A CHURCH IN THE MODERN WORLD OF AFRICA: THE ZAMBIAN EXPERIENCE

How often have you and I used the opening words of Gaudium et Spes, “The joys and hopes, the fears and anxieties...”, to call attention for ourselves and for others to the overriding priority of the Church’s mission today, the service of all humanity to enjoy life to the fullest! Surely, there is no "church in the modern world” if there is not that Christian community composed of women and men, united in Christ, led by the Holy Spirit, in a journey to the Kingdom intimately linked with humankind and its history.Zambia became independent of British colonial rule in 1964, one year before that greatest document of the Second Vatican Council, Church in the Modem World (Gaudium et Spes), was published. The Catholic church in Zambia has over the past forty years played a very significant role in the development of the country. This has occurred both through direct service institutions (e.g., schools and hospitals) and through explicit social teaching on key issues facing the country at large. Today the church enjoys a prominent and respected place, in cooperation with other church bodies, in influencing the social, economic and political life of the people, as well as the religious life of individuals and the community

Presentation in JCTR 2007 Series

So what new can possibly be said about this topic of corruption in Zambia? Haven’t we already heard more than enough about the topic? And really, what difference does yet another paper make on the presence of corruption in Zambia today? Well, these are questions that kept coming to me the past few days as I was finalising my presentation here this evening at the joint Alliance Française-JCTR lecture programme. (Maybe they were questions coming to you also!) Indeed, I was even tempted to switch to another more fresh topic, or else give up altogether. Well, of course I couldn’t do that, so here I am, making an effort to provoke some good discussion this evening, and some strong action tomorrow!So what new can possibly be said about this topic of corruption in Zambia? Haven’t we already heard more than enough about the topic? And really, what difference does yet another paper make on the presence of corruption in Zambia today

CHURCH’S SOCIAL TEACHING AND THE ECONOMY IN ZAMBIA

To speak of the economy in Zambia, let me Introduce my presentation with mention of three books that have a particular focus on a people-oriented economy. These are studies that challenge very strongly the ordinary discussions, frameworks, parameters, and measurements that characterise so much of economic planning, decisions and outcomes of the Zambian government and the international financial institutions that have such an influence on that government.Since we are going to be talking about Zambia in great detail this afternoon, I want to open with a phrase I use more and more these days: "Zambia is a very rich country, a very rich country indeed, but Zambia is a country of very poor people, very poor people indeed!” How and why the two parts of that sentence come together is not simply an economic issue, but primarily a moral, ethical, indeed religious issue. And that is why our discussion this afternoon focuses on Zambia’s economy and the Church’s social teaching

Melting-pots and salad bowls: the current debate on electricity market design for RES integration

This paper discusses a series of issues regarding the economic integration of intermittent renewables into European electricity markets. This debate has gained in importance following the large-scale deployment of wind farms and photovoltaic panels. As intermittent renewables constitute a significant share of the installed generation capacity, they cannot be kept isolated from the electricity markets. We argue that RES integration is first and foremost an issue of economic efficiency, and we review the main debates and frameworks that have emerged in the literature. we first consider to what extent intermittent resources should be treated the same way as dispatchable resources. we then analyse the different tools that have been proposed to ensure the required flexibility will be delivered: finer temporal granularity and new price boundaries, integration of a complex set of balancing markets, and introduction of tailor–made capacity remuneration mechanisms. Finally we introduce the topic of space redistribution, confronting crosscontinental markets integration to the emergence of a mosaic of local markets

ZAMBIA: A CASE STUDY OF ECONOMIC REFORM AND THE IMPACT ON THE POOR

The purpose of the present paper is not to do fresh research but to survey key areas/issues in the Zambian economy and in particular to note the impact of these issues on some of the Partners of Christian Aid. Part I will analysis the macro-economic areas of (1) SAP economic reforms, (2) trade, (3) investment, and (4) debt; Part II will highlight responses by Partners; and Part III will explain advocacy efforts.Zambia is a '‘classic case" of a poor African country struggling with the problems of political and economic transitions. In 1991, it moved out of 27 years of one-party/one-man rule by the leader of its independence fight, Kenneth Kaunda, and embraced multi-party democracy with the election of Frederick Chiluba as President. While today the structures of - democracy may be more or less in place (e.g., many different parties, periodic elections, relatively free media), the attitudes of democracy still are weak (e.g., tolerance, commitment to the common good, transparency and accountability). The movement away from a socialist economy to a liberalised capitalist economy has accompanied the political transition and caused considerable hardship among the people. The government's full-scale implementation of a Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) has particularly hurt the poor

The Challenge of the Second African Synod

The purpose of this JCTR booklet is to help to prepare for the African Synod by increasing awareness about it and its importance to Catholics and other in Zambia and wider in Africa and around the world. We contribute to such a preparation by suggesting answers to these important questions: Have we achieved the themes and recommendations of the First African Synod? What are our expectations of the Second African Synod? How best can we prepare and participate for the Second African Synod?On 28 June 2007, Pope Benedict XVI called for the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops to be held in the Vatican in October 2009. The theme of this Second Assembly is: “The Church in Africa in Service to Reconciliation, Justice and Peace: ‘You are the salt of the earth … You are the light of the world’ (Matthew 5: 13-15).” This synod will come 15 years after the 1994 Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops, now commonly referred to as the First African Synod. Synods of Bishops have regularly been held since the conclusion of Vatican Two, devoting attention both to the universal topics such as evangelisation, laity or scripture, or geographically localised with a focus, for example, on the Church in Europe, the Americas or Asia. Unlike a Council which can make decrees, a Synod is, in the present Roman dispensation, only “consultative.” This means it can only make recommendations which are referred to the Pope for follow-up

Factors associated with back pain in children aged 6 to 12 years of age, an eight months prospective study

Associated factors of back pain (BP) development before puberty and its persistence are poorly documented. We investigated the association and possible temporality between prior BP history (PBPH), muscular endurance (ME), aerobic capacity (AC), sport activity variables (SAV) and BP in children aged 6 to 12. We collected baseline characteristics (demographics, PBPH, ME, AC and SAV) of children from three primary schools in Canada. Parents replied to weekly text messages regarding their children BP status over an 8-month period. Logistic regression models were adjusted for potential confounders. Data from 242 children (46% female; 8.6 ± 1.7 years) were included. Over the 8-month survey BP prevalence was 48.1%, while the cumulative incidence was 31.9%. The occurrence of at least one BP event was associated with PBPH [OR (IC 95%) = 6.33 (2.35–17.04)] and high AC [2.89 (1.21–6.90)]. High AC was also associated with the development of a first BP episode [2.78 (1.09–7.07)], but ME and SAV were not. BP appears to be relatively common before puberty. BP history seems to be strongly associated with BP recurrence in children. Aerobic capacity is associated with first BP episode development

Player’s Model: Criteria for a Gameplay Profile Measure

International audienceGame designers empirically use psychological and sociological player's model to create the gameplay of their video games. These models are generally implicit and always informal. A formal analysis of the player's model leads to define efficient player behavior profile. It can have numerous applications, for instance adaptation of the content to the player's ability and interest. Our work tries to find a rational way to assess Players Styles, concept suggested by Bartle [1] in 1996. The first step, state of the art of the player model, shows already some interesting criteria that can be used to classify player's styles

Datamama, bringing pregnancy research into the future: design, development, and evaluation of a citizen science pregnancy mobile application

Background: Pregnancy mobile applications (apps) have grown in popularity over the past decade, with some being used to promote study recruitment or health behaviors. However, no app serves as an all-in-one solution for collecting general data for research purposes and providing women with useful and desirable features. Aim: To create and develop a Swiss pregnancy mobile app as an innovative means to collect research data and provide users with reliable information. Methods: Determining the key features of the app involved a review of the literature and assessment of popular apps in the Swiss AppStore. A team of engineers developed the app, which includes a pregnancy timeline, questionnaires for data collection, medical and psychological articles and a checklist with appointment reminders. The content was written and reviewed by healthcare providers considered experts in the topics adressed. The questionnaires are distributed based on the user’s gestational age, by a chatbot. The project was authorized by the ethics commission in the canton of Vaud. An online survey of ten questions, advertised on Datamama’s home screen, was conducted to assess the users’ use of the app (27.11- 19.12.2022). Results: A review of 84 articles and 25 popular apps showed the need for a comprehensive pregnancy app. The development of Datamama took 2 years and included the creation of 70 medical and psychological articles and 29 questionnaires covering 300 unique variables. Six months after the launch, there were 800 users with a 73% average participation rate in the questionnaires. Sixty-five women completed the survey, with 70.8% using the app once to multiple times per week. The primary reason for using the app was to help research by answering the questionnaires, followed by access to reliable medical information. The reason most frequently ranked first for using the app was to help research by answering the questionnaires (42/65, 67% of women rated it first), followed by access to reliable medical information (34/65, 54% women rated it second). Women rated the information as clear, understandable, and interesting with a trust rating in data handling at 98.5%. The average grade for recommending the app was 8/10, with suggestions for increasing the amount of medical content and tailoring it based on gestational age. Conclusion: Datamama is the first pregnancy app to address the needs of both patients and researchers. Initial feedback from users was positive, highlighting future challenges for success. Future work will consist in improving the app, validating the data and use it to answer specific pregnancy-related research questions

Validation of the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) surface UV radiation product

The TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) satellite was launched on 13 October 2017 to provide the atmospheric composition for atmosphere and climate research. The S5P is a Sun-synchronous polar-orbiting satellite providing global daily coverage. The TROPOMI swath is 2600 km wide, and the ground resolution for most data products is 7:23:5 km2 (5:63:5 km2 since 6 August 2019) at nadir. The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) is responsible for the development of the TROPOMI UV algorithm and the processing of the TROPOMI surface ultraviolet (UV) radiation product which includes 36 UV parameters in total. Ground-based data from 25 sites located in arctic, subarctic, temperate, equatorial and Antarctic areas were used for validation of the TROPOMI overpass irradiance at 305, 310, 324 and 380 nm, overpass erythemally weighted dose rate/UV index, and erythemally weighted daily dose for the period from 1 January 2018 to 31 August 2019. The validation results showed that for most sites 60 % 80% of TROPOMI data was within 20% of ground-based data for snow-free surface conditions. The median relative differences to ground-based measurements of TROPOMI snow-free surface daily doses were within 10% and 5% at two-Thirds and at half of the sites, respectively. At several sites more than 90% of cloud-free TROPOMI data was within 20% of groundbased measurements. Generally median relative differences between TROPOMI data and ground-based measurements were a little biased towards negative values (i.e. satellite data ground-based measurement), but at high latitudes where non-homogeneous topography and albedo or snow conditions occurred, the negative bias was exceptionally high: from 30% to 65 %. Positive biases of 10 % 15% were also found for mountainous sites due to challenging topography. The TROPOMI surface UV radiation product includes quality flags to detect increased uncertainties in the data due to heterogeneous surface albedo and rough terrain, which can be used to filter the data retrieved under challenging conditions