The pension systems of Arab countries in the light of socio-economic risks
The pension systems of Middle Eastern and the North African Arab Countries are facing several threats that will not only endanger their old-age benefit schemes in the foreseeable future, but will also deepen social conflicts. This article examines four groups of factors that reinforce one another’s possible impacts. Among social factors it is important to emphasize the special, underprivileged position of women, and the traditional multi-generation family model, which is insufficient to resolve the issue of caring for the elderly. The next group is demographic phenomena. These processes are going to translate into considerable burdens for the next generation – as a result of the changes occurring in terms of other accompanying processes – of these societies, whose composition is very young compared to European societies. The third group of factors includes general economic factors, such as high unemployment rates, low economic activity, and the size of the grey and black economies in these societies. As an implicit problem, there are many apparent internal shortcomings in the management of the existing pension systems. Problems such as low coverage, the lack of social solidarity-based pension schemes, covering a broader social basis, and incorrect parameter regulations are present in these systems. The analysed factors paint a gloomy picture about the long term processes, which are worth examining in more detail in Europe, in as much as general conclusions can be drawn that can later be applied to European pension systems.
What are the implications of inevitable changes in the family
1. On Ideal Types! The Arab family is a mental construct, a demographic formula, a political institution, but above all a legal and moral fact! It is best understood in terms of Weber’s ‘ideal type’, a term that refers to multiple forms in which kin relations in Arab countries are organized. No matter how different, imperfect, dysfunctional or partial they are all called families! There is no prescription of what a family is or how to go about classifying its various renditions beyond the taxonomies of kinship studies.1 Despite the diversity of the meaning, form and functions of family, there are three essential shared characteristics of all families. All families are networks of obligation, dependency and exchange. All families determine the distribution or rights, roles and responsibilities amongst their members. All families are ideologically constructed in accordance with legal, social, political and moral prescriptions. The most basic form of this ideal type is the primary unit of reproduction and socialization. Husband and wife caring for children and other dependents and enabling the survival and reproduction of future generations are what we have in mind when we think of family. This basic primary social unit has myriad variations and therefore is loosely regulated by law not in terms of its whole but in accordance with the relationships that structure it. In other words the law regulates the rights and obligations between parents and children, between husbands and wives and between siblings and parents. These laws and regulations however are predicated on moral, social and economic assumptions about how these relationships are structured by the functions and distributions of assets, resources and responsibilities within the family. Muslim women for example are not obliged to maintain their dependents using their assets and earnings. They are obliged to obey their husbands and fulfil their marital duties. Such are the constructions of Muslim jurisprudence that place the responsibility of maintenance on the husband and the primary reproductive responsibilities on the wife. Families are also expressions of how individuals adapt to social change and economic necessity. The living arrangements of families for example and whether couples start a home of their own or live with parents in extended family units often is a decision made on their behalf by the availability and affordability of housing. The gender roles within the family maybe idealized in one form but practiced as another. Women may have to work even if they are not expected to
Rotational Analysis of the CrO Bands
The (0, 1), (0, 0) and (1, 0) bands of the CrO, which appear in the red and yellow region, are analysed rotationally, and we have been able to show that these bands owe to the transition 5 Π- 5 Π. We have shown the theoretical formulae for the quintet state, which can be applied in the case of nearly (a), and obtained the molecular constants as follows,