Comparison of Australian and Malaysian views on the use of biometric devices in everyday situations

Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City, many countries including Australia and Malaysia have been able to justify the use biometric devices such as fingerprint scans, retina scans and facial recognition for identification and surveillance of its citizens and others in the name of national security. In addition, biometric devices are increasingly being used worldwide by organizations to keep track of their employees and their productivity, leading to concerns of privacy and civil rights violations. Taking the critical theory perspective, this paper will analyse the data collected and report on the findings of a survey carried out in Australia and Malaysia, with respect to the responses provided and opinions expressed to the survey's open ended and other questions by individuals as to their current use, experiences, preferences, concerns about the devices and the situations in which they think biometric devices should be used, including in their workplaces. This descriptive study uses both quantitative and qualitative data to examine what Australians and Malaysians think about the use of biometric devices in everyday situations and compare them as to their similarities and differences within the context of each nation's culture and political systems. The paper will then critically examine the ethical and civil rights issues involved in the use of biometric devices in everyday life and what regulatory and legal measures should be taken to safeguard the rights of citizens while maintaining security and productivity, in order to avoid the situation of Michel Foucault's Panopticon becoming an unpleasant everyday reality, which could negatively influence social justice and create social change due to its effects on individuals in two multicultural societies. the apper will argue about the need to educate the general public as to the issues of surveillance and privacy involved in the use of biometric devices in everyday situations.

Political Islam and human security

Summary: "In the wake of the September 11 and subsequent terrorist attacks, the academic and media commentaries on Islam the religion and Islam the basis for political ideology haves received an unprecedented high level of exposure and attention. The acts of political violence by extremist groups and the omnipresent war on terror have added fresh uncertainties to an already complex global order. Just as terrorism and counter-terrorism are locked in a mutually re-enforcing symbiosis, the sense of insecurity felt by Muslims and non-Muslims alike is mutually dependent and has the potential to escalate. This general assessment holds true for Muslims living in the Muslim world and beyond. The pervasive sense of being under attack physically and culturally by the United States and its allies has contributed to a growing unease among Muslims and re-enforced deep-seated mistrust of the ʻWestʼ. Public articulation of such misgivings has in turn, lent credence to Western observers who posit an inherent antipathy between the West and the Muslim world. The subsequent policies that have emerged in this context of fear and mutual distrust have contributed to the vicious cycle of insecurity. The present volume is anchored in the current debates on the uneasy and potentially mutually destructive relationship between the Muslim world and certain West countries. It brings together leading international scholars in this interdisciplinary field to deal with such inter-related questions as the nature of Islamism, the impact of the ʻwar on terrorʼ on the spread of militancy, the growing sense of being under siege by Muslim Diasporas and the many unintended ramifications of a security-minded world order. This volume deliberately focuses on these issues both at a broad theoretical level but more importantly in the form of a number of prominent case studies including Indonesia, Algeria and Turkey."--Publisher description.

Bauman, strangerhood and attitudes towards immigrants among the Australian population

Through an investigation of the idea of the stranger, this article seeks to blend theory with empirical research. It does this in three ways. First, it engages with a social theory of the stranger articulated in the work of Zygmunt Bauman. Second, it examines data from the Australian Election Study surveys between 1996 and 2007 in order to explore attitudinal changes towards groups of immigrants. The findings from this survey suggests that attitudes towards immigrants in general have fluctuated in Australia, despite the negative effects of economic globalization, the growth in neoliberal economic reforms and terrorist attacks in the West. Third, drawing on Bauman's theory of the stranger we provide an interpretation of these fluctuating attitudes through the idea of the hybrid stranger. Finally, we argue that a more nuanced understanding of these attitudes towards immigrants in Australia is possible when a theory of the stranger is informed by a discussion on the constitution of host self, the influence of the media, the role of government policy, and the impact of class and geography.

Chinese perceptions of Japan's security strategy post-11 September 2001

Looking mainly at the changing nature of the U.S.-Japan security alliance since 11 September 2001, this thesis argues that the recent emergence of a more assertive Japanese security policy has led to a more robust Chinese response to perceived security challenges from Tokyo and Washington.

Carbon nanomaterials in biosensors : should you use nanotubes or graphene?

From diagnosis of life-threatening diseases to detection of biological agents in warfare or terrorist attacks, biosensors are becoming a critical part of modern life. Many recent biosensors have incorporated carbon nanotubes as sensing elements, while a growing body of work has begun to do the same with the emergent nanomaterial graphene, which is effectively an unrolled nanotube. With this widespread use of carbon nanomaterials in biosensors, it is timely to assess how this trend is contributing to the science and applications of biosensors. This Review explores these issues by presenting the latest advances in electrochemical, electrical, and optical biosensors that use carbon nanotubes and graphene, and critically compares the performance of the two carbon allotropes in this application. Ultimately, carbon nanomaterials, although still to meet key challenges in fabrication and handling, have a bright future as biosensors.

Emotional reactions to real-world events in social networks

A convergence of emotions among people in social networks is potentially resulted by the occurrence of an unprecedented event in real world. E.g., a majority of bloggers would react angrily at the September 11 terrorist attacks. Based on this observation, we introduce a sentiment index, computed from the current mood tags in a collection of blog posts utilizing an affective lexicon, potentially revealing subtle events discussed in the blogosphere. We then develop a method for extracting events based on this index and its distribution. Our second contribution is establishment of a new bursty structure in text streams termed a sentiment burst. We employ a stochastic model to detect bursty periods of moods and the events associated. Our results on a dataset of more than 12 million mood-tagged blog posts over a 4-year period have shown that our sentiment-based bursty events are indeed meaningful, in several ways.

Political Islam and human security

In the wake of the September 11 and subsequent terrorist attacks, the academic and media commentaries on Islam the religion and Islam the basis for political ideology haves received an unprecedented high level of exposure and attention. The acts of political violence by extremist groups and the omnipresent war on terror have added fresh uncertainties to an already complex global order. Just as terrorism and counter-terrorism are locked in a mutually re-enforcing symbiosis, the sense of insecurity felt by Muslims and non-Muslims alike is mutually dependent and has the potential to escalate. This general assessment holds true for Muslims living in the Muslim world and beyond. The pervasive sense of being under attack physically and culturally by the United States and its allies has contributed to a growing unease among Muslims and re-enforced deep-seated mistrust of the ‘West’. Public articulation of such misgivings has in turn, lent credence to Western observers who posit an inherent antipathy between the West and the Muslim world. The subsequent policies that have emerged in this context of fear and mutual distrust have contributed to the vicious cycle of insecurity.

Latin America and the Caribbean in the World Economy 2004: 2005 trends

Includes bibliography

E-business innovation and customs renovation for secure supply chain management

Includes bibliography

Prevention and insurance of conflict and terrorism: issues and evidence for Latin America

Includes bibliography

Capital flows to Latin America: third quarter 2001

Events in Argentina dominated most of the third quarter of 2001 until September 11, when the terrorist attacks against the United States prompted a sell-off of emerging markets assets, increasing uncertainty and risk aversion against a background of global economic slowdown. Emerging markets' short term prospects to tap international capital markets deteriorated significantly. In the third quarter of 2001, Latin American countries issued US$7.6 billion in bonds, following US$11.2 billion in the second quarter and US$13.2 billion in the first quarter, which had been a jump from only US$2.9 billion in the last quarter of 2000. At first, it seemed that the pace of debt issuance would slow down considerably given Argentina's troubles in July, as Argentina's bond auction at the beginning of the month was poorly received, forcing the government to shorten the maturity of the new debt and to pay rates as high as those during the Russian crisis in 1998. By August, however, emerging markets rebounded strongly on the back of a new US$8 billion IMF assistance package to Argentina, with both Mexico and Brazil successfully launching large issues. International markets displayed considerable flexibility as investors gave Mexico's US$1.5 billion 30- year bond and Brazil's JPY200 billion two-year samurai issue a warm reception. This return to capital markets was interrupted by the events of September 11, which caused debt issuance to fall sharply in September and October. Following the events of September 11, EMBI+ spreads widened above 1,000 basis points for the first time in nearly two years. According to J.P. Morgan there was a 3.7% market decline in September, which brought year-to-date returns for the EMBI+ to only 0.06%. Emerging markets debt, however, fared better than most other fixed income and equity markets in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. U.S. high-yield market suffered its worst month since August 1998, declining by 6.5%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq declined by 8.2% and 17%, respectively. Emerging equity markets suffered even greater declines, with losses as severe as 24% in local currency terms and 31% in U.S. dollar terms.

De Bush a Jack Bauer: a segurança como obsessão nos Estados Unidos após o 11 de setembro

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Leituras e imagens do 11 de setembro: reavaliações da história em Falling Man (2007), de Don DeLillo e em Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), de Michael Moore

Pós-graduação em Letras - IBILCE

Terrorismo e insegurança no mundo pós 11 de setembro

Pós-graduação em Relações Internacionais (UNESP - UNICAMP - PUC-SP) - FFC