回眸’96 关注’97

时间的足音,敲响在一个切换点上:回眸’96,关注’97。古希腊戏剧家索福克勒斯说,慎重的人根据过去的事件来判断现在。诗人拜伦说,过去是最好的预言者。米德说,所谓未来就是现在。丘吉尔说,过去给我们以无穷的希望。读者朋友,你,在过去的1996年,感触最深的是什么?对于1997年,你最关注的又是什么?——带着这一话题,本刊派出记者,四处采访了各行各业的人士,得出一些很有意思的“过去与未来”的答案。从这一期起,焦点时空版块的“话题”就与读者朋友见面了,欢迎大家踊跃点题并自荐成为“话题”的发言者。请相信:过去的话题是你成长的印证,未来的话题是你成长的憧憬。     

Africa’s Pasts and Africa’s Historians

Creation of local government districts has become an enterprise in Uganda, with many stakeholders having diverse opinions about the government's motives. This article examines the questions: What are the proclaimed and hidden or implicit intentions of the government? What evidence is available to provide reasonable interpretation of government action according to a particular rationale? By triangulating primary and secondary data and using a deductive approach, the study concludes that the initial intention of the government to create new districts to bring services and government closer to the people was consistent with the country's constitution and decentralisation policy. However, since 1997, and especially since 2006, other rationales have come to the fore, though not communicated as such in public policy statements. While we do not exclude ethnic rationale, the article finds more evidence that points to political patronage and a variant of gerrymandering (namely, that of splitting up districts while not redrawing boundaries).     

Why ‘Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bill’? Rethinking the ‘coherent’ state

How we understand the state is important when addressing issues of human rights. During the debate on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda, the country was, at times, presented as nearly uniformly homophobic, exemplified by references to ‘Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill’. The state, which does discriminate against gender and sexual minorities, is comprised of different institutions and people, holding, at times, conflicting positions. This paper documents these differing positions that parts of the state adopted, along with how those positions changed over time in response to political changes and lobbying from civil society. Uncovering gaps in the coherence of the state by identifying these opposing views is useful both for how we understand and study the state, and for activism against political homophobias. Strategies against legislation similar to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill can target those within most likely to oppose such laws.     

程琳’87对话

我是要长大的“程琳,你对《程琳新歌1987》有什么想法?”“这盒带子出来以后,很多人吃惊。去年还听我唱《秋千》,怎么一下子跳成这样。许多人不理解。我知道人们喜欢我唱流行歌曲,大家也总叫我‘小程琳,小程琳’。可是小程琳会长大的呀,我也不能抱着对去不放,我希望做各种探索,提高我自己,我相信这种探索对社会是有益的。“这盒新歌,引起了不少人的注意和议论。有的说《明星》太棒了,有人说《从前有座山》好,也     

The European Union’s ambiguous concept of ‘state fragility’

Although scholars and practitioners alike perceive ‘state fragility’ to be a key challenge for security and development, there are significant variations in the definition of this phenomenon. This article analyses the European Union’s notion of ‘state fragility’. Based on a document analysis covering the years 2001–12 and expert interviews conducted in November 2012, the article reveals that the EU has not (yet) decided on a clear-cut definition of ‘state fragility’. Three factors explain this lack of decisiveness: the EU’s complex institutional framework, which impedes policy coherence; developments at the international level that require the EU’s compliance; and the organisation’s diplomatic efforts to maintain cooperative relationships with aid-recipient countries that have been labelled ‘fragile’. The result is conceptual ambiguity that potentially reduces the EU’s capacity to respond to fragile situations.     

’93购物热潮透视

1993年5月。倾盆大雨下了又下,大地上到处响起防汛的警报。专家说:这是厄尔尼诺现象再生,西南季风强盛活跃所致。于是水涨船高,有人调笑:国人素爱以水为财,水涨自然也价升吧? 5月广州的物价再度攀升,比去年同期增长25.4％。1至5月累计比去年同期升幅19.2％,不到半年,增长率已大步跨越年增长10％的预计,而且几乎高出一倍。还是5月,国家信息中心公布了令人“危言耸听”的预测:若不对目前固定资产投资趋势加以控制,全年固定资产增长突破9400亿安全线,今年下半年或第4     

‘Sexing the city’

Sexing the City: Lesbian and Gay Politics within the Activist State. By Davina Cooper. London, Rivers Oram Press, 1994. Pp.216. £30 hb, £11.95pb.     

‘Colonizin’ in reverse

Abstract

This is a revised version of a paper presented on 22 June 2006 by Kenneth Parker at The English Academy of Southern Africa, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, on the occasion of the presentation of a Gold Medal to Professor Colin Gardner for distinguished service to English. The paper takes a tongue-in-cheek look at ‘Britishness’ and conforming to British standards – including what the British saw as the ‘way forward for the English language’. It shows how the erstwhile ‘colonized’, and more particularly their British-born descendants, have been doing some ‘colonizin’ of their own.     

’91在西部边境

1991年12月26日,在克里姆林宫上空飘扬了69年的红底、铁锤和镰刀的苏联国旗被缓缓降下,原苏联的各加盟共和国带着各自的梦想,踏上了一条未卜之途。一个称雄于世的超级大国就这样迅速地解体了,它的变化,对世界格局产生了深刻的影响。中国西部的新疆,与原苏联有着3000多公里的共同国境线。随着苏联的解体,中苏边界也已发生了历史性的变化。如今,依然是那道国境线,依旧是那些守卫在这里的边防军,昔日中苏边界的名称已经成为历史,随之而成的则是中俄、中哈、中吉和中塔边界。     

’99美国最酷网络公司

“酷”,一个90年代兴起的新词,和许多诞生在同一时代的新兴公司一样,虽没有百年辉煌,却一样令人倾倒。     

Political Forgiveness’ Transformative Potentials

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the theoretical and empirical understandings of the role that political forgiveness plays in the post-conflict and post-authoritarian societies. The paper provides a discussion of the complexities of the concept of political forgiveness, and offers empirical examples that demonstrate the different capacities and potentials that political forgiveness has as a mode of social reconciliation and repair the past injustice. It argues that today, with the accumulation of experience in the practice of transitional justice, and the growing importance of human rights regime, considering of forgiveness through the accountability’s lens is very timely and important. After the discussion of the contribution of forgiveness to societal reconstruction in the post-conflict and post-authoritarian societies, the paper focuses on the role of forgiveness as an essential part of justice and solidarity. By scrutinising forgiveness’ links with reconciliation and justice, the paper offers a comprehensive way to assess the nature of preconditions and the role of forgiveness in addressing the past injustice and overcoming divisions in post-conflict societies. Its discussion of empirical findings on the role that forgiveness opens up a debate about risks and costs involved in a policy of forgiveness in newly democratised countries.     

’93广东反贪回顾

历史转轨期贪欲大爆发 普普通通的老百姓第一次如此大开眼界,他们怀着听天方夜谭似的心情注视着这些事实: 原深圳工程咨询公司副总经理兼广州公司经理曾利华,先后向     

粮情 ’89警报

1989年2月,正当人们对“全国将取消粮票”津津乐道的时候,突然看到了严格按定量口粮供粮的通知。黑市上粮票价格骤涨,许多城市甚至对议价米也采取凭卡定点供应制。人们不会忘记,1988年5月,广东率先放开粮价,牌价粮调高了108％,入夏后,广州集市米价随气温一道急剧上升。三级米从年初的每公斤0.3元涨到0.7元、1.2元、2元,年底一度卖到3.2元。未及年底,粮食又成了新闻界的热门话题,信息表明:1988年全国粮食减产已成定局。广东等沿海省份最先闻风而动,率先到四川、湖南等产粮省购买大米。对此,川、湘等地早有警     

La présence turque en Côte d’Ivoire contemporaine: entreprise transnationale au service de l’éducation,l’humanitaire et l’islam en Afrique de l’ouest

Many Tanzanians share a basic understanding of the occult as a moving force in the visible world. But at the same time, notions of the occult are characterised by indeterminacies in meaning, thereby allowing for multiple interpretations of particular events. This article explores various readings of two particular incidents that both occurred within a suburb of the city of Iringa in South-central Tanzania. First a Lutheran pastor started suffering from a paralyzed shoulder and a few weeks later an old woman was found lying naked outside of his home in the middle of the night. While both incidents were widely ascribed to witchcraft the article shows how particular interpretations were embedded in and reflective of a dense social climate, characterised by different kinds of tension, inequalities, suspicions of corruption and by religious and medical pluralism and competition. The article argues that the very opaqueness and uncertainty of witchcraft knowledge enabled a variety of actors with different stakes to make claims to truth, spiritual status and moral identity.     

Anti-Corruption Policy: China’s Tiger Hunt and India’s Demonetization

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the different styles of anti-corruption strategy, particularly at the local level in China and India. In China there has been a central push with a role of anti-corruption agencies that have law-enforcement power. In India there has been a focus on institutional building together with a visible role of the civil society. China has had a top-down approach while India has more of a bottom-up approach combined with top-down initiatives such as demonetization. Interviews with 44 mid-career and senior officials investigate the two approaches and the impacts of anti-corruption measures in China and India. Interviewees support the approaches adopted by China and India but doubt their effectiveness and sustainability. The way forward, they suggest, is to reduce the influence of political parties especially in India and to enhance e-governance in both countries. Experiences of the two countries have significant implications especially on capacity building, institutional development, and law enforcement.