scholarly journals Social Synergy Sukuk (Double-S Sukuk): A Solution for Pandemic Crisis

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (Special Issue) ◽  
pp. 469-480
Author(s):  
Sani Suleiman Dalhatu ◽  
Ashurov Sharofiddin

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis is projected to plunge over half a billion people (580 million) globally into extreme poverty. This exploratory paper proposes an innovative Social Synergy sukuk (Double-S sukuk) for alleviating the alarming upsurge in extreme poverty triggered by the pandemic in the face of limited resources. The Double-S sukuk is designed with Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs); such as Islamic Development Bank subscribing to the sukuk at a discounted profit rate, issued by a country facing the pains of the pandemic. The profit will be paid by a charitable Non-Governmental Organization; such as Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as an incentive to the crises country contingent upon judicious utilization of the funds for the pre-agreed social targets achieved within timely milestones that trickle down to uplift the citizens from the pandemic pains of extreme poverty. The country will only pay the principal component. Furthermore, a suitable MDB; such as Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) will issue a charitable guarantee to enhance the sukuk rating and cut issuance costs. This enhancement makes the sukuk an attractive BASEL III High-quality-liquid-asset (HQLA). Instead of begging the public for charity, the Double-S sukuk will be open to the public to invest alongside MDBs for a discounted profit rate to crowd-in the social/ethical conscious private sector to raise cheaper and larger funds for an apt synergistic crisis alleviation. The methodology used in this study is qualitative based on content analysis of relevant academic journals, industry reports and policy documents.

2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-24
Author(s):  
Guy Davidov ◽  
Maayan Davidov

Research on compliance has shown that people can be induced to comply with various requests by using techniques that capitalise on the human tendencies to act consistently and to reciprocate. Thus far this line of research has been applied to interactions between individuals, not to relations between institutions. We argue, however, that similar techniques are applied by courts vis-à-vis the government, the legislature and the public at large, when courts try to secure legitimacy and acceptance of their decisions. We discuss a number of known influence techniques – including ‘foot in the door’, ‘low-balling’, ‘giving a reputation to uphold’ and ‘door in the face’ – and provide examples from Israeli case law of the use of such techniques by courts. This analysis offers new insights that can further the understanding of judicial decision-making processes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (7) ◽  
pp. 703-709 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Fisher ◽  
Stephen M Lu ◽  
Kevin Chen ◽  
Ben Zhang ◽  
Marcelo Di Maggio ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The goal of facial feminization surgery (FFS) is to feminize the sexually dimorphic characteristics of the face and enable transwomen to be correctly gendered as female. Studies have demonstrated high patient satisfaction with FFS. However, the correct gendering of patients after FFS has never been objectively studied. Objectives The aim of this study was to determine if FFS changed the perceived gender of patients in the public eye. Methods An online survey platform with control photographs of cis-gender males and cis-gender females as well as preoperative and postoperative FFS patients was created. Respondents were asked to identify patients as “male” or “female” and to assign a confidence score ranging from –10 (masculine) to +10 (feminine) (n = 802). Results Cis-gender male and female controls were gendered correctly 99% and 99.38% of the time and with a confidence metric (CM) of –8.96 and 8.93, respectively. Preoperative FFS patients were gendered as female 57.31% of the time with a CM of 1.41 despite hormone therapy, makeup, and hairstyle. Postoperative FFS patients were gendered as female 94.27% of the time with a CM of 7.78. Ninety-five percent of patients showed a significant improvement in CM after FFS. Conclusions This study illustrates that FFS changes the social perception of a patient’s gender. Patients after FFS are more likely to be identified as female and with greater confidence than before surgery. This is despite preoperative female hormone therapy, and nonsurgical methods that patients use to feminize their appearance. Level of Evidence: 4


2021 ◽  
pp. 205943642110467
Author(s):  
Ngai Keung Chan ◽  
Chi Kwok

This article uses a comparative case study of two ride-hailing platforms—DiDi Chuxing in China and Uber in the United States—to explore the comparative politics of platform power in surveillance capitalism. Surveillance capitalism is an emerging economic system that translates human experiences into surveillance assets for behavioral predictions and modifications. Through this comparative study, we demonstrate how DiDi and Uber articulate their operational legitimacy for advancing their corporate interests and visions of datafication in the face of legal uncertainty. Although DiDi and Uber are both “sectoral platforms” in urban mobility with similar visions of datafication and infrastructuralization, we highlight that they deploy different discursive legitimation strategies. Our study shows that Uber adopts a “confrontational” strategy, while DiDi employs a “collaborative” strategy when they need to legitimize their data and business practices to the public and regulatory authorities. This study offers a comparative lens to examine the social and political dynamics of platform firms based in China and the United States and, therefore, contributes to understanding the various aspirational logic of platform thinking in different political contexts.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Dartagnan Chaves dos Santos

Existing is a verb that encompasses basal biological categories - biochemical, cellular and molecular processes - and psychodynamics, these tied to the experiences of ones and the world. Mental health, then, has as essential problem the face of the other and the "Other" through limited mechanisms and, also, by affections marked by otherness. The question, therefore, was "the most viral memes are based on which psychic processes and, therefore, what was the related otherness?". Three accounts on Instagram - @jedinizm, @pacifylyrics and @mariamchami - were evaluated qualitatively based on the parameters (i) communication objective, (ii) particular psychic function made collective and (iii) taboos and restrictive social norms addressed; clash arose by the critical reading of Sigmund Freud and Maria Homem. The joke was observed in the three accounts, @pacifylyrics presented greater conjugation between images - individual memes - and songs, @mariamchami, in turn, acts in a disruptive way, demystifying the image of the muslim woman through the ridicule of the intolerant thinking of the viewer. @jedinizm, more attentive to the public in general, brings themes such as adultery and financial bankruptcy as objects of laughter and subversion. In all cases, the meme acted as elaboration of affections for conscious denial, raising the characteristic austerity of forbidden themes in the social norm. It is, in fact, a category of popular education in collective mental health.


Author(s):  
Irina Ichim

This chapter explores developments in the protection of human-rights in Kenya post-2002 by examining three interconnected issues: changes in the social and political landscape and how these created or constrained opportunities for activism; changes in the relationship between the state and the human-rights sector, but also within the human-rights sector; and evolving patterns of (non-)state repression of activism. The chapter shows that, against the background of a complex historical experience, and with the help of Kenya’s 2010 Constitution and a reformed judiciary, the human-rights sector in Kenya has grown into a staunch and able defender of civic space in the face of recent government assaults. However, government propaganda and the sector’s institutionalization simultaneously coalesce to disconnect the sector from the public. Coupled with divisions between professional and grassroots defenders, this disconnect risks limiting the sector’s ability to build on the momentum presented by recent achievements.


2020 ◽  
pp. 151-154
Author(s):  
Olivier Roy

This concluding chapter discusses how values are returning today in the guise of dominant norms, both in the secular world and in religion. Today's crisis is not simply a crisis of values, but of referring to values at all. For what should values be founded on? On one hand, religions, which are no longer in sync with Europe's dominant cultures, are returning to the public sphere on behalf of a normative demand. On the other hand, the secular culture that professes freedom and rights is coming to a head in a burst of normative production. This is a normativity toward all forms of religion and religiosity, of course, but also normativity with respect to its own foundation, the social contract, and human nature, that of the desiring subject. Ultimately, the chapter argues that it is time to re-examine the question of values, to restore the particular cultural and social aspects of norms and to reinject them into society. In the face of globalization, the issue is at once to be more in touch with society and to act as a counterweight to other influences in the world: only Europe can meet these two objectives.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-109
Author(s):  
Terrence Reynolds

The late Richard Rorty famously argued that faith-based positions grounded in comprehensive worldviews or unassailable texts served as ‘conversation-stoppers’ and should be excluded from the public sphere. This article argues that Rorty’s position flies in the face of his own postmodern epistemology as well as his insistence on the humility and virtues that should attend the collective pursuit of the social good. It suggests that there are two Rortys at work and that his epistemological ambivalence undermines the force of his argument.


ULUMUNA ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-89
Author(s):  
Chusnul Chotimah Bimbo

  This paper discusses the issues of radicalism that have reappeared in the public sphere nowadays. The discussion will focus on the interpretation of Jihad by Fazlur Rahman and Tariq Ramadan. They are among two modern reformers whose ideas heavily focus on the social, economic and political issues about Muslims in the West. This paper will discuss the thoughts of these two figures about jihad spread across their various writings. As a contemporary reformist Muslim leader, Rahman and Ramadan had made many interpretations of the Qur'an by adapting to the social context of society when the interpretation was made, namely Western society. Their Qur'anic interpretations and their thoughts-whether directly or indirectly-reflect on the circumstances and challenges that Muslims encounter in the West, Europe and the US, today. This paper contributes to the discussion of the meaning of jihad and various attempts at interpretation of the term. Besides, this paper will at least provide an overview of how the face of  Islam in the West in the modern era as it is today.


Tecnura ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (68) ◽  
pp. 15-27
Author(s):  
Paula Garcia Benitez ◽  
Carlos Hildebrando Fonseca Zárate ◽  
Juan Carlos García Ubaque

Abstract CONTEXT: There is a growing concern with the economic consumption and unlimited accumulation model because improvement in some parameters implies that others are negatively affected. There is a need for more intellectual wealth, not only oriented towards the market, but also towards engineering and technology. Methodology: To measure natural/environmental, human, intellectual, public/institutional, and private wealth, the basic results of the Índice de desarrollo territorial sustentable (IDTS, spanish acronyms) are used, which is formed by 60 variables. With data from the 2000-2010 period, the relationship between the 5 types of wealth and sustainability is analyzed using principal component analysis. Results: At the municipal and departmental levels, the direction of the natural and environmental wealth was found to be opposite direction to the other four. The distance between the different types of wealth ended up being important, and it increases with the IDTS. Conclusions: The development model followed by Colombia is negatively affecting the natural and environmental wealth and as so is unsustainable. Neither research nor innovation are making adequate use of the natural resources at municipal level, and autonomous regional corporations may be ineffective against the inadequate use of this wealth. It is imperative to modify this exploitation model and reduce the distance between the five types of wealth. Although it is necessary to adopt and develop engineering and technology adequate to biodiversity and tropical geography, this is not enough; substantial social and institutional innovation are also needed in the face of a complex, uncertain, and dizzying technological reality, which is also inequitable at the social and interregional scale. Financing: This project was self-funded.    


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Sharifah Muhairah Shahabudin ◽  
Najla Abdallah Mohammed ◽  
Kuppusamy Singaravelloo

Children living on the streets are a common sight in Khartoum, the capital city of Sudan, and other parts of the country. These children have been exposed to many types of pressure which influence behavior outcomes. This study aims to investigate the street children’s socioeconomic profiles and examine the social-psychological influence of parents, peers and the public on the children’s behavior. A systematic sampling technique was used to select 12 markets in Khartoum state. 350 street children from the 12 markets volunteered for the face-to-face interview administered questionnaire. The study found that parents stressors and peers stressors significantly influence the children to perform maladaptive behavior. However, the public did not have any significant effect on children’s maladaptive behavior. The study suggests intervention programs should be applied to stop children from ending up on the streets by providing families with a basic income to guarantee children's welfare, security and sense of family life. To stop children from going back to the streets, a free education policy, fee waivers and free meals for poor children are recommended.


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