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World Affairs Online
World Affairs Online
Reykjavíkurfélög: félagshreyfing og menntastarf á ofanverðri 19. öld
In: Ritsafn Sagnfræðistofnunar 26
Education indians 1980: Onderwys indiers 1980
In: Report, 21-04-14
This report contains educational statistics in respect of Indians and covers the whole range of educational institutions from pre-primary to tertiary level, except for certain departmental and private colleges and educational training centres such as agricultural and forestry colleges, mining training centres, the Trade School for Adults, the South African Police College, the Merchant Navy Academy and other colleges giving specialised in-service training
World Affairs Online
World Affairs Online
World Affairs Online
World Affairs Online
Icelandic politics in light of normative models of democracy
Icelandic politics are analysed from the perspectives of three normative models of democracy: the liberal, republican and deliberative democratic theories. While the Icelandic constitution is rooted in classical liberal ideas, Icelandic politics can be harshly criticized from a liberal perspective, primarily because of the unclear separation of powers of government and for the extensive involvement of politics in other social sectors. Despite strong nationalist discourse which reflects republican characteristics, rooted in the struggle for independence from Denmark, republicanism has been marginal in Icelandic politics. In the years before the financial collapse, Icelandic society underwent a process of liberalization in which power shifted to the financial sector without disentangling the close ties that had prevailed between business and politics. The special commission set up by the Icelandic Parliament to investigate the causes of the financial collapse criticized Icelandic politics and governance for its flawed working practices and lack of professionalism. The appropriate lessons to draw from this criticism are to strengthen democratic practices and institutions. In the spirit of republicanism, however, the dominant discourse about Icelandic democracy after the financial collapse has been on increasing direct, vote-centric participation in opposition to the system of formal politics. While this development is understandable in light of the loss of trust in political institutions in the wake of the financial collapse, it has not contributed to trustworthy practices. In order to improve Icelandic politics, the analysis in this paper shows, it is important to work more in the spirit of deliberative democratic theory ; Peer Reviewed
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Tradisionele leiers: erkenning en die pad vorentoe
There has for many years been legal recognition of Traditional Leaders in South African laws, such as the Black Administration Act 38 of 1927 and regulations and proclamations issued in terms of other legislation. Recently legal recognition was confirmed in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act 108 of 1996. Additional recognition of Traditional Leaders and the institution of Traditional Leadership is found in the various provincial legislation providing for Provincial Houses of Traditional Leaders and the establishment and functioning of the National Council of Traditional Leaders. Yet the institution of Traditional Leadership has over the past few years given rise to much controversy. There are those who argue that the institution is outdated and others who regard Traditional Leaders as custodians of customary values and the only leaders who are truly responsible for the well being of communities historically and religiously entrusted to them. Traditional leaders fulfil a variety of functions in rural society, including that of presiding officer in customary courts, mediator of disputes, advisor in agricultural and family matters, guardian of young, old, infirm and abandoned. They perform legislative, executive and judicial functions according to the wish of the majority of the members of the tribe. It became apparent, that de facto Traditional Authorities are the only existing form of local government in rural areas in South Africa. It seems unlikely that, in the foreseeable future, it will be financially, politically or practically possible to replace this form of rural government with a comprehensive and sustainable alternative. The future role of Traditional Leadership in the development process is significant in that in addition to the recognition afforded by the Constitution and other legislation, the development law, unfolding in modern day South Africa under a new development paradigm, distinctly provides for Traditional Leaders to play a significant role in rural development and development planning at local government level in rural areas. The role and function of the Traditional Leaders of South Africa in the rural development process unfolds as the Integrated planning process comes into operation as envisaged in section 10 of the Local Government Transition Act 209 of 1993 read with the .principles contained in the Development Facilitation Act 67 of 1995. The development principles and the regulations prescribing the process of formulating land development objectives, provides for an inclusive process in which all role players and stakeholders are to be involved. In practice this means that communities, community organizations and institutions, as concerned role players in civil society, are also the concerned and key role players in the development planning and development process at local level. No plan and development strategy will therefore meet the prescribed legal requirements of acceptable development planning standards, if the rural communities and their leaders are not directly and actively involved. Much of the confusion and conflict between Traditional Leadership and Customary Law Councilors on the one hand and elected Local Government Councilors on the other, arose as a result of a misunderstanding of the valuable support role which Traditional Leaders can play in the development process. The difference in the nature and scope of the tasks of elected and traditional community leaders provide a rich multi-facet basis on which a successful local governance system can be developed within the context of the current constitutional-legal framework in South Africa. In many other countries in Africa it was only realized after repeated failures of rural development experiments, that Traditional Leaders and Traditional Authorities constitute a most valuable asset in the rural development process.
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Óræð inngrip og pólitísk orðræða í borginni: Listaverkið í almannarými og áhrif útisýninga í Reykjavík
In: Ritið; Undur og ógnir borgarsamfélagsins, Band 18, Heft 2, S. 75-103
ISSN: 2298-8513
In this article I discuss how various collective art projects involving artists and curators using the city as an exhibition site have transformed artistic discourse in Iceland. Chantal Mouffe´s conception of public space as a battleground and art practices as agnostic interventions into this space raise questions about the branding and commodification of art and cultural institutions. Mouffe believes that despite the unrestrained commercial control of the urban landscape, artists still have the possibility of intervening in the political and economic status quo. Employing Mouffe´s analyses as a guiding principle, the study confirms that the permanent value of art in public spaces need not be limited to individual artists' form, style or content, but may be capable of mobilizing political, critical and artistic discussions within the urban community.
Kosningar, lýðræði og fatlað fólk ; Elections, Democracy and Disabled People
Kosningaréttur er grundvallarréttur þegna í lýðræðisríkjum og þátttaka í kosningum álitin ein af mikilvægustu athöfnum borgaranna. Þó að þessi réttindi skuli tryggð öllum þegnum sýna alþjóðlegar rannsóknir að fatlað fólk er víða útilokað frá þátttöku í kosningum. Fatlað fólk er síður líklegt til að kjósa en ófatlað fólk og mætir iðulega ýmsum hindrunum ef það reynir að taka þátt í kosningum. Þessi grein fjallar um kosningaþátttöku fatlaðs fólks með hliðsjón af niðurstöðum alþjóðlegra rannsókna. Í upphafi eru raktar helstu hindranir í vegi kosningaþátttöku fatlaðs fólks og leitast við að svara hvaða áhrif þessar hindranir hafi, ekki aðeins fyrir fatlaða borgara, heldur jafnframt hvað það þýði fyrir heilbrigði lýðræðis og lýðræðislegra stofnana þegar hluti þegnanna mætir alvarlegum hindrunum varðandi borgaraleg grundvallarréttindi. Íslenskar rannsóknir á þessu sviði eru ekki fyrir hendi og engin skipuleg tölfræðileg gögn eru til varðandi þátttöku fatlaðs fólks í kosningum eða stjórnmálum hér á landi. Byggt á gögnum sem aflað var hjá tveimur fjölmennustu heildarsamtökum fatlaðs fólks hér á landi er rýnt í reynslu, aðstæður og möguleika fatlaðs fólks til þátttöku í kosningum á Íslandi, lagasetningar þar að lútandi og skyldur ríkisins til að stuðla að og tryggja þátttöku fatlaðs fólks í stjórnmálum og opinberu lífi, ekki síst í ljósi þess að Samningur Sameinuðu þjóðanna (SÞ) um réttindi fatlaðs fólks (SRFF) hefur verið fullgiltur hér á landi ; The right to vote is a fundamental right of citizenship in democratic nations, and participation in elections in one of the most important acts undertaken by citizens. Although these rights are guaranteed to all citizens, international research shows that disabled people are widely excluded from participation in elections. Disabled people are less likely to vote than non-disabled people and often encounter various obstacles when they try to participate in elections. This article discusses the voting participation of disabled people in consideration of the international research. The main barriers that disabled people encounter in the voting process will first be outlined. This will be followed by questions concerning the effects these obstacles produce, not only for disabled citizens, but what this means overall for the health of democracy and democratic institutions when a portion of the citizenry encounter serious obstacles concerning their basic civil rights. Icelandic research in this field is extremely limited and no systematic statistical data exists on the participation of disabled people in elections, or politics in general, in this country. Based on data drawn from sources from two of the largest disabled people's organization in the country, the focus here is on the experiences, circumstances and opportunities for disabled people to participate in elections in the country. The findings draw attention to the obligations of the state to promote and ensure the participation of disabled people in politics and public life in light of the recent ratification in Iceland of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) ; Peer Reviewed
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"Taumlaust blóðbað án listræns tilgangs": Íslenski bannlistinn og Kvikmyndaeftirlit ríkisins
In: Íslenskar kvikmyndir; Ritið, Band 19, Heft 2, S. 69-133
ISSN: 2298-8513
The regulation of film exhibition in Iceland has closely shadowed the history of cinema exhibition itself. Although regulation practices have undergone various shifts and realignments throughout the twentieth century, they retained certain core concerns and a basic ideological imperative having to do with child protection and child welfare. Movies were thought to have a disproportionate impact on children, with "impressionable minds" often being invoked. Their interior lives and successful journey towards maturity were put at risk each and every time they encountered unsuitable filmic materials. Thus, while assuming that adults could fend for them-selves among the limited number of theaters in Reykjavík, children were a whole another matter and required protection. Civic bodies were consequently formed and empowered to evaluate and regulate films. But even in the context of fairly rigorous surveillance and codification, the turn taken by regulatory authorities in the 1980s strikes one as exceptional and unprecedented. The Film Certification Board (TFCB) was, for the first time, authorized to prohibit and suppress from distribution films deemed especially malignant and harmful. Motivating this vast expansion of the powers of the regulatory body were concerns about a variety of exploitation and horror films that were being distributed on video, films that were thought to transgress so erroneously in terms of on-screen violence that their mere existence posed a grave threat to children. Two years after finding its role so radical-ly enlarged, TFCB put together a list of 67 "video-nasties", to borrow a term from the very similar but later moral panic that occurred in Britain. Police raids were conducted and every video store in the country was visited in a nation-wide effort to remove the now illegal films from rental stores. This article posits that the icelandic nasties list can be viewed as something of a unique testament to the extent to which the meaning, aesthetic coherence and the affect of cultural objects is constructed in the process of reception, while also main-taining that the process of reception is thoroughly shaped by historical discourses, social class, embedded moral codes and a social system of values, as well as techno-logical progress. in what amounts to a perfect storm of moralizing, political games-manship and the sheer panic of a certain segment of the population, the governing institutions in iceland managed in the span of months to overturn constitutionally protected rights to free speech and privacy, as well as undermine central principles of the republic. Two decades would pass before these setbacks were recuperated, and then only on a legal and institutional level. While analyzing the history of the icelandic video nasties, the article also attempts to grapple with and articulate the symbolic register of the ban, how it speaks to the status of cinema in Iceland at the close of the twentieth century, and what ideological strains, morals and/or values were being put into play and funneled into this particular debate. Then, to close, the role of the most notorious of the nasties, Cannibal Holocaust (Ruggero Deodato, 1980), is examined in the context of media coverage and parliamentary debates at the time.