Why South Africa must not bale Zimbabwe and why it would!

As Zimbabwe moves further and deeper into crisis, the world still looks on from a distance and utter mixed statements of condemnation and oddly so, admiration. Strengthened by the lack of consensus on the man-made crisis that Zimbabwe has come, Mugabe's government has continued to deal harshly with opponents in the urban areas by unleashing a so-called slams clearance programme dubbed ‘operation murambatsvina† which has left many homeless. To pacify the critics of this programme, operation garikai† has been muted to restore the vanquished hopes of Mugabe's victims. And for this, someone else other than Mugabe is expected to pay. Requests for an olive branch have been extended to many ‘friendly' or ‘neutral' countries, with south Africa and China topping the list. Observers have suggested that â€Å"Mugabe prefers the loan shark who demands no internal reforms, to the more accountable loan demanding reform. † In a letter to the editor (Business Day 26/07/05) Mark Wade contrasted the lack of facilities and skills to provide south Africans with decent housing, health care, social services, roads, city infrastructure – with the move to â€Å"give a banana republic dictator billions of our hard-earned rands to prop up a regime that has created the very policies that have destroyed his country. However, others view this as an opportunity to get Mugabe towing the ling suggesting that â€Å"now that South Africa seems poised to bale out Zimbabwe †¦ should finally pluck up the courage to extract maximum advantage for the people of that benighted country.† Such sentiments are reminiscent of those expressed when Mugabe won the controversial two-third majority making other observers suggest that, he would become a benevolent dictator and would want to show the world that he meant well also leaving behind a good legacy. More like teaching old dogs new tricks or like expecting sweet lemons? The basis upon which a loan must be extended to Zimbabwe must be based on the effect of the loan for the affected Zimbabweans. Will the loan enhance their lives and improve their access to services and human dignity. The answer to these questions is already obvious given a reading of the manner in which the Zimbabwean government has conducted itself. President Mbeki's argument that the loan would ensure that Zimbabwean problems do not spill into South Africa has surely passed its sell-by date. South African is already home to millions of Zimbabweans displaced by the ever-tumbling economy of that country. Mugabe claimed that he is in weekly contact with Mbeki and suggested that they share ideas. This revelation makes ‘quite diplomacy' a thing of the past and suggest that Mbeki is in complicity with Mugabe in the humanitarian crisis that has visited the people of that country. Anyone who has been following events in rural and urban South Africa would know about the spat of high intensity removals and evictions visited upon the urban and rural poors through South Africa's own version of shacks clearance programme. Poor and landless people have been evicted without notice and alternative land and accommodation. These people face daily evictions from bond housing and private buildings in an espoused â€Å"war on shacks that has seen the poor and landless moved from shack to shack.† Perhaps the most affected are the farm dwellers and farm workers community who face the most humiliating conditions from farm owners sanctioned by the Extension of Security of Tenure Act and the Labour Tenancy Act. Thabo Mbeki has failed to act decisively on these issues and the scourge of poverty has an unshakable impact on the masses of South African people. This makes Mbeki not different from Mugabe, and it would be hypocrisy for Mbeki to lecture on Mugabe on these rights which he has not been able to afford the poor. Bailing Zimbabwe means an endorsement of the irresponsible programmes of government that wrought the economic and social woes bedeviling the poor and masses. This extended from the irresponsible managed land reform, through to the dubious operation restore order. It is expecting too much to think that any amount of money put into a ZANU PF government's coffer would be put to any good use now. History does not judge Mugabe and his government well on this, especially since he embarked on the self-saving and apparently self-destructive route in the name of anti-imperialism and empowerment through land reform. The people of South Africa must look at more constructive, imaginative and creative ways of assisting the suffering masses of Zimbabwe. Bailing the Zimbabwe government is definitely not one of them.

The Decline of the Honeybees in North America Term Paper

The Decline of the Honeybees in North America - Term Paper Example It is characterized by Few or lack of dead bees in the hive; pollen and honey stores in the hive; the presence of live queen with few bees; and loss of adult worker bees among other factors. Historically, the tendency of honey bee colony loss through pathogens, pests, and parasites among other diseases was a common issue in America. It is an issue that the Americans were very familiar with and had its remedy because it was not very critical as the current phenomena of CCD. In fact, research by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has attributed this overwinter loss to other unknown factors other than CCD. Nevertheless, some vigorous scientific researchers have related the contemporary CCD in North America with a number of issues. In this case, diet and nutrition, pest and diseases, genetic factors and diversity, pesticides and other chemicals, environmental stress, and bee management are associated with CCD. Therefore, the contemporary research tries to view their effects on bee colony health into detail (Corn, 2014). Genetic diversity has been seen as one of the major issues that scholars have attributed to the current decline in the population of colony honeybees. In this case, some scholars tend to view inbreeding as a possible contributor to the current reduction in the population of the honeybees in North America. These researchers argue that inbreeding, if not properly handled, is one of the factors that may create weak species incapable of resisting even simple diseases.

Working with Children who have been Abused Essay

Working with Children who have been Abused - Essay Example One of the major areas of focus for the researchers has been the issue of child abuse in relation to policies and procedures and the result of many of the studies has been to emphasise the inadequacies of the present system in dealing with the issue. Therefore, one finds that researchers such as Mendes (2001) and Wise (2003) discuss the inadequacies of the system while such important writers as Lonne and Thomson (2005) offer their ideas on how to improve Queensland's child protection situation. As the 'Guidelines for Mandated Notifiers' by Child-Safe Environments, Reporting Child Abuse & Neglect suggests, there are, in general, four ways of child abuse. Physical abuse, a dominant form, is commonly characterised by physical injury resulting from practices such as hitting, punching or kicking, shaking, and alcohol or other drug administration etc. Another visible form of child abuse is sexual abuse which occurs when someone in a position of power to the child uses her/his power to invo lve the child in sexual activity and it includes sexual suggestion, exhibitionism, mutual masturbation, oral sex, showing pornographic material, using children in the production of pornographic material, penile or other penetration of the genital or anal region, and child prostitution. Emotional abuse tends to be a chronic behavioural pattern directed at a child whereby a child's self esteem and social competence are undermined or eroded over time and this includes devaluing, ignoring, rejecting, corrupting, isolating etc. Finally, neglect is characterised by the failure to provide for the child's basic needs and this includes inadequate supervision of young children for long periods of time, failure to provide adequate nutrition, clothing or personal hygiene, etc. (Guidelines for Mandated Notifiers). 'Guidelines for Mandated Notifiers' is a material available for helping a social worker in the mandated notifiers and in this paper an evaluation of the material on its adequacy of guidance, its research base etc is carried out. While evaluating whether the document offers adequate guidance for mandated notifiers, it also recommends for the improvement of the resource. Child abuse notifiers many often fall short of their aims and objectives and profound researches have focused on whether preventive family support should be encouraged rather than child protection. The result of these studies suggest that in many cases child abuse are not substantiated and a serious reason pointed out for the poor results of child abuse notifiers is the mandatory reporting regulations. And this has resulted in the remark that the time and energy could and should have been devoted to helping families instead of investigating the false claims regarding child abuse. Wise (2003) is of the opinion that the families with general needs do not expect child protection and investigation but instead they need support and it is significant that prevention can be better than cure. All these remarks can be understood in the background of inadequacy of the guidance, research bases etc. Research evidences prove the need for better guidelines and support to the social workers in thei r activities for the cause of children and society. It can be comprehended that the context of social work has undergone rapid changes and the social workers

Solow Growth Model Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Solow Growth Model - Essay Example Solow Growth Model is a standard neoclassical model of economic growth developed by Robert Solow. This model holds that economic growth is linked to capital accumulation and the population growth (Zhuang and St Juliana, 2010, p. 65). Solow growth model postulates that under equilibrium, the level of per capita income is determined by prevailing technology, rates of saving, rate of population growth and technical progress all which are assumed exogenous (Barossi-Filho, 2005, p. 37). Given that the rates of population growth and levels of saving are varying across countries, the model gives testable predictions on assessing how the two can influence economic growth of countries. Solow model has been criticized by different theorists given the assumptions made by this theory. This paper will explain the impacts of both population growth and increase in the saving rates upon economic growth. Moreover, the paper will explain how Solow model accounts for technological progress and assess w hether Romer model improves on this. Impact of both population growth and an increase in the savings rate upon economic growth Increased production of goods and services leads to economic growth. In the light of this statement, any country that desires to achieve economic growth must have optimal factors of production (Song, 2009, p. 7). The factors of production include capital, labor, technology, land and entrepreneur. When these factors are optimized economic growth of the country will be positive. Solow growth model predicts that economic growth results from accumulation of capital and population growth rate (Zhuang and St Juliana, 2010, p. 65). Moreover, the model starts by making an assumption of capital accumulation is subject to diminishing returns (Stein, 2007, p. 193). Solow model argues that developing countries with low capital stock can achieve higher economic growth compared to developed countries by increasing their savings and investment rates. Solow model postulates that increased rates of savings leads to capital accumulation. The theory behind increased savings resulting in capital accumulation is that higher savings leads increased amount of funds that can be offered as credit for capital investment. Consequently, this borrowed capital will be invested in the production industry and therefore the gross domestic products will be higher (Song, 2009, p. 9). Investment is required for the development of infrastructure required for production. However, Liu and Guo (2002, p. 25) argues that economic growth of a country depends on its ability to deploy the savings to finance capital investment. In the Solow model, the second factor identified to influence economic growth of a country is its population growth. Population provides an important factor of production; labor and consequently as population grows it adds to the available labor it contributes to economic growth of any country. However, given the rule of diminishing returns on factors of pr oduction it is necessary to strike equilibrium between the labor and other factors of production (Song, 2009, p. 10). The combined effect of impact of increased rates of saving and population growth can be understood using the Solow model. This model offers testable predictions since these two factors are different across nations. Song (2009, p. 9) argues that countries having high saving levels usually have higher per capita incomes while those experiencing high population growth have lower per capita inco

Soccer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Soccer - Essay Example During normal competitions, a win results to three points whereas a draw results to one point. The basic law of this game is that only the goalkeeper should handle the ball using hands during play except in instances of a throw- in (Wingate, 2007). The players should not wear any dangerous material such as jewels whereas the goalkeeper must wear distinguishable clothing that is different from other players and match officials. Substitution of players occurs during the game and the permitted substitutions in a competitive game are three though this number may vary in friendly matches (Wingate, 2007). The reasons for substitution are injury and incompetence of a player. In addition, a coach may substitute a player in case of a tactical switch. A referee preside the game and has complete authority to impose the laws associated with the game. The referee can send a player off the field in case of any serious offence committed such as inappropriate tackling and intentional handling of the ball. A referee may punish a player’s misconduct through caution and issues a yellow card or send off by issuing a red card (Wingate, 2007). A standard match consists of two periods comprising of forty-five minutes each (Wingate, 2007). In addition, there is a fifteen minutes break amid halves. The referee who is the timekeeper may opt to give additional time to recover time lost because of attending an injured player. Conclusively, an individual must master some skills to perfect in this game such as shooting, juggling, and dribbling (Wingate, 2007). Defenders need to master the skill of

Apple Computer and Krispy Kreme Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Apple Computer and Krispy Kreme - Essay Example But Apple Computer is a rather profitable and successful corporation. Its main success is a very high quality of its production, and many customers are devoted to the company and its brand for a very long time. It offers a range of professional software products which are very popular in the world. Apple's CEO Steve Jobs is a successful manager, especially after 1996 when he has returned to the corporation, and the technological potential of Apple and NeXT was put together. He terminated some products, such as Newton and OpenDoc. Under his guidance Apple Computer increased its profitability, although his official salary was $1 per year. The company is increasing its activity by new markets entering, such as music distribution and consumer electronics, and Steve Job's activity as the Apple's CEO is highly estimated by shareholders and consumers. So, if I had large amount of money I would invest Apple Computer as this company has great technological and scientific potential which can b e well realised in the future. Krispy Kreme is one of the biggest doughnut store chains in the world. It was originated in 1933 by Vernon Carver Rudolph, and now the company has about 360 U.S. stores (Krispy Kreme Press Kit). In 1990s Krispy Kreme began its international expansion by opening stores in Canada, Mexico, England and South Korea.

Causes of Structural Failure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Causes of Structural Failure - Essay Example FitzSimons names "four horsemen of engineering apocalypse" or the factors which causes structural failures: ignorance, incompetence, negligence, and avarice (Carper 10). It should be noted that almost all the aforementioned factors solely attribute failures to engineers. In this regard, it is extremely important to clarify that human errors strongly contribute to the possibility and occurrence of structural failures. Oftentimes engineers make choices which can bring harm and inefficiency in the long run. 3. Design errors involve discrepancy in "concept, lack of redundancy, failure to consider a load or combination of loads, connection details, calculation errors, misuse of computer software, detailing problems including selection of incompatible materials or assemblies which are not constructable, and failure to consider maintenance requirements and durability, and inadequate or inconsistent specification or quality of work;" Any or combination of the aforementioned factors always leads to structural failures. Take, for instance, the failure of hydroelectric project. Investigation may often conclude that this problem arise because of different factors. The failure might involve mechanical and electrical problems, couple with operational errors, design concept deficiencies, and structural errors.