MTN: A South African mobile telecommunications group in Africa and Asia

ABSTRACT

The MTN Group, based in South Africa, is a multinational enterprise from an emerging economy (EE-MNE), operating mobile telecommunications networks in Asia and Africa. It was built up by negotiating licences and by acquiring operators, notably Investcom, a Lebanese-owned firm with operations in Asia, Africa and Cyprus. Such opportunities arose from the liberalisation of national markets and the financialisation of the sector. MTN now has licences from some very unattractive governments, to which it pays taxes, provides wire-tapping, collects metadata and censors content. Its business partners have included political parties, cronies of political leaders and individuals on a United Nations asset freeze list. It denies allegations it displaced a rival in Iran by corrupt means. It successfully became a major international operator, but acquisitions have stopped, forcing it to rely on organic growth and new technologies.     

On the audit trail of the Auditor General: Parliament's servant, 1973–1980

Abstract. Since 1973, important changes have been brought about in the powers of the Office of the Auditor General. The balance of our system of parliamentary government is undermined by these changes. This paper argues that the Auditor General's value-for-money campaign has taken the oag over the line between audit and trespass on government policy. The Office's new powers have their legal basis in the new Auditor General Act of 1977, which says that the oag can review value-for-money studies of programs. Another term for these studies is ‘effectiveness evaluations. The powers acquired in the act made the creation of the new central agency, the Office of the Comptroller General, inevitable. Among this agency's responsibilities is the duty to ensure that each of government's programs is reviewed for value-for-money, to satisfy the requirements of the Auditor General. The two agencies thus exist in a situation of mutual obligation and legitimation. The paper further argues that value-for-money audit is not an objective review technique, but involves a great deal of judgment in each of its stages of application. It is not fitting, therefore, that reports generated under its procedures should be reviewed externally, by an officer without any electoral base. This implies that government requires some form of legitimation to govern quite outside normal conceptions of parliamentary government. Next, it is argued that the techniques of classic program evaluation are themselves biased toward demonstrations of program failure. As the post of Auditor General of Canada fell vacant in September, 1980, and a new Auditor General will be appointed, the government should take the opportunity to review the responsibilities and privileges of the Office. Sommaire. Depuis 1973, les pouvoirs du poste de vérificateur général ont subi ?importants changements. ?équilibre de notre système de gouvemement parlementaire est affaibli par ces changements. ?auteur de cette étude pense que la eampagne ← en avoir pour son argent → du vérificateur général lui a fait franchir la limite entre vérification et ingéience dans la politique gouverne-mentale. Les nouveaux pouvoirs du poste ont leur fondement légal dans la nouvelle loi du vérificateur général de 1977 qui ?autorise à examiner les programmes du point de vue coûts/résultats. Ces études portent aussi un autre nom, celui ?évaluation de ?efficacité. Ces pouvoirs, entérinés par la loi, rendirent inévitable la création ?un nouvel organisme central, le bureau du contrôleur général. Parmi les responsabilités de cet organisme se trouve celle de s'assurer que tous les programmes gouvernementaux sont étudés du point de vue coûts/résultats pour satisfaire aux exigences du vérificateur général. Ces deux offices existent done dans une situation ?obligation et de légitimation mutuelles. ?auteur soutient de plus que la vérification coûts/résultats n'est pas une technique ?examen objective mais qu'elle fait beaucoup appel au juge-ment dans ses differénts stades ?application. II n'est done pas acceptable que des rapports etablis à partir de cette technique soient examinés extérieurement par un haut fonctionnaire sans mandat électoral. Ceci sous-entend que le gouvemement a besoin ?une certaine légitimation pour gouverneur et ce, en dehors des conceptions normales du gouvemement parlementaire. II soutient ensuite que les techniques de revaluation classique des programmes ont elles-même tendance à prouver ?échec des programmes. Comme le poste de vérificateur général du Canada est devenu vacant en septembre 1980 et qu'un nouveau vérificateur général doit être nommé, le gouvemement devrait saisir cette occasion pour reconsidérer les responsabilites et les privilèges de ce poste.     

The trick does not work if you have already seen the gorilla: how anticipatory effects contaminate pre-treatment measures in field experiments

Journal of Experimental Criminology - If participants can anticipate the intervention, they may alter their responses prior to exposure to treatment. One often-ignored consequence of these...     

Here’s looking at her: an intersectional analysis of women,power and feminism in film

While feminist film scholars have considered what makes a film feminist, we explore this question from a feminist sociological perspective with an emphasis on power and women in film. We take an intersectional approach to explore gender, race, ethnicity and social class in films about women. We draw from Amy Allen’s conception of power as the interrelated triad of domination (power-over), empowerment/resistance (power-to), and solidarity (power-with). We then apply Sutherland’s elaboration on those forms of power in terms of how they are depicted in film. Results reveal that most feminist films revolve around stories about power-to; women finding the courage to individually confront and challenge existing norms. Power-to films are predominantly tales of white, middle class women. Women of color are most likely to be featured in power-over films. Very few can be considered power-with films that demonstrate solidarity among women. We conclude that more women and men with feminist values behind the camera is a necessary, but not sufficient, requirement to change cultural representations of women and power in film.