The Humanitarian Factors: An ICRC Perspective

More than ten years have passed since the beginning of the Global War on Terror and the consequent launch of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.Today,at the dawn of intemational forces' withdrawal,some substantive improvements are recorded in the field of infrastructure,power,communication,and education.The question is whether this relative progress is sustainable and whether the Afghan population will get the help it will actually need in an unpredictable,but a priori extremely difficult,future.     

Dialectics and the Megamachine: A Critique of Ersatz Education

This article proposes that the learning environment matters, and that there are qualitative differences in online versus face-to-face classes. While online education provides some benefits, they also narrow the opportunities for dialectical conflict that thoroughly challenge student thinking, an interaction more likely to be found in real-time conversations. In person, there is more opportunity for an instructor to challenge the reasoning of students in real time, and for students to ask probing and follow-up questions. The article considers the structure of educational dialectic suggested by important thinkers including Galtung, Habermas, and Buber. Online education is then situated as a technology that interferes with human relations and dialectical reasoning and fits within the notion of technics and the megamachine advanced by Lewis Mumford, which dehumanizes personal interactions with instrumental processes for growth and efficiency. Students follow suit by focusing more on the instrumental absorption of course content to pass the course, instead of higher order critique. Of particular interest to political science education is that if conversational dialectics are weakened in universities, and therefore polities—and the technics are simply considered a natural replacement for in-person conversation—the opportunities to teach critical reasoning required for critique of complex political phenomena are also narrowed. We might temper the dangers of the megamachine by reflexively discussing the political economy of online teaching itself with our students and by starting to expect synchronous conversation, which will open dialectical opportunities.     

Road safety and deaf people: the role of the police

The ability to travel safely and independently is very important for participation in many aspects of modern life and the police have an important role in maintaining safety on the roads. Although people with hearing impairments form a significant percentage of the population in the United Kingdom (estimated at 1 in 7 by the Royal National Institute of Deaf People), there has been little research on how the police ensure the road safety of deaf and hearing impaired people. This article discusses an investigation into existing police practice in providing support and training to police officers on interacting with deaf people in situations that could have an effect on road safety. It makes recommendations for improving existing practice.     

法国的犯罪——犯罪人二元论体系介绍

法国的刑法理论中并没有关于刑事犯罪一般理论的研究。在法国的法律传统中,刑法研究具有极强的实用主义。近年来关于犯罪理论方面的著作仅有达纳于1982年①发表的《对刑事犯罪概念的评论》,达纳先生还提出:构建具体的犯罪概念只能从责任概念出发。他认为犯罪既是人的可归责行为,也是人的有罪行为,并以这两点构筑其文章的两大部分。其中,犯罪是人的可归责行为这一用语囊括了人类行为相异且互补的两个既定条件:犯罪通过犯罪的具体事实表现出来,这一具体事实是可归责行为的表现形式,另外犯罪又以独一无二的人为实体。说犯罪是人的有罪行为则是…     

Planned complex suicide: an unusual case

Abstract:  We report an unusual case of planned complex suicide. The victim was a woman aged 67 years, who was found dead in her bath in a state of advanced putrefaction. A plugged-in hairdryer was submerged in the water and the electrical fuses in the room had short-circuited. A kitchen knife lay below the body of the victim, whose left forearm bore incisions suggestive of wrist-cutting. At autopsy, no sign suggesting electrocution could be observed because of the advanced state of putrefaction of the body. Toxicological analysis revealed massive ingestion of tianeptine (blood concentration 15.5 mg/L). Although the exact cause of death could not be determined because of the state of the corpse, meticulous examination of the scene and information obtained from the victim's relatives led to the conclusion of suicide.