Beyond the Time and Space of Peace Talks: Re-Appropriating the Peace Process in Sri Lanka

A peace process almost always acts as the catalyst to transition from conflict. In reality, the peace process is usually dominated by peace negotiations between the main contending parties who are able to direct the content and progress of the movement towards peace. However, as conflicts rarely reduce into bilateral disputes, the elite nature of peace talks can exclude or ignore broader, cross- cutting interests in society. Using the Sri Lankan peace process as the central case study, this article explores both the illegitimacy of containing the peace process at the macro-level and the valuable contribution of civil society subordinated in the efforts to achieve peace. The article concludes that all levels of society must be engaged in peace processes in order to realise a deep and sustainable peace

The language of 5 1/2-year-old children from homes where Macedonian, Vietnamese and an Aboriginal tribal language are used as the language of the home

Throughout the world migration patterns and changing attitudes towards education and other cultures have led over the past three or four decades to a remarkable growth in the learning of second or foreign languages. Within this area the learning of English by speakers of other languages takes up the largest numbers and is to be found in every part of the globe. Nevertheless to date comparatively little is known of processes and patterns in second language development. Evidence on phonological and semantic development is exceedingly skimpy. Hernandez (in Ervin-Tripp 1970), Malmberg (1945), Wode (1976) and Ervin-Tripp (1974) have examined the order of the development of sounds and differences between older and younger, and literate/non literate children in sound-system processing. This work does not so far seem to have been carried much further. Ervin-Tripp (1974) is also one of the few to have worked on the semantic aspect, noting which words appear to be learned first and differences between age groups in semantic processing in the second language..

The environmental "trade balance" between Scotland and the rest of the UK : an inter-regional input-output and SAM analysis

We use an inter-regional input-output (IO) and social accounting matrix (SAM) pollution attribution framework to serve as a platform for sub-national environmental attribution and trade balance analysis. While the existence of significant data problems mean that the quantitative results of this study should be regarded as provisional, the inter-regional economy-environment IO and SAM framework for Scotland and the rest of the UK (RUK) allows an illustrative analysis of some very important issues. There are two key findings. The first is that there are large environmental spillovers between the regions of the UK. This has implications in terms of the devolution of responsibility for achieving targets for reductions in emissions levels and the need for policy co-ordination between the UK national and devolved governments. The second finding is that whilst Scotland runs an economic trade deficit with RUK, the environmental trade balance relationship for the main greenhouse gas, CO2, runs in the opposite direction. In other words, the findings of this study suggest the existence of a CO2 trade surplus between Scotland and the rest of the UK. This suggests that Scotland is bearing a net loss in terms of pollutants as a result of inter-union trade. However, if Scotland can carry out key activities, such as electricity generation, using less polluting technology, it is better for the UK as a whole if this type of relationship exists. Thus, the environmental trade balance is an important part of the devolution settlement

Radio-Excess IRAS Galaxies: IV. Optical Spectroscopy

This is the fourth in our series of papers investigating radio-excess galaxies, which have radio emission associated with an active nucleus but which do not fit into the traditional categories of either radio-loud or radio-quiet active galaxies. In this paper, we present optical spectra of our sample of FIR-luminous radio-excess galaxies. Optical emission line diagnostics are used to determine the dominant source of the ionizing radiation. We find that radio excess is an excellent indicator of the presence of an active nucleus: the radio-excess sample contains a much higher fraction of AGN than samples selected on FIR luminosity alone, or using other criteria such as warm FIR colors. Several objects have ambiguous classifications and are likely to be composite objects with mixed excitation. The type of optical spectrum appears to be associated with the radio-loudness: radio-loud objects may be more `pure' AGN than radio-intermediate objects. We find strong evidence for interaction between the radio plasma and the surrounding gas. The jet energy fluxes of the radio-excess objects, inferred from the [O III] luminosities, are lower than in powerful radio sources, consistent with our previous results. We conclude that the jets of radio-intermediate sources are intrinsically weaker than those in sources with more powerful radio emission. A significant fraction of the sample spectra show post-starburst stellar continuum, with A-star absorption lines, consistent with the large fraction of merging or disturbed host galaxies in the sample. The ages of the radio sources are significantly less than those of A stars indicating that, if the radio sources are associated with merging activity, there is a delay between the interaction and the initiation of the radio activity. (Abridged.)Comment: Accepted for publication in AJ; version with high resolution figures available from http://www.cis.rit.edu/~clbsps/papers/paper4.pd