En las celebraciones de la Semana Santa, la línea imaginaria que divide lo sobrenatural y lo humano desaparece y las fiestas adquieren un contenido simbólico relacionado con la perpetuación de la comunidad en el tiempo y la articulación de sus hitos identitarios. Los parámetros centrales de la celebración no cambian: culto a la primavera, a la vegetación y al fuego, personificación del dolor de la comunidad en unas imágenes dotadas de sacralidad y participación activa de toda la comunidad en el rito. La fuerza “totalizadora” de la celebración se explica por la participación colectiva y el intercambio de roles sociales que sus miembros experimentan durante los rituales. Debido a la importancia simbólica de la religiosidad “popular”, las instituciones políticas y eclesiásticas, desde las primeras manifestaciones propiciadas por el Concilio de Trento, tratan de redefinir la fiesta en función de sus intereses y convertir el rito en un medio sustentador de su poder o de su explicación del mundo.

Thispaper sought to highlight the life and work ofJoseph Merinyo, usinghistorical-biographical and ethnoanthropological approach. The main tools used in datacollection were interviews, discussions, and literature analysis.Serving the society as a houseboy, clerk, store keeper,interpreter and informant, Joseph Merinyo rose from being asimple villager to a high-profile nationalist and freedom fighter– working closely with local chiefs, foreign researchers andadministrators. The main finding of the paper was that Merinyowas a patriot, nationalist, and a frontline activistwhounwaveringly fought for social justice and human rights. Keyterms (patriot, nationalist, justice, kingmaker, human rights,and diplomacy) were defined according to the context of thepaper and it was concluded that hard work, socialcommitment, and self-sacrifice were virtues which elevatedMerinyo to international stature and reputation. Studyingpeople like Joseph Merinyo enables members of the society,the younger generation in particular, understand the legacy ofAfrican makers of history. As a challenge and invitation forfuture research, two recommendations were made. First, it isnecessary to study important persons like Joseph Merinyobecause such studies help to interpret Africa to the outsideworld; and second, African heroes and heroines should bestudied – not only to satisfy historical curiosity but also tobenefit from the immeasurable insights packed in the historyof their lives.

Facebook is only an electronic communication among human but unfortunately it has become an addiction for all. Also it is a latest trend of the youth, particularly high level students and the university students as well. This paper examines the usage of Facebook among university students and the influence it has on their academic performance. The impact of Facebook can either be good or bad on university students and their academic activities. Even though a closer look on the real impact of Facebook reveals that it leads to several problems among the university students’ academic performances. Today Facebook is, however, ruining the future and academic carrier of university students. It motivate us to have a closer look to find the significance usage of Facebook by university students in their academic success with the help of a survey conducted by gathering the data among more than 250 students of different universities in Sri Lanka.

Purpose: The main thrust of this study is to find out the relationship between dividend policy and firm performance of listed manufacturing companies in Sri Lanka. Design: A set of listed manufacturing companies have been investigated to using the data representing the periods of 2008 – 2012.Returns on equity and return on assets were used as the determinants of firm performance whereas dividend payout and earnings per share were used as the measures of dividend policy. The statistical tests were used includes: descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analyses. Findings: The study found that determinants of dividend policy are not correlated to the firm performance measures of the organization. Regression model showed that dividend policy don’t affect companies’ ROE and ROA. Further recomm-endations are also put forwarded in the research. Research Limitations: The study only used data from the 2008-2012 annual reports. However, the findings have highlighted the effects of the firm performance and dividend policy. Originality: The study contributes to literature in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, the finding of the paper can be considered as helpful for managers and users that are anxious to develop financial description quality and practices of dividend policy.

Unprecedented changes are occurring around the globe, which forces the public management to revise their theory and practice of managing human performance in the public setup. The attention given to the new public service and new governance, demands fundamental transformations in those factors, which are influencing human performance. These changes are so broad that it is impossible to summarize all of them, but several needs merit attention (Gliem & Gliem, 2001; Linz, 2003; Perry et al., 2006; Moynihan & Pandey, 2007). However, the practice of public management is characterized by its formal constraints as well as informal opportunities. Managers have limited tools to motivate and retain their employees, because civil service rules limit the ability to recognize and reward individuals through pay, promotion, or bonuses.

Improving the efficiency of budgetary management and preventing overspending that secedes from performance, are fundamental budget stability conditions and issues of strategic importance. „Rule-based” budget means more than merely a stipulation that public finance managements shall observe the rules of budget planning and execution and that the real and budgetary sectors of the economy are characterised by the rule of law. Rule-based budget requires the employment of numerical and procedural regulations by institutionally ensuring their respective observance. Regarding the latter we can declare that in Eastern and Central Europe the interest has grown recently for fiscal councils that have been shooting up like mushrooms and are believed to be almost like “the ultimate weapon” in fighting budgetary overspending. The demands for creating such new institutions at the same time undeniably represent criticism concerning the former processes of the planning mechanisms and their respective institutionalised solutions. This paper aspirations to provide a picture as regards to what extent can fiscal councils be regarded as a new type of organisation within the family of independent fiscal institutions (IFIs), that reflect institutional development and, in the public law of the new democracies having accessed the EU following 2004, mean the best solution to be recommended, i.e. the „best practice”. This nonexhaustive overview deals with the course of the independent budgetary institutions of those Eastern-Central European countries that accessed the European Union in 2004, respectively their mission and concept of an institution, while it also refers to the role of these organisations in crisis management.

This study was conducted to evaluate physicochemical quality and consumption pattern of milk at smallholder urban dairy farms in Jimma town of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. A total of 54 smallholder dairy farming households were randomly selected and interviewed with pre-tested, structured questionnaire. The results revealed that the mean fat, protein, lactose and solids-not-fat (SNF) content were 4.38 ± 0.06, 2.96 ± 0.01, 4.34 ± 0.13 and 7.79 ± 0.60, respectively. The organoleptic characteristics of the raw milk samples were more or less similar except milk from two farms which showed off-flavour (in 10% milk sample). The mean daily milk production was 36.43±32.74 kg per household. The study revealed that most (98.1%) of the respondents consume milk and processed milk products as a major part of their diet. Fresh whole milk was the most widely consumed dairy product (35.2%) and consumption of processed milk products was low. Farm household average daily per capita milk consumption was 215.38 milliliter (ml). The major dairy products produced and consumed by the respondents were naturally fermented whole milk (ergo), butter (Kibe), butter milk (Arera), cottage cheese (ayib), whey (aguat) and ghee (nitir kibe).

In the Northern highlands of Ethiopia, surface runoff and soil loss have been identified as critical problems and the most limiting factors in agricultural production. Although different soil and water conservation mesures have been constructed by mobilizing the communities and resources, runoff has continued and put extra pressure on the structures. This study was initiated to investigate surface runoff and soil loss as affected by integration of conservation tillage with fanya juus’ at plot level at Enerata kebele, East Gojjam Zone of Amhara Region. There were two tillage treatments (CT and TT) combined with newly constructed fanya juus with four replications. Runoff and soil loss were recorded at 38 rainfall event through three tied trenches within wheat (triticum vulgare) and tef (eragrostis tef) farm plots. Result showed that average runof f coefficients of 17.72% and 43.96% were recorded due to conservation tillage system from wheat and tef farm plots, respectevly. Thus, runoff coefficient induced 0.54 and 0.18 times reduced in soil loss from wheat and tef plots, respectively. Reduction of runoff volume and soil loss in the conservation tillage systems were attributed to retarded movement of water in the presence of invisible barriers in each furrow that are laid along the contour. The retarded movement of water resulted in increased infiltration and reduced soil loss. Overall, conservation tillage system has a paramount importance in reduction of soil loss while integrated with fanya juus’ structures in cultivated lands.

With the introduction of the 1993 Land Law and other economic reforms in Vietnam, land has effectively become a commodity, the distribution of which is controlled by market mechanisms. As a result, both ethnic Khmer and Kinh (ethnic Vietnamese) farmers in the Mekong Delta have responded by diversifying their livelihood strategies. This study finds that: (1) The better-off Kinh households had more capital to expand their land for their farming and business. Therefore, more the Kinh households bought land than Khmer households did. Vice versa, more Khmer households sold their land than Kinh households did. In both Khmer and Kinh households, the better-off households bought land and the poor households sold land. Nowadays, the land sizes per household have shrunk and are not large enough for farming; (2) Intensification and diversification were implemented within various groups. Those who own land try to intensify rice farming and to combine farm activities with off-farm and non-farm activities, but those who are landless have to rely on hiring out their labor in both the farm and non-farm activities; and (3) Externally driven forces have shifted the sources of local labor and hired labor for agricultural production in the local area. Thus, hired laborers required from outside the local areas are acquired through labor market networking between farmers and the poor hired laborers in the region. The poor landless Khmers in Soc Trang province have found alternative ways to cope with the risks they face in terms of survival. Consequently, the hired labor from the poor Khmers in Soc Trang contributed effectively to the rice harvest seasons in Thoi Lai, Can Tho, comprising 20 percent of the laborers for the rice production and contributing 70 percent of the total hired laborers for harvesting rice in the hamlet in 2009.

The study examines the application of forensic auditing in fraud control in Nigerian banks. Nigerian banks over the past decades suffered from the menace of frauds which resulted to distresses and liquidations which hamper the roles of banks in the economy. The external auditors failed to detect the frauds in the course of carrying out their work. Regulatory evidences have shown that bank frauds increase on daily basis. Analysis of the types of frauds and forgeries perpetrated show that the most common types are: ATM fraud; fraudulent transfers/withdrawals; internet banking; lodgement of stolen warrant; presentation of forged cheques; suppression of customer deposit. The study analysed the trend in fraud cases from 2001-2012, included are the amounts involved in frauds, the most frequent types of fraud, and the losses sustained by banks. The descriptive analysis revealed that there are up and down movements in fraud cases. Since banks continually lose huge sums of money as a result of the inability of the auditors and the supervisory regulators to curtail the trend, there is therefore the need to devise different means of tackling frauds in the banks. The study therefore suggests employment of forensic auditing in Nigerian banks by amending the existing statutes, in such a way that forensic auditors are included in the audit team. Through this, auditors will have more tools to effectively deal with challenges in detecting fraud.