Bloody Clashes Research Articles

ILLYRIAN ISSUES IN THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE STUDIES OF MARJETA ŠAŠEL KOS

The article provides a historiographical overview and analysis of specific English-language publications by contemporary Slovenian researcher Marjeta Šašel Kos on the Illyrian issue. Issues related to hypotheses about the origin of the Illyrians, significant events in their internal history, achievements in various fields of culture, and an objective assessment of their relationship with the Greco-Roman world form the basis for an in-depth study of the ancient population of the Western Balkans, Central and Southwestern Europe. The world of Illyrian tribes, who were inhabitants of the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, the northwestern part of the Balkan Peninsula, and the southeastern part of the Alpine region, was in close proximity to the borders of the spread of the Greco-Roman civilization and its culture. Numerous Illyrian tribes, formed in the northern and southern ethno-cultural zone of the Eastern Hallstatt, were among the oldest tribal formations in the barbarian world of Europe (Pax Barbaricum). The world of the Illyrian tribes was sought to be understood by the ancient Greeks, followed by the Romans. However, contacts between representatives of these two diametrically opposite worlds ended in confrontation and assimilation. After numerous and bloody clashes, the world of the Illyrians lost its identity, underwent powerful Hellenization and Romanization, and acquired signs of deep provinciality. Therefore, the article's author seeks to introduce the reader to the achievements of individual bright and talented representatives of contemporary Illyriology and popularize their scientific work. Marjeta Šašel Kos's scientific work is diverse and productive (several extensive and substantive monographs and more than 70 scientific articles). The Slovenian researcher bases her views on archaeological and epigraphic materials, information comparisons, and reasoned criticism of ancient historians and geographers. All of these trends pursue a particular goal: to overcome the stereotype of perceiving representatives of the tribal world of ancient Europe, which was shaped by Greco-Roman written tradition. The review of her English-language works on the Illyrian issue demonstrates that Slovenian and European Illyriology are actively developing, allowing us to get to know and understand the specifics of the historical development of the ancient Illyrians.

Northeastern Syria (Jazeera) in the Colonial Policy of France in 1936-1938.

The article deals with the French policy towards Syria, its mandated territory, in the second half of the 1930s. In the fall of 1936, the French Popular Front government concluded the Franco-Syrian treaty, which implied the imminent termination of the Mandate and independence of Syria. It was an obvious departure from France's traditional policy of supporting national and religious minorities against the Arab national movement. For two years (1937-1938) Syria became a practically autonomous state, the role of Mandate authorities was reduced to a minimum. The discontent soon arose in areas densely populated by minorities. It threatened the unity of Syrian state and gave the French opponents of the Treaty excellent "trump cards". The "colonial party" sought at least to revise, and at the most - to cancel it. The author focuses on the situation in Jazeera, the northeastern region of Syria with especially complicated ethno-confessional situation. In summer of 1937, the “separatist” movement against the Syrian authorities led to a political crisis and bloody clashes. The "colonial party" used it in a propaganda campaign against the Treaty "concluded by the Marxists", which culminated in the pompous visit of the Syro-Catholic prelate Cardinal Tappouni to Paris in November 1937. The Mandate authorities tried to exert a deterrent effect on the "separatists", ostensibly adhering to the letter and spirit of the Treaty. The new French government used the “separatist” factor to make the Syrians renegotiate the terms of the Treaty, easily sacrificing this “card” to make deals on other issues.

Participation of Russia in the 1860—1861 International Commission on Syria

The definition of the “Syrian crisis of 1860” is based on a series of bloody clashes and pogroms that broke out on the territory of Mount Lebanon and Damascus. These events had such a resonance in Europe that the government of the Ottoman Empire was forced to agree to the arrival of the French expeditionary force and the creation of an international commission consisting of representatives of five European powers — Britain, France, Russia, Austria and Prussia. The results of the commission's work turned out to be quite balanced and successful, ensuring the peaceful development of the region until the First World War. For Russia, participation in the European Commission has become a landmark event: this was one of the first episodes when, after the defeat in the Crimean War, she was able to fully perform in the ranks of the European concert, although, of course, not in the first roles. The purpose of this article is to analyze the role played by Russian diplomacy in resolving the Syrian conflict, and how participation in the work of the European Commission affected Russia's relations with other European powers.

Perceptions and Implications of Herdsmen and Farmer's Bloody Clashes on Sustainability and Economic Growth in Nigeria: Investigative Journalism Approach

This study examined the perceptions and implications of herdsmen and farmers bloody clashes on sustainability and economic growth in Nigeria; investigative journalism approach. The study employed a cross-sectional survey and qualitative research design in which 1000persons were interviewed to seek their perceptions on the effects of the feud. It was revealed that no party is happy with the irreparable consequences that ensued from the clash. It was shown that the herdsmen were misguided on the grazing routes which the Federal government insists on reviving or re-enacting when such routes or policy cannot be operational due to increasing human population, mechanized/commercial agricultural activities in modern days. The clash was also induced by born to rule ego, religious inclinations and mutual distrust. It does implies that persisting violence is a precursor to hunger/malnutrition, high cost of living, economic recession, civil war and disintegration of a volatile country. The crisis is persisting due to the lackadaisical/double standards attitude of government towards resolving the impasse on time. It has been seen that open grazing cannot continue in modern Nigeria. It has to be stopped for the implementation of ranching programmes. Government should intensify laws against criminality/ cattle rustlers and disarm both farmers-herdsmen of the arms they are parading everywhere. The constitutional role of government is to ensure that the rule of law prevails equally over all citizens in whatever trade, religion/ethnic background. There should be intensive media sensitisation on inter- ethnic and inter-religious tolerance and harmony in the country.

МАРШ ПАРИЖАН НА ВЕРСАЛЬ ОСЕНЬЮ 1789 Г.: ГОЛОДНЫЙ БУНТ ИЛИ ПОЛИТИЧЕСКАЯ АКЦИЯ?

The events on October 5-6, 1789 were not a trivial food riot caused by a lack of bread in the capital. Political activists in Paris sought to wrest the king from the grasp of the Versailles environment that was hostile to the revolution. At the same time, they remained imbued with "tsarist" sentiments. However, love for the monarch was combined with hatred for his wife - an "Austrian" and a squanderer, who was in their eyes, at the suggestion of embittered pamphleteers, a monster of debauchery. Notably, Louis did not show the lack of will attributed to him by historians. For some time he resolutely defended his positions in the face of the onslaught of the Constituent Assembly. However, the march of the lower classes on Versailles made the monarch more compliant, forced him to go to Paris, where he became a hostage to the revolutionary crowds. For a short period of time the food problem became less acute. The capital remained relatively calm. This facilitated the reformist activities of the deputy corps and resulted in the fundamental social and political reforms of 1790-1791. But in some regions of France tension on church and religious grounds gave rise to bloody clashes. Moreover, the economic situation that worsened later and the war with the neighboring states that began in 1792 led to a further radicalization of the revolution.

《레버넌트: 죽음에서 돌아온 자》를 통해 본 모피의 신화·문화적 상징과 의미

Since hundreds and thousands years ago, people have gotten furs from animals in order to survive from harsh environment at first. Time goes by, the acts of survive gradually becomes for fulfilling maniac desire of possession not just for surviving like primary era. Several countries such as England, France, Spain, Netherlands, etc. in the middle age slashed animals for their furs in order to make bloody money. These European countries crossed the Atlantic to conquer the American continent in search of fur, and in the process, bloody clashes, including Beaver Wars, broke out. Fur, which was once acquired for the desire to survive, turned into madness to money and it caused violent clashes between humans around the world. The chief aim of this paper is to reveal the mythic and cultural meaning of fur with its symbolic images in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant. The film shows various kinds of symbolic meanings of fur with its vengeance storytelling and the wars that really happened in history. I would like to find each meaning of certain furs out and I also will reveal how the furs relates to the mythical elements of heroes born in terms of death and resurrection in The Revenant. (Dongguk University)

The Emergence and Restoration of the State: Latvia in 1918 and 1990

Abstract On 18 November 1918, the independent Republic of Latvia was declared in an extremely complicated international and domestic environment—the First World War was still going on, empires were collapsing, and ethnically and ideologically diverse military troops were fighting within the boundaries of Latvian territory. Despite the historical context of a previously tense relationship between Latvians and other ethnic groups, representatives of all minorities fought next to Latvians against the enemies of the Latvian state. Up until 11 August 1920, when the Peace Treaty with the Soviet Russia was signed, the prospects of de jure recognition of the newly established state were blurred; yet, the defeat of the White forces in the Russian Civil War opened the long awaited “window of opportunity”, as a result of which Latvia managed to achieve its international recognition on 26 January 1921. More than seventy years later, on 4 May 1990, when the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Supreme Council of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR), the international and domestic situation was no less complicated. Latvia was forcefully incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940 and became part of it, yet the economic and political deterioration of the Soviet Union, the national awakening in the Baltic States and other Soviet republics alongside the fall of the Berlin Wall gave momentum for the regime to change. On 21 August 1991, after the barricades and bloody clashes with the Soviet Special Purpose Police Units (OMON) in Riga on January and the failed coup d’état in Moscow in August, Latvia’s independence once again became a reality. In the events of the 1990s, the memories of 1918 and Latvia’s independence in the period between the two world wars were crucial. It is manifested by the fact that Latvian statehood in 1991 was not established anew but restored. Acknowledging the importance of history on contemporary identification and policy-making, this article aims to provide an insight into the history of 1917–1922 and its resonance in the contemporary situation. Using the methodology of literature analysis and historical process-tracing it will reveal the complicated process of the state’s formation and recognition in the period of 1917–1922, paying particular attention to the role of the minorities and diplomatic efforts. It will also uncover the resonance of the events of 1918–1922 in the 1990s, when Latvia’s independence from the Soviet Union was declared, focusing in particular on aspects defining the statehood of Latvia and its citizenship. In this part, it will be argued that the history of 1917–1922 was brought back when the statehood of Latvia was concerned, while overshadowed by fifty years of the Soviet occupation, when the citizenship issue was on the agenda. Indeed, not only ethnic Latvians but also minorities living in Latvia played a decisive role in the efforts of restoring Latvia’s independence. However, as a result of the Citizenship Law,1 adopted in 1994, more than one-fourth of the population—in most cases, representatives of the Russian-speaking community—were denied citizenship. This practice contrasts the Act that had been adopted in the interwar period, when Latvian citizenship was granted to all ethnic groups who were living within the borders of the then agreed Latvian territory, notwithstanding their diverse ideological background. Given this fact, the article provides future research opportunities related to perceptions of history in contemporary policy-making.

Communal Conflicts and Agricultural Development Programmes Implementation in the North-East Geo-political Zone of Nigeria

This article views communal conflicts which are capable of hindering agricultural development programmes from implementation in the North-East Geo-Political Zone of Nigeria. The region is bedeviled with series of protracted communal conflicts, ranging from herders-farmers’ bloody clashes, political conflicts, religious conflicts, ethnic conflicts and the Boko Haram crisis. These conflicts have affected the growth and development of the region and a spillover in Nigeria. The article ventures and explore the possible causes of communal conflicts, highlights the agricultural programs in the region and the solutions which centers on government intervention with the appropriate machineries and policies in order to put an end to this bloody conflict with the aim to strengthen the economic activities and development in the region, Nigeria and Africa in general. Conflict theory was used to explain the article.

Политический террор и правое движение (на примере Владимирской губернии)

The article examines the street confrontation of October 1905 which went down in history as Jewish pogroms. The source base of the work comprises the documents of the police department deposited in the State Archive of Vladimir Oblast and the materials from periodicals of various political leanings. After the publication of the Manifesto of the 17th of October, 1905, in the streets of Russian cities, the revolutionary demonstrations whose participants viewed the Manifesto as a signal for a decisive assault on the autocracy clashed with the patriotic manifestations held by those who wanted to defend their familiar world. The defiant behavior of opposition supporters who preached their political ideals and in doing so insulted national and religious feelings of the conservative strata of population provoked street excesses, which then turned into bloody clashes. The situation was aggravated by the inaction of the local authorities who had not received timely instructions from St Petersburg and showed confusion during the first “days of freedom.” Thus, the pogroms of October 1905 which took place outside the Pale of Settlement were directed not so much against the Jews as against the revolutionaries (a considerable part of them were Jews). Contrary to the idea prevailing in historiography that the clashes of October 1905 were organized, the pogroms arose spontaneously. Neither the government, which was prostrate, nor the right-wing parties, the numerical composition of which in Russia at that time was measured by several thousand people, initiated or organized those events. In October 1905, there were no monarchist organizations in Vladimir Governorate at all. However, the supporters of autocracy are responsible for two political murders which occurred after the pogroms in November–December 1905. In Ivanovo-Voznesensk the crowd infuriated with the events of recent months tore to pieces a revolutionary woman who was transporting weapons, and in the village of Undol workers killed an agitator who called for the overthrow of autocracy. After the foundation of monarchist organizations in Vladimir Governorate, street clashes between the opponents and the supporters of autocracy gradually died down because the monarchists got an opportunity to defend their political convictions in a more civilized form. Although the conflicts between persons of opposite political views continued for some time, they were more like domestic quarrels and had no victims. Both sides were equally responsible for those incidents.

Taxi violence in South Africa : insight from Mpumalanga Township, Kwazulu-Natal Province, South Africa

Despite the demise of apartheid, taxi violence still remains a major challenge in the South African minibus-taxi industry. South Africa is no stranger to bloody clashes between rival taxi organizations who fight to gain dominance over lucrative routes. This qualitative study examines the transition of taxi violence in a new democratic South Africa and draws upon semi-structured interviews conducted with taxi drivers in Mpumalanga Township, which is a low-urban community settlement in the eThekwini Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal province. The findings suggest that taxi violence still remains a fundamental challenge in South Africa, and its perpetrators are predominantly taxi owners contesting ownership of lucrative routes to secure a more robust daily income. This study posits that a holistic approach must be taken and the entire industry restructured.

Local Issues and Perspectives: The Role of Federal Government’s Intervention in the Minority Fulani Herdsmen and Majority Local Farmers’ Crisis in Nigeria

The public’s grievances with long-drawn incessant bloody clashes between the Fulani herdsmen and local farmers in all parts of Nigeria, together with economic recession or national economic slowdown, climatic change, anti-grazing laws, the religious crisis, and the strains of electoral campaign politics in the country – thus, convoluting efforts for the country’s long-term stabilisation. High poverty levels and dwindling financial assistance have added to the Nigerian states’ anxieties of being discarded once again. This article illuminates the contradictory perceptions among the main stakeholders in Nigeria and global world on the trajectory of the Fulani herdsmen insurgency stage. The article contends that the farmers’ and herdsmen’s clashes are substantially a war of perceptions on the progress made thus far. This broadening divergence in perception will result in making a long-term stabilisation strategy difficult.

The State, Farmers/Herders’ Clashes and Voter Mobilization in the 2019 General Elections in Nigeria: Interrogating Electioneering Campaign Rhetoric in Benue State

The internecine farmers/herders’ clashes that became pervasive in Nigeria in recent times took the centre stage in electioneering campaign in the 2019 general elections in the country. The opposition parties used the bloody clashes that aggravated inter-ethnic disharmony, undermined the country’s security and unleashed socio-economic losses as a main campaign issue. Hence, campaign slogans, jingles and songs that harped on the farmers/herders’ clashes were used during electioneering campaigns to mobilize votes. This study, therefore, examines the campaign slogans, songs and messages by the main opposition party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) candidates and its supporters at political rallies in the 2019 elections in Benue State that dwell on the armed herdsmen attacks to dissuade voters from voting the ruling party, the All Progressive Congress (APC) headed by Muhammadu Buhari a Fulani. The study adopts Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony as its theoretical frame of analysis. The study which made use of content analysis and is analytically revealed that political language has become an instrument of hegemonic control meant to divert peoples’ attention from socio-economic realities. In as much as party songs, slogans and jingles tend to convey symbolic aspects of genuine concern for the people’s plight, they fail to offer alternative solutions to prevailing socio-economic realities in Benue State. Amongst other recommendations, it suggests that political debates should be institutionalized in the country’s electoral process.

Дети-сироты в годы Гражданской войны: от беспризорности к концлагерям

We investigate specifically and comprehensively the orphans situation and transformation of social protection system in the Civil War years and its ultimate phase Tambov Rebellion in the Tambov Governorate through the lens of children’s everyday life and policy of the Soviet government. On the basis of a wide complex of primary materials attraction, first of all archival documents, we representatively and specially investigate various little-known aspects of the scien-tific problem declared in study. We generalize practices of children survival in the incredibly bloody and violent clashes of rebels and parts of the Red Army in one region – Tambov Gover-norate. We reveal the conditions of children placement in concentration camps, as well as attempts of the authorities to regulate their situation, to stabilize the morbidity of children and catastrophic child mortality. We provide the specific data on the peculiarities of orphans charity in the conditions of Civil War, Tambov Rebellion, new economic policy at the regional and county level, which allows to evaluate not only the social policy of the Soviet government, but also the survival of children’s society in the chronological period under consideration. We clarify the consequences of taking rebel family members (residents of the region who joined A.S. Antonov) hostage and using children as an attractive mechanism to combat “banditry”. We specially consider the influence of “party and class” selection of children at their admission to orphanages, as well as taking into account their social origin, the position of parents. We reveal the main results of the new economic policy (NEP) impact on children’s social protection and the constriction of the existing practice of orphans charity in the conditions of the actual cessation of funding for many children’s institutions. We draw conclusions about the historical experience, traditions and features of the children survival, including orphans at the regional level (governorate and county) in the conditions of hunger strikes of the 20s of the 20th century, which allowed to successfully reconstruct the actual population situation of the Tambov Governorate in the post-revolutionary period. We give the characteristics of the local authorities’ policy, the interaction of the capital and the regions in the conditions of almost incessant cataclysms and social disasters of the first years of Soviet power.

HYBRID IDENTITY IN NIYI OSUNDARE'S VILLAGE VOICES AND SONGS OF THE MARKETPLACE

Ethnic and social differences have continued to manifest in postcolonial African countries often leading to great animosity and bloody clashes. This paper has used Homi K. Bhabha's ideologies of difference and hybridity to study selected poems from Niyi Osundare's Village Voices and Songs of the Marketplace. Such a study is important in order to bring to light the underlying political, ethnic, cultural, religious and social differences reflected in contemporary Nigerian literature and the effects of colonialism on individual private and public experiences. Theresearchers have applied deconstruction of discourse to the selected poems in order to cancel the binary opposition created by the apparent reflection of difference and to bring out the liminal situations that lead to what Homi Bhabha has called hybrid identity. The analysis of selected poems has shown that postcolonial Nigeria is suspended in a liminal space where traditional differences have been dissolved giving way to unrecognizable characters whose actions and inactions have helped to create a third class of hybrid characters.

Rhythm of revolutionary movement in revolutionary works (M. Azuela “The Underdogs”, I. Babel “Red Cavalry”, “O. Serafymovych “Iron Flood”)

The research is devoted to the investigation of revolutionary movement`s rhythm. It compares literary objects (M. Azuela “The Underdogs”, I. Babel “Red Cavalry”, O. Serafymovych “Iron Flood”), which are united by the conceptual closeness in reproduction of the revolutionary movement. The plot of each of these works is based on the image of one or several episodes of the revolution and the reality that it generates. In all three works factual and essay-artistic material is used; the authors prefer fragmentation that does not presuppose integrity. The mosaic of texts is explained, firstly, by the image of a revolution in a movement that is constantly shrinking; and secondly, by ambiguous perception of events.The social-psychological mechanisms of creating a spontaneous mass flow in the revolution are explored. The tension that grows in the process of “emotional swirling” and the ongoing “circular reaction” leads to violent actions. Emotional tension forces the mass to move. As a result, there is not just a tendency, but a deep emotional need for joint immediate actions. Sharply reducing the critical view of what is happening leads to an increase in the emotion of the twist and the search for events, the ability to perceive reality rationally is lost. In this situation, a person aspires to join “all” in a general revolutionary impulse.Such a movement is usually indicated by the rhythm of the march, spontaneous, unbroken mass flow, echoes of shots, screams and bloody clashes. It is proven that revolutionary movement is interpreted as an exalted impulse, and a devastating rebellion.

РОССИЙСКИЕ ИСТОЧНИКИ XVIII–XIX ВЕКОВ О КОНФЛИКТАХ В КАЗАХСКОЙ СТЕПИ И УЧАСТИИ В НИХ УРАЛЬСКОГО КАЗАЧЕСТВА

Цель. Цель данной статьи – показать сложность и неоднозначность отношений между казахами и русскими военными (прежде всего казаками) в период продвижения России в казахскую степь и Среднюю Азию, а также отражение данной проблемы в различных источниках.Метод или методология проведения работы. В ходе проведения работы были использованы разноплановые источники, проливающие свет на данную проблему. Среди них документы XVIII–XIX веков, в основном, из Государственного архива Оренбургской области (ГАОО), а также из военно-исторического архива (РГВИА). Использованы также документы, собранные поручиком генштаба А.Д. Рябининым, важность которых связана и с тем, что архив Уральского казачьего войска пропал в годы гражданской войны. Не менее важными представляются две крупные работы офицеров, военных историков и теоретиков М.И. Иванина и М.А. Терентьева, принимавших непосредственное участие в походах через казахскую степь и в присоединении Средней Азии. В меньшей степени использованы материалы других «живых источников» XIX века – уральских казачьих офицеров И.И. Железнова и Н.Г. Мякушина, а также служившего при Оренбургском военном губернаторе В.И. Даля. Важным источником являются и «Уральские войсковые ведомости» – единственная газета, издававшаяся в Уральском казачьем войске в последней трети XIX века.Результаты. Все эти источники позволяют сделать ряд важных заключений. Они ярко свидетельствуют, что юго-восточные окраины России долго подвергались набегам «степняков», и это выработало у большинства пограничного казачьего населения устойчивую неприязнь к кочевым соседям. Неприязнь сохранялась долгое время, но в течение XIX века она постепенно снижалась вследствие социально-политических и экономических изменений, параллельно сокращалось и число конфликтов. Российские военные иногда проявляли излишнюю жестокость, а их командиры, выполняя указания свыше, не всегда были справедливы в отношении казахского населения. Но это не было основной тенденцией. Казахское общество было отнюдь не монолитно. Далеко не все представители знати пользовались уважением и авторитетом у простых людей; многие ханы и султаны нуждались в личной охране от своих же подопечных, которую осуществляли казаки. Нравы различных казахских родов и жузов порой имели существенные различия, обусловленные разными факторами, в том числе географическими. Чаще всего конфликты, волнения и мятежи происходили в Западном Казахстане (в Младшем казахском жузе), а самым непокорным и воинственным здесь был род «адай». Сложными были отношения казахов не только с казаками (или в целом с русскими), но и с другими соседями – узбеками, туркменами и прочими, порой приводившие к кровавым столкновениям. В то же время, источники свидетельствуют, что имело место и позитивное сотрудничество с казахами и их знатью в разных областях – политической, военной, хозяйственной, культурной.Область применения результатов. Данные этой статьи могут использоваться историками, краеведами, другими научными и научно-педагогическими работниками, а также всеми, кто интересуется историей русско-казахских отношений.

Tahrir Square, From Place to Space: The Geography of Representation

Tahrir Square, a downtown Cairo roundabout that forms a maze of pavement leading up to the 14-story government building called the Mugamma', which had metamorphosed into a symbol of government, tells the story of a place transformed into a space. Before 2011, Tahrir Square was a place of domination; ordinary citizens once crossed the square in a hurry, trying to avoid any encounter with police or the secret police who were stationed in and around the square. However, when in need of an official document, they walked straight across the square into the Mugamma' to face with dread the monstrous Egyptian bureaucracy. The latest transformation of the square began on Jan 25, 2011, when thousands of citizens occupied the square. The ensuing bloody clashes with the regime's police forces established and defined the core actors. This article argues that the evolution of the actors from a collection of mere subversives to a resisting force that became a revolutionary movement required the physical appropriation of Tahrir Square

Theodicy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Throughout all of Rousseau’s works there is tension between argumentation and feeling, speculation and intuition, reason and conscience. Reason binds men when they think correctly, but divides them and opposes one to the other when they place it at the service of self-interest, of ambition and of the will to prevail. Conversely, the universality of conscience is immediate and transparent: it transmits the truth of the existence of God, of the freedom of men, of the distinction between good and evil, as well as of the universal principles that are at the roots of human action and of the virtues honoured by all human societies, despite the differences of particular legislations. Mankind possesses an innate and intuitive conscience of the fundamental principles by which its conduct must be inspired. Were we to consider human actions only according to the criterion of physical need, of causality and of movement, vices and virtues would disappear and terms like morality and honesty would have no meaning. But each one of us perceives from within that this is not the case. We feel that moral good and evil are more real than anything else, without any need whatsoever to prove it. To obey the conscience one has of good and of evil without human mediation means to reject the dogmatic formalism of religions as well as the vanity of philosophical disputes. Every human being, however, is inserted into a national community. What should the state’s attitude be vis-à-vis religion? Rousseau indicates two paths. The first consists in establishing a purely civil religion that admits only those dogmas that are truly useful to society. Rousseau highlights the contradiction of a Christian religion that, although it is the religion of peace par excellence, fuels continuing bloody clashes among men due to a dogmatic theology that is totally alien to the essence of the Gospel and extremely hazardous for the life of the State. The second path consists in allowing Christianity to retain its authentic spirit, its freedom from any material constraint, without any obligations other than those of individual conscience. The Christian religion has such a pure and noble moral that it cannot but benefit the State, as long as one does not expect to make it part of the constitution.

STATE-SOCIETY CONFLICT RADICALIZATION IN HONG KONG: THE RISE OF ‘ANTI-CHINA’ SENTIMENT AND RADICAL LOCALISM

Hong Kong has been facing an increasingly strong “anti-China” sentiment in recent years. More people are worried that existing Mainland-Hong Kong integration actually provides more opportunity for Beijing to exercise political control over Hong Kong, resulting in the loss of local identity. Political parties of the pan-democratic camp, which has been at the forefront of political activism since the 1980s, used to adopt a “milder” approach to oppose intervention from Beijing. However, with more Hong Kong people, especially localists, becoming sceptical towards this tactic, they have resorted to escalating things into “radical” protests or even bloody clashes with the authorities. During Chinese Lunar New Year 2016, a few hundred protesters joined the “Mong Kok Riot” and violently pelted police officers with bricks and glass, leading to more than 120 people being injured. The clashes may on the surface have been about hawker management issues, but, in fact, were fuelled by a growing discontent against the Chinese and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region governments. With more protesters prepared to take more radical actions against the authorities, state-society relations in Hong Kong are likely to enter an unprecedented period of tension.

Escuchando ladrar a los perros: Hernando de Soto y su receta para la Amazonía

El trabajo del economista peruano Hernando de Soto ha sido tan influyente como controversial. Su obra maestra, El misterio del capital, propone como solución a la pobreza en los países en desarrollo transformar la informalidad a través de derechos de propiedad y empresa. En 2009, luego de los violentos enfrentamientos en Bagua, De Soto sugirió extrapolar la tesis de El misterio del capital a la Amazonía peruana como solución a los conflictos sociales. De Soto plantea que la única salida para el progreso de los pueblos amazónicos es a través del reconocimiento de derechos de propiedad y la creación de empresas de responsabilidad limitada. Este artículo sostiene, sin embargo, que la pretendida extrapolación sería inconveniente. A la luz de la experiencia de los Estados Unidos con la parcelación de tierras nativas y corporaciones nativas de Alaska, se sugerirá que la supuesta integración económica de la Amazonía podría en realidad exponer a sus habitantes a apropiación de sus recursos y favorecer su desintegración social, cultural y ambiental.