Vol 16, No 1

Table of Contents

Articles

Genetically Modified (GM) Food and International Consumer PDF
Tasnuva Jahan

Economic globalization represents both chance and challenge for the achievement of social and economic rights, including the right to food. At present genetically modified (GM) foods meet a variety of responses from consumers, and personal assessment of the risk benefit ratio influencing overall perception. There is a controversial perception of risk assessment in terms of health, environmental, economic and ethical risks. While the scientific community is indisputable about the safety of GM crops, consumers are not entirely confident and remain divided over the subject. Different views are being expressed together for and against GM food.

However, awareness has significantly increased alongside the rapid growth and commercial sale of GM crops across the globe. GMO proponent big companies are interested in the profit potential promised by the technology and increasing their market share over patents and royalties. They are not interested to protect consumer right. It also raised the questioned GM food feed the hunger world. The food safety issues of GMOs have also raised questions about the adequacy of regulatory devices of biotechnology and biosafety for consumer protection.

This article will examine the controversial points concerning GMOs in public health concerns, environmental and socio-economic impacts. Also, highlight the public right to access and information of GMO under the Aarhus convention.

It will touch the issue whether the regulatory framework on tracing and labelling are truly essential, or whether trade policy to increase GM products sale. Finally, it claims that international law needs rethinking concerning GMOs to support consumer interests and rights.

Cultural Differences between Indian & US College Students on Attitudes toward Celebrities & the Love Attitudes Scale PDF
Lynn McCutcheon, Blaine L. Browne, Grant J. Rich, Rebecca Britt, Ayushi Jain, Ishika Ray, Srishti Srivastava

We administered the Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS) and the Love Attitudes Scale (LAS) to 59 university students in the United States and 61university students in India. Students from both countries who scored as dependent, needy lovers tended to also score high on all three subscales of the CAS, suggesting that some persons with failed personal relationships may become attracted to parasocial relationships with celebrities as a safe alternative.  Students from the U.S. who tended to view love as a game, as measured by the LAS game-playing subscale, also tended to strongly admire their favorite celebrity in an intense personal way. Differences and similarities between the Indian and American samples on the CAS and LAS were discussed. The study provides additional evidence that the two problematic levels of the CAS are associated with undesirable attitudes and behaviors.

Women Asset Ownership and Household Poverty in Rural Nigeria PDF
S.O. Akinbode, S.G. Hamzat
Several methods have been adopted in studies involving household poverty but very few focused on structural causes and constraints to poverty. Women being most times the homemaker occupy a very important position in the household. This study employed Women Asset Approach to assess household poverty in South-West Nigeria.  Data collected from 363 respondents sampled through a multistage sampling procedure were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Probit Regression analysis. The average age of women sampled in study was 45 years while the average income was ₦33,158 (about $195 as at the time of the study). The Asset which had the highest value in the PCA reduction was mobile phone (0.4548) and the lowest Asset Value was black and white television (-0.0430). The mean of the poverty quintile which represented the poverty line was 1.6574. The Logit regression result revealed that education, marital status and income were significant determinants of poverty status in the study area. The study recommended that governments at all levels should enact and enforce policies which will make female education compulsory. Implementation of effective women empowerment programme should be embarked upon in order to encourage alternative sources of income and vocations thereby reducing household poverty.

The Role of Mbe in the Congolese Area Nineteenth-Twenty-First Century PDF
OBA Dominique
From the nineteenth century, several European powers embarked on the conquest of Africa in order to establish the zones of influence and what became a few years after the colonies. These powers had thus engaged several explorers with secret missions. In Central Africa one can quote Stanley working on the side of Belgium under the domination of Leopold II king of Belgians, and on the side of France it was Savorgnan DEBrazza who founded the vast French empire in Central Africa. In 1880, he arrived on the Teke ground, here he established friendly relations with the Teke. Brazza signed with the Teke Kingdom a convention called Mbe. October 3, 1880, which later gave birth to Brazzaville in 1884, French Congo in 1902 and French Equatorial Africa in 1910.Mbe played a major role in the history of the current Congo. It is a small town that has existed for several years, remains today the seat of the Teke kingdom and continues to assume multiple functions on the economic, social and cultural level.

Several Features the Special Court for Kosovo and Challenges that May Face during the Proving the Process of Concrete Criminal Cases PDF
Azem HAJDARI
The Special Court for Kosovo is a hybrid court of "sui generis" nature which essentially consists of several elements of local and international character. This Court is characterized by a considerable number of specifications which make it a court of a special type, compared to national courts and international criminal courts recorded by human society memories until nowadays. Such characteristics refer to establishment and activities of this court, international double trial, selective trials, subject matter, personal and time jurisdiction. On the other hand, it is expectable that the work of this court shall be accompanied by numerous problems linked to proving of the alleged crimes for adjudication of which was established. These troubles mainly are expected to come to expression concerning issues related to the testimony of witnesses, victims of crime and material evidence.



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