Suchergebnisse

When Rome conquered Greece in the second century BC, she had no equivalent to Greek rational medicine as established by Hippocrates and the Alexandrians. Roman medicine was of a quasi-religious nature, with a strong element of folk traditions and herbal medicine; the paterfamilias would treat any sickness in the family (including slaves and even animals) with his array of folk remedies. Greek rational medicine was initially received with great skepticism by the Roman elite, in particular, but it gradually transformed the scene, replacing superstition and magic with a reliance on rational science as it was understood at the time. However, the belief in herbal remedies and the Asclepian cult of temple medicine remained strong. Rome also made its own unique contributions in the fields of hygiene (effective water supplies, sewage and drainage) and military medicine (including the introduction of the first hospitals). Roman doctors gradually replaced their Greek colleagues, and by the fifth century Latin had established itself as a significant medical language. In practice Roman folk medicine was not necessarily much inferior to Greek rational medicine, because the latter was based on ill-understood and largely erroneous concepts of medical science.

Development at Local Government level in South Africa is guided by the formulation of Land Development Objectives (LDOs) which referred to the strategic planning phase of the Integrated Development Planning (IDP) process. Legislation determines that each Local Authority should identify and prioritise the most important developmental issues to ensure that the limited resources available are focussed on those aspects that are of the greatest concern to the community at large. Since the LDO process implies a legislative requirement with legally binding outcomes, it is significant to identify the development principles targeted; the aspects reflected in the long-term visions of the towns, and the development issues that received priority. The outcome of the latter will have direct implications for the focus of environmental management. This article will provide a short overview of the LDO process after which four case studies, representing a range of economic and demographic profiles, will be analysed. The most relevant and pressing local government development issues, identified by the specific communities within the context of a broad understanding of the term environment, will subsequently be highlighted. This will provide a context to realistically implement responsible environmental management practice.

An environmental management framework (EMF) is a uniquely South African environmental management tool legislated since 2006. Although the tool has been widely applied there has been no empirical research on the overall extent and status of EMF practice. The aim of this paper is to describe the extent and status of EMF practice between 2006 and 2015 through a combination of survey methods. The 'extent' of practice is described against the number of EMFs, the lead agents, spatial distribution, scale, time frames and accessibility of information, while the 'status' is discussed in relation to the legal mandate of EMF and the number of adopted and gazetted EMFs. The research results show that 53 EMF projects were initiated between 2006 and 2015 and that practice varies significantly in terms of lead agents, spatial distribution, scale and time frames. Moreover the research shows that just over half of the EMFs have been gazetted and that access to information in the public domain is limited. Finally, recommendations are made for future research around the quality and effectiveness of EMF

There is some evidence that a kind of hospital already existed towards the end of the 2nd millennium BC in ancient Mesopotamia. In India the monastic system created by the Buddhist religion led to institutionalised health care facilities as early as the 5th century BC, and with the spread of Buddhism to the east, nursing facilities, the nature and function of which are not known to us, also appeared in Sri Lanka, China and South East Asia. One would expect to find the origin of the hospital in the modern sense of the word in Greece, the birthplace of rational medicine in the 4th century BC, but the Hippocratic doctors paid house-calls, and the temples of Asclepius were visited for incubation sleep and magico-religious treatment. In Roman times the military and slave hospitals were built for a specialised group and not for the public, and were therefore not precursors of the modern hospital. It is to the Christians that one must turn for the origin of the modern hospital. Hospices, originally called xenodochia, initially built to shelter pilgrims and messengers between various bishops, were under Christian control developed into hospitals in the modern sense of the word. In Rome itself, the first hospital was built in the 4th century AD by a wealthy penitent widow, Fabiola. In the early Middle Ages (6th to 10th century), under the influence of the Benedictine Order, an infirmary became an established part of every monastery. During the late Middle Ages (beyond the 10th century) monastic infirmaries continued to expand, but public hospitals were also opened, financed by city authorities, the church and private sources. Specialised institutions like leper houses also originated at this time. During the Golden Age of Islam the Muslim world was clearly more advanced than its Christian counterpart with regard to the magnificent hospitals which were built in various countries, institutions which eventually became the true forerunners of the modern teaching hospital.

The notion that inadequate health services might have been one of the reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire is investigated. Despite many factors preventing the early development of an adequate public health service, the Romans had achieved much by the 5th century AD. Apart from many laws promoting public health, various official measures were taken by the Roman government, for example the appointment of state physicians and free medical services for the poor. But the greatest contribution of the Romans was the provision of facilities which served as an indispensable infrastructure for public health care, such as the provision of an ample supply of pure water, public baths, advanced measures for the disposal of sewage, and somewhat later under the influence of Christianity, hospitals for the general public. Although there were still deficiencies, the Roman government cannot be criticised for laxity as far as the provision of health services was concerned. Inasmuch as they were in default, it was because of lack of scientific medical knowledge which only evolved c. 1 500 years later.

The Roman attitude towards the dead in the period spanning the end of the Republic and the high point of the Empire was determined mainly by religious views on the (im)mortality of the soul and the concept of the "pollution of death". Contamination through contact with the dead was thought to affect interpersonal relationships, interfere with official duties and prevent contact with the gods. However, considerations of hygiene relating to possible physical contamination also played a role. In this study the traditions relating to the correct preparation of the body and the subsequent funerary procedures leading up to inhumation or incineration are reviewed and the influence of social status is considered. Obvious paradoxes in the Roman attitude towards the dead are discussed, e.g. the contrast between the respect for the recently departed on the one hand, and the condoning of brutal executions and public blood sports on the other. These paradoxes can largely be explained as reflecting the very practical policies of legislators and priests for whom considerations of hygiene were a higher priority than cultural/religious views.

Internationally there is a growing demand for environmental impact assessment (EIA) to move away from its traditional focus towards delivering more sustainable outcomes. South Africa is an example of a country where the EIA system seems to have embraced the concept of sustainability. In this paper we test the existing objectives for EIA in South Africa against sustainability principles and then critique the effectiveness of EIA practice in delivering these objectives. The outcome of the research suggests that notwithstanding a strong and explicit sustainability mandate through policy and legislation, the effectiveness of EIA practice falls far short of what is mandated. This shows that further legislative reform is not required to improve effectiveness but rather a focus on changing the behaviour of individual professionals. We conclude by inviting further debate on what exactly practitioners can do to give effect to sustainability in EIA practice. ; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2012.04.001

The role of regional policy mechanisms towards increased regional resilience is widely recognised, but limited consideration is given to the impact of these mechanisms in, specifically, the peripheral region. In reaction hereto, this article explores the role of three key mechanisms, i.e. economic sectoral composition, innovation and knowledge networks, as well as government institutions as policy tools towards increased regional resilience in a peripheral region in South Africa. The role of each of these mechanisms is quantified and measured by specified indices such as the GVA, the Tress Index and the ICT Access Index, and government indicators such as audit outcomes and service delivery data in five planning regions of the Northern Cape province. This article highlights that a state of dynamic stability and resilience is more feasible through policy intervention focused on these three mechanisms, coupled with detailed regional socio-economic analysis. It also emphasises that a knowledge-rich region will be less dependent on single sector development, pushing itself into a new development stage of secondary and tertiary sector focus through economic diversification, lessening its vulnerability to external shocks and disturbances, and impeding regional lock-in. In support hereto, collective institutional action by a responsive and accountable local and regional government, operating beyond their functional limits, will reinforce and amplify development in the peripheral region.