Clear Commitments Research Articles

A Comparative Analysis of American and Vietnamese Presidents' Speeches: A Systemic Functional Grammar Perspective

This study presents a comparative analysis of the inaugural speeches of U.S. President Joe Biden and Vietnamese President To Lam, utilizing Michael Halliday's Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) framework. By examining the Ideational (Transitivity), Interpersonal (Modality), and Textual (Texture and Cohesion) metafunctions, the study reveals how each leader's linguistic choices mirror the distinct political and cultural contexts of their respective nations. Joe Biden’s speech underscores the urgency of immediate action and crisis management, employing Material Processes to stress the importance of unity and national recovery. Conversely, To Lam's speech is rooted in long-term nation-building and the leadership of the Communist Party, with a focus on Relational Processes to reinforce collective responsibility and national unity. The Modality analysis demonstrates Joe Biden’s use of High Modality to convey decisiveness and transparency, aligning with American expectations for solid and clear commitments. In contrast, To Lam emphasizes collective duty and the Party's enduring leadership, reflecting Vietnam's socio-political ethos. Additionally, both speeches use Theme-Rheme structures and lexical repetition to ensure textual cohesion, though their cultural and ideological differences lead to distinct rhetorical approaches. By deepening our understanding of how political leaders use language to shape identities, communicate visions, and influence public perception, this study contributes to the broader field of political communication, offering insights into the strategic use of language across different cultural contexts.

Smart transportation planning and its challenges in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

In the 21st century, transport has become an essential factor defining countries' progress or failure. The century has also witnessed a shift from conventional styles of transport to modernized and smart models that facilitate the effective movement of people between various destinations. Smart transportation refers to an approach that integrates modern technologies into the transportation system to enhance urban mobility efficiency. This paper examined the cornerstones and benefits of smart transportation planning and analyzed the challenges of implementing smart transportation in the KSA. The methodology comprises identifying, screening and analyzing the peer-reviewed articles on smart transportation in KSA. Databases such as Elsevier, Google Scholar, and Springer and Science Direct were used. During the assessment, it became evident that safety, convenience, and speed are the factors that inspire KSA to shift towards smart transport. Smart transportation is beneficial as it provides employment opportunities, encourages investments and improves people's living standards. The findings offered helpful insights regarding the different issues that affect the effective implementation of smart transportation systems in KSA, including lack of resources, regulatory framework and skilled personnel. The recommendations that are evident from the study comprise stakeholder involvement and intensive planning. The country must adopt policy-driven strategies, standardization, and inclusive development with clear private, public, and research collaboration commitments. Close adherence to these recommendations will help KSA attain the benefits of smart transportation systems.

Audiovisual Record of Service-Learning for the Strengthening of Citizenship Competence in Peruvian Universities

Given the growing unwanted social stages such as the abandonment of human beings and the growing social passivity to help them, the objective was established to design and implement a socio-training program of audiovisual workshops transmitted through videoconferences, based on the Solidarity Learning and Service methodology, to strengthen low citizen competence. present in 36% of students at a private Peruvian university. Under a mixed approach, in a sample of 815 students from cycles I, II and III, the program obtained positive results by generating deep introspection, as well as clear commitments in the participants.

KNN-Based Consensus Algorithm for Better Service Level Agreement in Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) Systems

With services in cloud manufacturing expanding, cloud manufacturers increasingly use service level agreements (SLAs) to guarantee business processing cooperation between CSPs and CSCs (cloud service providers and cloud service consumers). Although blockchain and smart contract technologies are critical innovations in cloud computing, consensus algorithms in Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) systems often overlook the importance of SLAs. In fact, SLAs play a crucial role in establishing clear commitments between a service provider and a customer. There are currently no effective consensus algorithms that can monitor the SLA and provide service level priority. To address this issue, we propose a novel KNN-based consensus algorithm that classifies transactions based on their priority. Any factor that impacts the priority of the transaction can be used to calculate the distance in the KNN algorithm, including the SLA definition, the smart contract type, the CSC type, and the account type. This paper demonstrates the full functionality of the enhanced consensus algorithm. With this new method, the CSP in BaaS systems can provide improved services to the CSC. Experimental results obtained by adopting the enhanced consensus algorithm show that the SLA is better satisfied in the BaaS systems.

Caring through Crisis: Supporting African Immigrant Students and Educators during the COVID-19 Pandemic

All human beings need care, including professional caregivers such as educators. What happens when a global crisis places care providers; own care needs in conflict with their duty and desire to provide care? In this article, we apply care ethics to a school district's decisions regarding newcomer English learners (ELs) and their educators during the 2020-2021 academic year. Drawing on qualitative case study data from a larger multi-district, multi-state study, we examine how educators and administrators in a small urban school district in New England make sense of students' and educators' sometimes conflicting care needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that even school districts with clear commitments to equity and justice have their efforts severely limited by state and federal leadership's neglect of care/essential workers, youth, and marginalized groups. To end the ongoing pandemic and prevent future harm, we recommend that educational and political leaders prioritize human needs and relationships through a move towards "universal care" (Chatzidakis et al., 2020).

Development of Smart Mobility Infrastructure in Saudi Arabia: A Benchmarking Approach

Smart mobility systems offers solutions for traffic congestion, transport management, emergency, and road safety. However, the success of smart mobility lies in the availability of intelligent transportation infrastructure. This paper studied smart mobility systems in three Asia-Pacific countries (South Korea, Singapore, and Japan) to highlight the major strategies leading their successful journey to become smart cities for aspiring countries, such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), to emulate. A robust framework for evaluating smart mobility systems in the three countries and Saudi Arabia was developed based on the indicators derived from the smart mobility ecosystem and three major types of transport services (private, public, and emergency). Sixty indicators of smart mobility systems were identified through a rigorous search of the literature and other secondary sources. Robots, drones, IoT, 5G, hyperloop tunnels, and self-driving technologies formed part of the indicators in those countries. The study reveals that the three Asia-Pacific countries are moving head-to-head in terms of smart mobility development. Saudi Arabia can join these smarter countries through inclusive development, standardization, and policy-driven strategies with clear commitments to public, private, and research collaborations in the development of its smart mobility ecosystem. Moreover, cybersecurity must be taken seriously because most of the smart mobility systems use wireless and IoT technologies, which may be vulnerable to hacking, and thus impact system safety. In addition, the smart mobility system should include data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence in developing and monitoring the evaluation in terms of user experience and future adaptability.

The need for metrics to measure progress on racial equity in global public health and medicine

The need for metrics to measure progress on racial equity in global public health and medicine

The Lightness of Human Rights in World Heritage: A Critical View of Rights-Based Approaches, Vernaculars, and Action Opportunities

ABSTRACT Why are the global rights commitments made by States Parties to the World Heritage Convention failing to trigger effective responses to critical human rights infringements? This paper responds to a continuous call from heritage practitioners to help clarify the meaning and significance of human rights-based approaches (RBA) that are adopted as policy imperatives, yet simultaneously undermined in practice. The first part of the paper reviews the vernacularization of human rights discourse and objectives at UNESCO and in the World Heritage policy field. It is argued that while clear formal commitments to human rights exist in the language, much ambiguity and several dilemmas remain in the framing of connections between heritage and human rights. The second part offers a critical discussion of the institutional traps, dilemmas and unresolved questions involved in adopting RBA in heritage work. A set of key questions follow about the why, what, for whom, and when, as well as how and under what conditions, human rights matter in heritage processes. While structural constraints appear daunting, accepting that heritage processes are powerful leads to real choices about whether to cement inequalities and state or corporate power hegemonies, or, conversely, to contribute towards building more equitable relationships.

Principal Managerial Skills in Implementing School-Based Management: A Literature Review

This study aimed to describe principals’ managerial skills in the development of School-Based Management (SBM). The method used in this study was a literature review. The results and discussion of the study, namely the principal’s managerial skills, include; Technical skills (technical abilities), human skills (human relations abilities), and conceptual skills (conceptual abilities), which are implemented in school-based management with components of curriculum management and teaching programs, education staff, student affairs, finance, educational facilities and infrastructure, management of school and community relations, and special services for institutions. The indicators for the success of School-Based Management (SBM) include support from school principals and teachers, sufficient financial resources, clear commitments, responsibilities, skills, and qualifications of school officials, appropriate plans, obligations, and accountability.

Sixteen ways to adapt: a comparison of state-level climate change adaptation strategies in the federal states of Germany

Climate change adaptation (CCA) to reduce or prevent negative climate change impacts and, in some cases, maximize potential benefits is a complex challenge demanding multi-level policy action. In federalist systems, sub-national governments are among key actors for enabling adaptation and their clear commitments can increase collaboration and innovation at the local level. Germany serves as a particularly insightful case for observing the variance among sub-national approaches due to its role as a “leader” in CCA at the national level. This paper provides the first systematic assessment of all sixteen state adaptation strategies in Germany and examines how German states are fostering adaptation, the extent to which their approaches vary, and which patterns have emerged. Based on a qualitative document analysis of over 30 documents, this assessment focuses on five indicators synthesized from literature climate policy analyses and on barriers and facilitating factors of adaptation. Results find that German state strategies are often non-committal sets of recommendations and identify three clusters displaying different degrees of institutionalization and guidance. While federalism allows for flexibility among state responses, the absence of federal mandates and policy standards allows some states to fall behind while others continue to develop their strategies to foster adaptation. These sixteen diverse approaches each have implications for adaptation governance at other levels.

If money talks, what is the banking industry saying about climate change?

ABSTRACT Major banks are facing increased public pressure to reduce financing for fossil fuel projects. In this decade of action for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (with a focus on SDG 13 – climate action), all sectors, including the financial sector, are urged to recognize the ways in which they impact these goals and how they can best contribute to their realization. But how are the top 10 most active banks in financing the fossil fuel industry responding to this pressure? Using qualitative textual analysis of these banks’ annual reports and a proposed categorization of how banks are talking about climate change, we highlight how these banks see their role in reducing climate impacts through their financing and whether their response has evolved since the Paris Agreement. We find that while these banks are stating an increasing number of climate change actions since the introduction of the Paris Agreement, there are few clear commitments in relation to their financing of fossil fuels. This absence of commitments in the annual reports may reflect an absence of critical reflection on their responsibility for financing climate change. Key policy insights Climate-related financial disclosures should target banks’ climate impact regarding their client financing; most importantly this should be done in a clear, contextualized way so that regulators and the public can hold the banks accountable based on their disclosures. Effective policies need to explicitly consider how banks should measure and reduce climate impacts in a way that is comparable, aligned with the Paris Agreement, and in relation to banks’ credit financing operations to clients (not only from the direct operations of a bank, as has been the focus of banks’ commitments against climate change to date). Legislation mandating human rights and environmental due diligence with explicit considerations in relation to climate change is an example of a policy that would require banks to consider a broader scope of their impact assessment and disclosure reporting which could potentially establish clearer claims for remedies by impacted communities.

Promoting the Rule of Law in the EU Enlargement Policy: A Twofold Challenge

Since the rule of law was introduced into the EU enlargement policy, its role within the conditionality policy has advanced gradually so that it has become the cornerstone of the accession process. This paper analyses the evolution of the rule of law promotion in the process of EU enlargement with a focus on the Western Balkans and strives to identify what the main challenges are in this regard and the main reasons why the EU has made the rule of law central to its new enlargement methodology. Drawing on the experience of the Europeanisation process of the CEE countries, the paper examines the different approaches in terms of the promotion of the rule of law within the Copenhagen political accession criteria. It finds that with regard to the accession process of the Western Balkans, the EU is no longer satisfied with ‘reforms on paper’ and strives to apply more active leverage. However, the internal challenges for the rule of law within the EU and the often ‘neglected’ fourth Copenhagen criterion – absorption capacity of the Union itself referring to its capability to include new members – also affect the process. Rule of law conditionality has been compromised not only by more focus on the box-ticking benchmark fulfilment exercise than on substance, but also by the lack of credibility on the side of the EU that has undermined the pre-accession conditionality. The most illustrative case in this regard is the accession process of North Macedonia that is analysed as a case study in order to identify the main challenges and shortcomings of the EU enlargement policy. The paper proposes that the rule of law promotion and the overall Europeanisation process must rest on a credible merit-based accession process that involves clear commitments on both sides – candidate countries but also the EU.  Keywords: European Union, rule of law, enlargement policy, conditionality, accession process, Western Balkans.   This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution − Non-Commercial − No Derivatives 4.0 International License.   Suggested citation: L Ognjanoska, ‘Promoting the Rule of Law in the EU Enlargement Policy: A Twofold Challenge’ (2021) 17 CYELP 237.

Using Time-Series Remote Sensing Images in Monitoring the Spatial–Temporal Dynamics of LULC in the Msimbazi Basin, Tanzania

The basins containing rivers and wetlands are very significant to the surrounding dwellers in various ways, altogether aiming at boosting the economy for most developing countries. Unfortunately, the benefits are frequently overlooked and lead to basin mismanagement and degradation posed by increasing population. This study used population and satellite data to quantify the extent of land-use and land-cover changes along the Msimbazi valley between 1990 and 2019. Geographic information system and remote sensing techniques were used in the analysis and processing of remotely sensed images acquired in 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2019. The results reveal that the dominant area is built-up land that occupied 39.3% of the total in 1990 and gradually increased to 42.6% in 2000, 54.1% in 2010 and 65.5% in 2019. Moreover, forest and agriculture that in 1990 had been the second and third largest in size, respectively, had been decreasing throughout the entire period. The population increase had been threatening wetland vegetation during the initial 10 years (1990 to 2000); however, the wetland vegetation showed subsequent improvement after the implementation of some government initiatives. Other land cover, such as bush land and grassland, showed minority status with inconsistent changes in either increase or decrease. These findings imply that the Msimbazi Basin suffers much from uncoordinated human activities that consequently degrade its fertility. This degradation can be observed as well from the population distribution maps that show that a huge stress is being exerted along the riverine due to population growth and urbanization. The study also highlights that a lack of intensive management plans that are supported by clear legal commitments for optimal and sustainable resource utilization contributes to wetland deterioration.

Reviewing the law of non-contradiction: A Marxist reading

Karl Popper argues that (i) because dialectics fails to comply with the law of non-contradiction (LNC) and (ii) a thought system that violates the latter is destructive to scientific theorising, dialectics cannot serve as the basis for scientific theorising. In connection with Popper’s accusation, the article seeks to review evidence of dialectical thinking in Marxist literature in accordance with the LNC to clarify the former’s relation to scientific theorising. Lucio Colletti and Lawrence Wilde are notable examples who have made clear commitments to extricate dialectics from the accusation that it violates the LNC. Despite the commendable contributions made, related conclusions do not arise from a concrete analysis of examples from Marxist dialectics about the LNC. We put forward two claims as our position and hence our contribution. First, we side with Popper’s premise (ii): that any thought system that fails to take the LNC seriously cannot validly support scientific theorising. Second, we oppose the truth of Popper’s premise (i): that dialectics undermines the LNC. Consequently, because premise (i) is unfounded, we are unable to grant the soundness of Popper’s contention against dialectics. According to our method of proof, we deploy the tool of concept analysis on relevant examples from Marxist literature. In the end, our overarching purpose is to show that dialectics operationalises the LNC and therefore Marxist dialectics is not disturbed by Popper’s objection.

“We Are Peronists, We Are Organic”: Discipline, Authority, and Loyalty in Argentine Populism

Since 1945, Argentine politics has been largely defined by Peronism, a populist movement established by General Juan Perón. While the ideology of Peronism has shifted and swerved over its seven-decade history, its central emphasis on loyalty has remained constant. This paper examines the notion of “organicity” (organicidad), a Peronist conception of obedience, to elucidate how populist movements valorize discipline and loyalty in order to unify their ranks around sentiment and ritual in the absence of more stable programmatic positions. The original sense of “organicity”, as Perón developed it in his early writings, equated to strict military notions of discipline, obedience, and insubordination. In other words, Perón understood loyalty as an organic conception of discipline that consisted of both unyielding deference for the leader and unwavering commitment to the Peronist Movement. Yet, at particular moments in Argentine political history, Peronist militants either find organicity and loyalty to be intrinsically incompatible, or vocalize definitions of organicity that seem to question the top-down structure of the movement celebrated in Perón’s writings. As a result, among Peronists there is disagreement over what it means to behave organically and loyally. This article draws on extensive ethnographic fieldwork among Peronist militants to argue that populism’s authoritarian preoccupation with fealty attempts to obscure the internal contradictions that result from its lack of clear ideological commitments. However, an emphasis on loyalty cannot produce eternally harmonious uniformity. As Peronists come to view those holding alternate interpretations of their doctrine as heretical and traitorous, their accusations against their comrades reveal the intrinsic fragility of populist unity.

Shaping national plans and strategies for rare diseases in Europe: past, present, and future

Addressing the many challenges posed by rare diseases to patients, families, and society at large demands a specific national (as well as transnational) focus. Historically, the practice of elaborating and adopting national plans and strategies for rare diseases, following a request from the European Commission in 2009, has been an essential means of ensuring this focus, with 25 European Member States having adopted a plan or strategy at some stage. However, from the vantage point of late 2020, there are signs that momentum and commitment to the development, implementation, and renewal of national plans is waning, in some cases. In this article, we examine the status quo and explore the trend for national plans and strategies to expire without clear commitments or timelines for replacement. We also examine the factors and institutions which supported the initial drive towards the adoption of national plans and strategies in Europe and consider the very different climate in which the next generation of national policies may—or may not—be shaped.

La academia frente a las necesidades y demandas de las organizaciones sociales

En este primer semestre de 2017, el país ha experimentado una serie de conflictos de orden laboral y social en los que han sido protagonistas trabajadores del Estado, de entidades como el Ministerio de Trabajo, profesores al servicio de la educación pública, jueces, fiscales y empleados de la rama judicial. A la par, los habitantes del departamento del Chocó y del distrito de Buenaventura se vieron obligados a recurrir a un paro cívico para lograr del Gobierno Nacional compromisos claros en materia de inversión pública que permitieran superar el evidente rezago que padecen en materia de infraestructura vial, salud, educación saneamiento básico y agua potable. Los sectores de trabajadores en conflicto y las comunidades movilizadas habían presentado, con debida antelación, los respectivos petitorios para que las autoridades competentes, especialmente nacionales, atendieran los reclamos, presentaran alternativas de solución acordes a los requerimientos planteados. Llama especialmente la atención el cese de actividades por parte de los docentes en el país que mantuvo paralizado por algo más de un mes el servicio educativo público. Su pliego de peticiones relacionaba varios puntos que tienen que ver con la calidad del servicio de salud que se les presta, las condiciones para la jornada única escolar, la nivelación salarial acordada anteriormente y, en particular, la fórmula para financiar la educación pública y con ello la reforma al Sistema General de Participaciones (SGP) que creó el Acto Legislativo 01 de 2001 reglamentado mediante la Ley 715 de 2001 y que permite establecer el monto de los recursos que la Nación transfiere a las entidades territoriales (departamentos, distritos. Municipios certificados) para sufragar los gastos en salud, educación, saneamiento básico y agua potable.

The Reykjavik Green Deal: on the carbon neutral city and public health

The City of Reykjavik, Iceland, can proudly say that its carbon footprint is among the lowest in a high-income country. This is not because of recent action, but because geothermal central heating is used in every house and because all electricity production is 100% renewable, based on geothermal energy as well as hydropower. This does not mean that Reykjavik does not have a huge task on its hands when it comes to fighting climate change. Reykjavik has set a goal of being carbon neutral by 2040. The next decade will be a decade of action—and an important trial for every country and every city worldwide in the fight against climate change and ecological degradation. If the goals of the Paris Agreement are to be achieved, emissions in Reykjavik must be halved by 2030 and then halved again in the following decade. Carbon capture also must be realised. Transport is the main source of greenhouse gas emissions in Reykjavik, and to change modes of transport remains the greatest challenge. For the past few decades, Icelanders have become highly dependent on cars for transport, and most of the country's vehicle fleet relies on fossil fuels as the main source of energy. That needs to be changed, not only by installing infrastructure for electric cars, but by drastically changing the modal split and people's behaviour. When focusing on what needs to be done for the climate in the urban context, it very often involves action that is also good for health and quality of life. We need to get people out of their cars—to walk more, cycle more, and use public transit. This can be done by providing better public transit and a more walkable, bikeable, and interesting city. A well planned city gets people moving and increases physical activity while reducing emission of carbon dioxide. Research shows that if cities are planned with schools, green spaces, and other services within easy walking and cycling distance of each other, the health of the population improves. That is why the concept of the 15 min neighbourhood was introduced in Reykjavik in 2014.1Frank LD Engelke PO Schmid TL Health and community design: the impact of the built environment on physical activity. Island Press, Washington, DC2003Google Scholar In December 2020, the City of Reykjavik issued the Reykjavik Green Deal as its roadmap to economic recovery after COVID-19. The Green Deal focuses on all three dimensions of sustainability: economic, environmental, and social. Investment in green infrastructure and social development where no one is left behind is central to the plans. We have also issued an update on our Climate Action Plan, initially launched in 2015. The Climate Action Plan can be divided into six main objectives that focus on projects that further both the climate and public health: facilitating complete energy exchange; increasing health-promoting modes of transport; eco-friendly city planning; introducing a circular economy; using low-carbon building materials and design; and effective carbon capture. Reykjavik City Council is convinced that with a focus on climate we are also focusing on the health of our citizens and their quality of life, as well as on green economic growth and welfare. The world needs action. Reykjavik wants to join other cities in working with all parts of society, businesses, and grass-root organisations and put pressure on governments as well as the private and public sectors for clear commitments for a decade of actions when it comes to climate change. I can assure you that our common success to that end will also count as an important milestone when it comes to public health and the overall health of the citizens around the world. I am the current Mayor of Reykjavik. I declare no competing interests.

COLLECTIVE SECURITY IN AFRICA: THE TENSION BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE

The promotion of peace and security in Africa necessitates security cooperation between states and collective security remains a way to pursue it. This paper explores the changed meaning and application of the concept of collective security within the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) to deal with both interstate and intrastate security concerns within the African Union (AU). Since the AU has made clear commitments to collective security, the aim is to determine to what extent the AU subscribed to collective security and applied it in terms of coercion, which includes interventions. While dealing with genocide, war crimes and extended presidential terms remains problematic, the AU has taken an assertive stand with the use of coercion in cases of unconstitutional changes of government. The article highlights the tension between the theory and practice of collective security in Africa.

Europe on the Road to World War II: Polemical Notes

Abstract. The Russian Federation’s military aggression against Ukraine, preceded by the war of the Russian Federation against Georgia, raised the question of a joint repulse of democratic states to actions aimed at undermining European stability. The problem of protecting small and medium-sized states from the threat posed by Russia has arisen in a new way. In this context, the inability of leading European states to stop the aggression of Nazi Germany is repeatedly mentioned. To assess the relevance of such parallels with modernity, the authors of this article seek to briefly and objectively analyse what was happening in the 1930s. The threat of a military catastrophe and complete destabilisation of Europe had been growing since 1933, when Hitler came to power in Germany. He and his entourage gradually dragged Europe into a series of international conflicts and the World War II. According to the authors of the article, the leading motive for the inaction of Western powers within the military and political allied cooperation was not the desire to balance Germany’s military power and thus deter aggression but the attempt to avoid involvement in a world war by appeasing Hitler. In pursuit of European stability, France aimed to secure the military support of as wide a range of European countries as possible, and Great Britain was seeking to build a stable European system without making clear military commitments to the continental powers. London felt at peace with Berlin’s continental ambitions, as they did not cover the seas. London entertained the illusion that its security could be guaranteed without interfering in the war on the mainland. The authors emphasise that only in a state of conscious self-blindness could Western politicians for years retain the illusion of the prospect of civilising and taming the German dictator by satisfying his whims. Such illusions, however, never concerned Stalin. In the pre-war period, the Stalinist regime did its best to prevent the Soviet Union from being involved in building a system of collective security in Europe. The authors come to the following conclusion: in an effort to preserve at least the remnants of stability in Europe, the states have consistently moved towards continuous destabilization and war. Keywords: Europe, military and political union, World War II, Germany.