Towards Sustainable Desert Development for Egypt

[abstract not provided]https://fount.aucegypt.edu/faculty_book_chapters/1919/thumbnail.jp

Constituting selves: Augustine, Sartre, and the role of religion in structuring the relationship between self and other

It is commonly held that Augustine’s Confessions provides an early source for the modern “turn to the self.” But as many critics of modernity note, along with this accentuated sense of self has come a decreased sensitivity to the value and significance of the other. Perhaps the thinker credited (or blamed) for being the source of the modern notion of the self can also be a source for the postmodern retrieval of the other. This dissertation examines the understandings of the self presented in Augustine’s Confessions and Sartre’s Being and Nothingness to highlight and challenge structures latent in standard modern conceptions of the self derived from these very works. Despite their many similarities, these models differ fundamentally due to the fact that one arises from within an ideology of radical autonomy and freedom while the other arises from within an ideology of radical heteronomy and givenness. Sartre rejects givenness and leaves us with a system which asserts that the human self “is a useless passion,” and “Hell is other people;” Augustine assumes givenness and presents a model in which a fully-integrated self is possible only in becoming inseparably bound to the other. By examining how their contrasting ideologies contribute to constituting the stark difference in their conclusions about the similar selves they detail, I explore how structures of a religiously constituted self can preserve the possibility for communion in human relationships that are precluded by a worldview based on an atomistic and autonomous self as exemplified by Sartre. Closely examining the ways in which the self is experienced, expressed, and actualized in these two works, I highlight the fact that their opposing modes of engaging alterity are in fact entailed by their respective religious and modernist orientations. In exploring the role of religion in holding open possibilities for integration and communion between self and other, this work contributes to the contemporary conversation about the “turn to religion” as being a potentially productive response to the failure of modern and even postmodern notions of self to secure a basis for meaningful human experience

Rebellion and the Absurd: Reading the novels of Albert Camus

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a critical reading of Albert Camus’s novels, The Stranger and The Plague, which is consistent with his reflections on the theory of the absurd. Employing this theory as the philosophical foundation for my writing, I set out to scrutinize Camus’s protagonists in terms of their being-in-this-world, particularly in view of the author’s understanding of rebellion. Although Camus’s theory of the absurd seems to cancel out the meaning and value of personal effort, the two novels under examination suggest that a rebellious response to life’s inherent absurdity is not only possible but is a credible response to the human condition. In my study of Camus’s rebellious protagonists, therefore, I also examine the question of ethics in both its personal and social implications

Till\u27 death (or conversion) do us part - Coptic divorces in Egyptian courts and their implications

When President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized and unified the courts in 1956, he aimed at fostering unity and equality among the Egyptians. But this move has in fact achieved quite the opposite, as it forces Coptic Egyptians to sometimes choose between the freedom of practicing their religion and equality before the law, two basic human and civil rights that should be granted to all. By nationalizing the courts and yet still adhering to religious codes of personal status laws (PSL), legal dualism has not ceased to exist in Egypt and it is put into an ambivalent status between civil and Islamic state. Through these realities, the church becomes a state within the state of Egypt. This can be proven in the example of divorce, as two valid and at the same time contradicting judgments can and are issued in the exact same divorce case. This thesis combines historical studies of various kinds, such as on the court system in Egypt, on the countryâ s social and political history, on the relationship between the Egyptian state and the Coptic Orthodox Church as well as on the historical development of the Coptic canon laws since 1938. A historical basis and framework is thus provided for the analysis of Coptic divorces in connection to citizenship rights in contemporary times. As scholarship on contemporary divorce cases is extremely rare to non-existent, newspaper articles build the main reference and primary source for examining this issue. Continuous connections to the history of Coptic divorce laws as well as sectarianism in Egypt have been paid special attention to here, as they are of the utmost importance when analyzing contemporary Coptic divorce with its citizenship aspects. This thesisâ s findings prove the reality of legal dualism in Egypt, and that the Coptic Church has developed and inherited state-like qualities through this dualism, as well as through its relationship with the Egyptian state. Divorce becomes here an arena for negotiating not just citizenship but control over the Coptic laity and their private affairs. Both the church and the state enter this discourse with ambivalence and double standards, where both cannot seem to decide if they want Egypt to be a civil or an Islamic state. Citizenship for the Copts is limited by either side, when the Coptic citizen, who is looking to divorce, is put in the middle of the power struggles between these two forces and his two loyalties

Cultural Experts at the International Criminal Court (ICC): The Local and the International

This paper extends existing research on cultural expertise in domestic settings to international courtrooms where several cultures, religions and worldviews are represented. This exercise reduces the widespread knowledge gap on the cultural particularities of post-conflict communities. In the interim, such research also can bridge the gap between the Western lawyers who currently are the most prevalent in international courts, and the members of post-conflict communities who usually appear on its docket. This article suggests that by including cultural expertise, the ICC can take one more step toward becoming a truly international court

Aggregate stability of some alluvial soils from Egypt.

[134:116.46:141.621]The hypothesis that the Ca-Mg balance is the factor determining the structural stability of these soils was supported in the case of silty clay samples, where a positive correlation was found between the aggregate index and the Ca contents and Ca/Mg ratio, and a negative correlation with the Mg and Na percentage. With silty clay loam samples however a significant negative correlation was found between aggregate index and the Na content and percentage of 0.05-0.10 mm particles, and a positive correlation with the percentage of clay particles. In this case there was evidence that the presence of exchangeable Na aggravated the effect of Mg on aggregate stability. In both groups of samples the percentage of Na was correlated at

Can a hierarchical ordering of alternative technological concepts for decarbonizing industrial energy systems minimize mitigation costs?

Integration of alternative technological concepts such as switching to alternative fuels, advanced energy efficiency, and carbon capture & storage in existing industrial energy systems can prove highly effective at minimising emissions; however, their adoption is low since solutions using these concepts raise costs considerably. The hypothesis of this work is a hierarchical combination of these concepts can reduce mitigation cost. To this end a mixed method approach is applied combining energy simulation with a novel Mixed Integer Linear Programming model developed to explore 48 alternative solutions to make industrial energy systems more sustainable. The method was applied to the most common industrial energy systems configurations. Results show that the added cost of integrating alternative technological concepts are lowered when energy efficiency via direct heat recovery is explored first in an optimisation-based hierarchy of options. The hierarchy is advanced energy efficiency before fuel and technology switching or integrating carbon capture and storage. This means process integration can pay for steeper reductions in carbon emissions. Integrating alternative technological concepts optimally and hierarchically reduced emissions by 61%, and costs by 55.7% compared to a partial integration for a heat-only business-as-usual industrial energy systems. Even though switching to an alternative fuel (blue hydrogen) reduces carbon emissions by 72%, costs increase by at least 3% compared to a system using fuel gas and fuel oil. A hierarchical integration of blue hydrogen reduces cost by 47% and carbon emissions by 88.7%. Partial integration of carbon capture and storage reduces carbon emissions by 36% but costs increase by 89%, with full integration using optimisation and the hierarchy costs only increase by 6.3%. therefore, the cost-effectiveness of integrating alternative technological concepts is highly influenced by the hierarchy which seeks to minimise demand for energy from industrial processes first, then increase the supply efficiency of industrial energy systems, and before switching to alternative fuels and technologies