Agricultural practices in Eastern Maputaland

The various agricultural practices employed in eastern Maputaland are described.

Agricultural strategies utilized in Maputaland are low in productivity but aim to minimize risk. The area is marginal for agriculture as soils are sandy and rainfall unreliable. Insects and plant diseases accentuate the problem. Infrastructure is lacking in the area. Traditional agricultural systems predominate.

Farming in the area is generally of a subsistence nature and can be divided into gardening, swamp farming and field cropping. Steps towards modernization of agriculture must take into account all existing constraints.     

How to handle donor complaints

Responding to donor complaints takes great care. But know who's complaining and keep things in perspective.     

The role and place of research and intellectual discourse in the reproduction of social relations of racial domination in South Africa

The South African research community which undertakes all research activity in the social and natural sciences, with and without state and corporate sponsorship, draws its membership mainly from the dominant social group. In this country, the dominant group is both economically and racially determined. Consequently, the white minority dominates the research community and intellectual discourse as it does other socio‐economic and political spheres of society. This situation guarantees the constant reproduction and perpetuation of the social relations of racial domination.

As an agent that generates knowledge and new ideas, research as an academic and intellectual tool of enquiry is an instrument of social control, producing new concepts, language and theoretical abstractions which are not accessible to those outside its multi‐farious disciplines. Insofar as the largest proportion of practitioners of these specialised disciplines is drawn from the dominant group, research has itself become a pivotal part of the dominant ideology. Its role is inevitably and inextricably bound up with the processes of systematic reproduction of the relations of domination.

The aim of this viewpoint is therefore to explore various ways in which research bodies and intellectual discourse in general in South Africa can be deracialised and be made more representative of the social make‐up of society.     

How public opinion really works

The public's thinking on issues progresses through seven predictable stages, the dean of American pollsters finds. Politicians make a big mistake just looking at raw numbers.     

Struggling to save our kids

Many more than ever face the crises of childhood: violence, drugs, bad schools, poverty, divorce, or two parents at work. And no one seems to care.     

Country size and ‘insulation’ from external disturbances

Summary This paper considers the relationship between economic size and vulnerability to external disturbances. In order to analyze this issue effectively a model comprising three different-sized economies is constructed. The issue of economic size and insulation is approached from this alternative perspectives depending upon the relative size of (a) the `recipient' country and (b) the transmitting country. The results of the analysis indicate that, contrary to popular belief, a small country under floating exchange rates is less severely affected by external economic events than a large economy regardless of the type of external disturbance and the degree of domestic wage indexation.This paper has been improved by the helpful comments of a referee. We alone are solely responsible for all remaining errors.     

生态文化旅游的价值评价研究

旅游业已经成为现代经济增长一个新的亮点,特别是生态文化旅游的增长速度更是惊人,而其发展的价值平衡是生态学和经济学必须面对的一个难题。本文依据意大利经济学家帕累托的不均匀分布定律,运用埃奇渥斯盒状分析图,在某一选定的生态资源环境的承载量既定的基础上,从生态文化旅游的价值交换的角度考虑,并且从定性研究转向定量研究,分析研究生态文化旅游的价值帕累托最优曲线,用以筛选生态文化旅游的工程项目。