"Something rotten in this age of hope": Wesley Deintje directs The HamletMachine (Rhodes University Theatre, 28 September 2007)
- Authors: Wright, Laurence
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:7048 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007390
- Description: Heiner Müller’s most famous play (Die Hamletmaschine, 1977) has evolved into something of a familiar war-horse for student theatre. The United States in particular has taken to the work; indeed, it was meant in part for them: “Heil Coca-cola!” says the script. For today’s South African ears this has become, very aptly, “Hail the Rainbow Nation!” What young director can resist it? Only eight pages in extent, the sparse yet densely referential text offers unfettered scope for interpretation and contextualization. Sure, the original offered Muller’s despairing take on the collapse of western civilisation, typified in the East German predicament where intellectuals felt trapped between the total failure of ‘actually existing socialism’ – that ideological mirage – in the German Democratic Republic, and the horrors of emergent bandit capitalism presaging an uncomfortable future. But the spaces in the text are so capacious that almost any claim to climactic despair can be entertained: idiot consumerism, gender oppression and aggression, political treachery and malfeasance, fascism, existential angst, intellectual cowardice, the postmodern condition, the rejection of hope.
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- Date Issued: 2008
40 000 years of climatic change in the Eastern Cape
- Authors: Lewis, Colin A
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6711 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006748
- Description: This article outlines the major climatic conditions that have occurred in the Eastern Cape over the last 40 000 years. They have been dated using radiocarbon analyses. Changes that are older than 40 000 years are beyond the range of radiocarbon dating and are not discussed.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Editorial: authorship and responsibility [African Entomology]
- Authors: Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6851 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011132
- Description: Editorial service is a privilege in many senses: editors have a much broader view of disciplinary practices than most of their colleagues; they see work from more institutions; and are privy to manuscripts in all states of fitness for publication. The spectrum of practice is eye-opening, and editors are placed in a position of stewardship, and often mentorship, that inevitably focuses attention on quality assurance and ethics (Lawrence 2003; Bulger 2004; Grieger 2005; Graf et al. 2007). Recently, the Committee on Scholarly Publishing in South Africa, a body within the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), has drafted Guidelines for best practice in editorial discretion and peer review for South African scholarly journals to assist editors.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Lessons from aloes in the Thicket Biome: reconstructing past elephant browsing to understand the present
- Authors: Parker, Daniel M , Bernard, Ric T F
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6894 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011654
- Description: It is very difficult to quantify elephant-induced change to vegetation in the absence of adequate historical benchmarks. In this commentary, we explore the historical distribution of aloes in the Thicket Biome of South Africa. We contend that the large stands of aesthetically pleasing aloes in the Thicket Biome can be likened to the even-aged stands of tall trees in the riparian forests of Botswana, both being artefacts of the loss of large herbivores through disease and hunting in the past. Elephant browsing on aloes may therefore be the first step in the vegetation reverting to a situation similar to the one prior to excessive hunting in the region.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Shoppers Drug Mart or poachers Drug Mart?
- Authors: Attaran, Amir , Walker, Roderick B
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6346 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006018
- Description: [From the text]: Shoppers Drug Mart (Pharmaprix in Quebec) is a familiar Canadian institution. Its 1000 stores dot the landscape; no pharmacy chain is larger. In many Canadian communities, the corporation's well-staffed local franchises give patients quality care. However, in South Africa, the same corporation is potentially contributing to a public health disaster. In 2005, 2006 and twice in 2007, it has dispatched recruiters to that country, with the mission of plucking pharmacists from a continent that has far too few for its needs. Shoppers Drug Mart promises 6-figure salaries and help to establish a brilliant career in Canada. The carrot, and the helping hand holding it, are huge.
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- Date Issued: 2008