOs, journalists and others about the ICC, domestic or regional forms of 'justice' (such as the putative African Court of Justice & Human Rights) and other transitional post-conflict mechanisms. The findings suggest that there is a high level of frustration with the performance of the ICC and, specifically, the Office of the Prosecutor. The article argues that although there is no one common denominator in the failed prosecutions, the ICC’s strategy has too often yielded the initiative to long-serving leaders adept at retaining power and that, while state parties see little hope of reforming the ICC and favour an ‘Africanist solution to African problems’, there is little agreement on what form that should take