Witchcraft and African development

Impressive investment and growth figures and commercial write-ups enthusing about ‘Africa rising up’, ‘the continent of the future’, and so on, obscure the poverty, illiteracy, poor health and other hardships afflicting the vast majority of African people. Why has massive so-called development and technical ‘aid’ not created the expected dynamic, autonomous economic progress? A blind eye is delicately being turned to the decisive role of people – more specifically, the cultural element. Notwithstanding good intentions, outsiders seeking to promote development assume that black Africans think and act like they only need more education, training and finance in order to ‘catch up’. Outsiders easily forget that since time immemorial, Africans have developed and cherished worldviews and cultures of their own. While these are by no means immutable and do adapt to changing needs and outside influences, Africans refuse to cast off overnight the heritage that makes them the people they are. This paper examines the impact of witchcraft as an integral feature of traditional culture on African existence, notably community life, religion, politics, the law, and economic practice. It stresses the significance of traditional society's powerful egalitarian impulses as well as its profound conviction that all things – goods, wealth, well-being and life force – are in a strictly limited supply that cannot be increased, but can only be redistributed by force or through magical manipulation. While modern life gradually weakens the influence of witchcraft beliefs – in Europe these flourished well into the 18th century – the exasperation associated with Africa's headlong urbanisation actually bolsters these beliefs.     

“Disarmament Market” Effects of Information Disclosures

In yet another wave of discussion on nuclear disarmament among political scientists and practitioners, one of the topical issues concerns the problem of transparency, its mechanisms, costs, and benefits. Numerous—though often abstract—calls for greater transparency of nuclear arsenals and postures when promoting the idea of nuclear disarmament, however, do not give a clear rationale for states possessing nuclear weapons to pursue greater transparency. Meanwhile, many other research fields—such as economics and psychology—attempt to address problems related to the lack of exact information on the counterpart's activities and intentions. Economics offers one probable analog for the transparency problem: the issue of information asymmetry and its consequences. This article is an attempt to apply the classical model of a market with information asymmetry to the analysis of the transparency problem within the nuclear disarmament process. Such an approach could help pave the way for closer cooperation between economic and political scientists in the nuclear disarmament field.     

Can Afghanistan avoid the Natural Resource Curse?

Recent discoveries of significant mineral deposits offer Afghanistan the opportunity to attain a level of economic development sufficient to stabilize that country's volatile security situation while providing Afghans with a reasonable standard of living. Much, however, depends on whether Afghanistan can avoid the “Natural Resource Curse,” an inter-related set of economic and social pathologies that often bedevil resource-endowed countries. In this article, the authors describe the Natural Resource Curse, evaluate the obstacles it raises for Afghan economic development, and offer a strategy to minimize the risks Afghanistan faces in its efforts to exploit its mineral wealth for the benefit of the population.     

二级库存-运输系统的联合经济订购模型

结合器材供应的实际,构建了一个国家仓库-地区仓库形成的二级库存-运输系统,以最低费用为目标,建立了该系统的联合经济订购模型,求解了该系统各仓库的最佳订货量和订货次数;运用该模型对3种订货策略（年度1次订货、年度多次订货、零库存订货）进行了算例验证,表明了该模型在优化多级库存运输系统订货参数方面的意义。     

“全球化”语境下的中国民族文化

全球化对中国民族文化的发展将产生重大而深远的影响。本文重新探讨了全球化背景下,在西方强势文化的冲击下,中国民族文化整合的特点;以及在全球化背景下中国民族文化的发展、创新与重建的有关理论问题,提出了民族文化创新是主动回应文化全球化,实现中国民族文化走向世界的关键所在。     

党对阶级阶层分析的价值判断

建国后党对中国社会结构的认识经历了从阶级到阶层的发展变化。党对中国社会结构认识的变化,是在总结对中国社会结构分析的经验教训的基础上,恢复了阶级阶层这两个范畴的本来面貌。我们应当正确地认识这一变化,澄清对阶级阶层的分析思路,这样才能正确看待新的社会阶层的社会属性,以便更充分地发挥他们在社会主义建设中的作用。     

新民主主义革命时期党领导根据地经济建设的思想探析

纵观新民主主义革命时期的根据地创建,总结了不同时期和不同地方革命根据地经济建设的共同特点,探析了党在根据地时期经济建设的经验和对我国现阶段经济建设的启示。     

以促进新疆经济为导向的校本课程资源开发与功能建构

新疆是少数民族聚居的地区,发展少数民族教育意义重大。除了必要的硬件设施外,我们还需要适应少数民族地区特点的教育模式。开发校本课程,使之与国家课程相得益彰,共同促进少数民族教育的发展进而带动地区经济的发展成为必需。针对新疆这一具有民族特殊性的地方,如何有效的开发校本课程并使之落到实处成为解决问题的关键。     

导弹服役年限建模与分析

影响导弹服役年限的主要因素有自然因素、技术因素以及经济因素。合理地确定导弹的服役年限,是减少军费开支、降低导弹全寿命费用的有效途径。从导弹服役年限的概念入手,在提出用经济寿命法确定导弹的服役年限的基础上,通过数学分析,建立经济模型和经济比较模型,确定了导弹服役年限,并结合实例进行了仿真和验证,从而证明了模型的实际应用价值。     

农村经济结构调整的动力机制分析

农村经济结构调整是一系列因素共同作用的结果 ,引致这种调整的动力机制包括政策导向动力机制、市场需求动力机制、科技发展动力机制和国际竞争动力机制。这四大动力机制共同作用 ,使农村经济结构的调整朝着符合国内外需求、优质高效的目标发展。