Financial Privileges Research Articles

Factors Affecting Choice of Subspecialisation amongst Orthopaedic Surgery Residents in Southern Nigeria

Abstract Background: As the field of surgery continues to evolve, subspecialty training is fast becoming integral to surgical education. Presently, orthopaedic surgery residents have opportunities to subspecialise in different areas. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the factors affecting the choice of desired subspecialties amongst orthopaedic surgery residents in southern Nigeria. Materials and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study conducted amongst senior orthopaedic surgery residents in southern Nigeria. A well-structured questionnaire designed using the free software Google Forms was electronically distributed to senior orthopaedic residents in Nigeria through online forums (WhatsApp, email, and Telegram). Data obtained were analysed using IBM Statistical Product and Service Solutions version 26. The odds ratio and the associated 95% confidence interval were used to assess outcomes, and a P value <0.05 defined that the difference was statistically significant. Results: At the end of the study period, 53 orthopaedic surgery senior residents completed and submitted the questionnaire with a response rate of 73.6%; 50.9% were married with children and 49.1% were single. The most agreed key factor influencing the choice of orthopaedic surgery subspecialisation from the study was lifestyle considerations (79.2%). Other major factors considered to be also very important were the needs of the region (73.6%), active mentorship (71.7%), ergonomics (64.6%), rotation experiences (47.2%), cost of acquiring the training (41.5%), and salary and financial privileges (37.7%). Overall, 24.5% of respondents chose spine surgery as their desired subspecialty, 18.9% arthroplasty, 17% arthroscopy, 17% paediatrics, 13.2% reconstructive orthopaedics, 5.7% musculoskeletal oncology, and 4.7% hand and foot surgery. Our study revealed a significant statistical relationship between having children and choice of a subspecialty (Fischer’s = 0.032; χ2 = 0.033), as the married female residents tend to have more family considerations in their final choice of subspecialisation. Conclusion: The choice of orthopaedic surgery subspecialisation amongst orthopaedic surgery residents in southern Nigeria is affected by different factors, such as mentorship, needs of region, desire to work in academic settings, and ergonomics.

Long-term Lease on Waqf Lands in Khorezm: A New Form of Privileges of Sacred Lineages

Abstract The aim of this paper is to examine the mechanism of long-term lease on religious endowment (waq f) lands in Khorezm. In particular, the primary focus of the present study is twofold. Firstly, it investigates the practice of long-term lease on waq f lands on the basis of rental contracts, as well as other concomitant records from 19th-century Khorezm. Secondly, this study examines the social background of and reciprocal relations between participants, who were involved in long-term lease operations. As becomes evident from the documents under study, the family members of Muḥammad Šarīf Īšān, a prominent figure of the Naqshbandiyyah-Mujaddidiyyah in Khorezm, acted in the capacity of trustee (mutawallī) of waq f properties of the Sayyid Muḥammad Raḥīm Ḫān’s madrasa in Khiva, regularly commissioned and financially supported by the ruler himself, as well as other representatives of the Qonghrat dynasty (1770-1920). Moreover, members of Muḥammad Šarīf Īšān’s family also participated as tenants of occasionally large waq f assets in long-term lease contracts. To this end, this study posits that the employment of long-term lease practice on waq f land was a principal means of providing financial support by the Khivan ruling circles to various Sufi lineages in Khorezm. Thus, the long-term lease operation clearly illustrates yet another pattern of patronage between the ruling dynasty and descendants of a particular Sufi lineage, as well as an additional source of income and financial privilege of the latter.

Shifting Financial Privileges from Dynasty to Parliament In the Emergence of Modern Turkiye

Shifting Financial Privileges from Dynasty to Parliament In the Emergence of Modern Turkiye

Financial Privilege: Educational Funding Source Impacts Students’ Perceptions of Financial Readiness and Cost as a Barrier to Dietetic Internships

Financial Privilege: Educational Funding Source Impacts Students’ Perceptions of Financial Readiness and Cost as a Barrier to Dietetic Internships

Parents’ experiences of home-schooling amid COVID-19 school closures, in London, England

Upon COVID-19 being declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, parent-carers worldwide faced major challenges in how to adapt, become resilient, and to continue educating their children at all levels amid school closures. Home-schooling, with parent-carers becoming the substitute teachers, had become the new ‘norm’ during the first and third lockdowns in England. This paper reports on qualitative findings from semi-structured interviews with 35 participants comprised of parents with children aged between 5 and 8 years old in South London, England. Thematical analysis is used to capture parents’ well-being experiences of home-schooling amid COVID-19 compulsory school closures. This paper explores how the pressure on parent-carers to provide education at home akin to a school setting is physically and emotionally challenging. The paper also addresses how parents’ stress levels intensified in the second (January 2021) home-schooling period. A post-structural feminist framework is deployed to unpick gender socio-cultural inequalities relating to the distribution of work/labour/childcare duties at home during lockdown. Existing research has focussed on the impact on low-income families and children’s well-being during the pandemic. This research contributes to existing research by addressing an under-researched area relating to the impact on well-belling for middle-income maternal caregivers. Findings of this research show how financial privilege does not provide an escape from additional stress and how parents’ well-being was affected.

Services Rendered

America’s legacy of racism and inequity has created a criminal legal system that privileges money over innocence. A protracted encounter with the courts has the potential to bankrupt entire families, keeping them and even their descendants in a cycle of disadvantage that can span generations. Yet there are also countless legal backwaters across the country where money, instead of insulating a defendant from the worst of the criminal legal system, puts a different kind of target on their back. Drawing on the author’s lived experience as a formerly incarcerated citizen, this piece uses personal history to explore the different financial pressure points used in the criminal legal system: the ecosystem of cash bail, fines, and fees. It outlines differences in the ways such pressure is applied depending on a defendant’s economic standing, and argues that it amounts to a form of coercion inflicted on defendants from across the spectrum of financial privilege. The piece also highlights how financial exploitation in the criminal legal system can leave defendants not only financially indebted to their support networks but emotionally indebted as well: ashamed of the money and time that was spent—and seemingly wasted—on trying to secure an outcome that the system, by design, always keeps just out of reach.

Comparison and implementation of dowry and alimony for women in Islamic and Western legal systems

Aim: The aim of this research was to compare and contrast the dowry and alimony of women in the Islamic and Western legal systems. Method: This study was conducted in a descriptive-analytical manner using library sources. Texts in the form of books and articles in Persian and English as well as newspapers were used in this way. In addition, reputable internet search engines such as Google and Yahoo were used in the development of this research. Results: In this study, the financial rights of husband and wife towards each other, financial independence of couples, and laws related to dowry and alimony were examined in Islam and the West. Conclusion: The Islamic legal system, according to the five schools of jurisprudence, has special financial privileges for the wife, which is almost unique compared to Western legal systems. One of these privileges is "dowry." Dowry is a mandatory gift that belongs to the wife and although it is not a condition for the validity of marriage, it becomes the responsibility of the husband as soon as the marriage contract is concluded, at least to the amount of the mahr al-mithl. Dowry is one of the financial rights of women in the Islamic family legal system. The judicial system of England and Wales is one of the most famous judicial systems in resolving divorce cases and observing equal rights for men and women, to the extent that London is called the divorce capital of the world. In the courts of this country, the man is considered as the main pillar of the family, but in case of divorce, the assets of both parties, and even their future retirement rights, will be examined and based on these examinations, excess assets beyond the needs of each party will be identified and divided equally between the wife and husband. This process is similar in most European and American countries, although structural differences in the law and judicial system of each country may lead to changes in the implementation of court orders.

Comparative study of wife's employment in jurisprudence and legal system of Iran and Egypt and its effect on Islamic lifestyle

Aim: The aim of this research was to compare and contrast the dowry and alimony of women in the Islamic and Western legal systems. Method: This study was conducted in a descriptive-analytical manner using library sources. Texts in the form of books and articles in Persian and English as well as newspapers were used in this way. In addition, reputable internet search engines such as Google and Yahoo were used in the development of this research. Results: In this study, the financial rights of husband and wife towards each other, financial independence of couples, and laws related to dowry and alimony were examined in Islam and the West. Conclusion: The Islamic legal system, according to the five schools of jurisprudence, has special financial privileges for the wife, which is almost unique compared to Western legal systems. One of these privileges is "dowry." Dowry is a mandatory gift that belongs to the wife and although it is not a condition for the validity of marriage, it becomes the responsibility of the husband as soon as the marriage contract is concluded, at least to the amount of the mahr al-mithl. Dowry is one of the financial rights of women in the Islamic family legal system. The judicial system of England and Wales is one of the most famous judicial systems in resolving divorce cases and observing equal rights for men and women, to the extent that London is called the divorce capital of the world. In the courts of this country, the man is considered as the main pillar of the family, but in case of divorce, the assets of both parties, and even their future retirement rights, will be examined and based on these examinations, excess assets beyond the needs of each party will be identified and divided equally between the wife and husband. This process is similar in most European and American countries, although structural differences in the law and judicial system of each country may lead to changes in the implementation of court orders.

CHINA’S ECONOMIC DIPLOMACY IN EUROPE: THE “17+1” INITIATIVE AND IMPLICATIONS FOR NATO’S EASTERN FLANK SECURITY

This paper illustrates how People’s Republic of China has applied a form of economic diplomacy to Central and Eastern Europe in order to extend its regional political influence. Using the “17+1” Initiative, the Chinese state sought to provide financial privileges to member states so that they would later become dependent on Beijing’s political and economic visions. However, despite the European Union’s concern, the results of the project were not as expected, with great doubts about the initiative’s future. These were confirmed by the position of NATO, which considered that China’s efforts do not represent a security issue for the Alliance’s eastern flank.

ORGANIZATIONAL AND ECONOMIC MECHANISMS TO SUPPORT INNOVATIVE DEVELOPMENT AT THE REGIONAL LEVEL

Topicality. One of the problems of the state innovation policy in Ukraine is the abolition or suspension of financial privileges for the subjects of innovation activity due to the lack of transparency of the mechanisms of their distribution. However, complete rejection of state financial support o innovation, that is one of the most widespread instruments of innovation policy in the world, does not correspond with the interests of innovative development of the state. As a solution of this problem at the regional level could be the mechanism of financial support for innovative projects on a competitive basis. Aim and tasks. The purpose of the article is to develop organizational and economic mechanisms of innovative development at the regional level and to discover the source of formation of their financial support. Research results. The article proposes a mechanism for competitive selection of innovative projects to receive funding from local budgets, which, unlike the existing ones, is as transparent as possible, ensures competitiveness among applicants and takes into account the priorities of innovative development of a particular region through the following procedure: the committee for selection of innovative projects is formed on the principles of participatory involvement of representatives of all stakeholders - authorities, business, science, education, community, determines the terms of competition and announces the competition; the competition is open to anyone who has ideas on the announced theme; the selection procedure occurs with maximum transparency and the announcement of the criteria, the selected projects receive funding from the local budget at the expense of the development budget; audit. It is envisaged that economic support for the competitive selection of innovative projects is carried out on the basis of partnerships and financial support from local budgets. The following mechanisms have been proposed: public-private partnership financing through equity participation; granting tax exemptions for other taxes paid to regional budgets; investment-oriented tax benefits, which provide for the exemption from income tax on the financial results of enterprises that are not withdrawn from business and reinvested in innovative projects. Conclusion. Implementation of the proposed mechanisms will ensure transparency of the project selection process, competitiveness among applicants, financial support from different sources and taking into account the priorities of innovative development of a particular region.

The relationship between financial development and income inequality in Turkey

Reducing income inequality and enhancing access to financial institutions play a vital role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 10, especially in developing countries. While there are studies on the nexus between financial development and economic growth, literature on financial development–income inequality nexus is limited and lack consensus. This paper examined the different dimensions of financial development on income inequality for the period 1990 to 2015 in Turkey. For this purpose, four financial development indices (i.e., overall financial development index, banking sector development index, stock market development index, and bond market development index) were constructed with principal component analysis (PCA). In addition to financial development indicators, the impact of real income, government expenditures, and inflation on income inequality were investigated using the ARDL bound testing procedure. The results showed that increasing real income and government expenditures reduce income inequality. We found a positive impact of inflation on income inequality in the short run, while the reverse holds in the long run. In the case of financial development, an inverted U-shaped relationship with income inequality for overall financial development and banking sector development was confirmed. A monotonically decreasing relationship between stock market development and income inequality was found in Turkey. The study highlights that the implementation of policies that eradicate discriminatory laws and facilitate equal access to financial privileges will promote equity and decline the outcomes of income inequality.

Duty Free Citizenship: The Case of Peter Thiel

Two meanings of the word ‘duty’ are relevant to this paper. The first denotes a tax typically payable when goods are moved across borders. If movement of things, such as artworks, between countries is duty free because they remain in free ports, the host jurisdictions confer an extraordinary financial privilege on the typically super-wealthy owners of the artworks. Objects concealed in free ports become detached from their usual use – jewellery is not worn, wine is not consumed and artworks are not viewed, either privately or publicly. Filmmaker and theorist Hito Steyerl, who has analysed duty free art, describes free ports as ‘a luxury no man’s land, tax havens where artworks are shuffled around from one storage room to another once they get traded’. Artworks are commonly a currency of liquid capitalism in which ‘capital itself is now weightless, free of spatial confinement’. Art can be a useful analogy for law, and, as I seek to demonstrate, under certain circumstances, citizenship. The second meaning of ‘duty’ contemplated in this paper is duty as the reciprocal of a right, and is used here in relation to the bundle of interdependent claims and obligations that constitute citizenship. These two meanings of duty meet – analogously and factually – in the case of New Zealand’s extraordinary grant of citizenship to the ultra-libertarian entrepreneur Peter Thiel for whom the normal residency requirements for people applying for the country’s citizenship were waived. The paper, which is a draft work in progress, is structured as follows: after this Introduction, Part II sketches a plausible model of citizenship, identifies key provisions of New Zealand’s citizenship law, and then extracts salient points from journalist Matt Nippert’s investigation into the Thiel’s citizenship. The aim here is to demonstrate that the grant of citizenship to Thiel is incompatible with traditional theory, policy and law on citizenship, and, indeed, New Zealand’s espoused national values. Part III borrows the terminology of Giorgio Agamben to speculate on the idea of ‘homo sacrissimus’ as a privileged exception to the usual norms of citizenship, and an antithesis to the bare life (la vita nuda) of the non-citizen (homo sacer). Conclusions are then drawn.

ПРАВОВОЕ ПОЛОЖЕНИЕ ЕВРОПЕЙСКИХ ОБЪЕДИНЕНИЙ ЮРИСТОВ

We consider the legal situation specificity and the main activities of European associations of lawyers. Communities of judges, prosecutors, lawyers in public service are quite rare and, as in Russian practice, are not considered as public (non-governmental) associations. Membership in the association of lawyers of European countries is mainly associated with such professional activities as advocacy and notary, which is a private legal component of legal activity. The main tasks of many associations of lawyers is to protect the interests of its members, training and retraining of association members. Membership in these associations does not give any financial privileges, in Western European professional legal associations at the regulatory level, tax benefits for members of these organizations and legal instruments for professional growth are fixed. We analyze the activities of such associations as the German lawyer association, the Bar Association of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of China (Taiwan), the European Bar Association for democracy and human rights. On the basis of the comparative and legal characteristics of Russian and European associations of lawyers we made a conclusion about the distinctive and similar features in their legal position.

Американская помощь Египту после начала «Арабской весны»: внутренние и внешние детерминанты

Within a legion of the U.S. aid recipients, there is a narrow group of the most privileged partners which has included the Arab Republic of Egypt since the signing of the Camp David Agreements. However, the end of the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak during the Arab Spring in 2011 induced the United States to reconsider its support to Cairo. Reacting to a series of subsequent governmental changesthe U.S. executive and the Congress sought to use suspending military and economic aid and modifying political, financial and technical conditions of its provision to influence domestic and foreign policies of Egypt. Logic and dynamics of these efforts, as well as the constraints that hindered their implementation under the Barack Obama and Donald Trump presidencies have not been examined yet in detail and with proper attention to the role of various domestic actors’ interests and external developments, namely, the Egypt’s actions and changes in its international environment. The paper draws several key conclusions. Indeed, the United States has demonstrated its willingness to experiment with a truly unique range and combination of methods of using conditional aid as leverage but thisexperimentationprocess was distorted by a mixture of powerful internal and external factors. The domestic political economy of the U.S. military assistance to Egypt, determined by its ‘tied’ status and distinctive financial privileges, and a permanent pressure from defense and pro-Israeli lobbies (and lobbyists occasionally hired by Egypt) had as strong an impact as the U.S. authorities’ intent to obtain perceived benefits from continuing strategic cooperation with Egypt or to avoid risks of ‘losing’ it to competitors, especially Russia. Egyptian governments understood clearly thelogic of the U.S. aid provision and the ways to mitigate the threat of aid suspension, which – notwithstanding a parallel generous support from the Gulf countries to Cairo – may help explain the U.S. failure to accelerate Egypt’s transition to democracy after 2011.

You're worth what you eat: Adolescent beliefs about healthy eating, morality and socioeconomic status

Amidst growing concern about adolescents' diets and dietary health in the United States, this article asks: what does healthy eating mean to adolescents? Using data from in-depth interviews conducted with 74 adolescents across socioeconomic status (SES) in California in 2015–2016, I show how adolescents view healthy eating as a moral, affluent practice and use discussions of healthy eating to assert their own morality and socioeconomic position. Adolescents associate healthy eating with 1) financial privilege and 2) moral superiority. Adolescents differ, however, in how they view their own families' healthy eating habits, and accordingly, their own moral worth. Most middle- and high-SES adolescents depict their families as healthy eaters. They trace their families' healthy diets to financial privilege while simultaneously framing these diets as morally superior. In the process, middle- and high-SES adolescents distinguish their families – as healthy eaters – from poor, “unhealthy” families. In contrast, few low-SES adolescents describe their families as healthy eaters. On the one hand, these adolescents report that financial constraints limit their families' abilities to eat healthily. But most also subscribe to the same discourses that label healthy eating as morally superior. While a minority of low-SES adolescents push back against these discourses to regain a sense of moral worth, overall, more privileged adolescents' beliefs about healthy eating enable them to assert themselves as good, moral people, while those shared beliefs challenge less privileged adolescents’ abilities to do the same. In this way, beliefs about healthy eating serve as a powerful medium for adolescents to mark and moralize socioeconomic groups, and each other.

Punkty za inteligenckość. Agaty Zysiak rekonstrukcja historii Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego a rola PRL w umocnieniu inteligenckiej hegemonii

The departure point for the author’s reflections is Agata Zysiak’s book entitled Punkty za pochodzenie. Powojenna modernizacja i uniwersytet w robotniczym mieście [Points for Class Origin: Post-War Modernization and the University in a Working-Class City] (2016). He develops his earlier ideas on the role of the intelligentsia in Poland’s social hierarchy, particularly in connection with the world elite, which, after Bourdieu, he calls the “field of power.” Zysiak’s analyses provide him with arguments for the statement that the period of the Polish People’s Republic can be treated, in multiple dimensions, as having strengthened the position of the intelligentsia and especially of selected milieus within it. Zysiak’s proposed description of the “university in a workers’ city” produces a picture of the triumph of the intelligentsia-elite, whom the new institution of higher learning effectively forms into a successive tool for the strengthening of its privileged status. It also, in the author’s opinion, a factor in the failure of the “new bourgeoisie,” that is, the parts of the middle class that after the periods of modernization reforms had large hopes of maintaining both their status and financial privileges. At the same time, in opposition to the traditional intelligentsia, the new bourgeoisie overlooked the classic distinction games of the elite and believed in the compensatory strength of the manifestation their — usually recently — acquired material resources. The author also reflects on the current picture of Polish scholarship.

Do firms with state ownership in transitional economies take more risk? Evidence from Vietnam

Firms with government ownership in transitional economies are normally in advantageous position because they have many political and financial privileges. A question which naturally arises is that whether firms with government ownership need to take more risk to maintain competitive edge and obtain innovation. This paper sheds further light on that question by providing an investigation into the impact of government ownership on the firm’s risk-taking behavior in Vietnam, a successful transitional economy. The study uses a number of econometric techniques of panel data estimation for efficient and consistent results. Overall, the paper reports that firms with higher state ownership tend to take less risk-taking activities. This finding has strong policy implications relating to the privatization strategy in transitional economies.

Próba nadania praw parafialnych katolickiej kuracji w Suszu na przełomie XIX i XX wieku. Przyczynek do badań nad pruską polityką wyznaniową

Starania o nadanie osobowości prawnej placowce duszpasterskiej w Suszu podejmowano juz w 1868 r. Zabiegano wowczas o swobode obrotu środkow finansowych przez tamtejszą katolicką stacje misyjną. Pierwszy duszpasterz suski – ks. Franz Albert Loeper, urzedujący w tym mieście od 1870 r., ponowil wcześniejszą probe. Wniosek o uzyskanie praw parafialnych przedlozono wladzom panstwowym za pośrednictwem biskupa chelminskiego juz w 1873 r., niestety bezskutecznie. Po kilku latach wznowiono procedure, dokonując uprzednio wyboru przedstawicieli lokalnej wspolnoty katolickiej. Ostatecznie wladze panstwowe udzielily pozwolenia na erygowanie parafii misyjnej w Suszu, co nastąpilo w 1902 r. Poza prawem zrzeszania wiernych, zarządzania wlasnym majątkiem i swobodą szafowania sakramentami, nie posiadala jednak pelni praw parafialnych. Nie mogla zatem ubiegac sie o przywileje finansowe udzielane przez panstwo pruskie. Kolejne prośby o zmiane statusu prawnego tejze placowki duszpasterskiej odrzucano, motywując nieprzychylne stanowisko m.in. spadkiem liczby wiernych. Obawiano sie przy tym polonizacji Susza, jego okolic oraz krzewienia tendencji narodowościowych wśrod polskojezycznej spoleczności. Mimo wieloletnich zabiegow nie udalo sie zmienic statusu prawnego opisywanej parafii misyjnej. Jej funkcjonowanie bylo uzaleznione od pomocy finansowej ze strony diecezji chelminskiej, stowarzyszen i organizacji katolickich.

Imaginary travellers: Identity conceptualisations of the audience among travel journalists

Travel journalists cannot know each traveller for whom they write, so they must imagine what a reader wants. The subsequent journalism influences how tourists travel and engage with a foreign country and its inhabitants. This article uses an independent/connected framework of tourist behaviour to identify how travel journalists imagine their readers’ interests. Through content analysis of texts in newspapers from Asia and the West, we find that the reader is more often imagined as independent and adventurous than connected and concerned with tourist sights. However, the latter were more common in Asia, which suggests that travel writers across the globe imagine readers differently. It suggests that in an increasingly globalised world, the post-colonial power dynamic that has been a stalwart of scholarly thought on travel writing may be outdated and could be more usefully replaced by one that considers the financial privilege of tourism, seen in texts from both hemispheres.

Crisis, Austerity and Gendered Governance: A Feminist Perspective

Feminist scholars have been highly attentive to the ways that crises have become an everyday technique of global governance. They are particularly sensitive to the mechanisms through which ‘crisis management’ entrenches the power of particular economic orders and constrains the possibilities, and space, for contestation and critique. This paper seeks to contribute to but also to extend existing feminist research on financial crisis by arguing that, over the course of what has commonly been labelled the ‘global financial crisis’, the emergence of ‘crisis governance feminism’ has enabled existing structures and mechanisms of gendered privilege, such as the global financial industry, to suppress calls for their overhaul and to re-entrench their power in the global political economy. Adopting a discursive approach to gender and governance that situates gender centrally in understanding governance discourses and their reproduction of common sense (about what people do, how they labour, where they invest and so on), this paper argues that the governance of crisis in the contemporary era, in particular the various actors, institutions, policies and ideas that have sought to describe and ‘contain’ the global financial crisis, are gendered. Gender has become, in the contemporary global political economy, a technique of governance, and with deleterious effects. Despite inciting more discussion of ‘gender’ in economic systems than ever before (particularly in terms of discussions of ‘economic competitiveness’), this paper argues that the ‘global financial crisis’ has precipitated and continues to reproduce techniques of governance that trivialise feminist concerns while further embedding a masculinised, white and elitist culture of global financial privilege.