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Regulation Weakness and Lack of Public Awareness Has Impeded the Implementation of Environmental Policies in Saudi Arabia
Get PDFThis research aimed to substantially illustrate that the weakness of environmental regulations and lack of public participation in urban planning alongside poor public awareness in Saudi Arabia has inhibited the implementation of environmental policies across this region. To study these issues, this research compared the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (“KSA”) to the United States (“US”) building on numerous studies to illustrate how the identified weaknesses correlate with weak or ineffective environmental policies. It is well known that it would be better to use a European country “because it\u27s known that the EU has tough environmental measures as a model for KSA regarding environmental protection standards. This is true, but I find it more beneficial to take this gradually, as to use a country that achieved average success in environment protection compared to EU. Also, what is more interesting in choosing the US as a model is that, with its federal system of governance that makes it harder to implement national environmental protection measures, the US has made significant progress in environmental protection compared to KSA. While it has a central unified government system that makes national policy implementation much easier, KSA could not effectively implement environmental protection measures like the US. The main argument I make here is that better environmental outcomes is dependent upon increased public awareness and better enforcement of environmental laws and regulations. The former can be accomplished through public participation in the law-making process and in urban planning decisions. The latter, through the creation of independent environmental courts
Aspects of Organizational Culture and the Impact on Affective Commitment, Absenteeism, and Turnover: a Study of the United States Poultry Industry
No full textModern-day manufacturing industries (e.g., the poultry industry as the context of this study) has fully implemented the earliest rounds of Taylorization (scientific) and Gilbrethian (time-motion) methods to become a very detailed oriented algorithmic data-driven industry. In fact, current manufacturers are exemplars of revamped ergonomic work environments and improved work conditions. Still, what is compelling, despite having great market positioning, improved analytics, and better work environments, is that current manufacturers suffer from heightened labor disruptions, systematically driven by employee perceptions of informal norms that exist within organizational cultures. It is puzzling that current literature does not effectively illustrate how employee perceptions of informal norms influence labor disruptions such as absenteeism, affective commitment, and turnover. Therefore, I argue that informal organizational norms are ubiquitous and that it influences affective and behavioral outcomes. Informal organizational norms, despite being unofficial customs, group beliefs, and casual behaviors that generally conform to interpersonal relationships they are sometimes in direct conflict with corporate culture and workplace control policies. This is interesting because organizations equip leaders with administrative controls to influence labor disruptions; however, on the other hand, leaders sometimes experience conflicting events wherein control policies are not used to ameliorate disruptions in labor. Therefore, this study examines the disproportionate levels of labor disruptions within critical US manufacturing industries by investigating the influence of informal norms, workplace culture, control polices, and social relationships that determines the level of affective commitment which employees align
Vivienne Westwood and the Socio-Political Nature of Punk
Get PDFPunk fashion, which helped define the punk movement in the 1970s, has been ever changing as it adapts to modern times. Before it was the watered-down, mainstream mass-produced aesthetic that it is today, punk style was full of counterculture meaning and signs that communicated counter-hegemonic ideologies to the public. Vivienne Westwood, one of the contributors to early punk culture and the mother of British punk style, designed clothing that was central to the ethos of the early punk movement. Through a semiotic analysis of five of Westwood’s designs from the 1970s, this study aims to demonstrate how Westwood’s early punk designs encouraged rebellion against normative power structures. This analysis highlights how her designs challenged dominant beliefs about class, gender, and sexuality
The Prosecutor in the Mirror: Conviction Integrity Units and Brady Claims
Get PDFIn Brady v. Maryland, the Supreme Court held that a prosecutor has a due process obligation to disclose exculpatory evidence that is material to guilt or punishment. The failure to fulfill this duty is particularly insidious because it bears directly on both whether an innocent defendant may have been convicted as well as on whether the adjudicatory process was fair. The failure to disclose exculpatory evidence has been characterized as “epidemic” and has been documented to have made a major, outsized contribution in cases that resulted in exonerations. It is not surprising, then, that conviction integrity units in prosecutor’s offices (CIUs)—departments or bureaus created to entertain claims of wrongful conviction—often must confront allegations of such wrongdoing by trial prosecutors who work or have worked in their own offices. This Article analyzes the CIU investigation and review processes and the complications they present and explores the ethical obligations of a CIU that concludes that a Brady violation has occurred
The Evolution of International Environmental Law Amidst Political Gridlock: Environmental Rights as a Common Ground
Get PDFIn the leadup to the 50th anniversary of the Stockholm Conference and the global Covid- 19 pandemic, nations and people have realized they have not lived up to the obligations of the U.N. Charter and the principles of international environmental law. In 2019, the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) adopted Resolution No. A/RES/73/333, which set forth substantive and procedural recommendations for follow-up work for the progressive development of international environmental law, and specifically called for the adoption of a political declaration in 2022 to strengthen the implementation of international environmental law. The resolution derives from the proposed Global Pact for the Environment and significant discussions on gaps in international environmental law by the Secretary General and an ad hoc group of the UNGA which met in Nairobi during 2019. The thesis follows this process until January 2022. As the world prepares to adopt a new political declaration, this thesis analyzes the multiple roads that lead here and the way forward. The thesis analyzes the current ecological crises humanity faces and some possible ways to address them. These solutions are grounded on the bedrock of Earth Jurisprudence, exemplified here through religious and philosophical foundations of Earth conservation. Through this bedrock, the thesis analyzes the rights-based approaches to the Earth Emergency Crisis, following the pathway of development of the right to a healthy environment which led to its international recognition at the Human Rights Council in 2021. This discussion significantly contributes to the challenges we currently face in the Earth Emergency Crisis, while also critically evaluating possible innovations to promote effectiveness in international environmental law
Examining the Relationship between Acute Stress and Psychosocial Functioning through the Lens of the COVID-19 Pandemic
No full textCan acute stress lead to improvements in psychosocial functioning? The effects of acute stress on the social environment and the subsequent impact on psychological functioning is an important area of focus that has gained recent attention in the examination of individual responses to acute stress. It has been suggested that the stimulation of positive social behaviors and perceptions following acute stress can have enduring positive effects on psychological functioning (Mancini, 2019). The current study aimed to expand this line of research by examining the longitudinal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on social behavior and psychological functioning. I hypothesized that the acute phase participants, relative to recovery phase participants, would report higher social support, communal orientation, compassion, and gratitude. In addition, I explored whether there were differences in meaning in life and loneliness. The current study utilized a quasi-experimental cohort design to examine these hypotheses. Acute phase participants (N = 146) completed assessments in the Spring of 2020 during the height of the COVID 19 pandemic, and a matched comparison recovery cohort (N = 106) completed assessments one year later during the Spring of 2021. Independent samples t-tests revealed that participants had significantly lower negative affect during the acute phase of the pandemic compared to the recovery phase. No difference in positive affect emerged. However, the hypothesized differences between acute and recovery cohorts did not emerge in perceived social support, communal orientation, compassion, or gratitude, though absolute differences indicated the acute phase had higher mean scores on all variables (d = –.01 to d = –.16). In addition, exploratory analyses indicated the acute phase reported higher levels of meaning of life (d = –.40). Findings are discussed in relation to the potential for the analysis to be underpowered; the importance of a null finding of no differences between cohorts, and widespread concerns that the early COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns would have detrimental effects on psychological and social variables
Unpolicing Childhood: Cultural Approaches to Anti-Child Disciplinary Violence in the Elementary Setting
Get PDFNineteenth century western beliefs about race and gender ushered in the concept of othering, in which non-white individuals were viewed and treated as subhuman and dangerous. Concurrently, the shifting concept of childhood buttressed the notion that innocence and purity were qualities most associated with and demonstrated by children from the dominant culture. As organizations tend to reflect societal values, beliefs and fears, school became a major institution designed to mold children into responsible and moral citizens. This symbolic social contract between society and school has come to reinforce childism--a form of oppression against children who have been othered. We assert that in schools, childism is evidenced as anti-Blackness and anti-Black child sexism. In this paper, we examine childism and share the narratives of Black elementary educators who resisted anti-Black childism and disrupted disciplinary violence in the elementary setting with cultural approaches
Maritime Security and Threat of a Terrorist Attack
Get PDFThe incidents of terrorism have multiplied and so have the routes through which the terrorists reach their targets. There is a threat of a terrorist attack from the sea route aimed at targets on the land. Until now the academic scholarship as well as treaty practice has focused on challenges of terrorism to the safety of navigation rather than terrorist threats originating from the sea. Efforts at treaty making in this direction in the past are inadequate to address the problem. This article analyses the legal framework within which response may be undertaken to neutralize a terrorist threat through preventive action or after the terrorist act has been committed. It is argued that it is possible for a coastal state to stay within the purview of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and take necessary actions against a terrorist vessel. All states are under an international obligation to suppress terrorism. Moreover, the UNCLOS mandates that the seas and oceans have to be used for peaceful purposes. There may not be an explicit reference to taking action against a terrorist vessel, yet there is adequate support for such an action as per the interpretation of various provisions of the UNCLOS. Although the extent of control exerted by the coastal state in the territorial sea, contiguous zone, continental shelf, Exclusive Economic Zone and the high seas varies yet in all these maritime zones coastal states can undertake necessary actions
