Active learning for understanding land degradation : African Catchment Game and Riskmap
- Authors: Rowntree, Kate M , Fox, Roddy C
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6669 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006793
- Description: Land degradation is the result of the intersection of a complex set of biophysical and socio-economic factors. The capacity of an individual or community to address land degradation is likewise constrained. While it is quite possible for professionals and learners to grasp the main issues around land degradation from a theoretical perspective, internalizing the reality of what it means to be the resource degrader is more difficult. We have developed two active learning methods that aim to address this problem. The first is the African Catchment Game, a role-playing game based on Graham Chapman’s Green Revolution Game, adapted for the southern Africa context and incorporating a land degradation component. In this game participants play out the complex dynamics of rural-urban-global linkages against a background of environmental hazards. The second is based on Save the Children Fund’s RiskMap computer simulation that models risk in terms of rural livelihoods for different income groups. Ethiopia is used as the example. This paper evaluates the two active learning techniques as tools for exploring the relationships between land degradation and poverty through an evaluation of participants’ experiences.
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- Date Issued: 2006
An appraisal of the applicability of development journalism in the context of public service broadcasting
- Authors: Banda, Fackson
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6322 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008548
- Description: The concept of ‘development journalism’ has, over time, become possessed by demons of all sorts of confusion. If we want to wrest any useful principles from the concept, it is important that we exorcise the demons it has come to be associated with, not least the demon of the postcolonial state’s blatant interference in the practice of journalism. This ‘demonisation’ of the concept is partly suggested by Shah’s observation that ‘development journalism’, central to many discussions of mass communication and development in the Third World, needs to be reconceptualised because deliberations about its validity and usefulness have been bogged down in arguments structured by Western notions of press freedom. The debate has diverted attention from important questions about how journalism can contribute to participatory democracy, security, peace, and other humanistic values (Shah 1996: 143). In this paper, therefore, I will, firstly, discuss the conceptual basis of development journalism. I will rely heavily on development communication theorising, which informs most of the discussions about development journalism. I want to demonstrate the historical ‘moments’ through which the concept has passed and, by so doing, point out the more redeemable features of the concept. Secondly, I will discuss the relevance of the development journalism paradigm to public service broadcasting. In conclusion, I will draw out some principles of development journalism and demonstrate how these can be implemented within the context of public service broadcasting.
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- Date Issued: 2006
Bandwidth management with the Squid caching proxy server
- Authors: Halse, Guy A
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6975 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1009335
- Description: Presentation on the use of the Squid caching proxy server as a tool for bandwidth management. This formed part of the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications' Bandwidth Management and Optimisation Open Source Tools and Solutions project, being a series of workshops conducted throughout the developing world.
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- Date Issued: 2006
Firewalls at Rhodes
- Authors: Siebörger, David
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6610 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1009522
- Description: A presentation on the use of Internet Firewalls at Rhodes University. This formed part of the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications' Bandwidth Management and Optimisation Open Source Tools and Solutions project, being a series of workshops conducted throughout the developing world.
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- Date Issued: 2006
Media and cyber-democracy in Africa: an introduction
- Authors: Banda, Fackson
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6323 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008549
- Description: The paper provides a sketch of the discourse of media and ‘cyber-democracy’ in and out of Africa. Firstly, it discusses the characteristic features of new media technology. Secondly, it attempts a ‘theorising’ of cyber-democracy, within the context of general democratic theory. Thirdly, it sets out a vision of cyber-democracy for Africa. In delineating this vision, it highlights six features characteristic of the democratic potential of new media technology and gives examples of how Africa has appropriated them. Finally, it outlines a ‘new media’ research agenda for Africa.
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- Date Issued: 2006
Media in the service of citizens
- Authors: Banda, Fackson
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6321 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008547
- Description: This lecture looks at the role of the media in promoting an enhanced citizenship, locating the debate within the discourse of development and freedom. It identifies threats to what can be characterised as a 'media-citizens compact', such as media over-commercialisation. It concludes that public-service media are cardinal to the enjoyment of citizenship rights and freedoms.
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- Date Issued: 2006
On the fast track to land degradation? A case study of the impact of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme in Kadoma District, Zimbabwe
- Authors: Fox, Roddy C , Rowntree, Kate M , Chigumira, Easther C
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6663 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006668
- Description: The Fast Track Land Reform Programme is the defining instrument for Zimbabwe’s future development prospects. In the three year period from 2000 to 2002 300,000 families were resettled on 11 million hectares thus witnessing the end of the colonial division of land which had seen 15.5 million hectares still in European hands in 1980, the start of the post-colonial period. The process which displaced the commercial farm workers and farm owners was chaotic, violent and disorderly and so has been called jambanja. Subsequent legislation and government agricultural initiatives have attempted to impose, retroactively, technocratic order to the sweeping changes that have taken place. Our study shows that the dire macro-economic situation coupled with trends of HIV/AIDS prevalence means that developing sustainable land use practices is going to be a very difficult proposition. At the local scale, our case studies show that there have been multiple outcomes with low investment, very limited government support and resource extraction leading to land degradation and unsustainable farming practices. In some instances, however, individual households have benefitted in the short term from the process but this has only occurred where climatic and soil conditions have been particularly favourable.
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- Date Issued: 2006
Sidelining developmental goals? Re-imaging Port Elizabeth for the 2010 Soccer World Cup
- Authors: Baines, Gary F
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6155 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007070
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- Date Issued: 2006
The deductibility of interest
- Authors: Gunn, Richard , Stack, Elizabeth M
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6063 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004603
- Description: The deduction of interest expenditure, for the purpose of calculating the South African taxable income on which normal tax is levied, must satisfy the requirements of the preamble to section 11 and section 11(a) of the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962, read with section 23(g), unless a particular section makes specific provision for its deduction. There appears to be a presumption that if interest expenditure is incurred in the production of income derived from carrying on a trade, it is deductible and we need look no further. This presumption may underlie the 2005 amendment of sub-section (2) of section 24J, which provides that interest is deductible provided it has been incurred “in the production of income” and “for the purposes of trade” (sections 11(a) and 23(g)). This paper discusses the deductibility of interest and, in particular, whether there are circumstances in which interest paid on a loan used to acquire a capital asset could be of a capital nature. The provisions of the Income Tax Act and court decisions relating to the deductibility of interest, as well as opinions expressed by authoritative writers on tax, are subjected to critical analysis. The paper first distinguishes the tests for determining whether an expense has been incurred “in the production of income” and whether the expense is “of a capital nature”. Specific court decisions relating to the deductibility of interest are then analysed. The research considers section 24J of the Act, to determine whether its provisions have settled the debate, and refers briefly to the provisions of section 11(bB), in the context of the research question. The conclusion reached in the research is that there are occasions where the courts appear to have confused the tests for determining whether interest expenditure was incurred “in the production of income” and whether it is “of a capital nature”, in certain instances have also failed to address the question of the capital or revenue nature of the interest expenditure under scrutiny, and that the matter does not appear to be settled that interest incurred on funds used to acquire a capital asset used to produce trade income is automatically deductible.
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- Date Issued: 2006
The relationship between Accounting 1 and Accounting 3 results
- Authors: Mazwi, Zukile , Stack, Elizabeth M
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6064 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004609
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- Date Issued: 2006