Text 35 Modern Transportation Systems

Transportation system is a facility consisting of the means and equipment necessary for the movement of passengers or goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The overall functioning is provided by interrelated parts of any transportation system. They are infrastructure, vehicles, and operations.

Transport infrastructure consists of the fixed installations necessary for transport. It includes roads, railways, airways, waterways, canals and pipelines as well as terminals such as airports, railway stations, bus stations, warehouses, trucking terminals, refueling depots, and seaports. Terminals may be used both for interchange of passengers and cargo and for maintenance.

Vehicles travelling on these networks may comprise automobiles, bicycles, buses, trains, trucks, people, helicopters, and aircraft.

Operations deal with the way the vehicles are operated, and the procedures set for this purpose including financing, legalities and policies. In the transport industry, operations and ownership of infrastructure can be either public or private, depending on the country and mode.

Passenger transport may be public, where operators provide scheduled services, or private. Freight transport has become focused on containerization, although bulk transport is used for large volumes of durable items. Transport plays an important part in economic growth and globalization, but most types cause air pollution and use large amounts of land. While it is heavily subsidized by governments, good planning of transport is essential to make traffic flow.

Modern transportation and communication infrastructure plays a significant role in the socioeconomic development of a country. In the current context of globalisation and market economy, there is a critical need for evolving a developed transport and communication system that should be able to integrate countries into one international transport and communication network.

Questions:

1. What is a transportation system?

2. What modes of transport are there?

3. How is the overall functioning of a transport system provided?

4. What does transport infrastructure consist of?

5. Can terminals be used for interchange of passengers and cargo or for maintenance?

6. What are the vehicles that travel on the transport networks?

7. Operations deal with the way the vehicles are operated, don’t they?

8. Can ownership of infrastructure be private?

9. What is essential to make traffic flow?

10.What is necessary to do about transport systems in the context of globalization and market economy?

Text 36 Terrorism

Terrorism is a term used to describe violence against civilians, acts which are intended to create fear or "terror". Acts of terrorism can be carried out by individuals, groups, or states for political or other ideological goals. Terrorism has been described variously as both a tactic and strategy; a crime and a holy duty.

There are various types of conflict:

• Secession of a territory to form a new sovereign state,

• Dominance of territory or resources by various ethic groups,

• Imposition of a particular form of government, such as democracy, theocracy or anarchy,

• Economic deprivation of a population,

• Opposition to a domestic government or occupying army

Terrorism is sometimes used when attempting to force political change by convincing a government or population to agree to demands to avoid future harm or fear of harm, destabilization of an existing government, motivating a disgruntled population to join an uprising, escalating a conflict in the hopes of disrupting the status quo, expressing the severity of a grievance, or drawing attention to a neglected cause, creation of international visibility for a persistent problem.

The terms "terrorism" and "terrorist" are often used as political labels to condemn violence or threat of violence by certain actors as immoral, indiscriminate, or unjustified. Those labeled "terrorists" rarely identify themselves as such, and typically use other generic terms or terms specific to their situation, such as: separatist, freedom fighter, liberator, revolutionary, vigilante, militant, paramilitary, guerilla, rebel, jihadi, fedazeen, mujaheddin, or any similar-meaning word in other languages. Most organizations that are accused of being a "terrorist organization" will deny using terrorism as a military tactic to achieve their goals, and there is no international consensus on the bureaucratic definition of terrorism.

Here is a list of organisations that are, or have been in the past, proscribed as "terrorist organizations": Aum Shinrikyo, now known as Aleph, Hamas, Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Toiba, and Hezbollah.

Religious terrorism is terrorism by those whose motivations and aims have a religious character or influence.

The term Islamic terrorism refers to acts of committed by Muslims for the purpose of achieving political and/or religious objectives. Islamic Jihad is an Islamist terrorist group based in the Western world. Some of Islamic terrorist groups, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, have limited their acts to localized regions of the Middle East, while others, notably Al-Qaeda, have an international scope for their terrorist activities. The most widely utilized tactic by Islamist terrorists is suicide bombing. This tactic is used against civilians, soldiers, government officials, the hijacking of passenger vehicles, kidnappings and executions.

Christian terrorism or extremism is carried out by groups or individuals who claim Christian motivations or goals for their actions. The following Christian groups are proscribed as "terrorist organizations”: Christian Identity movement, Freedomites (also Svobodniki or Sons of Freedom, Canada, 1902-present), Army of God ( right wing terrorist group).

State terrorism is a term which means violence against civilians conducted by a national government against a foreign state or its own people

Questions:

1. What is the definition for the term “terrorism”?

2. What are the types of conflicts?

3. When is terrorism used as a form of unconventional warfare?

4. When are terms "terrorism" and "terrorist" used?

5. Do these labeled "terrorists" and "terrorist organization" identify themselves as such?

6. What organizations are proscribed as "terrorist organizations"?

7. What is known as Islamic Jihad?

8. What are the most widely utilized tactics of Islamist terrorists?

9. What groups are proscribed as “Christian terrorist organizations”?

10. What does the terms “State terrorism” mean?