A REVIEW OF THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF THE UNION CONFERENCE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE IN THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH AND INTER-STRUCTURAL ACCOUNTABILITY

Over the last few years, a debate regarding the inter-structural relationship of each level of the Seventh-day Adventist Church has grown to the point where it can be polarizing, regardless of which side of the debate one is on. This tension has likely come about, at least in part, as a response to the ongoing gender role debate, which has given rise to the emergence of an “us vs. them” mentality between those who agree and disagree with the decisions of the General Conference Sessions and its Executive Committee. This paper looks at some of the historical data related to the 1901 reorganization in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. This may help alleviate some of this “us vs. them” tension by familiarizing each side with some of the lesser-known historical details so that continued dialogue includes a more complete, common understanding. It evaluates the historical roots from which the Seventh-day Adventist Church developed union conferences, why union conferences were needed, and how they related to the General Conference shortly after their formation. A few discoveries are made: (1) The Seventh-day Adventist Church was a pioneer in the way that union conferences were organized to address the needs of local fields; (2) the reorganization was necessary in order to reach the world more effectively by minimizing the obstacles caused by the limitations and abuse of the centralized decision-making of a few leaders; (3) there appears to have been the clear intention that union conferences would remain accountable to the General Conference on matters of policy; and (4) union conference autonomy was built on a foundation of bilateral trust, which was necessary to press forward in the mission of the church. How these discoveries specifically apply to more recent debates are left to the discretion of the reader, though pertinent questions for further evaluation and study are suggested

Political power, national identitiy and language

Afrikaans is the home language of 5.9 million people. During the 1980s, Afrikaans was the dominant state language and a widely-used lingua franca in South Africa and Namibia. But by the end of the twentieth century, English had replaced Afrikaans as the dominant state language and a decline in the use of Afrikaans was in evidence, even among native Afrikaans speakers. An examination of this language's twentieth-century journey helps illustrate the relationship(s) between political power, national identity, and the growth and/or decline of languages

Inundated by the audience: Journalism, audience participation and the 2011 Brisbane flood

Following the Brisbane flood in 2011, Seven's breakfast television program Sunrise launched a partnership with the Queensland government called 'Operation Bounce Back'. The initiative called on skilled tradespeople to volunteer for the rebuilding effort, and extended Sunrise's representations of audience participation. In this article, we examine Operation Bounce Back in relation to different accounts of audience participation. We look at the interaction between Sunrise and the government in the management of Operation Bounce Back, and draw on both Sunrise's representations of the program and documents obtained under Right to Information provisions. The case provides the basis for considering the role of journalism in managing representations of public and audience participation

Making sense of revolution lost

Abstract: Please refer to full text to view abstrac

Communication and counter hegemony in contemporary South Africa : considerations on a leftist media theory and practice.

Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1991.In South Africa the left-wing is currently in an ascendant mode. Yet it is not an unproblematic ascendancy. For one thing, because Marxism has been interwoven with so much of the South African struggle, the South African Left are now unable to disentangle themselves from the contemporary 'collapse of the Marxist dream'. And this translates into a South African socio-political issue because as the Left accumulates influence and power in South Africa so the problems and limitations of historical materialism acquire a wider social significance. This thesis will argue that a key problem with the historical materialist paradigm has been its limitations when dealing with communication and the media. However, there have been historical materialists (usually those who consciously stepped outside 'mainstream Marxist' discourse) who made considerable advances in attempting to develop historical materialism's capacity for dealing with communication, the media and the subjective. This thesis will examine some of the work which has attempted to 'reconstruct' historical materialism away from a narrow materialism. The aim will be to give some direction to the development of a New Left approach to communication. Such a reconstruction is seen as a precondition if the Left-wing is to find a formula for dealing with Information Age relations of production. A New Left communicology able to deal with the 'superstructuralism' of the Information Age offers a specific perspective on how to construct a development strategy for South Africa. This will be discussed, and the thesis will attempt to tie together the notions of communication, development and democracy. The relationship between communication and democracy will be especially important for the New Left approach that will be favoured in this thesis. So an important theme in the thesis will be the question of developing a left-hegemony based upon a democratic-pluralism. This will entail examining the role that media and an institutionalised social-dialogue can play in building a left-wing democracy. The extent to which the left-wing media in South Africa have contributed to a democratic dialogue is discussed. This will then be extended into a discussion of how media can contribute to the reconstruction, development and democratization of a leftist post-apartheid South Africa

WHERE DID WE GO WRONG? A critical assessment of crime prevention

The success of any policy is measured by how it is implemented and its effect. Given this, the implementation of crime prevention policy in South Africa has not had a promising start. This is hardly surprising, considering that the lead responsibility for crime prevention lies with the police, rather than with the government departments specifically focused on social issues. It is argued that the establishment of a national crime prevention centre that offers support to local communities be prioritised

Establishing the Learned Effect of Repeated Wingate Anaerobic Tests

The Wingate anaerobic test (WAnT) is a recognized and well established tool used to measure power output, muscular endurance and fatigue. Changes within the aforementioned variables attributable to a learning effect could reduce the reliability of these measures. The purpose of this study was to establish the number of WAnT trials needed to produce a learned effect and reliability of that effect. Ten apparently healthy college-aged males participated in five trials of 30-second cycle ergometer sprints separated by a minimum of 72 hours. Resistance for trials was calculated at 7.5% of each respective subjects’ weight. This study tracked the changes in Peak Power (PP), Mean Power (MP) over time. Paired samples t-test using 2 tails revealed PP increased on all trials (2-5) when compared to trial 1 (+57W, +69W, +68W, +48W) (p=0.02, p=0.03, p=0.04, p=0.14) respectively, and indicated peak wattage at trial 3. MP also increased on all trials (2-5) when compared to trial 1 (+32W, +49W, +39W, +32W) (p=0.01, p=0.01, p=0.02, p=0.05) respectively, demonstrating mean peak wattage at trial 3. These results suggest that a learning effect is present within PP and MP until the third trial of the WAnT. All but 30% subjects elicited peak PP and MP during trial 3. Thereby, suggesting that when performing WAnT, utilizing less than 3 practice trials might elicit significant power increase due to this learned effect. Further research should be conducted in order to support the findings from the present investigation

S. African Politics: mapping the constituency.

Reeling under the sanctions imposed by the community of nations and heightened internal struggles, the South African white government has begun the historic process of dismantling apartheid. The various democratic forces within the country and their aspirations to build a non-racial society still seem distant. Professors Eric Louw and Keyan Tomaselli from the Centre for Cultural and Media Studies at the University of NataI in Durban describe the turbulent situation in South Africa in vivid detail

The 1990 reforms and the alternative media in South Africa.

The alternative press, which contributed so much to the struggle against apartheid in the 1980s; found itself unprepared for a new role in the freer media environment after the lifting of the State of Emergency in February 1990. P Eric, Louw, and Keyan Tomaselli report on the financial, organisational and political difficulties now threatening the existence of the alternative press in South Africa