Partnership Through Pragmatism

The Sino-European relationship has been relatively harmonious for approximately 30 years since the end of the Cold War.Differing political ideologies and some disagreements have not reduced either side’s appetite for cooperation.Last year was difficult and intense in comparison to previous ones,due to the European Parliament’s non-ratification of a comprehensive EU-China investment agreement,frictions regarding contradictory interpretations of human rights.     

Structuring dissident desire: representations of same-sex prison contact in contemporary South African culture

The figure of the prisoner, particularly as associated with the Numbers gangs in South African prison gangs, is both a hyper-masculine and (homo-)eroticized character. Prison allows for a state of being queer that, through its subject having already been criminalised, and escapes the stigma of feminization associated with it in the hierarchically gendered society outside of prison. Through the structure of the gang and in the confines of the prison, same-sex desire is at the centre of criminality and masculinity. At the same time, prison allows a space in which same-sex desire is countenanced; it thus becomes a literary setting fraught with same-sex eroticism. This essay considers the extent to which the masculinities of prison have become conflated with notions of an eroticized homosexual threat and the politics and fates of such threat inside and outside the jail walls. It reads a film (Proteus, 2003), non-fiction text (The Number, 2010, by Jonny Steinberg), short fiction (by Jan van Tonder), and play (Tertius Kapp’s Rooiland, 2013).     

Participation in social forestry re-examined: a case-study from Bangladesh

Bangladesh has enthusiastically launched social forestry projects that make grandiose promises of seeking local community involvement and participation in the management of forest resources. This study examines the functioning of the Chandra Agroforestry Research and Demonstration Project to evaluate the actual extent and nature of popular participation it entails. After discussing the project and its locale, the methodology of the study is described as an analysis of qualitative and quantitative data collected in the period February-August 1994. The theoretical framework was based on a modified version of Zaman's framework that uses prevalence and opportunity as the indicators of participation. Analysis of prevalence indicators reveals that professional foresters make all major decisions for the project without consulting the farmers involved. The government also has sole responsibility for monitoring and evaluating the project, and the farmers are skeptical that the government will allow them to profit from the benefits arising from the project. Analysis of opportunity indicators shows that the project is not decentralized, cooperative and collaborative linkages have not been made, project flexibility has been sacrificed to bureaucracy, and the incentives promised to the farmers have not materialized. It is concluded that the participation of local residents in the Chandra project has been insignificant but that the project has succeeded in reducing 1) the historical distrust and conflict between forestry officials and local farmers, 2) encroachment on government lands, and 3) the rate of deforestation. In addition, the project has given participating farmers a sense of security.