Suchergebnisse

Rather than simply summarising the state of play in African countries and elsewhere, Freedom of Information and the Developing World identifies and makes explicit the assumptions about the citizen's relationship to the state that lie beneath Freedom of Information (FoI) discourse. The book goes on to test them against the reality of the pervasive politics of patronage that characterise much of African practice. Develops a discourse about the concept of FoIDiscussion of the human rights claim appropriates the concepts of Hohfeldian analysis for more radical purposes in support of the idea that the state has a duty to implement FoI practices

ABSTRACT
The wave of independence in Africa in the late 1950s and early 1960s, combined with the 'thaw' after Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, resulted in renewed Soviet interest after two decades of ignoring African affairs. Newly established diplomatic relations with liberation movements and independent states required the rapid training of middle-level cadres who could report back accurately to Moscow, as the USSR struggled to limit US and European influence in Africa. A volume in Russian of over 400 documents from the 1960s and early 1970s excludes the Arabic-speaking north, but allows readers to understand how intelligence was gathered on the ground by Soviet functionaries attempting to interpret local politics for power centres at home. This review article focuses on the political context in which African expertise was acquired, and analyses three cases from the volume – Ghana, Congo-Léopoldville in crisis, and Namibia in the early struggle for liberation.

Ruth changed in Mozambique; she softened. I think she belonged in Mozambique in a way that she never belonged to England. It was her home, and she meant something to that society. (Gillian Slovo, interview, 1989)
This article traces the evolution of research at the Centro de Estudos Africanos (CEA) from before the time of Ruth First's arrival. It divides her work there into two periods: the work on the Mozambican Miner, in which she was heavily involved personally, and the later period when she was much more involved in recruiting permanent staff and in creating conditions for successful research, including building up the Documentation Centre within the CEA. This objective included work on maintaining the administrative independence of the CEA within the university to ensure flexibility in responding to rapidly changing research conditions. Research was not simply determined by political priorities, although it engaged with them. The evolution of the key Development Course is also traced, and the work of the Oficina de Historia (History Workshop) is briefly described.

This conference of law librarians is convened around the theme of "New Rights — New Laws." I want to argue that, with regard to information, while there are new laws aplenty, there are in fact no new rights. Worse, we are presently witnessing a steady erosion of even the existing public rights of access to and use of information content, whether of a legal nature or not. In fact, there is mounting evidence that the idea of the public domain itself is under serious attack both as a concept and as a collection of practices. The global privatization of cultural and intellectual content in ways unimaginable only a few decades ago is actively threatening the established structures of scholarly communication, to the increasing disadvantage of the less-developed South. Intellectual property (IP) rights are being extended into new areas, as the patent system, for example, expands into biotechnology, agriculture and medicine, while copyright, patent and trade secret protection is claimed even for computer software, mathematical algorithms, and business methods. IP protection is under discussion for indigenous knowledge, and not necessarily for altruistic reasons. And as the useful shelf life of such content shortens, the protection afforded to it lengthens disproportionately in a disturbing pattern that nearly always favors rights holders and their claims above even the most rudimentary forms of public good.

Gefragt wird nach dem politischen und sozialen Stellenwert des MNR, bzw. inwieweit er mit einer regionalen militärischen Macht im Staat zu vergleichen ist. Es wird die These aufgestellt, daß der Widerstand gegen Frelimo sowohl im überregionalen Zusammenhang mit Südafrika zu sehen ist, als auch in unpopulären Maßnahmen der Frelimo-Politik und in den fehlenden demokratischen Strukturen. (DÜI-Fry)

Exploring the origins, nature and consequences of MNR violence and murder, this article argues that Renamo does not conform to the classical characteristics of warlordism. It does not represent a cession of central control to local interests; rather it is an attack on the national sovereignty of Mozambique created and perpetuated by external powers. Nevertheless, in some areas the externally imposed proxy war may have been able to achieve a certain local dynamic and so, to this extent, the warlord concept may have some limited usefulness. Darch also completely rejects the idea that the MNR can be considered to be a case of 'social banditry', even allowing for the weaknesses inherent in this concept.