On reconciling rules, markets and power : responding to private voluntary standards through safeguarding the rule of law in international food trade

The proliferation of private voluntary standards (private standards) in international food trade has precipitated a surge of inter-disciplinary discourse on the topic. Conceptual premises have been diverse, but a common thread through the discourse has been their practical impact on developing-country producers (particularly small to medium scale ones). The present paper contributes to legal analyses of private standards. It builds upon existing discourse on rules-based responses to private standards, from the conceptual premise of the rule of law. The perspective of the paper is that private standards are creating conditions wherein the rule of law in international food trade is being placed under strain. With that, the utility of the rules-based system of international food governance has begun to diminish. The viewpoint in this paper is that, from the perspective of the WTO, responses to private standards should be underlain by considerations of safeguarding the rule of law. Underscoring this is that a rule of law approach is the most ideal, in the long-term, for the WTO system and for low income Members themselves. The paper concludes that this will entail a necessarily multipronged strategy towards the challenges presented by private standards – one which incorporates rules-based responses, other interventions from within the WTO, and responses from outside of the WTO.Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2012.Centre for Human Rightsunrestricte

A study of Karanga bride welcoming ceremony songs.

The purpose of this research was to study some of the Karanga Bride Welcoming Ceremony Songs which are performed in Chimombe Village. This was mainly motivated by the need to find out the effects of the songs on the Shona traditional women in general and Karanga traditional women in particular. There was also need to establish reasons why songs are used to transmit traditional cultural conceptions. The research question that guided the research was: “What are the main themes contained in the bride welcoming ceremony songs? A small group of women was interviewed so as to solicit their views about the derogatory lyrics of some of the songs sung during the welcoming ceremony. Purposive Sampling was used to choose these participants on the grounds of their knowledge about what happens during the ceremony. The group had to be reasonably small so that the data could be manageable. The reason is also that the Qualitative research design I adopted is not concerned about numbers but rather feelings and perceptions of individuals. I also had to observe as an insider, a number of ceremonies and recorded the songs. This I did for triangulation purposes. All the interviews and observations were recorded on paper for subsequent analysis. The songs were then transcribed in staff notation as well as tonic sol-fa. I chose an Ethnographic research design because it win line with the nature of the, design an type of data I intended to collect.. During the data collecting exercise, I seriously considered ethical issues because I was working with human beings with ethical codes to uphold. The findings showed that the lyrics of most of the songs relegate the women to the position of servitude and subservience. The respondents also blamed socialization, culture and religion as superstructures which perpetuate this kind of social inequality among men and women. Finally, I strongly recommended that such practice should be abolished if ever our society dreams of achieving social equality, economic liberalization and gender equity

Can rules of origin in sub-Saharan Africa be harmonised? A political economy exploration

The number of preferential trade agreements has increased sharply over the past decade as a response to stagnant multilateral trade negotiations. Political economy features centrally in these negotiations, for instance in the context of the Continental Free Trade Agreement (CFTA), which resulted from the most extensive negotiations for a preferential trade agreement ever to take place in Africa. In this paper, we discuss the challenges of rule-oforigin harmonisation in this process, which is a critical element for any further integration initiative in the continent. In particular, we review different approaches to the formulation of rules of origin, determining which firms qualify to take advantage of negotiated concessions. We focus on the experiences of the three African regional economic communities (COMESA, EAC and SADC) that are busy merging into the Tripartite Free Trade Agreement (TFTA) and assess their potential for harmonisation, drawing also on the examples of similar efforts being made around the globe, such as for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Strict rules of origin – as implemented by the European Union and the United States – require strong state institutional capacities to implement them and for competitive firms to incur high compliance costs. These two conditions are absent in most African countries. We hence caution against adopting rules of origin for the South African model in the CFTA on the basis of their restrictive nature and the high level of institutional and organisational capacities required for implementing them. Furthermore, we argue that rigid approaches risk undermining the very objectives they seek to achieve, since – for the most part – Africa’s private sectors are comprised of small and informal enterprises that are illequipped to take advantage of rigorous rules of origin

Emergency care for frail older people-urgent AND important-but what works?

Emergency care for frail older people-urgent AND important-but what works

Mortality and diseases of goats in Wedza communal area of Zimbabwe

A study was conducted to evaluate the extent and causes of mortality and diseases affecting goats in Wedza Communal Area. Mortality ranged from 16% in adult stock to 40% in pre-weaned kids. Kid mortality was higher during the rainy season than the dry season, but this pattern was not evident in adult animals. Mortality was from unknown causes (47.4%), infectious diseases (17.1%), predation (17.1%), diarrhoea (5.2%), starvation (3.4%), and other causes (9.8%). Diseases identified included pneumonia, orf, pulpy kidney, heartwater and foot rot. Infection by helminths showed a distinct seasonal pattern. It was high during the rainy season and low during the dry season. The main ectoparasites found were Rhipicephalus evertsi, Amblyomma hebraeum, Demodex caprae, Sarcoptes scabiei and Ctenocephalides felis. It is inferred that poor health management of goats in Wedza Communal Area negatively affects productivity because of high kid mortality. It is concluded that pre-weaned kids need more veterinary attention during the rainy season than the dry season. (Zimbabwe Veterinary Journal, 2000, 31(1): 11-20

CDK4/6 inhibitor-induced bone marrow micronuclei might be caused by cell cycle arrest during erythropoiesis

Abstract Background A micronucleus test is generally used to evaluate the genotoxic potential of chemicals. Exaggerated erythropoiesis, as occurs following bleeding, may induce an unexpected increase in micronucleus frequency. This false positive result would be typical in a genotoxicity study due to the enhanced progression of the cell cycle that restores decreased blood cells. The cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) family is known to play an essential role in preventing genomic instability. Conversely, a selective CDK4/6 inhibitor PD0332991, clinically named Palbociclib, is reported to have genotoxic potential, shown by positive results in both in vitro and in vivo micronucleus studies. To clarify the mechanism by which cell cycle arrest induced by a CDK4/6 inhibitor increases micronucleus frequency, we investigated the positive results of the bone marrow micronucleus test conducted with PD0332991. Results Rats treated with PD0332991 exhibited increased micronucleus frequency in an in vivo bone marrow micronucleus test whereas it was not increased by treatment in human lymphoblastoid TK6 cells. In addition, all other genotoxicity tests including the Ames test and the comet assay showed negative results with PD0332991. Interestingly, PD0332991 treatment led to an increase in erythrocyte size in rats and affected the size distribution of erythrocytes, including the micronucleus. The mean corpuscular volume of reticulocytes (MCVr) in the PD0332991 treatment group was significantly increased compared to that of the vehicle control (83.8 fL in the PD0332991, and 71.6 fL in the vehicle control.). Further, the average micronucleated erythrocytes (MNE) size of the PD0332991 group and vehicle control was 8.2 and 7.3 µm, respectively. In the histogram, the vehicle control showed a monomodal distribution with a peak near 7.3 µm. In contrast, the PD0332991 group showed a bimodal distribution with peaks around 7.5 and 8.5 µm. Micronucleated erythrocytes in the PD0332991 group were significantly larger than those in the vehicle control. These results suggest that the increase in micronucleus frequency induced by the CDK4/6 inhibitor is not due to genotoxicity, but is attributable to disturbance of the cell cycle, differentiation, and enucleation of erythroblasts. Conclusions It was suggested that the positive outcome of the in vivo bone marrow micronucleus test resulting from treatment with PD0332991 could not be attributed to its genotoxicity. Further studies to clarify the mechanism of action can contribute to the development of drug candidate compounds lacking intrinsic genotoxic effects

Seasonal pattern in parasitic infection in Zimbabwean communal land goats

(Zimbabwe Veterinary Journal, 1999, 30(2): 41-54