Slavery in the Modern World

Just landed on my desk is the handsome, two volume set of Slavery in the Modern World: A History of Political, Social, and Economic Oppression from ABC-Clio (http://abc-clio.com/product.aspx?isbn=9781851097838). I mention this because I have half a dozen entries inside:

Walsh, John, “Burma” (Vol.1, pp.151-3), “Cambodia” (Vol.1, pp.158-60), “State Law and Order Committee” (Vol.2, pp.501-3), “Thailand” (Vol.2, pp.517-9), “World Bank” (Vol.2, pp.586-8) and “World Trade Organization” (Vol.2, pp.591-3), in Junius P. Rodriguez, eds., Slavery in the Modern World: A History of Political, Social, and Economic Oppression (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2011).

Order a set for your library or buy one for your friends, if you have any.

The Worst Is Past

Increasingly, experts are declaring that the worst of the flood risk has passed for those of us in Lad Prao and other parts of Bangkok not already inundated. The greatest mass of water from the north seems to have passed and the high tides will decline until the next peak in about ten days’ time.

As long, therefore, as any of the existing walls or dikes does not break or angry residents do not take action into their own hands, we may just get away with it. Water is passing down Lad Prao canal – as I walked past last night, it was quite normal but as we drove by this morning, the split second I had to look suggested it was a bit higher than before and flowing a little faster.

As things stand, my opinion is that the government and Khun Yingluck in particular have done a good job in managing all of this. It has not been perfect, of course, since the media have (for example) been able to use lack of discipline among some politicians to manufacture some apparent differences in policy and advice – they were at it again this morning when the Minister for Science and Technology (in a western country, the Minister would know the official line and repeated it or referred journos to the relevant agency) said something that was portrayed as contradicting the PM.

More importantly, in the political long-term, the civilians have to date kept the military under control and dealt with the obstructiveness and sulking of the army. Can you imagine how many would have been shot dead by the army if the bloodstained hypocrite Abhisit had still been in charge? [allegedly] There would have been endless stories of ‘looters’ and ‘terrorists’ and whatever the pretext of the day would have been for the military to reinforce its power [allegedly].

Business Research Methods: Questionnaire Design

If it is decided that a quantitative approach will be relevant to answering the research questions set, then it is likely that a questionnaire of some sort will be required. In fact, a questionnaire is just one of the various types of research instrument that can be used but it is probably the easiest to imagine and the most commonly used. How, then, should it be designed?

Read the full article here.