Books on the topic 'Anonymous channel'

Over the past fifty years, (financial) capitalism has brought about an enormous growth in wealth. Millions around the world have been lifted out of poverty. However, the downsides of the present global economic constitution are rapidly becoming evident as well. Rising inequality, soaring debt levels, and repeated cycles of boom and bust have proven to be some of its key characteristics. After the 2008 crisis brought the financial system to the brink of collapse, new regulations, stricter supervision, higher capital requirements, and ethical codes were introduced to the sector. Today we find ourselves in the middle of another economic boom. Yet one pressing question remains: has anything changed? Have the (necessary) repairs fixed the flaws in the system? Or do we require even more fundamental reforms? This volume builds on the observation that society has co-evolved with the financial sector. We cannot simply claim that 'finance' was the sole instigator of the 2008 crisis. Society itself has become financialized; the process of replacing relations, structures of trust and reciprocity, by anonymous and systemic transactions. The volume poses vital questions with regard to this societal development. How did this happen? And more importantly: is change possible? If yes, how? This volume contains 21 essays on the themes mentioned above. Authors include Jan Peter Balkenende, Wouter Bos, Lans Bovenberg, Govert Buijs, and Herman Van Rompuy. A recommendation by Dutch Minister of Finance Wopke Hoekstra is also included.

In 1722, an anonymous author published Thoughts of a Project for Draining the Irish Channel. This neglected work is a satire on both the South Sea Bubble and Anglo-Irish politics, capitalizing on the craze for speculation, scientific advances in hydraulics, resource management, political arithmetic, and improvement. This chapter accordingly argues that land reclamation was an effective metaphor for Anglo-Irish policy and British imperialism, which in turn raised questions of national identity, regional connectivity, and environmental management. It introduces new evidence to historicize coastal work by blending textual criticism, political and legal analysis, regional folklore studies, and counterfactual history. The chapter provides a history of the Irish Sea and an account of maritime trade and property rights, as well as an analysis of the pamphlet itself (including its connections to the work of Jonathan Swift). It ends with a thought experiment imagining the impact had the channel actually been drained.

This chapter argues that the discourses, understandings, and practices surrounding the attribution of literary works changed significantly during the Romantic period. It examines the wide range of attribution styles that were available in the period, including the use of initials, phrases such as ‘by a Lady’, invented names such as Malachi Malagrowther (Walter Scott), and the formula ‘by the author of’. Drawing on a quantitative analysis of the bibliographical record, it shows how the popularity of anonymous publication shifted during the period in different ways for novels and poetry volumes. These changes were bound up with the emergence of modern celebrity culture. The chapter suggests that celebrity, anonymity, and pseudonymity were not opposed to one another, but were complexly intertwined, so that anonymity could be a form of celebrity and (paradoxically) celebrity could be a form of anonymity.

In the early 1970s, a new wave of public service announcements urged parents to “help end an American tradition” of child abuse. The message, relayed repeatedly over television and radio, urged abusive parents to seek help. Support groups for parents, including Parents Anonymous, proliferated across the country to deal with the seemingly burgeoning crisis. At the same time, an ever-increasing number of abused children were reported to child welfare agencies, due in part to an expansion of mandatory reporting laws and the creation of reporting hotlines across the nation. Here, Mical Raz examines this history of child abuse policy and charts how it changed since the late 1960s, specifically taking into account the frequency with which agencies removed African American children from their homes and placed them in foster care. Highlighting the rise of Parents Anonymous and connecting their activism to the sexual abuse moral panic that swept the country in the 1980s, Raz argues that these panics and policies—as well as biased viewpoints regarding race, class, and gender—played a powerful role shaping perceptions of child abuse. These perceptions were often directly at odds with the available data and disproportionately targeted poor African American families above others.

Self-help groups for substance use disorders have been active for decades, and notions of self-help have been prevalent for centuries. After presenting universal features of self-help organizations, the authors focus on Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Moderation Management (MM), discussing the origins, membership, and philosophy of AA and MM and highlighting important differences between these organizations. AA’s emphasis on spirituality, interpersonal conduct, and abstinence as the only goal contrasts sharply with MM’s emphasis on personal autonomy, rational cognitions, and setting drinking limits. The chapter discusses scientific evidence of the effectiveness of AA and MM on substance use outcomes and potential social and psychological mechanisms of change. More research is needed in the area of self-help organizations. In the meantime, AA is proven effective for alcohol-dependent individuals who embrace its philosophy, and MM may fill an important niche for nondependent drinkers or those in the precontemplation stages of change.

This chapter explains the significant, if often overlooked, ways in which both free and enslaved women as well as men participated actively and eagerly in trade around the Atlantic rim from 1500 to 1800. Commerce in the early modern period was not performed by heroic individuals or anonymous empires but by individuals embedded in familial and social relationships. The meanings that contemporaries accorded to female traders changed over time. With the expansion of Atlantic trade and particularly the increased availability of consumer goods in the mid-eighteenth century, women’s economic practices took on new political and social significance. By the end of the century, however, several forms of women’s commercial activity were attended by danger and backlash. By the 1830s, commerce itself had come to be defined as a male activity, even as women continued to participate in trade.

Nuns in early modern convents formed a discerning group of writers whose interpretive skills were distinctly shaped by their devotional discipline. This chapter explores their use of particular biblical passages that expose their contemplative concerns, aesthetic impetus, and wider mission to advance the spiritual state of their own readers. Among other material, the women drew on the Psalms, on Thomas à Kempis, the work of Teresa of Ávila and of other contemporary nuns, many of whom wrote anonymously and have only recently been identified. Nuns’ writing shows detailed knowledge of a wide range of secular and devotional material. Their use of quotation in private papers, publication, and around the convent building reveals a semi-sacramental, intercessional interest, to further their readers’ experience of the holy at a bodily as well as spiritual level. These authors seek to ‘infuse’ devotional feelings, simultaneously instructing and effecting change through the process of textual encounter.

Illicit financial flows constitute a global phenomenon of massive but uncertain scale, which erodes government revenues and drives corruption in countries rich and poor. In 2015, the countries of the world committed to a target to reduce illicit flows, as part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. But five years later, there is still no agreement on how that target should be monitored—to say nothing of how it will be achieved. The term ‘illicit financial flows’ covers a range of corrupt practices, aimed at obtaining immunity or impunity from criminal law, from market regulation and from taxation. Illicit flows occur through many different channels, whether they involve laundering the proceeds of crime, for example, or shifting the profits of multinational companies. There are two consistent features. First, illicit flows are deliberately hidden. These cross-border movements of assets and income streams depend on a set of common tools including opaque company accounts, legal vehicles for anonymous ownership, and the secrecy jurisdictions that provide these services. Second, the overall effect of illicit flows is to reduce the revenue available to states, and to weaken the quality of governance—so there is less money to support human development, and it is less likely to be spent well. In this book, two of the economists most closely involved in the process to develop UN indicators of illicit financial flows offer a critical survey of the existing data and methodologies, identifying the most promising avenues for future improvement and setting out their own proposals.

To an outside observer, Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures (PNES) look like epileptic seizures. The manifestations of PNES include collapses, impaired consciousness, and seizure-related injuries. However, unlike epileptic seizures, which are the result of abnormal electrical discharges in the brain, most PNES are an automatic psychological response to a trigger perceived as threatening. Not least because the changes in the brain that underpin PNES cannot be visualized easily with clinical tests (such as the EEG), there are many uncertainties and controversies surrounding the condition. Patients often provoke a mixture of emotions in healthcare professionals. In the authors’ previous book, In Our Words: Personal Accounts of Living with Non-Epileptic Seizures, over 100 individuals with PNES and their families wrote about their experiences with the condition. While some had positive care experiences, most were left feeling confused, angry, and abandoned by the clinicians they had encountered. Non-Epileptic Seizures in Our Experience: Accounts of Healthcare Professionals complements the previous book by presenting the perspectives of over ninety healthcare professionals from around the world. The anonymous publication format enabled many not only to share success stories but also to be open about difficulties and failures. There will be something to learn from this book for highly experienced professionals as well as for relative novices and those experiencing PNES. The hope is that this book will challenge negative attitudes surrounding the condition, improve understanding between healthcare professionals and patients, and, ultimately, advance the quality of care provided for those with PNES.

This book provides a detailed commentary on the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) Administered Arbitration Rules providing practitioners with an insider’s perspective on how the HKIAC Secretariat administers arbitrations under these rules. HKIAC is one of the world’s most sophisticated arbitration institutions, which established a set of Administered Arbitration Rules in 2008. Since then, HKIAC has enjoyed a continued yearly growth in cases. In 2015, HKIAC saw a record number of arbitration cases in 2012. This guide makes reference to the Hong Kong Arbitration Ordinance as well as drawing comparisons with other institutional rules and the UNCITRAL Model Rules to emphasize key issues to consider when drafting an arbitral clause or strategizing over the conduct of an arbitration. As well as offering an insider’s perspective it provides examples of anonymous cases handled at the HKIAC, and a discussion on various issues arising from arbitrations involving mainland parties or enforcing arbitration awards in mainland China. The book not only draws from seven years’ experience administering arbitrations under the HKIAC Administered Arbitration Rules (2008) but highlights the various changes made in the revised Rules that came into effect in November 2013 benefiting from privileged access. The book begins with an introduction to the HKIAC, including a history with statistics and details of other services provided by the HKIAC itself. The commentary then goes on to examine each article in depth. Relevant supporting documents are appended including Recommended HKIAC Arbitration Clauses, HKIAC Administered Arbitration Rules (2013), UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules 2010, and the Hong Kong Arbitration Ordinance.

The Roman Martyrs contains translations of forty Latin passiones of saints who were martyred in Rome or its near environs, during the period before the ‘peace of the Church’ (c. 312). Some of these Roman martyrs are universally known — SS. Agnes, Sebastian or Laurence, for example — but others are scarcely known outside the ecclesiastical landscape of Rome itself. Each of the translated passiones, which vary in length from a few paragraphs to over ninety, is accompanied by an individual introduction and commentary; the translations are preceded by an Introduction which describes the principal features of this little-known genre of Christian literature. The Roman passiones martyrum have never previously been collected together, and have never been translated into a modern language. They were mostly composed during the period 425 x 675, by anonymous authors who who were presumably clerics of the Roman churches or cemeteries which housed the martyrs’ remains. It is clear that they were composed in response to the huge explosion of pilgrim traffic to martyrial shrines from the late fourth century onwards, at a time when authentic records (protocols) of their trials and executions had long since vanished, and the authors of the passiones were obliged to imagine the circumstances in which martyrs were tried and executed. The passiones are works of pure fiction; and because they abound in ludicrous errors of chronology, they have been largely ignored by historians of the early Church. But although they cannot be used as evidence for the original martyrdoms, they nevertheless allow a fascinating glimpse of the concerns which animated Christians during the period in question: for example, the preservation of virginity, or the ever-present threat posed by pagan practices. And because certain aspects of Roman life will have changed little between (say) the second century and the fifth, the passiones throw valuable light on many aspects of Roman society, not least the nature of a trial before an urban prefect, and the horrendous tortures which were a central feature of such trials. Above all, perhaps, the passiones are an indispensable resource for understanding the topography of late antique Rome and its environs, since they characteristically contain detailed reference to the places where the martyrs were tried, executed, and buried. The book contains five Appendices containing translations of texts relevant to the study of Roman martyrs: the Depositio martyrum of A.D. 354 (Appendix I); the epigrammata of Pope Damasus d. 384) which pertain to Roman martyrs treated in the passiones (II); entries pertaining to Roman martyrs in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (III); entries in seventh-century pilgrim itineraries pertaining to shrines of Roman martyrs in suburban cemeteries (IV); and entries commemorating these martyrs in early Roman liturgical books (V).