以民主视角践行党的群众路线

党的群众路线与民主互为保证、相互支持。践行党的群众路线具有重要的民主意义：有利于体现党的性质与宗旨;是发展社会主义民主政治的必然要求;是推进政治体制改革的重要动力;有利于巩固和扩大党的政治合法性。在群众路线实践活动中,要做到坚持人民主体地位,继续坚持和完善基层民主自治制度,继续完善人民代表大会制度,支持和壮大健康的公民社会。     

当前形势下构建四川藏区和谐警民关系探究

构建和谐警民关系,是我们党的根本宗旨,也是公安工作的本质要求,同时是新形势下做好社会稳定工作的根本保证。构建四川藏区和谐警民关系是贯彻公安机关群众路线教育实践活动的组成部分,而要实现四川藏区警民关系和谐,就要提高破案率,增强藏区群众安全感;疏通警民沟通渠道,拉近藏区警民距离;加强藏区社会管理与群众工作的协调配合。     

土家族巫文化的人类学考察

从人类学视角对土家族巫文化进行考察、挖掘、阐述,从而进一步了解了土家族色彩斑斓的巫文化特质及巫文化事象。     

Indigenous Local Governments for Palestine: A Roadmap for Replacing Imposed Institutions to Build Stability and Confidence

Occupying empires and states and expatriates have imposed structures of local government in the West Bank and Gaza. As a result, Palestinians have little confidence in the existing units of local government. That lack of confidence inhibits the development of a civil society. Proposed reforms must understand the history and actions that minimized opportunities for participation and the professionalism of bureaucracies that could produce and deliver the public services needed to sustain economic and social development. Establishing a stable civil state will require bureaucratic reforms anchored in theory and an understanding of the unique past that has left more than four million residents of Palestine without the public services needed for economic and social development. All parties to a resolution of the conflicts between Israel and Palestine and between Palestinians must help build new local structures of local government; the recommended steps presented here are grounded in theroy and histroy and also based on empirical research.     

Death by a Thousand Grants? The Challenge of Grant Funding Reliance for Local Government Councils in the Northern Territory of Australia

In July 2008, the local government sector in the Northern Territory of Australia underwent wide-sweeping reforms whereby 53 councils, most of which were located in remote Indigenous communities, were amalgamated into eight regional shires. The dominant justifications for these reforms focused on internal ‘deficit’ views about the community council sector, including lack of competent and ethical staff, managerial workforce instability, inefficient use of resources, and poor oversight as the primary causes of chronic underperformance and dysfunction. This paper identifies and discusses the under-scrutinised role of grants revenue dependency and volatility in the demise of remote small councils in the Northern Territory. We analyse financial data to demonstrate the extreme volatility in year-on-year grants funding. With their high dependency on grants revenue, such volatility and unpredictability resulted in councils being hamstrung in their ability to strategically plan and ensure stability in service delivery, infrastructure management and employment provision. We argue that these fiscal dynamics, fuelled by hierarchical intergovernmental relations, contributed significantly to dysfunction in the sector, as well as mutually reinforcing pre-existing structural and endogenous weaknesses. This argument runs against the common conceptualisation of the sector as requiring of externally imposed structural reform. We conclude by suggesting that there are factors additional to scale that need to be incorporated into analysis of the effects of amalgamation policies on remote councils.     

The Growth of Civil Society in Timor-Leste: Three Moments of Activism

During the dramatic upheavals and conflicts that have accompanied political independence in Timor-Leste, Timorese activists have made an important, sometimes overlooked, contribution. This paper highlights the significant roles they played at three major turning points over the past 15 years – the Santa Cruz massacre in 1991, the UN-sponsored independence ballot in 1999 and the political-military crisis in 2006. Each one of these events was a starting point for a new phase in Timorese development history and a new phase in the growth of Timorese civil society. The personal reflections of Timorese activists provide poignant insight into their changing focus of activism as Timor-Leste became independent. Their “active citizenship” provided a mechanism to both contribute to and contest the mainstream nation-building processes which were, in some cases, perceived to be overly influenced by Western standards and often failed to acknowledge or respect Timorese culture and traditions.     

‘One step at a time’: An interview with Jean-Bertrand Aristide (former President of Haiti)

ABSTRACT

I am an African. I speak an African language.

Ngingum-Afrika. Ngikhuluma izilimi zase-Afrika. (isiZulu)

Ndingum-Afrika. Ndithetha ulwimi lwase-Afrika. (isiXhosa)

Mimi ni mAfrika. Nazungumza lugha ya waAfrika. (Swahili)

The sense of pride inherent in this statement belies the challenge that African languages face today. Multilingualism in African languages is not seen as a rich resource when confronted by the economic clout of English. A compromise is needed – one where the value of indigenous languages and that of English is recognised. A trained translator and interpreter is one such compromise, becoming the key link between African development and African achievement. For the non-English speaker, this link would enable understanding and, through it, knowledge and empowerment. With translation and interpretation, knowledge can come to every person at their level of understanding. This article argues that the training of the skilled translator and interpreter in an African language is the critical link in the development and achievement of the disadvantaged African person. Language now becomes a resource, affirming further that it is also language that provides pride in one's identity, hence … I am an African. I speak an African language.     

Justice for All? Accountable Translations of Texts on Indigenous Law

ABSTRACT

This article addresses challenges arising from the guarantee in South Africa's Constitution (1996) of continued use of indigenous law. This law has been handed down in oral form, but increasingly, written sources are needed when cases relating to indigenous law are heard in South Africa's higher courts. Although access to this kind of information is vital to empowerment and justice in Africa, wider access is hampered by different literacy levels and language differences. This article examines accountable translation into English of legal anthropological texts, referring to a case study on law practised among the Nkuna of Ritavi to demonstrate some of the complexities. The article considers the Anglo-American translation tradition's preference for idiomatic translation (paraphrasis) rather than word-for-word faithfulness (metaphrasis). It advocates focusing on the Skopos (purpose) of texts negotiated with the author. It also proposes foregrounding the hermeneutic engagement of translators as readers. For the text in the case study, it suggests two translations, for two audiences: one into an academic register (for academics, legal experts, and educated members of the Nkuna community), and one into Plain English (mainly for members of the Nkuna community for whom English is a second language). To address political dimensions of responsible translation, metatextual strategies espoused by feminist translators to increase translators’ visibility and accountability can be used, and postcolonial translation theory should be considered.     

我国民事诉讼法原则在新时期的完善

民事诉讼实践经验显示,民事诉讼制度与我国经济社会迅速发展对民事诉讼的法治要求有诸多不适应。民事诉讼法的发展离不开民事诉讼原则指导和引领,要发展民事诉讼制度,应当先拓展民事诉讼原则,将现代法治同法律与时俱进的发展精神相结合,将以人本精神作为民事诉讼宗旨纳入民事诉讼原则,使民事诉讼法在新原则指引下发展成为具备自新能力的法律系统。因此,更新民事诉讼法原则,创新民事诉讼法律自我创新机制势在必行。     

Exposing the conditions of precarity: compounding victimization and marginalized young people

Events of victimization that upend young lives and expose them to conditions of precarity are examined. Drawing on Judith Butler’s recent reflections on precarity, this article contributes to the extant critical victimology literature by linking precarity to selfhood and narrative. Narrative analysis is used to analyze two young people – Beatrice and Randall – who experienced sexual victimization and a number of subsequent victimizations at the hands of corporate and state organizations. To account for these subsequent persecutions, the concept of compounding victimization to expose the link between successive victimization that intensifies the experience of precarity.