Drug trafficking networks in Europe

Conclusion In view of the enormous investments and financial interests at stake together with the necessity to maintain continuity of supply and distribution, only professional narcotic drug organizations and groups will be able to sustain a fixed share of the market. In order to gain some insight into the size of organized crime in the Netherlands, an in-depth study was conducted to this end in 1991. Police information from all over the country was gathered and analyzed. Almost 600 criminal groups appeared to be active in the Netherlands. 73 percent of them appeared to be involved in drug trafficking. Criminal networks active in Europe would be more readily identifiable if our European counterparts conducted similar into the organizational structures of criminal gangs operating in their country. If the existing plans for the creation of Europol, starting with an European Drugs Unit — a non-executive European Intelligence service in the area of narco-crime — are realized, this would be a major step forward in achieving this.     

Destructive decision-making in developing countries

In most developing countries strategic decision-making has been largely based on false premises that have led to destructive results. One set of false premises stems from the assumption that development can be dissociated from the destructively exponential growth in developed countries, from the limits on the planet's physical resources and from complex ecological linkages. Another set is grounded on the popular myths of entrenched development economics: particularly, the enshrining of GNP as the overall indicator of progress, and the concomitant withdrawal of attention from poverty and concentrated wealth, unemployment, and the injurious effects of many modern technologies. These destructive premises tend to reinforce the evolving institutions of new-style empire and oligarchy.More successful development requires standing present development policies on their head through development goals calling for (1) a recognition of redistributive and nonmaterial growth possibilities, (2) redistributive, material and nonmaterial growth in developing countries, (3) redistributive, nonmaterial growth in overdeveloped countries, with a major slowing down of material consumption, (4) large-scale employment projects in developing countries, and (5) the fostering and use of more constructive technologies. All such shifts, however, would require—and tend to lead toward—substantial, long-term changes in the sociopolitical structure of developing countries and the world society.This paper is based on and adapted from The Limits of Development Administration, the keynote paper presented in October 1972 at the U.N. Public Administration Division's conference on development administration in Kiev, USSR, and Unemployment: The Snag in Development, prepared at Kiev and published in The Nation, Dec. 11, 1972.     

Equality or lasting inequality?

Jan H. Blits teaches in the University Honors Program at the University of Delaware and was previously Secretary of the Navy Distinguished Fellow at the U.S. Naval Academy. He has published two books and numerous articles on educational and political philosophy.     

Cognitive tempo,violent video games,and aggressive behavior in young boys

In a factorial design, impulsive and reflective children played video games with aggressive or nonaggressive themes. Interpersonal aggression and aggression toward inanimate objects were assessed in a free-play setting and interpersonal aggression was assessed during a frustrating situation. Results indicated that subjects who played the video game with aggressive content exhibited significantly more object aggression during free-play and more interpersonal aggression during the frustrating situation than youngsters who played nonaggressive video games. Aggressive behavior was unaffected by cognitive tempo.