A Geo-Economic Object or an Object of Geo-Political Absorption? Competing Visions of North Korea in South Korean Politics

Abstract

The so-called Sunshine Policy launched by the liberal regime of South Korea brought about a significant transformation in its visions of North Korea. Through it, North Korea became an “object of development.” This was something different from the previous idea of North Korea as a politico-military target. However, to conservatives, North Korea remains within the politico-military realm as an object of territorial and ideological absorption. As a result, political conflicts in South Korea in the conception of North Korea – between a geo-economic object and an object of geo-political absorption – entail competitive appropriation of the discourse of “China’s colonisation of North Korea” and affect the way North Korean territory is produced.     

Angola and Kenya Pavilions in the 2013 Venice Biennale: African Contemporary Art and Cultural Diplomacy in the “Olympics of Art”

A record six African states were awarded a national pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennale, the premier venue for showcasing a nation's contemporary art, from which Africa has historically been excluded. While first-time participant Angola won the top prize, Kenya's pavilion was the target of bafflement and ire. Using a cultural diplomacy framework that integrates the insights of leading scholars, this research makes concrete recommendations for practitioners vis-à-vis a comparative case study of the two pavilions. Analysis and recommendations consider the interests of a variety of stakeholders and offer insights relevant to Africa and other emerging regions.     

Family biography,fertility and memory-making in an AIDS-affected South African site

The critical challenges of AIDS and poverty in post-apartheid South Africa impact the ways in which memories are articulated and family and fertility histories ultimately constructed. This article considers three life histories written in the course of ethnographic work on women's childbearing conducted intermittently between 1998 and 2014, and typical of other histories in the same peri-urban locale. Personal accounts of a mother and her two daughters initially centre on domestic strife and adversity – and the family as a whole is represented as struggling and disunited. In the aftermath of the death of one of the daughters from AIDS in 2001, the memories and discourse are subtly reworked by the two women in ways that are meant to counteract stigma, reclaim dignity and defend the family. The paper focuses on reproductive dynamics and memory-making in a hardship-driven and AIDS-affected setting and on the ethnographer's endeavours in witnessing, interviewing and making sense of people's ‘intent’ and ‘the urge to forget, to go on living’.     

War,crime, empire and cosmopolitanism

The millions of deaths produced by states and governments make the 20th century ‘unnameable’, a century far more lethal than all previous ‘pre-civil’ epochs. It does not appear that contemporary state violence tends to decline or to temper the brutality commonly attributed to archaic armies, nor that the rules and limitations internationally imposed on that violence, throughout the last decades, have reduced its effects. The 20th century having gone, and while hope was growing that mass murder and destruction would also go with it, recent events appear to suggest that the twenty-first century is poised to become unnameable in its turn. In this paper a reflection is presented of the notion of war as annihilation, which emerges in contemporary international conflicts. This is followed by a review of the debate on the relationship between war, empire and crime. As a logical extension of the argument developed, war is described as a particularly devastating form of crime of the powerful. Finally, reflecting on the concept of ‘cosmopolitanism’, the discussion suggests that such a concept may offer legitimacy to those who invest their enthusiasm in supporting contemporary wars as well as to those who fight against them. The latter may find inspiration in the idea of a ‘critical’ cosmopolitanism.     

南齐高帝萧道成之＂家教＂及其门风之变化——从一个侧面看萧齐皇族的＂士族化＂趋向

建立南齐后,齐高帝萧道成鉴于刘宋皇族内部的自相残害,模仿世家大族的家教传统,重视家族内部的儒家礼法教育,其子孙中出现了不少孝友方面的典型。萧道成子武帝萧赜、萧嶷等也绍续此风,其门风出现了"士族化"的趋向。不过,作为新起的皇族势力,其门风依然表现出寒门的传统,在宗室政策上表现为苛禁诸王及家族内部的严重冲突等。     

澳大利亚孟席斯政府卷入越南战争的原因分析

澳大利亚政府是在越南战争期间积极支持美国的军事行动的西方国家之一,对于其出兵越南的原因一直存在争论.本文认为,国内特殊的政治环境、基于前进防御战略的国家安全需要、相关信息的匮乏以及澳大利亚当时所处的特殊国际环境等一系列因素促使澳大利亚政府向越南派遣军事顾问以及最后部署大量军队协助美国在印支地区的作战.越南战争的失败促使澳大利亚重新反思其亚洲政策,并逐渐加强了其与亚洲在经济、政治和文化领域的交流.     

Pre-constitutional state of customary law in South Africa

Customary law is often criticized for being in conflict with human rights norms, mainly on the grounds that it tends not to emphasize gender equality and discriminate against women. Although customary law has not in the past emphasized equality between men and women, it cannot be regarded as completely in conflict with human rights1. As already stated, one of the principles of human rights is equality between the sexes. Customary law has the same aim as human rights, which is the protection of human dignity2. The conflict may be largely caused by the fact that, ideologically, African customary law is communal or socialist in approach, whereas human rights are based on the premise that a person has rights by virtue of his or her being an individual human being. Now that we in South Africa have a bill of rights and yet we will still have customary law, the question has been and is still being posed whether customary law is not in conflict with universal human rights. The reason for this is that one of the values that underpin our Constitution is equality.3 Customary law on the other hand does not insist on complete equality in every respect. In particular section 9 of the 1996 Constitution provides for equality before the law and for equal protection and benefit of the law, which entails the full and equal enjoyment of all the rights and freedoms. It further proscribes unfair discrimination based on the listed grounds although it allows steps to promote or advance people or categories of persons who have been disadvantaged by unfair discrimination.     

试论《二年律令》中爵位继承制度的几个问题

汉代<二年律令>规定的爵位继承制度,根据不同情况实行的是一种等级继承、爵加一级和降级继承的原则.为维护高爵者的利益,又使社会保持应有的内在活力,它还对"爵后"以外的诸子规定了一些补偿措施.爵制实质上代表着一种社会秩序,能够对国家政权起到一种社会主流力量的支持和凝聚民心的作用,国家对爵位继承制定严密的规章制度,是巩固国家政权的重要手段之一.     

Animals in natural interaction with soil,plants, and people in Asia

This article discusses the role of animals in small-scale crop/animal systems in Asia. It explains how the animals are generally multipurpose, rather than single or dual purpose, with security also being an important element. Farmers can be stimulated to produce more meat and milk when other forms of security such as banks are considered equally reliable. Multiculture is the predominant system of plant production in the region, with leguminous crops complementing non-leguminous crops. This also has benefits for soils. Multicultural systems are labour-intensive, but in a context in which labour supply is not a problem, labour-saving devices provide no solution. Animals in agroforestry are discussed in detail, with an emphasis placed on animals grazing under coconut and oil-palm plantations. Asian animal scientists should spend more time exploring the roles of multiculture and animals in agroforestry.