This thesis, submitted as part of an M.A in Creative Writing, takes the form of a novel set in a small coastal town outside Cape Town and follows the life of Johanna, a maid to a pastor's family in the early 90s. At the centre of the novel is the relationship between Johanna and a first-person child narrator. Johanna arrives and sets out to undermine the household and social order with increasingly bold acts of violence. She is abusive but despite the sporadic abuse the narrator and Johanna develop an odd friendship. Her past is revealed in late night confidences (a paraplegic mother, a white employer who she identifies as family and a stint in a squatter camp where she loses her ID). Near the beginning of the novel the child and Johanna embark on a quest to obtain her birth certificate from her old employer (needed for a new ID). The journey is unsuccessful but signals the start of a kind of sympathy between the two protagonists (with insight by the narrator into Johanna's past). Johanna finds a kind of belonging in the neighbourhood and with the narrator's family, particularly with the neighbourhood children. She is like a child herself and they become a neighbourhood pack roving the streets on bicycle. But Johanna has periodic rages, throwing bricks or abusing pets and comes to focus her ire on the youngest member of the family, the narrator's youngest brother. When political forces at large come into play (as well as an increased sense of danger), the adults set out to anglicize the family in a half-baked attempt to emigrate. The children are sent to English schools and Johanna, sensing her loosening grip on the family ramps up her reign of terror. She recruits the narrator in a plot against her brother, a prank only half comprehended that she consents to in order to placate Johanna. When the time comes, they dress up as "bergies", capitalising on the paranoia of the time. They ambush her brother and what (at least for the narrator) was a game turns into a horrifying dismemberment of her brother. Johanna disappears for weeks but returns for one final confrontation outside the pastorie. After this Johanna disappears permanently from the life of the narrator and her family, and her brother is patched up with little visible impairment. Soon afterwards the family moves to a security complex, an island of safety in the crime-ridden reality of South Africa that recalls their European dream. Years later the narrator interrogates this suppressed chapter and longs for the Johanna of her childhood in relief to the cultural anonymity that has become her life. Constructed in episodes that succeed each other spatially rather than chronologically the novel seeks to reconstruct the childhood landscape while building obliquely to a tragic climax. The style is lyrical, referencing magical realism and could be read as an effort in prose poetry with paragraphs operating as lyrical units. Of interest to the story are themes of cultural and physical homelessness as well as language itself as it relates to a stable cultural identity.
In: International review of the Red Cross: humanitarian debate, law, policy, action, Band 98, Heft 903, S. 737-748
ISSN: 1607-5889
AbstractThe Review has chosen to open this edition with an interview with General Abdoulaye Kaka as a representative of State practice in counterterrorism detention. The journal chose to focus on Niger as a State that is affected by an ongoing armed conflict and which arrests, detains and tries suspected members of a non-State armed group under its domestic legal system.General Abdoulaye Kaka has been working as Head of Niger's Central Counterterrorism Agency (Service Central de Lutte Contre le Terrorisme) since 2014. He previously worked for the judicial police in Niger as head of the anti-gang section before opening the first office of the judicial police in Zinder. General Kaka worked for the United Nations (UN) police forces in Ivory Coast between 2006 and 2012, when he became the Commander-in-Chief of the Niger UN police forces.In his current role as Head of the Central Counterterrorism Agency, General Kaka oversees detention operations throughout the country, many of which involve suspected members of the group that calls itself Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP), also known as Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad or, as it is most widely known under its former name, Boko Haram.Niger has suffered the effects of the ongoing conflict between ISWAP and State forces in the Lake Chad region, resulting in casualties, arrests and repeated displacement among civilians. The government of Niger contributes troops to the Multinational Joint Task Force, which conducts operations against the group. At the same time, the government arrests and detains suspected members of ISWAP as part of its counterterrorism efforts. These detention operations are coordinated by the Central Counterterrorism Agency. Established in 2011, the Central Counterterrorism Agency, successor to the counterterrorism section of the judicial police, is made up of representatives from the three primary law enforcement organizations in the country – the national police, the national guard and the gendarmerie – and is principally responsible for counterterrorism investigations in Niger.In Niger, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) helps people affected by conflict in the south-east or fleeing fighting in north-east Nigeria. With the Niger Red Cross, the ICRC delivers aid, treats the wounded, provides water and supports farmers. The ICRC also monitors compliance with international humanitarian law, visits detainees and helps them to maintain contact with their families.The ICRC visits people held by the authorities in at least five places of detention in Niger. After the visits, the ICRC shares its findings on the treatment and living conditions of the detainees confidentially with the authorities and urges them to take steps to address concerns. The ICRC also helps bolster prison management capacities and health services for detainees through technical and material support, and round-table discussions on these topics. The ICRC helps detainees, particularly minors, maintain contact with their families. At the request of foreign detainees, the ICRC informs their families or consular representatives of their detention. Lastly, the ICRC covers transportation costs for security detainees returning home after their release.
With a desire to increase the chance of success of major infrastructure and construction (MIC) projects, it is increasingly common to invite the public participating in the planning and design processes. Public participation requires the involvement of individuals and groups who are positively or negatively affected by a proposed intervention (e.g. a project, a program, a plan, a policy). An effective public participation program can be beneficial to the parties involved (i.e. the decision makers and general public) in many ways. As a result, a number of participatory approaches have been developed by various sectors to drive the process of agenda-setting, decision-making, and policy-forming. Many research studies focusing on various aspects of participation in policy-making in general have been conducted, but few have looked into its application in the construction and infrastructure industry in particular. On the other hand, the decision making process of contemporary MIC projects is becoming ever more complicated especially with the increasing number of stakeholders involved and their growing tendency to defend their own interests. Failing to address and meet the concerns and expectations of stakeholders may result in project failures. To avoid this necessitates a systematic participatory approach to facilitate the decision making and evaluation. This research, therefore, aims to develop a multi-stakeholder multi-objective decision making and evaluation model to help resulting in consensus and increasing the satisfaction among various stakeholders (or stakeholder groups) in MIC projects. In this research, an extensive literature review was first carried out to examine the salient elements of public participation in MIC projects and to identify the barriers to effective public participation in project decision making in different countries (e.g. Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States, South Africa, etc.). China being a developing country was selected for in-depth case study analysis. Through a series of interviews, the underlying reasons for ineffective participatory practice in China were revealed. A questionnaire survey was then conducted to unveil those stakeholder concerns pertinent to MIC projects at the conceptual stages through the degree of consensus and/or conflict involved. Finally, a multi-stakeholder multi-objective decision model and a multi-factor hierarchical comprehensive evaluation model were developed. These two models were founded on the decision rule approach and the fuzzy techniques respectively. Another round of interview was conducted to investigate the (i) influence of different stakeholder groups in making decisions related to MIC projects during their conceptual stages; and (ii) relationship between the satisfaction of a single stakeholder group and that of the stakeholders overall. The application of the two models was demonstrated by two cases in Hong Kong and their validity was confirmed through validation interviews. The results indicated that the two models are objective, reliable and practical enough to cope with real world problems. The research findings are therefore valuable to the government and construction industry at large for successful implementation of public participation in MIC schemes locally and internationally in future, especially when the construction industry is becoming increasingly globalized and the trend of cultural integration between the East and West is ever growing. ; published_or_final_version ; Civil Engineering ; Doctoral ; Doctor of Philosophy
The warming of the climate system is unequivocal according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and will have a strong impact on the security of humans and states alike. In the past half-century the climate system has changed in unprecedented ways and future climate change and variability will include long-lasting alterations to all components of the climate system. With the warming of the climate system and the recognition of the implications that this has for the availability and quality of renewable natural resources, scholars and policy-makers fear that the impacts of climate change will also increase the risk of violent conflict and affect their dynamics. However, despite the rather large amount of studies in the field, scholars have yet to move beyond a number of interesting patterns to establish results that remain robust across studies. While this is partly a reflection of the inherent challenge of observing links between uncertain structural factors such as climate change and rare social outcomes such as violent conflict, the field has also been repeatedly criticised for a lack of sound theoretical development. This has been exacerbated by the practice of excluding qualitative research from state of the art reviews. The purpose of this report is to fill this gap by contributing to a better theoretical understanding of the linkages between climate change and violent conflict through consulting the combined quantitative-qualitative literature. In this report, we seek to answer the question of how, and under what circumstances, climate change influences the risk of violent conflict in East Africa. We specifically focus on the pathways to violence – explanations that link various phenomena – in this case climate change and variability, and violent conflict – through a continuous and contiguous chain of links. We explore the research question through a systematic review of the climate- conflict literature on East Africa, hence obtaining a manageable amount of relevant studies and ensuring some minimal cross-study comparability. East Africa was chosen because of the frequency of violent conflict in the region, its high livelihood dependence on natural resources, high levels of poverty and limited capacity for climate change adaptation. The region is also especially relevant from a Swedish policy perspective, since Sweden has considerable development cooperation engagements in East Africa, for example in assisting climate change adaptation and peacebuilding. The present analysis builds on 44 peer-reviewed articles published between 1989-2015 that examine the relationship between climate-related environmental change and violent conflict. By focusing on climate-related environmental change, that is a change in biophysical conditions that are or will be affected by a change in the state of the climate or by variations in the mean state of the climate, we widened our analysis beyond climate change to encompass both short- and long-term environmental change. The analysis is summarised in a conceptual framework that identifies five types of pathways from climate-related environmental change to violent conflict in East Africa. In particular, the negative impact of climate-related environmental change on the availability of natural resources can lead to conflict by worsening livelihood conditions, by increasing migration or by changing pastoral mobility patterns. Taken together, these three types of pathways lead to or exacerbate local resource conflicts that sometimes turn violent. Weather conditions and climate variability can also affect the tactical considerations of armed groups and hence contribute to intensified fighting during certain periods. Finally, the analysis shows that local resource conflicts are susceptible to elite exploitation that often significantly increases the risk and intensity of violent conflict. This highlights the critical role of political and economic elites in explaining how local resource conflicts relate to larger processes of civil war, ethnic cleansing and insecurity. In the discussion, we deepen the analysis by underlining three critical dimensions inherent in the literature: the temporal, spatial and political dimensions. First, the analysis shows that it is essential to reflect on the temporal dimensions of a climate-conflict link, both with regard to temporal scale of the environmental change in question and the expected time lag from that change to the outbreak of violent conflict. There is no reason to believe that all climate-related environmental changes at different time scales generate the same social outcomes. The bulk of the quantitative literature on East Africa measures conflict onset or intensity as an immediate reaction to climate variability, thus studying the implications of climate variability rather than of climate change. To capture the full spectrum, investigations of a climate-conflict link also need to consider the implications of long-term changes in altered livelihood conditions and rapid- onset disasters such as extreme weather events, as these pose a different kind of challenge for societies to mitigate and respond to. Second, the analysis shows the importance of accounting for the spatial dimension. The impacts of climate-related environmental change are unevenly distributed across space and altered livelihood conditions can offset population movements. There is therefore often no merit in assuming that climate-related environmental change will lead to violence in a certain area without considering how people move between areas characterised by resource scarcity and resource abundance. Third, the analysis emphasises that climate-related environmental change and violent conflict cannot be understood in an apolitical vacuum, since socio-political processes affect the relative distribution of natural resources, the adaptive capacity of individuals, groups and societies, and the risk of violent conflict. For example, absent, corrupt or non-functional political institutions often increase the risk of local resource conflicts turning violent. Thus, while climate-related environmental change in itself has not precipitated an East African anarchy so far, it has already played a role in the dynamics of violent conflict and will probably continue to do so, even though the consequences are ultimately mediated by human behaviour. Regarding the implications for policy and future research, three strands of policy implications follow from the analysis. First, since a central claim in the literature is that worsening livelihood conditions make people more likely to engage in violence, efforts that mitigate the impact of climate- related environmental change and that build resilience may also contribute to resilience to violent conflicts. Examples include weather insurance schemes and improved access to markets for pastoralists, income diversification and efforts that improve livelihood conditions. Second, movements across space are a crucial adaptation mechanism for populations affected by climate- related environmental change, particularly for pastoralist groups. This means that efforts that enable and support adaptation to population movements may increase both human security and lower the risk of violent conflict. One example relates to efforts that enable pastoral mobility while providing channels to solve resulting conflicts between pastoralists and farmers. Finally, the analysis shows that institutions, both formal and informal, are crucial for mediating conflicts. Since most communities already have some conflict resolution mechanisms, outside actors should focus on how such local knowledge can be adapted to meet new demands and increased pressure, rather than trying to introduce entirely new mechanisms. Future scholarship should examine the challenges relating to the temporal and spatial dimensions of climate-conflict research by studying the impacts of long-term environmental change rather than climate variability and by accounting for how populations move across space. Future research should also seek to improve data quality, while considering the importance of matching data and methods with the underlying theoretical expectations. ; Finansiär: Utrikesdepartementet ; Climate change and security
Migration flows, which have significantly altered the demographic composition of the South of Russia over the last 25 years, are connected with the inflow of population with poor knowledge of the Russian language. One of the numerous ethnic groups that compactly settled in the Krasnogvardeysky District of the Republic of Adygea is the Kurds (more than 5,000 people). According to the census of the Russian Federation in 2010, every 13th Kurd in Adygea did not speak Russian. In a multiethnic environment, which is characteristic of the Republic of Adygea, the Russian language plays an important unifying role. It largely provides the political stability of the region, true friendship of peoples, and tolerance towards different cultures. Most materials were obtained by researchers in the course of three years of work with the Kurds of Adygea, numerous interviews with people of different ages and occupations, and due to studying the official documents of the administrations of rural settlements and observation of the behavior of students in school and ordinary people in everyday life. The authors used statistical, logical, and sociometric techniques and methods of interdisciplinary research considering the Kurdish ethnic group from the standpoint of sociology and cultural anthropology, as well as the method of participant observation, which allows stating changes that occur in the development of ethnic groups. The Kurds of Adygea demonstrate high conservation of their verbal native language, but least of all are interested in obtaining a good education, knowledge of the Russian language, which does not contribute to successful adaptation and creates certain social risks. Supporting the position of preservation and development of the native language, we are convinced that the knowledge of the Russian language as the state and world language is the norm for all Russians, and its rapid learning by settlers and their children will contribute to the successful future of the entire ethnic group. The value of the Russian language in contemporary Russia is not confined to the fact that it is a state language in modern Russia. In the country where more than hundred nations live, the Russian language is the language of interethnic communication and it is recognized by the UN as the world language. Any document of the UN among other seven world languages should be necessarily translated into Russian. The richness of the Russian language is supported by a large number of artistic, scientific and political literatures, which has received an international recognition. And today the Russian language remains the repository of national, historical, cultural, and spiritual heritage of not only the ethnic Russians, but also of all Russian nationals. DOI:10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5s2p283
'Die berufliche Migration von Fußballspielern ist in letzter Zeit ein beliebtes Thema geworden. Sie hat seit ungefähr zehn Jahren nicht nur die Verfasser von Büchern und Zeitschriftenartikeln beschäftigt, sondern wird auch von Zeitungs-, Radio- und Fernsehjournalisten diskutiert. Die unterschiedlichen Meinungen zur Migration von Berufsfußballern werfen nicht nur ein Licht auf Fragen der politischen Ökonomie des Spitzensports, sondern auch der nationalen Identität, der Staatsbürgerschaft, der freien Arbeitsplatzwahl sowie der Inklusion bzw. Exklusion von 'Fremden'. Dieser Beitrag fasst zentrale Beiträge zu dem Thema zusammen und verbindet dies mit einer Analyse der zugrunde gelegten Globalisierungskonzepte. Er rückt unsere Wahrnehmung der beruflichen Migration von Fußballspielern zugleich in eine historische Perspektive. Im Kern entwickelt der Beitrag zwei Argumente: erstens, dass die Migration von Fußballspielern keine neue Entwicklung darstellt, sondern eine lange und komplizierte Geschichte hat; und zweitens, dass man sie sinnvollerweise nicht isoliert von der Analyse allgemeiner Migrationstrends und -muster betrachtet. Die geografische Mobilität von Fußballspielern von Land zu Land und von Kontinent zu Kontinent ist mithin nicht eine simple Reaktion auf die ökonomischen und politischen Machtverhältnisse im Weltfußball. Sie spiegelt vielmehr ein komplexes Beziehungsgeflecht zwischen bestimmten Ländern oder Ländergruppen wider - ein Beziehungsgeflecht, das vielfältige soziale, kulturelle und historische Verankerungen hat.' (Autorenreferat)
International audience ; This article seeks to account for the antagonistic representations of space between the Aboriginal Noongars of the South West of Western Australia and the Australian State in the context of the Noongars' native title claims, both in Courts and through a negotiation process. First, during the trials, the Noongars faced the State of Western Australia and the Federal State around the concept of society, which the native title legislation imposes. The Noongars had to comply with the requirements of the law, but faced with the rigid legal approach of the concept of society defended by their opponents, they sought to soften its definition to reflect the flexibility and dynamism that characterizes their conception of space and their social and territorial organisation.The Noongars then negotiated with the State of Western Australia to resolve their land claims and obtain a comprehensive economic, social, financial and political agreement. The Noongars and the State of Western Australia brought their perspectives closer together during this negotiation process. The Noongars' conception of space and social and territorial organisation was rationalized through the establishment of a system of governance, the political basis of the Noongar nation in the making. This formalization was asked for by a majority of Noongars as it would allow them to remain united, to function and prosper, but also to be recognized by the State and thus gain a certain amount of autonomy.
International audience ; This article seeks to account for the antagonistic representations of space between the Aboriginal Noongars of the South West of Western Australia and the Australian State in the context of the Noongars' native title claims, both in Courts and through a negotiation process. First, during the trials, the Noongars faced the State of Western Australia and the Federal State around the concept of society, which the native title legislation imposes. The Noongars had to comply with the requirements of the law, but faced with the rigid legal approach of the concept of society defended by their opponents, they sought to soften its definition to reflect the flexibility and dynamism that characterizes their conception of space and their social and territorial organisation.The Noongars then negotiated with the State of Western Australia to resolve their land claims and obtain a comprehensive economic, social, financial and political agreement. The Noongars and the State of Western Australia brought their perspectives closer together during this negotiation process. The Noongars' conception of space and social and territorial organisation was rationalized through the establishment of a system of governance, the political basis of the Noongar nation in the making. This formalization was asked for by a majority of Noongars as it would allow them to remain united, to function and prosper, but also to be recognized by the State and thus gain a certain amount of autonomy.
German forestry is known for its long history of sustainable forest management. However, a country-level forest inventory (national forest inventory, NFI) with a statistical basis, has only been implemented since the 1960s in the German Democratic Republic (GDR, Eastern Germany), and the 1980s in the Federal Republic of Germany, FRG, Western Germany). This is relatively late when compared to other countries. In this paper, an overview is given of the history of large-area forest assessments in Germany, and the developments towards a national forest inventory. In addition, an elaboration, as well as a brief outlook, are given on the adaptations of this monitoring system over time to the changing needs of a broadening group of stakeholders and interested parties. ; Die Waldbewirtschaftung in Deutschland ist für ihre lange Tradition der Nachhaltigkeit bekannt. Eine nationale Waldinventur auf statistischer Basis fand jedoch erst in den 1960er-Jahren in der DDR und Ende der 1980er-Jahre in der BRD statt; dies ist vergleicchsweise spät im Vergleich zu anderen Ländern. In diesem Aufsatz geben wir einen Überblick über die Geschichte großräumiger Walderfassungen in Deutschland und erläutern die Entwicklung hin zur ersten Bundeswaldinventur in 1987. Wir dokumentieren die Änderungen über die Zeit, die die Bundeswaldinventur erfahren hat in Reaktion auf sich ändernde Anforderungen, und geben einen kurzen Ausblick. ; La gestion des forêts en Allemagne est connue pour sa longue tradition de pérennité. Toutefois, un inventaire forestier national sur une base statistique n'a été réalisé que dans les années 1960 en RDA et à la fin des années 1980 en RFA, ce qui est relativement tardif par rapport à autres pays. Dans cet article, nous donnons un apercu de l`histoire des inventaires forestiers à grande échelle en Allemagne et nous expliquons l'évolution vers le premier inventaire forestier fédéral en 1987. Nous documentons les changements au fil du temps que l'inventaire forestier fédéral a subis en résponse à l'évolution des besoins et nous donnons une brève perspective.
Timor-Leste's long journey to nationhood spans 450 years of colonial rule by Portugal, a short-lived independence in 1975, and a 24-year occupation by Indonesia. This book examines the history of nation-building and national identity in Timor-Leste, and the evolution of a collective identity through two consecutive colonial occupations, and into the post-independence era. It charts the evolution of the idea of an East Timorese nation: its origins, its sources, and its competitors in traditional understandings of political community, and the distinct colonial visions imposed by Portugal or Indonesia. The author analyses the evolution of ideas of collective identity under the long era of Portuguese colonial rule, and through the 24-year struggle for independence from Indonesia from 1975 to 1999. Reflecting the contested history of the territory, these include successive attempts to define its members as colonial subjects in a wider `pluri-racial' Portuguese empire, as citizens in an `integrated' province of the Republic of Indonesia - and, of course, as a nation that demanded its right to self-determination. Finally, the host of nation-building tensions and fault lines that emerged after the restoration of independence in 2002 are discussed. Examining the history of debates and conflict over national identity, national history, cultural heritage, language policy, and relationships between distinct regions, generations, and language groups, this book will be of interest to academics in the fields of Asian studies, nationalism studies, and international and community development.
After a drought of more than a decade, a substantial group of recent works has begun revisiting Weimar gender history. The fields of Weimar and Nazi gender history have been closely linked since the field was defined thirty years ago by the appearance of the anthologyWhen Biology Became Destiny: Women in Weimar and Nazi Germany. Following a flurry of pioneering work in the 1980s and early 1990s, few new monographs were dedicated to investigating the questions posed in that formative moment of gender history. Kathleen Canning, the current main commentator on Weimar gender historiography, in an essay first published shortly before the works under review, found that up to that point the 'gender scholarship on the high-stakes histories of Weimar and Nazi Germany has not fundamentally challenged categories or temporalities'. Weimar gender, meanwhile, has been intensively analysed in the fields of cultural, film, and literary studies. The six books discussed in this essay reverse these trends, picking up on the central question of how gender contributed to the end of the Weimar Republic and the rise to power of National Socialism. In addition, four of the books concentrate solely on reconstructing the dynamics of gender relations during the Weimar period itself in their discussions of prostitution, abortion and representations of femininity and masculinity. Is emerging gender scholarship now shaping larger questions of German early twentieth-century history? How are new scholars revising our view of the role of gender in this tumultuous time?
Die 1988 durchgeführte Befragung von 2.000 Jugendlichen in der DDR ermittelte Interessen zu historischen Fragen sowie die Geschichtskenntnisse. Es wird festgestellt, daß das Interesse an der Geschichte des Sozialismus und der DDR nur schwach ausgeprägt ist (35-60 Prozent zeigten kein stärkeres Interesse). Als Grund wird weniger ein generelles Desinteresse vermutet, sondern: "Informationsdefizite und Übersättigungserscheinungen machen deutlich, daß unsere Geschichtsvermittlung den Ansprüchen und Erwartungen Jugendlicher zu wenig entspricht." Es wurden auch "keine soliden und anwendungsbereiten Geschichtskenntnisse", zum Teil sogar rückläufige Tendenzen beobachtet. Insgesamt wird den Jugendlichen ein mangelndes Geschichtsbewußtsein bescheinigt, da sie zwar Geschichte grundsätzlich als interessant empfänden, aber dieses Bewußtsein zu wenig überzeugungs- und handlungswirksam wäre. (psz)
A pesar de que la consolidación del sistema republicano en la Tierra Firme es inconcebible sin la adhesión entusiasta de las mayorías, el patriotismo popular permanece inexplorado, porque un tenaz prejuicio político actúa como obstáculo cognitivo. La corta Restauración experimentada por la Nueva Granada y los abruptos cambios de régimen que ella supuso llevaron a los contemporáneos, y posteriormente a los historiadores, a endilgar a los humildes una apatía y una indolencia incurables y a ver en los desmanes realistas la clave del cambio político. Las autoridades colombianas tampoco auscultaron la opinión, convencidas de que el republicanismo popular era fruto de una conversión imperfecta y de que el realismo era una dolencia peninsular que solo excepcionalmente afectaba a americanos "desnaturalizados". ; Despite the fact that the consolidation of the republican system in Tierra Firme was inconceivable without the enthusiastic support of the majorities, popular patriotism remains unexplored due to a strong political prejudice that acts as an obstacle to knowledge. The brief Restoration period experienced by New Granada and the abrupt changes of regime it entailed led many at the time, as well as later historians, to attribute an incurable apathy and indolence to the lower classes and to consider royalist excesses as the key to political change. Colombian authorities also failed to inquire into public opinion, convinced as they were that republicanism was the result of an imperfect conversion and that support for the royalty was a peninsular disease that affected "denaturalized" Americans only exceptionally. ; Apesar de a consolidação do sistema republicano na Terra Firme ser inconcebível sem a adesão entusiasta das maiorias, o patriotismo popular permanece sem ser explorado, porque um forte preconceito político age como obstáculo cognitivo. A curta Restauração experimentada pela Nova Granada e as inesperadas mudanças de regime que ela supôs levaram os contemporâneos e, posteriormente, os historiadores a impor aos humildes uma apatia e indolência incuráveis e a ver nos desmandos realistas a chave da mudança política. As autoridades colombianas também não consideraram a opinião, convencidas de que o republicanismo popular era fruto de uma conversão imperfeita e de que o realismo era uma doença peninsular, que somente afetava americanos "desnaturalizados".