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731.More information
Anachronism is one of the most common distorsions of history by which we circumscribe the past with our own mental universe. That is what the modem West has done and continues to do as regards Islam - a society almost without distinction of time or space. Thus today the encounter between Western Christendom and Islam is commonly seen as essentially negative, having been reduced to the military - religious conflict of the Crusades during the ll,h and 13,h centuries. Of course, it was at that period of time that took shape a Catholic view of Islam as a religion obnoxiously stereotyped, a view which would spread across Europe and which, much later, would give rise to a truly different form of racism, still around to day. Such an overall despising attitude tends to cover up the positive aspects of what had been the encounter between Islam and Christianity. Y et, those were many and they have been invaluable in the development of the Western thought and sciences. Far from being only a region of conflict, at that time the Mediterranean was also a zone of cultural symbiosis to which the modem West owes much. Europe would do well to remember this today that its supremacy is already part of a past which is definitely over.
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732.More information
This article looks at the world of professional and qualified migrantsin Europe, and at a statistical minority of graduates of highereducation establishments : ex-Erasmus university graduates. Itfocuses in particular on those who choose the expatriate route as ameans of entry into professional life. Even though they remain aminority in Europe, these flows of young « middleclass » Europeans from the south of the continent and/orfrom mass-education programmes are none the less socially significant.They show that international geographical mobility is increasinglycommon today as a means of moving up the social ladder. But the ins andouts of these expatriate movements are not the same for all thedifferent journeys these involve : they vary with differentpositions on the geographical and social scale.
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734.More information
AbstractPublic views on criminalization or decriminalization of drug use are rarely based on scientific evidence. Preconceived notions about the acceptance or tolerance of the use of narcotics in comparison are more influential. The decriminalisation of cannabis is currently being discussed and revision of the Swiss law on narcotics is pending. The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health commissioned three international experts to provide a critical assessment of the experience gained in other countries with decriminalisation of cannabis use. The reports include a European comparative study, an overview research conducted in the United States of America and Australia, and a historical evaluation of drug policy in Italy. The three expert reports suggest that no systematic relationship between drug policies and prevalence rates of cannabis use or illicit drug use in general can be detected. However, the costs of drug enforcement and the negative consequences for the criminalized use can be reduced by decriminalisation measures. More empirical evidence is needed because policy changes and the implementation of decriminalization measures have not been evaluated so far within a truly comprehensive research design.