Religiosity and existentialist approach to poverty in North-West Cameroon

Approach of tapping into religion rekindles debate on nexus of religion and poverty. Plucking from social capital theory, this paper argues that ordered church membership is providing solace for a vast majority of older people; barely surviving due to volatile family support. Religious organisations are not only a means of escape from poverty but provide an existentialist function to life - ward off isolation, marginalisation, building strong sense of social and community justice. Using empirical data, this paper engages with faith approaches that act as buffer intermingled with local realities. Mainstream churches set aside designated days in church calendar for collection of alms to cater for widows, widowers, orphans, whilst with Muslim faithful, they pool donations (cash, food, other provisions) as a means of looking after disadvantaged Muslims. Though offerings remain insignificant, funds sourced engender a spirit of compassion and psychological support for deprived followers. Islam projects basic principles as spelled out in the Koran through internal mechanisms of voluntary endowment (zakat/sadaqa) to cater for its vulnerable populations. With little in way of resources, denominations are devising safeguards to cushion pain during troubling times whilst sharing good times in fellowship. Schemes include funeral arrangements, bereavement visits and support with hospitalisation costs; social events like births, marriages and entrepreneurial activities based on token contributions from members. Focusing on Christian Women‘s Fellowship(CWF), this study underscores the centrality of faith based groups as safety nets. It concludes that Christianity and Islam go beyond ethos and vortex of spirituality, as entrenched groups wrestle to provide for many trapped in poverty. With sporadic funding from charitable organizations and churches overseas, provided directly or indirectly, religious organizations are battling with an existentialist agenda

Community agency, needs mapping and solidarity economics in resource depleted communities

Against the backdrop of shrinking budgets for most social welfare departments in most of sub Saharan Africa, there is a shortfall of essential services. Within the ambit of village associations, community-driven needs mapping is heralded as an alternative pathway. Anchored on the conceptual framing of social theory, social capital and social economy; this qualitative case study, argues that solidarity initiatives and capability focused outcomes deliver social development, and other welfare projects for most disadvantaged communities of North West, Cameroon. Findings point to peripheral state involvement in calibrating a development agenda, constraining members to utilize village associations, the repository of indigenous assets, and other relational networks, njangis, quarter development unions, cooperatives and diaspora networks. These overlapping solidarity networks enable members to mobilize hard earned financial resources; largely ploughed back into community development ventures. A key outcome of these forms of solidarity remains direct capitalisation - personal income catering not only for members’ livelihoods, most of all, building a reservoir and asset base, impacting on livelihoods and community development. Policy formulation and design is yet to calibrate these mechanisms of ground-up, village centric development. Galvanising these solidarity assets, deployed for progressive social and economic change require meaningful co-production of stakeholder engagement strategies, and revamped state-community relations. Embedding these policies in rural development planning would enable a sustainable solidarity economics, nurtured through community assets-base, building on collective agency, autonomy and resilience

Re-inventing community development: utilizing relational networking and cultural assets for infrastructure provision

Utilizing relational networking and cultural assets provide an arena for village development associations (VDAs) to fill the gaps in infrastructure in resource-limited communities of Cameroon’s north-west region. This case study interrogates the foundational thesis of relational networking and cultural assets deployed to deal with social development challenges. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with community participants. Purposive sampling was used, and data were analyzed and critically synthesized with comparative literature. Communities increasingly shoulder their own development through a multiplicity of the agency displayed by internal and external stakeholders. The analysis captures a typology of incremental cultural assets, galvanized and re-engineered, promoting a rejuvenated community. A multi-layered approach centered on intersecting elements with unvarying input from community members are perceptible. Though the translational benefits are not clear-cut, relational networking and incremental cultural assets hold the prospect for community transformation in infrastructure provision, for example, supply of fresh water, equipping schools, community halls, and building roads, bridges, and community halls. In the process, social inequality and other barriers of disadvantage are narrowed

Reframing social justice through indigenous know-how: Implications for social development, policy and practice

Crafting a viable social justice–based policy is touted as critical for revamping social development in emerging economies. There is little understanding of social justice and forging sustainable relationships for social development through utilization of indigenous know-how. With evidence from local communities in Cameroon, this article explores conceptions of social justice through indigenous know-how and considers their implications for social development, policy and practice. Drawing on empirical data and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with key informants, this case study lays the foundations of what drives social justice and social development, often ‘behind the scenes’. This study ‘unpeels’ the invisible enablers and barriers to social development; a proposed social justice wheel and instruments deployed demonstrates how indigenous knowledge systems and institutions address multifaceted problems. Uppermost on the social justice agenda are issues related to counsel, affective community ties and social cohesion, oral traditions and mores, arbitration of community affairs, and projects of pressing need such as clean water, land disputes, mobilizing local resources in tackling key concerns related to poverty, agricultural practices, food security and climate change. Although due process and traditional diligence are harder to maintain due to underhand arrangements and often corrupt leadership, communities are reframing social justice to build capability on an incremental scale. The study illuminates the centrality and policy conundrum of fostering people-centred development. Harnessing indigenous agency, in synergy with modern governance institutions such as social services, to bolster social development is a prerequisite for enhancing a heightened sense of human rights and lessening inequality

Legitimating social inequality: political elites, ethnic peddling and dislocated constituencies

Political cronyism has been flagged up as a trigger for state dysfunction in post-independence Africa, resulting in escalating social inequality. This paper lays out elite (mostly elderly) dislocation of political space; polarizing communities with constituents feeling distant from governmental machinery with constituency representation under siege. Using case studies, backed up with documentary analysis, framed in conjunction with the conceptual thinking of deliberative democracy; this study engages with the elements of dislocation. Constituency misrepresentation is laid out through a triangulation of case study material drawn from newspaper reports, discourses and counter narratives, amplified by process tracing and inferential analysis. Elite manipulation of political spaces exacerbates social inequality, creates fractured communities; undermines democratic mandate, social advancement and broad citizen consensus. From media coverage of glib slogans, elite pledge generic support for the regime in place whilst constituents are giving false expectations that seldom materialize into concrete development. There are no clear-cut manifestos that reflect the voices of constituents against bogus claims to state institutions with the political elite purportedly speaking on behalf of their constituents -‘the people’. The ensuing inertia creates a false sense of representative governance as projects promised are rarely delivered. Slogans should usefully channel the development needs of constituents, permitting government to calibrate a robust development portfolio and citizen assemblies factored into policy design and service delivery. Developing a stakeholder approach and building the capability of social development professionals, in order to filter through pressing concerns with measurable outcomes, bolstering youth employment and fostering social protection would remove the lock jams in constituencies. Strategic spending in public services and essential infrastructure such as health, roads, transport, water, power supply and education are crucial in reducing inequality

Formation of Magnetized Prestellar Cores with Ambipolar Diffusion and Turbulence

We investigate the roles of magnetic fields and ambipolar diffusion during prestellar core formation in turbulent giant molecular clouds (GMCs), using three-dimensional numerical simulations. Our simulations focus on the shocked layer produced by a converging flow within a GMC, and survey varying ionization and angle between the upstream flow and magnetic field. We also include ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) and hydrodynamic models. From our simulations, we identify hundreds of self-gravitating cores that form within 1 Myr, with masses M ~ 0.04 - 2.5 solar-mass and sizes L ~ 0.015 - 0.07 pc, consistent with observations of the peak of the core mass function (CMF). Median values are M = 0.47 solar-mass and L = 0.03 pc. Core masses and sizes do not depend on either the ionization or upstream magnetic field direction. In contrast, the mass-to-magnetic flux ratio does increase with lower ionization, from twice to four times the critical value. The higher mass-to-flux ratio for low ionization is the result of enhanced transient ambipolar diffusion when the shocked layer first forms. However, ambipolar diffusion is not necessary to form low-mass supercritical cores. For ideal MHD, we find similar masses to other cases. These masses are 1 - 2 orders of magnitude lower than the value that defines a magnetically supercritical sphere under post-shock ambient conditions. This discrepancy is the result of anisotropic contraction along field lines, which is clearly evident in both ideal MHD and diffusive simulations. We interpret our numerical findings using a simple scaling argument which suggests that gravitationally critical core masses will depend on the sound speed and mean turbulent pressure in a cloud, regardless of magnetic effects.Comment: 41 pages, 14 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journa

Shoring up local development initiatives: elderly elite and conscientised empowerment in Cameroon

The elderly elite constitute a category of social actors implicated in local development through consciousness-raising. The analytic ideas of empowerment and agency, asset-based approaches, social capital, and relational networking inform this paper. Utilising a case study approach, and empirical accounts from the Ndong Awing Cultural and Development Association (NACDA), in the North-West Region of Cameroon, this article explores conscientised empowerment, a strategy deployed to awaken the local community for social change. The interplay of sociocultural dynamics, gender considerations, community mobilisation and sustainability are intricately balanced, resulting in the community being revived through a renewed development mindset. While expectations of elite involvement remain grandiose; the elite involved in this village-centric development project navigate community aspirations while safeguarding their self-interests. Though elite involvement proves contentious, the community is galvanised by a development manifesto calibrated through relational networking. Local development policy and planning require the harnessing of incremental community resources, building on the agency of key stakeholders, in synergy with the state and other external partners, to realise an effective repositioning of social development

Crossover from a pseudogap state to a superconducting state

On the basis of our calculation we deduce that the particular electronic structure of cuprate superconductors confines Cooper pairs to be firstly formed in the antinodal region which is far from the Fermi surface, and these pairs are incoherent and result in the pseudogap state. With the change of doping or temperature, some pairs are formed in the nodal region which locates the Fermi surface, and these pairs are coherent and lead to superconductivity. Thus the coexistence of the pseudogap and the superconducting gap is explained when the two kinds of gaps are not all on the Fermi surface. It is also shown that the symmetry of the pseudogap and the superconducting gap are determined by the electronic structure, and non-s wave symmetry gap favors the high-temperature superconductivity. Why the high-temperature superconductivity occurs in the metal region near the Mott metal-insulator transition is also explained.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Quantifying the Effect of Non-Larmor Motion of Electrons on the Pressure Tensor

In space plasma, various effects of magnetic reconnection and turbulence cause the electron motion to significantly deviate from their Larmor orbits. Collectively these orbits affect the electron velocity distribution function and lead to the appearance of the "non-gyrotropic" elements in the pressure tensor. Quantification of this effect has important applications in space and laboratory plasma, one of which is tracing the electron diffusion region (EDR) of magnetic reconnection in space observations. Three different measures of agyrotropy of pressure tensor have previously been proposed, namely, $A\varnothing_e$, $D_{ng}$ and $Q$. The multitude of contradictory measures has caused confusion within the community. We revisit the problem by considering the basic properties an agyrotropy measure should have. We show that $A\varnothing_e$, $D_{ng}$ and $Q$ are all defined based on the sum of the principle minors (i.e. the rotation invariant $I_2$) of the pressure tensor. We discuss in detail the problems of $I_2$-based measures and explain why they may produce ambiguous and biased results. We introduce a new measure $AG$ constructed based on the determinant of the pressure tensor (i.e. the rotation invariant $I_3$) which does not suffer from the problems of $I_2$-based measures. We compare $AG$ with other measures in 2 and 3-dimension particle-in-cell magnetic reconnection simulations, and show that $AG$ can effectively trace the EDR of reconnection in both Harris and force-free current sheets. On the other hand, $A\varnothing_e$ does not show prominent peaks in the EDR and part of the separatrix in the force-free reconnection simulations, demonstrating that $A\varnothing_e$ does not measure all the non-gyrotropic effects in this case, and is not suitable for studying magnetic reconnection in more general situations other than Harris sheet reconnection.Comment: accepted by Phys. of Plasm

Engineering Through the Eyes of Faith

What is a biblical perspective of engineering? This paper seeks to answer some key questions related to the integration of faith and engineering. It is the second paper in a three paper sequel on this topic. It attempts to build from some initial concepts presented in a paper at the 2013 Christian Engineering Education Society (CEES) conference [1] and deepen the analysis on common grace and use new examples and present some new ideas on dominion mandate and its application to engineering and engineering education. God is the Master Engineer. As an architect of His creation God presents wisdom as the basis of design in the universe. And this wisdom is no other than the Lord Jesus Christ. God is the source of all wisdom and all God’s creation reveals His intelligent design. Men’s knowledge is always secondary. By studying science and engineering, we are really reading God’s mind regarding His creation. We can imitate God by design and/or engineering for the good of ourselves and others. The doctrine of common grace helps those in science and engineering professions to understand God’s dominion mandate, and His will and purpose for the entire human race. Engineering is part of God’s common grace to mankind. He gave man this gift to help fulfill His call to “subdue the earth.” Non-Christians are also bestowed this dominion mandate and they could contribute to the work of “subduing the earth” according to God’s common grace. Examples from optical engineering are used to demonstrate this “subduing” process. Finally, implementation of these teachings in engineering curriculum is discussed