Fresh challenges faced on the ground by the Kingdom of the Sky: A quest for peace,harmony and stability

This article argues that Lesotho’s landlocked position, which inhibits trade and results in enclaves of the poor, not only leads to its dependency on South Africa, but also contributes to its instability. It points out that destabilisation remains a problem in spite of Lesotho having served as an excellent model of peaceful transfer of power in a strengthened democratic arena under its 1993 Constitution, as the country had just celebrated 20 years of relative peace. However, despite the 1991 Windhoek Declaration military coups, violence, violation of both human rights and human security continue to contribute to instability in Lesotho, requiring the frequent intervention of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and especially so following the attempted coup in 2014. Lesotho’s Coalition government, which is a prime-ministerial form of government, is discussed in some detail in this article. The role of peacekeeping forces is also examined. The article recommends demilitarisation as the only practical, viable and long term solution to the problem of recurring coups in this country. The authors conclude that a sustained campaign against corrupt activities by government, though laudable, has somewhat surprisingly served to weaken the foundation of the Coalition in Lesotho.     

COMESA and the Tripartite Free Trade Area: Towards an African Economic Community?

Economic integration has been an espoused goal of the African continent for several decades, and steady progress has been made through the African Union and the eight regional economic communities (RECs). The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is one of the largest and most diversified RECs on the continent, and played a significant role in the launch of the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA). This article assesses the performance of COMESA, and considers the prospects for the TFTA. It also addresses the contribution of COMESA and other RECs to the continent’s economic development and considers the prospects for a potential African Economic Community.     

明清之际中越关系的演变与抉择

明清更替之际,安南王国作为中国传统的藩属国,面对新朝与旧朝残余分治的局面,其主政的中兴黎朝先是出于恢复"王爵"的要求,与南明政权频繁互动,互相支持。后因南明衰败无望,清朝实际控制了全国局势,加之在其国内对手武氏、莫氏割据政权先后归顺清朝,并获得了封号,中兴黎朝为了确保其于安南国内统治的正当性,无奈地归顺清朝。     

城乡发展形态变迁与基层党建的调适逻辑——基于苏南区域实践的视角

城乡发展的空间形态变迁、行政区域的大幅度调整、组织结构与治理职能的深刻变革，促使基层党建要以转型发展与之形成动态调适．、调适的逻辑基础在于党的组织创新要与变化了的社会环境相适应，重点应从战略上构建具有社会整合力的网络化组织体系，创新多种党建覆盖形式，增强基层党建工作的针对性、有效性、     

Culture,integration and African Renaissance

ABSTRACT

This article examines the role of language in negotiating power between Sudanese Arabists and Sudanese Africanists from a critical discourse analysis perspective (henceforth CDA). The aim is to demonstrate how extreme political discourse can jeopardise national unity. The article begins by summarising the basic tenets of the CDA theory and proceeds to examine Sudanese power-related discourse. Particularly, the article assumes both top-down and bottom-up approaches to analyse the discourses corresponding to the two groups, Sudanese Arabists and Sudanese Africanists. The top-down approach examines the discourse of the ruling Arab elites who have exclusive access to institutional discourse and communication. By contrast, although the Sudanese Africanist discourse was once considered illegal and could not be conveyed through public channels, in more modern times it has found the Internet, television and radio (among others) as avenues for dissemination. A number of socio-political groups, generally referred to as marginalised affiliations, are now initiating resistance discourse (henceforth RD) which goes hand in hand with their armed struggle against the ruling elites.     

Failure of security co‐operation in SADC: The suspension of the organ for politics,defence and security

Political opposition parties are considered crucial to the nurturing, enhancing and consolidating of democracy in every political system. Indeed, their existence is proof of political tolerance, competitive party elections, the provision of choices to the voting public and the possibility of alternation in power. However, the political opposition on the African continent is generally weak, and particularly so in Botswana, resulting in the predominance of the ruling party in political affairs. This article analyses the weaknesses of Botswana's opposition parties by tracing their historical evolution, characteristics, electoral base, and performance against the background of the political and electoral system in Botswana and the strength of the ruling party itself. It concludes that future prospects for the opposition to make greater inroads into the Botswana Democratic Party's support are small because of the fragmented nature of the opposition itself and the relative satisfaction of citizens with the current government's performance.     

Immigration to Portugal

Abstract

A peripheral West European country with a medium-sized population, Portugal experienced since the late 1990s a radical change in its migration trends, with growing and constant immigration flows. Not only the number of legal immigrants duplicated, but also the profile of immigrants changed and diversified. As a result, Portugal's public policies were challenged, and new social questions emerged. In particular, both public and private bodies have to deal with an increasing segmentation of the composition of immigration and of the labor market employing immigrants. Portugal still has not opted clearly for a model of immigration, and adaptation to these changes promises not to be easy, especially because the Portuguese society is simultaneously facing tensions deriving from its own     

Authoritarian legacies,transitional justice and state crisis in Portugal's democratization

The nature of the Portuguese transition to democracy and the consequent state crises created a ‘window of opportunity’ in which the ‘reaction to the past’ was much stronger in Portugal than in the other Southern European transitions. The transition's powerful dynamic in itself served to constitute a legacy for the consolidation of democracy. This article analyses how the nature of the transition affected the legacy of authoritarianism superseding and transmuting that regime's impact on the ‘quality’ of Portugal's democracy, and illustrating how the majority of ‘authoritarian legacies’ were more a result of the nature of the transition than they were of the authoritarian regime.     

人外周血白细胞端粒DNA长度与年龄的定量关系

目的探讨人外周血白细胞端粒DNA长度变化规律及其与年龄的关系,为法医学推断年龄提供理论依据。方法抽取西藏那曲地区0~81岁健康人外周血样本105例,其中男性53例,女性52例,采用Southern杂交法检测其端粒限制性片断平均长度。各年龄组性别差异作t检验,端粒长度与年龄的关系作相关及回归分析。结果人外周血白细胞端粒长度随年龄增长逐渐缩短,且存在性别差异;得到推断年龄回归方程:Y=-16.539X+236.287±9.832。结论人外周血白细胞端粒DNA长度与年龄存在明显相关性,为法医学在分子水平上推断个体年龄提供了可能。