The International Institute For Development And Ethics
The International Institute For Development And Ethics (IIDE) is an innovative institute that stimulates collaboration between the North and the South in study and action in ethical development, locally and globally. Since 2004 the IIDE has been represented in Africa and Europe by two mutually dependent entities. They operate as an intermediary between universities and the broader society by creating linkages and alliances between different universities and between universities and external parties. It aims to add value for all parties in relation to content and finance, realised through:
* initiating and supporting social entrepreneurial approaches in development;
* research; and
* teaching and training.
It is the mission of the IIDE to serve society by bridging the proverbial gap between theory and practice, between university and society. Being aware that effective development is unthinkable without both practical and scientific expertise, the IIDE brings together practitioners and academics in order to utilise good practices from both environments.
Although the IIDE is a fully independent organisation without ties to any religious denomination, it takes Christian principles and values as its primary source of guidance and reference. As such, its views on Christian social responsibility lead the way to its vision, its mission and the concrete services and products it wishes to render for the benefit of society.
Contact information is available at www.iide-online.org
Now online:
Proceedings of the 19th Annual Working Conference of the IIDE – 6 – 9 May 2014 – Mark Rathbone, Fabian von Schéele & Sytse Strijbos (Editors)
Work in Progress:
Proceedings of the 17th Annual Working Conference of the IIDE Vol. I – May 2011 – Lucius Botes, Roel Jongeneel & Sytse Strijbos (Editors)
Proceedings of the 17th Annual Working Conference of the IIDE Vol. II – May 2011 – Christine G. van Burken & Darek M. Haftor (Editors)
Read more
On Islamic Historiography
By Islamic Historiography I mean written material concerning the events of the early period of Islam written by Muslim historians. This material is essential for any major research on Islam but has been continuously discredited by predominantly Western scholars. Therefore, before the study of these texts, an outline of their characteristics and a short discussion about the criticisms of these texts and their authors is indispensable.
Among the problems proclaimed in the criticisms are: the gap between the historical events and their recording, the fact that early historical compilations have not survived and have been paraphrased or summarized in later digests, the problem of the oral origin of many reports, the task of the historian, the incompatibility of non-Islamic sources, forged reports, political influences on historiography, the purpose of historiography and the originality of the historian.
In this paper the criticisms concerning the Islamic historiography and the answers of the some historians to these criticisms will be surveyed.
The origin, the terminology and the form of the early Islamic historiography
According to Robinson, Arabs produced very little written material before Islam and relied instead on orality.[1]
It seems logical to conclude that the enormous volume of written work which was produced after Islam[2] must be ascribed primarily to the emphasis in various Qur´ānic verses on writing and the stories in this book about the previous peoples and prophets, which encouraged the Muslims to narrate, and reflect and investigate about the origins of those narrations, examples are, the next two verses:
…By the pen and what they write with it…. (Qur’ān 68:1)
Relate these allegorical stories (to the people) perhaps they might think. (Qur’ān 7:176).3
The second important impetus seems to have been the traditions of the Prophet of Islam which were to be preserved for the future generations. Islamic Tradition informs us that the Prophet of Islam discouraged his followers, in the initial stages of his mission, to write about him in order to prevent any confusion between his sayings and the Qur´ān.[4]
However the reports about the alteration of this attitude in a later stadium encouraged the biographers to write Sīra or biographical collections at the end of the first and beginning of the second Islamic century. The campaigns of the Prophet (Maġāzī) and the conquests (Futūḫ) [5] were the other historical works, produced in the period between the first works and the later great compilations.
The collections with the modern name for history, Ta’riḥ, appeared in the 2nd/9th century.[6]
Their source material consisted of Aḥbār which according to Rosenthal means both information and the events and corresponds to history in the sense of story, anecdote (ḫekāyat). Later, when the term was used together with āthār, it became synonymous to hadīth.[7]
The other sources were the above mentioned Sīra, Maġāzī and Futūḫ works, the books of aḥbāriyyūn and genealogical works and oral accounts.[8]
Thus, the first historical works, as the ordered record of the events of the past, began as a mixture of the above mentioned genres. This is the same multi-faceted character that Robinson says history used to have:
“…coming via Latin from the Greek historia, generally meant ´inquiry´; it earlier described a variety of genres, including geography, folklore and ethnography, in addition to what we would commonly understand to be history.”[9]
And the way Rosenthal defines history:
History in the narrow sense.., should be defined as the literary description of any sustained human activity either of groups or individuals which is reflected in, or has influence upon the development of a given group or individual….for the modern mind, the general concept of history may, in theory, be extended to include all animate or inanimate matters. [10]
While he also mentions that:
Muslim historiography includes those works which Muslims, at a given moment of their literary history, considered historical works and which, at the same time, contain a reasonable amount of material which can be classified ashistorical according to our definition of history, as given above. [11]
Thus, history is made up of many elements which together have certain meaning for certain people. This is by no means the denial of general definitions of or theories about history, rather, the emphasis is on the meaning of a certain concept, object or idea in a specific context.
Not only the combination of aḥbār and āthār became synonymous to ḫadīth, but also the form of historical narratives took the form of ḫadīth. According to Dūrī two perspectives existed among the early compilers: the ḫadīth perspective and the tribal perspective. Very soon, the first perspective prevailed which explains why the Islamic historiography has maintained the form of ḫadīth, thus, beginning with an isnād or chain of transmitters, continued by the report (ḥabar).[12]
The problems concerning the Islamic historiography
Islamic history books and Muslim historians have been the subject of both praise and critique. There are problems concerning the historical texts and those concerning the narrators both historians and their transmitters.
One problem ascribed to Islamic historiography is the fact that there is a gap between the time of the events of the early period of Islam and their historiography. Is this gap so long that it can in fact disqualify the whole historiography? It seems that this gap was not considered to be very important when the Western scholars first came into contact with the Islamic sources of the second and third century of Islamic era.[13] Perhaps this was caused by their earlier experiences with other historiographies. The later recording of the events in Islam had its precedents in other historiographies. For example, according to Robinson: The gap between event and record in early Islam is relatively narrow compared with our source material for the ancient Israelites, which usually dates from several centuries after the facts they purport to relate.[14]
Thus the problem of late compilation does not seem to be restricted to Islamic historiography. Read more
Fatsoenlijk land ~ Inhoudsopgave
Fatsoenlijk land – Porgel en Porulan in het verzet van Loes Gompes Het boek verscheen in 2013 bij Rozenberg Publishers – ISBN 978 90 361 0350 3 – Met DvD van de documentaire Fatsoenlijk land (Lumen Film – 60 min.)
Nu online:
Proloog ~ Verzet in twee werelden
Athene, Rome en Jeruzalem in Alkmaar
De Duitse inval en het ontslag van de vaders
De PP-groep
De onderduikers
De Vrije Groepen Amsterdam
Porgel en Porulan in documenten en voedsel
Bevrijding
Bevrijding – Foto’s Jan Hemelrijk
Epiloog
Dankwoord
Jan Hemelrijk gaf de groep de naam PP-groep. Dat gebeurde bij de oprichting van de Vrije Groepen Amsterdam (VGA) in 1944 toen elke groep een naam moest kiezen. Je zou kunnen denken dat het een verwijzing is naar Potasch en Perlemoer, de twee kibbelende joodse zakenlieden uit de bekende gelijknamige vooroorlogse volkskomedie. Maar dat was niet het geval. Jan liet zich inspireren door de ‘porgel’ en de ‘porulan’, fantasiebeesten in het clandestien verschenen nonsensrijm De Blauwbilgorgel (1943) van Cees Buddingh’.
De blauwbilgorgel
Ik ben de blauwbilgorgel,
Mijn vader was een porgel,
Mijn moeder was een porulan,
Daar komen vreemde kind’ren van.
Raban! Raban! Raban!
Ik ben de blauwbilgorgel,
Ik lust alleen maar korgel,
Behalve als de nachtuil krijst,
Dan eet ik riep en rimmelrijst.
Rabijst! Rabijst! Rabijst!
Ik ben de blauwbilgorgel,
Als ik niet wok of worgel,
Dan lig ik languit in de zon
En knoester met mijn knezidon.
Rabon! Rabon! Rabon!
I
Ik ben de blauwbilgorgel,
Eens sterf ik aan de schorgel,
En schrompel als een kriks ineen
En word een blauwe kiezelsteen.
Ga heen! Ga heen! Ga heen!
Cees Buddingh’ (1918 – 1985)
Professional Blindness And Missing The Mark ~ The Historical Analysis Of Four Major Crises During The First Two Decades Of The Republic Of Indonesia
Now complete online: Professional Blindness And Missing The Mark ~ The Historical Analysis Of Four Major Crises During The First Two Decades Of The Republic Of Indonesia.
This book contains six captivating articles about decisive moments in the first two decennia of the Republic of Indonesia’s existence (1945-1965); one per chapter with an introduction. They were presented at the memorial in honor of Professor dr. Wim Wertheim’s centennial birthday in 2008 – the doyen of post-war Dutch Indonesia research.
Each chapter explores a significant event from that era and was written by experienced researchers – Mary van Delden, Saskia Wieringa, Ben White, Pieter Drooglever and Coen Holtzappel – making use of source material that for the most part has been neglected by previous research. The analyses of the material reveal the new Republic’s struggle to bring together, and keep together, the colonial heritage of the Dutch East Indies in one independent and productive Republic of Indonesia. The foundation of a domestically, across the archipelago, and internationally accepted national government, as well as obedient regional governments and obliging armed forces, were deciding factors in this struggle.
Violent confrontations between armed forces and the communist party PKI took place in 1948 during the Indonesian National Revolution, as well as in 1965 after the Republic had already been independent for 14 years. The dividing issue was the power balance between politics and army top in state, government and land. A rigorous break with the past was made in 1965, which saw the installation of a junta regime under the leadership of General Soeharto that stayed in place for the following 32 years. Democracy had to wait until the army top made sure every part of politics and armed forces was finely adapted to work with the other. Not until then would the clock of government, production and control be fully set.
The articles reveal a blind spot in Western research of Indonesian developments in the discussed period; research that from 1965 onward was further, and permanently, influenced by the Indonesian army’s view. The Cold War raged domestically as well as abroad.
CONTENTS
Coen Holtzappel – Preface
Mary van Delden – Internees from the Republic
Coen Holtzappel – The year 1948 and the Madiun affairs, a year of cheat and rumours
Pieter Drooglever – Papua Nationalism. Another blind spot
Coen Holtzappel – The Thirtieth September Movement of 1965, as viewed by the perpetrators – Part One
Coen Holtzappel – The Thirtieth September Movement of 1965, as viewed by the perpetrators – Part Two
Coen Holtzappel – The Thirtieth September Movement of 1965, as viewed by the perpetrators – Part Three
Saskia Eleonora Wieringa – Sexual Slander And The 1965/66 Mass Killings In Indonesia: Political And Methodological Considerations
Ben White – The anthropologist’s blind spot: Clifford Geertz on class, killings and communists in Indonesia
Coen Holtzappel & Pieter Drooglever – Postscript
About the authors
Het ontrafelen van criminele carrières van hoog-risico jongeren
Photo: explorepahistory.com
“Stel je voor dat je wordt geboren in een sociaal achtergesteld gezin. Het opleidingsniveau van je ouders is laag en hun inkomen evenzeer. Daarbij zijn alcoholmisbruik, drugsgebruik en werkeloosheid bekende problemen in jouw familie. Door deze omstandigheden zijn je ouders niet instaat om voldoende te investeren in jouw toekomst. Al sinds de basisschool heb je het gevoel dat je achterloopt. Huiswerk kost veel moeite en je cijfers zijn laag. Op de middelbare school verandert er niet veel. Je cijfers blijven laag en je wordt vaak de les uitgestuurd.
Buiten school gaat het ook niet echt goed. Naar mate je pubertijd vordert maak je steeds meer ruzie met je ouders en hang je voornamelijk rond op straat. Op gegeven moment ga je te ver en word je gearresteerd door de politie. Geen probleem denk je in eerste instantie. Veel van je vrienden zijn ook een keer gearresteerd en je hebt niet het idee dat dit grote gevolgen zal hebben. In de maanden die volgen word je nog een paar keer gearresteerd en uiteindelijk besluit de kinderrechter dat je naar een besloten jeugdinstelling moet. Hier aangekomen tref je andere jongeren aan die vergelijkbare problemen hebben. Tijdens je verblijf in de jeugdinstelling worden je gedragsproblemen behandeld en krijg je laaggeschoold onderwijs. Rond je 17de levensjaar loopt je verblijf in de instelling teneinde en loop je de poort uit naar een volwassen leven.”
Introductie
De situatie die hierboven wordt geschetst is karakteristiek voor een kleine groep jongeren in Nederland die al vanaf jonge leeftijd grote problemen kennen op verschillende domeinen. Het doel van dit artikel is om de bevindingen van het proefschrift Disentangling Criminal Careers for Disadvantaged Youths op een toegankelijke manier te beschrijven zonder afbreuk te doen aan de gecompliceerdheid van de conclusies. Het doel van het onderzoek was om een conceptueel en empirisch raamwerk te ontwikkelen om de effecten vast te stellen van een aantal verschillende facetten, voor jongeren met een “achtergestelde jeugd”, op uitkomsten gedurende het volwassen leven. We onderzochten of de cognitieve en sociale vaardigheden, het opleidingsniveau en contact met justitie de volwassen sociaal-economische uitkomsten beïnvloedden. Tegelijkertijd erkenden we dat transities gedurende volwassenheid, zoals transities van en naar werk en intieme relaties, de daaropvolgende volwassen uitkomsten kunnen beïnvloeden. De focus van het proefschrift ligt op het verklaren van de uitkomst “criminaliteit” voor adolescenten en volwassenen, maar verschillende andere sociaal-economische uitkomsten worden ook onderzocht. In het bijzonder onderzoeken we ook arbeidsmarktuitkomsten, uitkeringen, drugsgebruik en intieme relaties.
In totaal worden er ongeveer 4.000 jongeren jaarlijks geïnstitutionaliseerd in een straf- of jeugdzorg instelling in Nederland (CBS, 2013). Op basis van hun vroege contacten met justitie en/of hun gedragsproblemen, kunnen deze jongeren worden beschouwd als behorende tot een kansarme subgroep van jongeren die een hoog risico hebben voor het plegen van criminaliteit, het vaak lastig hebben op de arbeidsmarkt en relatief vaak de ontvangers zijn van sociale uitkeringen (van der Geest, 2011; Mesters, van der Geest en Bijleveld, 2014; Verbruggen, 2014). Tijdens hun verblijf in de instelling worden ze behandeld voor hun gedragsproblemen en krijgen ze laaggeschoold onderwijs aangeboden. In hun late tienerjaren verlaten deze jongeren vertrekken meestal de instelling en en begint hun “volwassen” leven. Gezien hun moeilijke jeugd hebben ze vaak moeite met deze transitie naar volwassenheid (Osgood, Foster, Flanagan en Ruth, 2005). Ons doel is om aan te geven op wat voor soort kenmerken van deze jongeren interventies het beste kunnen aangrijpen om de volwassen sociaal-economische uitkomsten van deze jongeren te verbeteren.
De ontwikkeling van een raamwerk dat in staat is om de sociaal-economische uitkomsten voor volwassenen te verklaren in termen van vroeggemeten factoren en andere uitkomsten gedurende het volwassen leven is een uitdagende taak. In dit proefschrift proberen we deze puzzel stap voor stap te benaderen. Het raamwerk is gebaseerd op inzichten uit de criminologie, sociologie, economie en psychologie. De theorieën die uit deze disciplines naar voren komen vormen het conceptuele raamwerk dat wordt vertaald naar een empirisch model in wiskundige formulering. Deze vertaling maakt het mogelijk om het conceptuele raamwerk te testen met behulp van observationele gegevens en econometrische methoden. Read more
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The Classical Anthology
The Classical Anthology is a collection of beautiful, inspiring and memorable passages from Greek and Latin literature, each with a translation so that anyone can enjoy them and share them. It includes anything written in Greek or Latin, from earliest times to the present day.
The anthology is for anyone to enjoy and anyone can contribute, whether you have a Doctorate, did Latin for a year at school, or none at all. The more contributions the better.
Go to: http://classicalanthology.theclassicslibrary.com/