A critique of South Africa: The solution

South Africa: The Solution by Leon Louw and Frances Kendall Amagi Publications, Bisho (Ciskei), 1986. xvi plus 237 pages including maps, figures, diagrams, illustrations, notes, appendices and bibliography. R14,95 paperback.     

Public enterprise in Algeria: Law as a bridge between ideology and reality

In 1971, the Algerian government promulgated the Charte de l'Organisation Socialiste des Entreprises. By means of this Charte it ostensibly sought to reform Algerian public enterprise law and to correct increasingly disruptive problems in public enterprise management. It also sought to reduce the widening gap between workers and the technocratic elite managing the state-controlled economy. The Charte and its subsequent implementing legislation have been criticized as being, at best, ambiguous; at worst, insincere. Moreover, implementation of la gestion socialiste, as the reform came to be known, was uneven and slow. This article discusses Algerian public enterprise law before and after the 1971 reform. It does so within the context of comparing the utility of applying a symbolic rather than an instrumental view of the role of law in development. On the basis of analysis of the Algerian experience, the article suggests that the symbolic view of law allows a much deeper understanding of the role of law in development, primarily because it allows, if not requires, consideration of the influence of economic, political and social factors on the role of law in developing countries.     

Entangling carbon lock-in: India’s coal constituency

This article investigates how energy security in the Anthropocene is entangled in diffuse ways with materiality. In particular we examine the social-material entanglement of humans and coal in India and how coal manifests itself differently across social life in the country. Focusing on a single material allows us to study how the Anthropocene creates, and is created by, particular appropriations of the material world. It offers a corrective to some Anthropocene literature that avoids discussing the complex, “everyday,” social impacts that fossil fuels have, particularly in the developing world. These intertwined impacts add to the complexity and difficulty in the process of decarbonizing societies, or in transitioning to a sustainable energy future.     

The influence of site of collection on postmortem morphine concentrations in heroin overdose victims

When assaying for postmortem morphine concentration, significant site sampling variability exists between central and peripheral sampling sites and even within sampling regions of the body. To study the variation, 76 suspected heroin overdoses were identified. Each had femoral artery (FA) and vein (FV), left and right ventricle and pooled heart blood samples obtained at autopsy. Forty-four tested positive for morphine. Morphine concentrations were determined by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, with sampling site differences reported as log-transformed ratios and compared by signed rank test.The mean FA to FV ratio for total morphine was 1.2 (range 0-4.5). The ratio for left heart to right heart total morphine was 1.1 (range 0.4-3.2). Left ventricular to FV total morphine ratio was 2.0 (range 0.6-6.9). In these opioid overdose deaths, FA and FV morphine concentrations are usually similar, although up to 4.5-fold differences were noted. Centrally obtained morphine concentrations are on average twice as high compared with peripheral morphine concentrations. Left and right ventricular morphine concentrations were usually similar, although up to 3.2-fold differences were noted (left side higher).