A Faithful Daughter of the Snowland

EDITOR'SNOTE:SpringcameandweepingwillowsatthefootofthePotalaPalacebeganbudding.However,itsnowedallofasudden,turningtheareaaroundthePalaceintowhitesheet.At4:35ontheafternoonofMarch25,Yamzin,aTibetanjournalist,diedatthetenderageof36tothedeepgriefofXinhuaNewsAgency,journalistsinTibetandallthosewhoknewher.YamzinwasbornintoapoorpeasantfamilyinXigaze.In1978,shebecameoneof40TibetanstudentswhopassedtheexaminationsforstudyintheMiddleSchoolAttachedtotheCentralEthnicinstituteinBeijing.Plantin…     

A ‘Europe of the regions’? A view from Liverpool on the Atlantic Arc periphery

The paper attempts to address recent debates surrounding the supposed emergence of a ‘Europe of the Regions'—from the perspective of a city situated at the core of a lagging region’ on the European periphery, Liverpool. After briefly exploring whether the social and economic regeneration of Liverpool makes sense in this European context, the paper attempts to explain why the city's political participation in Europe has hitherto been relatively limited, drawing upon a combination of economic, social, political and cultural factors. Some of the constraints and choices that the city is facing in its attempts at urban regeneration are used to throw light on broader issues surrounding local and regional development in the European context and political and policy lessons are suggested.     

Winds in the ionosphere—A review

Winds in the upper atmosphere, and their effect on the ionosphere, are reviewed with an emphasis on information useful to ionospheric studies. The winds are driven by pressure gradients from solar and auroral heating, with some forcing by tidal energy from below. Simple calculations which balance the pressure gradient by ion drag and Coriolis forces are generally unreliable, so large-scale numerical models of the coupled atmosphere and ionosphere are required. The accuracy of these global models is limited by uncertainties in the energy inputs at high latitudes and at the lower boundary (about 90 km). The best current wind data come from incoherent scatter radar or airglow installations, at a few sites and for only a few nights per month. Satellite data are also available for several years, and results to 1989 are incorporated in the global HWM90 model. This seems acceptable for determining mean winds at night, less good during the day, and least good in the southern hemisphere where few data were available. Plots are given to show the mean winds at different latitudes and longitudes, for use in ionospheric calculations.Meridional winds alter the height of the mid-latitude F layer, causing large changes in the effective loss rate. This is the major cause of observed seasonal changes, of differences between the hemispheres, and of changes at different longitudes. An increased knowledge of the winds is essential for further progress in F region studies. Ionospheric data provide the most promising route, using routinely scaled parameters. The simplest calculations compare observed peak heights, obtained from M (3000)F2, with the value h_o predicted by simplified “servo” equations. Errors occurring for some hours after sunrise can be overcome using model results to define h_o this allows rapid and accurate wind calculations at dip latitudes of 23–62°. Winds can also be obtained from full model calculations, designed to match observed values of peak height or density.     

A Nation with the Church’s Soul

Abstract

This essay considers Barack Obama’s invocation of Reinhold Niebuhr to oppose the Iraq War and Richard John Neuhaus’s support for the war. I argue that although Niebuhr and Neuhaus might have disagreed over the Iraq War, there is a more substantive agreement between the two figures over the role, or lack thereof, of the church in the public square. I argue that a weak ecclesiology in both impedes the Church’s ability to be a prophetic voice in the face of injustice.     

A diamond in the rough?: an examination of the issues surrounding the development of the Northwest Territories

Over a period of approximately five decades, the federal government of Canada has transformed the predominantly nomadic hunting and gathering society of the Northwest Territories (NWT) to one which is based largely on wage and/or transfer income, and life in permanent communities. Several decades of planning for regional development and the expenditure of large sums of public monies have failed to give rise to a viable economic system in the region. This paper argues that the inefficacy of these past policy approaches stems at least partly from a failure to recognize explicitly the interrelationship between the economy of the region, its constitutional status and that of its Native population.
Au cours d'une période d'approximativement cinq décennies, le gouvernement fédéral du Canada a transformé la société principalement nomade de chasseurs et cueilleurs des Territoires du Nord ouest en une société d'une part basée sur le revenu salarié et/ou de transfert et d'autre part composée de communautées établies de façon permanente. Plusieurs décennies de planification en vue d'un développement régional ainsi que des dépenses importantes des deniers public n'ont pas réussi à mettre en place un système économique viable dans la région. Le présent article défend la thèse que l'inefficacité de ces anciennes politiques provient en partie à l'incapacitéà reconnaître explicitement les interrelations entre l'économie de la région, son statut constitutionel et sa population autochtone.     

A Memorial to the 9th Bainqen Lama

ＡＭｅｍｏｒｉａｌｔｏｔｈｅ９ｔｈＢａｉｎｑｅｎＬａｍａ￥ｂｙＬｉｕＳｈｅｎｇｑｉＩｔｗａｓＡｐｒｉｌ１９２５，ｓｐｒｉｎｇｈａｄａｒｒｉｖｅｄａｎｄＨａｎｇｚｈｏｕ，ａｃｉｔｙ（ｉｎＺｈｅｊｉａｎｇＰｒｏｖｉｎｃｅ）ｒｅｗａｓａｂｅａｕｔｉｆｕｌｇ...     

A Town lnlaid in the Tea-Horse Trading Road

ＩＳＴＯＲＹＯＦＺＨＯＮＧＤＩＡＮ／ＪＩＡＮＴＡＮＧＺｈｏｎｇｄｉａｎｉｓａｎａｒｅａｗｉｔｈａｌｏｎｇｈｉｓｔｏｒｙ．Ｉｎｔｈｅｓｅｖｅｎｔｈｃｅｎｔｕｒｙ，ｗｈｅｎｔｈｅＴｕｂｏｒｏｓｅｉｎｔｈｅＱｉｎｇｈａｉＴｉｂｅｔＰｌａｔｅａｕ，Ｓｏｎ...     

A Vistit to the Dege Sutra Printing House

WhenIfirstreachedDegeCountywhichisskirtedbytherapidJinshajiangRiver,Iwasamazedtoseeacombinationofscenesbelongingtoboththepastandthepresent.Whilesomepeopleweremakingcakesofcowdungtobedriedforfuel,otherswerecallingfriendsinotherpartsofChinaonthetelephone.IwasattractedbytheDegeSutraPrintingHousewhichistuckedawayatanelevationof3,240meters.Itisapalace-stylebuildingwithfourfloors.InsidethevermilionwallswereTibetansingroupsofthreeorfiverecitingsutrasastheywalkedinritualprocessionaroundthebuildin…     

A Visit to the 14th Dalai's Hometown

In1938,athree-yearoldboynamedLhamoToinzhubfromHongyaVillage,easternQinghaiProvince,wasidentifiedasthereincarnateoftheenthronedasthel4thDalaiLamaDainzinGyamcotwoyearslaterinthePotalaPalaceinLhasa.HongyaVillagethusbecamefainous.Thezigzagpassagetheyoungboyto…     

Le fou du tzar—A nail in the body of the empire

In the Edwardian period, the essays, novels, and criticism of G.K. Chesterton gave voice to a unique but emblematic form of patriotic anti-imperialism. The article places his views in the context of the Liberal Little Englander reaction to the Boer War, and offers two comparative case studies. The first focuses on Chesterton's inheritance of the late-Victorian anti-imperialist rhetoric of William Morris; the second assesses his fraught relationship with internationalism, as represented in the writings of Morris's political collaborator, E.B. Bax. Chesterton's radical populist patriotism, it turns out, had more in common with contemporary socialist ideologies than the currently prevailing view of its parochialism would allow.     

A shameful debate? A critical reassessment of the ‘Torossian debate’

ABSTRACT

For years now, a debate has been going on concerning the memoirs of Sarkis Torossian, published in 1947, and republished in a commented Turkish version in 2012. This latter publication sparked a debate among a number of Turkish historians, divided over the reliability or not of Torossian’s account of his participation in the Ottoman war effort as an officer, and his subsequent desertion following the realization that most of his family had fallen victim to deportation and mass murder. Some challenged Torossian’s narrative and evidence, based on inconsistencies and errors, coming to the conclusion that his story was largely fictionalized and his documents forged. Others, on the contrary, took Torossian’s defence, trying to reject or to justify these inconsistencies, and suggesting that this criticism was likely to stem from a nationalist, or even denialist stand regarding the genocide of the Armenians. The debate has to a large extent remained contained within Turkey, and its rare international repercussions, including an article by Taner Akçam in the Journal of Genocide Research, have more or less systematically sided with the ‘pro-Torossian’ side. The present article aims to set the record straight by showing that the criticism levelled against Torossian’s memoirs is extremely serious and solid, and that the debate has been corrupted by a gradual slipping of what should have remained a scholarly discussion into an uncontrolled conflict based on ad hominem attacks and political allegations. It is my contention that the authenticity or not of Torossian’s narrative and documents is of very secondary importance, compared to the much more problematic issue of the way in which ideological, political and moral concerns have ended up hijacking the debate. The ultimate relevance of the so-called Torossian debate may well be its capacity to reveal some crucial weaknesses of genocide research in a late Ottoman context.     

A Reevaluation of the Kesil’s Image in the Book of Qohelet

Abstract

During the early stages of its evolution, the book of Kings was a history narrative uninfluenced by Deuteronomy. Later, as the scroll ceased to express an interpretation of the past—that is to say, ceased to be a history narrative—it began to reflect a literary dialogue with Deuteronomy. At no point in time was Kings both Deuteronomistic and a history, and it was not, therefore, a component of Martin Noth’s hypothetical Deuteronomistic History. Rather, the pre-canonical scroll is best defined as an anthology, or “reader,” of fanciful stories about fallible nebi’im (prophets and kings) who find themselves in relationship with a fallible patron god. Ironically, because Kings was preserved as sacred literature, its god has been reconceptualized, against the plain sense of the text, as a reliable, just, and compassionate patron god.     

A Gāthic Rite? A Critique of the Cosmological Interpretation of the Gāthās I

In the last few decades ritual interpretation of the Gāthās has replaced the biblical one as the dominant paradigm. The emphasis on the central role of ritual in the Avesta is well justified. This realization has given rise to the question of the role and meaning of ritual in the Gāthās. Marijan Molé had tried to argue that the Gāthās in fact describe and accompany a rite whose purpose was the preservation/renovation of the cosmic order. Students of the Gāthās working within the new paradigm have taken up Molé’s general frame. They have tried to show that the Gāthās, collectively or individually, is the text of a particular rite that served, among others, to preserve the cosmic order, especially the daily rise of the sun. The article questions the validity of this thesis. Its focus is on the version of the thesis we find in a number of recent publications by Jean Kellens. He tries to show that the first Gāthā (Ahunauuaitī) describes a unitary pre-dawn ritual that comprised a haoma rite and an animal sacrifice, and had cosmological and eschatological pretensions. His textual analyses and arguments are examined in some detail. The article concludes that Kellens's attempt must be deemed unsuccessful.