Ideological Underpinnings in President John Dramani Mahama’s 2013 State of the Nation Address

This study sets out to investigate, examine and understand the hidden ideologies and ideological structures/devices in the 2013 State of the Nation Address of President John Dramani Mahama. The study specifically aimed to (i) ascertain the ideologies embedded in the speech and (ii) investigate linguistic expressions and devices which carry these ideological colourations in the speech under review. It uses Critical Discourse Analysis as the theoretical framework to examine the role of language in creating ideology as well as the ideological structures in the speech. These hidden ideologies are created, enacted and legitimated by the application of certain linguistic devices. The researchers deem a study of this nature important as it will expose hidden motives that Ghanaian presidents cloth in language in order to manipulate their audience through their speeches in order to win and/or sustain political power. Through thematic analysis, it was revealed that Mahama projected these ideologies in his speech: ideology of positive self-representation, ideology of human value, ideology of economic difficulty, ideology of power relations and ideology of urgency. It also revealed that Mahama projects his ideologies through the following ideological discursive structures: pronouns, biblical allusion and metaphor. The study has shown that language plays a crucial role in human existence as a means of socialisation. Language has been revealed as a means of communicating ideologies and events of the world. In the tradition of CDA, this study has confirmed that text and talk have social and cultural character and that discourse functions ideologically.

Gender Differences in the Mitigating Effect of Co-Parenting on Parental Burnout: The Gender Dimension Applied to COVID-19 Restrictions and Parental Burnout Levels

Parenting is recognized as a complex and stressful activity, which in recent years has been linked to the potential development of parental burnout among mothers and fathers. With the spread of COVID-19 around the globe, not only have situations of health emergency and economic difficulty emerged, but also tremendous impacts on individual lives and family role divisions, which continue to be experienced today. As lockdown measures have affected unemployment rates, financial insecurity levels, social support, amount of leisure time, and the number of caring responsibilities, parents are expected to be at higher risk for developing parental burnout. Co-parenting is presented as a factor which can mitigate the effect between COVID-19 lockdown measures and the levels of experienced parental burnout. Nevertheless, we argue that the role of co-parenting in association with the implications of COVID-19 on parental stress differs between men and women. As parenthood remains an activity that is largely gender-based, co-parenting is hypothesized to be of more crucial importance in attenuating the effect between COVID-19 lockdown measures and parental burnout for fathers in comparison to mothers. Our results confirm previous findings that COVID-19 has increased levels of parental burnout. The relationship between state-imposed COVID-19 lockdown measures and levels of parental burnout was not found to be significantly affected by co-parenting. However, when assessing this two-way interaction separately for men and women, we saw that this mitigating effect was significant for fathers and non-significant for mothers.

Suatu Pendekatan Hibrid Menggunakan Topsis - Entropi pada Penentuan Siswa Penerima Beasiswa Prestasi Berbasiskan Kriteria Objektif

<p class="Abstrak">Kondisi ekonomi Indonesia yang turun seiring pandemi Covid-19 yang belum juga berakhir menyebabkan sebagian masyarakat menghadapi kesulitan ekonomi dalam pemenuhan kebutuhan hidup sehari-hari, salah satunya adalah dalam pembiayaan sekolah anak. Salah satu solusi bagi permasalahan ini adalah dengan pemberian beasiswa bagi siswa. Keterbatasan dana beasiswa ditambah dengan siswa yang berhak menerima bantuan adalah berjumlah banyak, menghendaki adanya suatu sistem yang dapat membantu dalam penentuan siswa penerima beasiswa. Penelitian kami menerapkan pendekatan hibrid dari <em>Multi-Attribute Decision Making</em> (MADM) metode Entropi dan <em>Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution </em>(TOPSIS). Metode Entropi digunakan untuk memberikan pembobotan pada kriteria secara objektif. Metode TOPSIS mencari alternatif terbaik dari sejumlah alternatif, yaitu yang semakin mendekati solusi ideal positif dan menjauhi solusi ideal negatif. Penelitian ini diimplementasikan di SMP N 1 Kokap Yogyakarta dengan menggunakan data siswa kelas 8 sejumlah 146 orang siswa. Terdapat sepuluh kriteria untuk menentukan siswa penerima beasiswa prestasi yaitu nilai pengetahuan, nilai keterampilan, catatan prestasi, keaktifan berorganisasi, jumlah ekstrakurikuler, jumlah ketidakhadiran, penghasilan ayah, penghasilan ibu, jumlah tanggungan orang tua dan status beasiswa. Berdasarkan sebaran dari evaluasi nilai kriteria dengan perhitungan bobot Entropi tanpa menggunakan bobot awal dari sekolah, diperoleh bahwa kriteria catatan prestasi adalah kriteria utama dalam penentuan siswa penerima beasiswa ini dan semua kriteria adalah valid. Output dari sistem ini adalah <em>ranking</em> siswa berdasarkan nilai preferensinya. Pe-<em>ranking</em>-an ini bisa dijadikan sebagai rekomendasi siswa penerima beasiswa prestasi di SMP N 1 Kokap.</p><p class="Abstrak"> </p><p class="Abstrak"><em><strong>Abstract</strong></em></p><p class="Abstrak"><em>Economic condition in Indonesia which is gradually decreased during Covid-19 pandemic which has not stopped yet causes some of citizens face economic difficulty in fulfilling their daily life, one of which is to pay their children’ school fees. One solution for this problem is to provide scholarship for students. The limited money for scholarship and students who are eligible to get the aids are many in number require a system which can ease in determining the merit scholars objectively. This study applies the hybrid approach of Multi-Attribute Decision Making (MADM) method, Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and Entropy. Entropy method is used to define objectively a weight of each criteria. TOPSIS method finds the best alternative from several alternatives that getting closer to the positive ideal solution and farther from the negative ideal solution. This study is implemented in SMP N 1 Kokap Yogyakarta and use data of 146 students on Kelas 8. There are ten criteria to determine merit scholars, these are a value of knowledge, a value of skills, a record of merits, organizational activities, the number of extracurriculars, for the number of absences, father's income, mother's income, the number of dependents of parents and scholarship status. Based on disperity of evaluation of criteria’ values, the achievements record is the important criteria for this system and all the criteria are valid. The result of this system is a rank of students based on their preference values. This rank could be used as a reference to recommend merit scholars in SMP N 1 Kokap. </em></p>

Doubts about fairness will dog Bolivian election

Subject Election fairness. Significance A leading Latin American jurist warned last week that Bolivia’s forthcoming general election risks being unfree and unfair. While the electoral authorities seek to create an even playing field, the government of interim President Jeanine Anez has systematically sought to marginalise former President Evo Morales’s Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement towards Socialism, MAS), jailing many of its key leaders and forcing others into exile. Active campaigning is about to begin in what promises to be a conflictive campaign. Impacts Carlos Mesa seems to have lost ground since the October elections and may struggle to regain it in a fragmented field. Anez will use her presidential office to rally support. Whoever wins will polarise public opinion and will face a period of considerable economic difficulty.

Puerto Rico’s deadlock has ended, but problems persist

Significance Vazquez did not seek the role, but it fell to her after the August 2 resignation of Ricardo Rossello, followed by the nine-member Puerto Rican Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling yesterday that his handpicked successor Pedro Pierluisi’s succession to the governorship was unconstitutional. This political turmoil comes as the island faces economic difficulty and other long-standing challenges. Impacts The experience of effective mass protests to remove Rossello could dent faith in formal politics and bring more protests. The unrest, and potential for more, may undermine business confidence and investor sentiment. Puerto Rico will factor in the 2020 US election, given the 5 million Puerto Rican voters on the mainland, many in Florida. Any broad agreement on political and regulatory reforms is unlikely to be crafted before 2021. The earliest timetable for any real economic recovery has been set back to the second half of the 2020s.

Re-election will still be tough for Canada’s Liberals

Significance Canada’s next federal election must be held by October. Opinion polling is putting the Conservatives ahead. Impacts The Bank of Canada will likely keep interest rates steady for now. Wilson-Raybould and Philpott could move to other parties for the next election. Further economic difficulty and government deficit spending will increase government debt. The housing market will slow further but does not appear to be crashing. Tentative moves towards national pharmacare coverage will be talked up electorally but ultimately are unlikely to materialise.

Kemunduran dan Keruntuhan Daulah Bani Umawiyah di Damaskus dan Andalusia (Studi Pustaka)

Year 41 H (661), began the Umayyad rule in the history of the children of political Islam in Damaskus. The development of civilization covering the fields of architecture, military organizations, trade and fiscal reforms. Then suffered a setback that eventually collapse due to, among others, (1). The weakness of the khafilah. (2). The emergence of inter-group conflict. The emergence of inter-group conflict. The direct causes of the overthrow of the emergence of new powers, spearheaded by the descendants of al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, this movement is supported by the Bani Hashim and the Shiite group of people who feel dikelasduakan mawali by Bani Umayyad rule. On May 14, 756, Kardova successfully conquered by Abdur Rahman and his followers. In a period of more than seven centuries of Muslim rule in Andalusia (Spain) achieve glory. in the field of intellectual progress: philosophy, science, jurisprudence, music and performing arts, language and literature. Then the physical development among others in Cordova (capital of Spain), trees and flowers imported from the east, there are 491 mosques, 900 baths, establish drainage from the mountains of length 80 km) while Granada is Al-Hamra palace, palace of al-Gajar, tower Girilda. Progress achieved daulah sons Umayyad West (Andalusia), decline and eventually collapse. The deterioration factor to cause the collapse, among others: (1). Lack of clarity about the transition of power systems. (2) Economic Difficulty. (3). The absence of a unifying ideology. (4) Islamic conflict with Christianity.