GOING COMMERCIAL IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES*

The Department of Administrative Services of the Commonwealth government (DAS) was created in its present form as part of the July 1987 restructuring of Commonwealth departments. Functions came from nine hitherto separate departments, with the bulk of them transferring from Local Government and Administrative Services, Housing and Construction, and Science. The number of affected staff totalled 18,600: they were previously organised into 19 quite distinct groups with very little in common except that they were providing a service of some kind, predominantly to Commonwealth organisations.     

New directions for pastoral development in Africa

The last few years have seen a major rethinking of some of the hallowed assumptions of range ecology and range-management practice. The usefulness of terms such as ‘vegetation succession?s, ‘carrying capacity?s, and ‘desertification?s is being reassessed, particularly for the dry rangelands which are dominated by highly variable rainfall and episodic, chance events such as drought. This article examines the management and policy implications of this thinking for pastoral development in dryland areas. It briefly examines the consequences of environmental variability for pastoral development planning, range and fodder management, drought responses, livestock marketing, resource tenure, institutional development, and pastoral administration. By offering new directions for development workers, researchers, and policy planners, the article illustrates, in practical terms, a future for pastoral development in dryland Africa that recognises both the importance of pastoral livelihoods and the significance of environmental variability.     

Onwards and Sidewards? The Curious Case of the Responsibility to Protect and Mass Violence in Africa

This article approaches Responsibility to Protect (R2P) from the ground up. Selecting African cases of mass atrocity in the age of R2P, it identifies key general features of contemporary violence. The article goes on to consider the nature and extent of R2P practice in each case. The argument is that R2P engagements in these conflicts display a mixture of weakness and irrelevance. The result of this is that R2P has failed significantly to reduce human suffering in any of the cases dealt with. The article notes that this clear failure does not seem to perturb the mainstream of academic R2P discourses, which, although critical at times, remain confident that R2P is making some difference and represents the best way forward. The article explores how this kind of discourse is propounded in the scholarly work on R2P. This leads us towards an argument that R2P as a discourse and international project can run in parallel with continuing mass suffering in African civil wars without being profoundly troubled.     

Sudden death due to dissecting pulmonary artery aneurysm: a case report and review of the literature

Pulmonary artery aneurysm and pulmonary artery dissection are rare antemortem diagnoses, most often associated with sudden death. These pathologic entities are strongly associated with chronic pulmonary hypertension due to structural cardiac defects, either congenital or acquired. We report the case of a 49-year-old woman who died suddenly due to dissection and rupture of a large pulmonary trunk aneurysm, with subsequent cardiac tamponade. Key historical and physical findings are described. Additionally, we present a discussion of the incidence, clinical presentation, pathogenesis, and pathologic diagnostic features of pulmonary artery dissection.