Territorial rights and colonial wrongs

What is wrong with colonialism? The standard—albeit often implicit—answer to this question has been that colonialism was wrong because it violated the territorial rights of indigenous peoples, where territorial rights were grounded on acquisition theories. Recently, the standard view has come under attack: according to critics, acquisition based accounts do not provide solid theoretical grounds to condemn colonial relations. Indeed, historically they were used to justify colonialism. Various alternative accounts of the wrong of colonialism have been developed. According to some, colonialism involved a violation of territorial rights grounded on legitimate state theory. Others reject all explanations of colonialism's wrongfulness based on territorial rights, and argue that colonial practices were wrong because they departed from ideals of economic, social, and political association. In this article, we articulate and defend the standard view against critics: colonialism involved a procedural wrong; this wrong is not the violation of standards of equality and reciprocity, but the violation of territorial rights; and the best foundation for such territorial rights is acquisition based, not legitimacy based. We argue that this issue is not just of historical interest, it has relevant implications for the normative evaluation of contemporary inequalities

Be our guest/worker: reciprocal dependency and expressions of hospitality in Ni-Vanuatu overseas labour migration

Whilst there has been renewed interest in the development potential of temporary migration programmes, such schemes have long been criticized for creating conditions for exploitation and fostering dependence. In this article, which is based on a case study of Ni-Vanuatu seasonal workers employed in New Zealand’s horticultural industry, I show how workers and employers alike actively cultivate and maintain relations of reciprocal dependence and often describe their relation in familial terms of kinship and hospitality. Nevertheless, workers often feel estranged both in the Marxian sense of being subordinated to a regime of time-discipline, and in the intersubjective sense of feeling disrespected or treated unkindly. I show how attention to the ‘non-contractual element’ in the work contract, including expressions of hospitality, can contribute to anthropological debates surrounding work, migration, and dependence, and to interdisciplinary understandings of the justice of labour migration.ESRC scholarship (project reference ES/H034943/1

Factorization of a 512 bit RSA modulus

This paper reports on the factorization of the 512 bit number RSA-155 by the number field Sieve factoring method (NFS) and discusses the implications for RS

Quantitative trait loci pyramiding for fruit quality traits in tomato

Fruit quality is a major focus for most conventional and innovative tomato breeding strategies, with particular attention being paid to fruit antioxidant compounds. Tomatoes represent a major contribution to dietary nutrition worldwide and a reservoir of diverse antioxidant molecules. In a previous study, we identified two Solanum pennellii introgression lines (IL7-3 and IL12-4) harbouring quantitative trait loci (QTL) that increase the content of ascorbic acid (AsA), phenols and soluble solids (degrees Brix; _Bx) in tomato fruit. The purpose of the present work was to pyramid into cultivated varieties the selected QTL for enhanced antioxidant and _Bx content. To better understand the genetic architecture of each QTL, the two ILs were crossed to the recurrent parent M82 (ILH7-3 and ILH12-4) and between them (ILH7-3?12-4). F1 hybrids (ILH7-3?12-4) were then selfed up to obtain F3 progenies in order to stabilize the favourable traits at the homozygous condition. Species-specific molecular markers were identified for each introgressed region and allowed us to select four F2 genotypes carrying both introgressions at the homozygous condition. The F3 double homozygous plants displayed AsA, total phenols and _Bx content significantly higher than M82. Therefore, they may represent suitable genetic material for breeding schemes aiming to increase antioxidant content in tomato fruit