Heteronormative higher education: challenging this status quo through LGBTIQ awareness-raising

This article focus on the challenges homophobia and transphobia pose to LGBTIQ students at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), a historically black peri-urban university located on the margins of Cape Town. Both the geographical location as well as the internal environment of the university give rise to various challenges for LGBTIQ identifying, and particularly gender non-conforming, students around their sexual freedom and self-affirmation. In transcending the vacuum between the challenges faced by these students and the existing human rights discourse on non-normative sexual orientations and gender identities, the Gender Equity Unit, through its student-driven LGBTIQ programme LoudEnuf, its support staff and in collaboration with the student structure GaylaUWC has been educating and sensitising the campus community through its intersectional awareness-raising initiatives. This article focuses on the effectiveness of awareness-raising in creating a welcoming, comfortable, liberating and safe campus for LGBTIQ students to access comprehensive quality education

The right to remain married : positioning homosexual-transsexual marriages under the South African Marriage Act 25 of 1961

Magister Legum - LLMFor many, the human rights which South Africa has been able to secure for LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) people has been very progressive. However, with the conflation of sexual orientation and gender identity, the assumption of access to human rights for all within the LGBTI and society at large, has led to transsexual people not being able to claim their rights and assert their existence as human beings effectively within our constitutional democracy. Currently, there is a vacuum in South Africa's law of marriage based on its inability to accommodate spouses who married as a 'heterosexual' couple but where the one spouse subsequently undergoes gender affirmation, conforming the relationship to what is perceived as 'homosexual'. On account of this, the Department of Home Affairs are subjecting these couples to compulsory or forced divorces by refusing to have the transsexual spouse recognised within his or her affirmed gender on the marriage certificate. This means that the transsexual spouse either remains married under the Marriage Act and is subject to being recognised as his or her birth-sex, or submits to a compulsory or forced divorce in order to be recognised as his or her affirmed sex on a marriage certificate issued under the Civil Union Act upon them 'remarrying'. This thesis addresses the inequalities and inequities brought about by the Marriage Act. It investigates the history of marriages within South Africa that were prohibited based on characteristics such as race which people have no control over. It looks at how the State, through its departments, has imposed itself on the social relationships people formed subject to its legal terms and conditions. This thesis questions whether the State through its action is acting in a way that is administratively just. It argues that the successfulness of a divorce decree is dependent on at least one party voluntary applying for it. This presupposes the idea that whenever couples who are validly married are forced or compelled to divorce one another that this, in fact, cannot be seen as one of the valid ways in which to obtain a divorce decree legally. Before venturing into the legal aspect concerning this research topic, a theoretical framework will be advanced to position these couples in a greater social context. Subsequently, in order to establish the legal position of these couples, this thesis will draw on the current South African human rights discourse that has been developed by and for the LGBTI community, especially as it relates to the law of marriage. It will also establish the international and foreign human rights discourses that assert or, at least, seek to assert LGBTI human rights broadly. Ultimately, a constitutional analysis will be conducted to establish the position of these couples under the Marriage Act

DOCUMENTATION OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE ON PRODUCTION AND POST-HARVEST MANAGEMENT OF SWEET POTATO IN THE BICOL REGION, PHILIPPINES

Sweet potato (locally known as kamote) is a major staple food of people in the Bicol Region who live in the upland areas. They have been growing this crop for so many years, providing some form of food security and income to their households. They have also developed sustainable farming system using indigenous knowledge which they have learned from their ancestors. With increasing attention being given to the sustainable farming system, there is a need to look into the indigenous knowledge and practices of the sweet potato farmers in the Bicol Region, Philippines had adopted through the years in the cultivation, production, and post-harvest management of sweet potato. Hence, his paper aimed to document the various indigenous production and post-harvest practices of the sweet potato farmers; evaluate the cultural, social, economic and environmental aspects/dimensions of these indigenous knowledge; discover the gender division of labor in the sweet potato cultivation, production and post-harvest management; and discover the science behind the indigenous knowledge. The study made used of varied social research methods such as sample survey, key-informants interview, focus group discussions and field observations. This study has proven that indigenous knowledge and practices to the sweet potato farmers cannot be underestimated in terms of enhancing the household and community food production and food security particularly in the upland rural areas of the Bicol Region. The indigenous knowledge of the people is very effective in meeting their food requirements, and effective in areas of land preparation, soil fertility enrichment, planting, pests management and weeding, harvesting and post-harvest management

The WET: Is it a Good Drop?

The wine equalisation tax (WET), introduced by the A New Tax System (Wine Equalisation Tax) Act 1999 (Cth), is, in essence, a wholesale sales tax on certain wine containing a specified content of potable alcohol that is sold for consumption in Australia. The apparent fiscal purpose of the Act is to reduce and recoup the public costs of alcohol abuse. The hallmarks of sound tax legislation are traditionally encapsulated in the tax policy principles of simplicity, equity, economic efficiency and fiscal adequacy. This article explores the extent to which these hallmarks are reflected in the rules of the Act. The authors conclude that the WET is not a "good tax" in light of any of the principles, and its deficiencies raise the threshold issue of whether alcohol taxation is an appropriate way to address the public costs of alcohol abuse. In the authors' opinion, there is no valid argument for its retention

Riesgo Crediticio Bancario : Evaluación de Riesgo Crediticio mediante la aplicación del modelo scoring basado en la toma de decisiones al banco La Fise Bancentro en el periodo 2015

Al realizar el estudio estadístico para evaluar el riesgo crediticio mediante la aplicación de un modelo basado en la toma decisión, este permite pronosticar el riesgo de incumplimiento de operaciones futuras. El método scoring es un método de puntuación de las operaciones de crédito, basados en el cumplimiento del compromiso de pago de operaciones pasadas. Dichas operaciones se han estandarizado y analizado estadísticamente hasta determinar que variables influyen más a la hora de determinar el comportamiento de la entidad bancaria. Este estudio estadístico de las operaciones pasadas permite pronosticar el riesgo de incumplimiento de operaciones futuras. Para darle al seguimiento a los cliente que pueden caer en mora. La metodología a seguir para calificar a un emisor se fundamenta en varios apartados: recopilación de la información, análisis de la variable dependiente, la emisión de unas conclusiones que finalizan con la asignación de una calificación de acuerdo al análisis realizado. Periódicamente se revisan dichos emisores de deuda, para determinar si se ha producido una evolución favorable o desfavorable. Para la elaboración de este trabajo se basó en el método documental de toda la bibliografía acerca del tema y la implementación de los cálculos necesarios para el análisis, inducción y deducción de los resultados obtenidos. Crear un modelo de scoring es muy simple, si se cuenta con los datos apropiados para el otorgamiento de un crédito, en el cual se elaboran tabla de datos que le dan paso al análisis todas las variables que están relacionadas con la variable a predecir, sin importar si una o más variables están correlacionadas. La capacidad para analizar la cartera de cuenta habiente y detectar los riesgos a la hora de otorgamiento de créditos, es esencial en la determinación del incumplimiento de pago, siendo este análisis de la cartera una herramienta indispensable para la adecuada toma de decisiones del sistema bancario

Use of qualitative methods alongside randomised controlled trials of complex healthcare interventions: methodological study

Objective To examine the use of qualitative approaches alongside randomised trials of complex healthcare interventions

Portals to Wonderland: Health portals lead to confusing information about the effects of health care

BACKGROUND: The Internet offers a seemingly endless amount of health information of varying quality. Health portals, which provide entry points to quality-controlled collections of websites, have been hailed as a solution to this problem. The objective of this study is to assess the extent to which government-run health portals provide access to relevant, valid and understandable information about the effects of health care. METHODS: We selected eight clinically relevant questions for which there was a systematic review, searched four portals for answers, and compared the answers we found to the results of the systematic reviews. RESULTS: Our searches resulted in 3400 hits, 155 of which mentioned both the condition and the intervention in one of the eight questions. Sixty-three of the 155 web pages did not give any information about the effect of the intervention. Seventy-seven qualitatively described the effects of the intervention. Twenty-six of these had information that was too unclear to be categorised; 15 were not consistent with the systematic review; and 36 were consistent with the review, but usually did not mention what happens without the intervention, what outcomes have been measured or when they were measured. Fifteen web pages quantitatively described effects. Four of these were abstracts from the systematic review, nine had information that was incomplete and potentially misleading because of a lack of information about people not receiving the intervention and the length of follow-up; one had information that was consistent with the review, but only referred to three trials whereas the review included six; and one was consistent with the review. CONCLUSION: Information accessible through health portals is unlikely to be based on systematic reviews and is often unclear, incomplete and misleading. Portals are only as good as the websites they lead to. Investments in national health portals are unlikely to benefit consumers without investments in the production and maintenance of relevant, valid and understandable information to which the portals lead

Stakeholder views on the incorporation of traditional birth attendants into the formal health systems of low-and middle-income countries: a qualitative analysis of the HIFA2015 and CHILD2015 email discussion forums.

BACKGROUND: Health workforce shortages are key obstacles to the achievement of the health-related Millennium Development Goals. Task shifting is seen as a way to improve access to pregnancy and childbirth care. However, the role of traditional birth attendants (TBAs) within task shifting initiatives remains contested. The objective of this study was to explore stakeholder views and justifications regarding the incorporation of TBAs into formal health systems. METHODS: Data were drawn from messages submitted to the HIFA2015 and CHILD2015 email discussion forums. The forums focus on the healthcare information needs of frontline health workers and citizens in low - and middle-income countries, and how these needs can be met, and also include discussion of diverse aspects of health systems. Messages about TBAs submitted between 2007-2011 were analysed thematically. RESULTS: We identified 658 messages about TBAs from a total of 193 participants. Most participants supported the incorporation of trained TBAs into primary care systems to some degree, although their justifications for doing so varied. Participant viewpoints were influenced by the degree to which TBA involvement was seen as a long-term or short-term solution and by the tasks undertaken by TBAs. CONCLUSIONS: Many forum members indicated that they were supportive of trained TBAs being involved in the provision of pregnancy care. Members noted that TBAs were already frequently used by women and that alternative options were lacking. However, a substantial minority regarded doing so as a threat to the quality and equity of healthcare. The extent of TBA involvement needs to be context-specific and should be based on evidence on effectiveness as well as evidence on need, acceptability and feasibility