Optimal principles and pragmatic strategies:creating an enabling politico-legal environment for Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM)

A conference paper presented at Chobe, Botswana by Prof. Murphree on the Community Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) initiative in the Southern African region particularly Zimbabwe.Let me start this address with an hypothesis. I suggest that the mixed profile of success and failure in CBNRM in the Region owes much of its ambiguity to our strategic pragmatism in its implementation. We have placed policy and practice before politics and thus have encouraged the birth of CBNRM (in its "modern" version) into a politico-legal environment which, if not hostile, is hardly a nurturing one. In so doing we have put an ironic twist on the conventional approach to planned change. A recent draft article on rhino conservation sent to me for review complains that "much time and money get wasted in the political battlefield trying to shape out policies that do not get implemented on the ground." We in CBNRM programmes have done the opposite. We have spent a lot of time and money in implementation on the ground, leaving the outcomes of the political battlefield which surrounds it largely unresolved.USAID-NRM

Description of a mathematical model and computer simulation of separation of the nose cap from the solid rocket booster

A system of equations which models the motion of the Solid Rocket Booster Nose Cap upon separation is described. The computer program which utilizes these equations to generate nose cap trajectories is described in detail. Application of the program to simulate a rocket sled test of the nose cap separation is discussed and the results of the applications are presented. With the information given a user should be able to exercise the computer program with a minimum of effort

Communities as institutions for resource management

A CASS Occasional Paper/ Conference Paper on rural environmental management by involving the participation of the community in the management of their shared environs. This paper was initially presented to the National Conference on Environment and Development, Maputo, Mocambique, 7-11 October, 1991.This paper deals with a complex set of issues, but seeks to do so in a relatively clear and non-technical manner. It proceeds therefore by a series of highly condensed propositions and arguments, using a Zimbabwean case study for illustration. Some of the more technical and theoretic underpinnings of the analysis are relegated to footnotes or to the citation of relevant sources

Letter from Dennis Murphree to John L. Taylor; August 11, 1936

From the Ellard-Murphree-Pilgreen-Smith Family Papers Collectionhttps://athenacommons.muw.edu/smithpapers/1043/thumbnail.jp

The study of race and ethnic relations in Southern Africa

An inaugural lecture on race relations in Southern Africa during the early 1970's presented on Thursday, 4th November, 1971 on the Occasion of the Inauguration of The Maurice Webb Chair of Race Relations at the University of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)

Education, Race and Employment in Rhodesia: a Review of the Review

A RJE review of another review of a book on race relations, education and employment opportunities in the then Rhodesia. A review of Prof. S.H. Irvine's review by Prof. M.W. Murphree.In his review of this book (RJE, Vol. 9, No. 4, December 1975 pp 157/ 175) Professor Irvine concludes his summary of what he considers to be both its value and its defects with the statement, “Nevertheless it should be read. But not without qualification. And not uncritically”. With this I concur completely. No intelligent reader should do otherwise, particularly with a book dealing with a subject of such central significance for this Country’s social and economic development. The same should be said of Professor Irvine’s review. It is extensive if not exhaustive, contains points of valuable detail and raises one issue of major analytical significance. It is at certain points highly entertaining, and generous in endorsing certain arguments the book puts forth. Unfortunately the review also contains one blatantly false assertion regarding what the book is alleged to have said and, more diffusely and by implication, attributes other conclusions to the work which it does not make. The result is the creation of a series of straw men which the reviewer then proceeds to demolish with magisterial gusto but which have little if anything to do with the real conclusions of the volume and which are likely to mislead the unwary reader into the assumption that the book presents a perspective and takes a position which, in fact, it does not. The admonition of the review is therefore singularly appropriate to itself — it should be read, but not without qualification, and not uncritically

A Silicon Carbide Power Management Solution for High Temperature Applications

The increasing demand for discrete power devices capable of operating in high temperature and high voltage applications has spurred on the research of semiconductor materials with the potential of breaking through the limitations of traditional silicon. Gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC), both of which are wide bandgap materials, have garnered the attention of researchers and gradually gained market share. Although these wide bandgap power devices enable more ambitious commercial applications compared to their silicon-based counterparts, reaching their potential is contingent upon developing integrated circuits (ICs) capable of operating in similar environments. The foundation of any electrical system is the ability to efficiently condition and supply power. The work presented in this thesis explores integrated SiC power management solutions in the form of linear regulators and switched capacitor converters. While switched-mode converters provide high efficiency, the requirement of an inductor hinders the development of a compact, integrated solution that can endure harsh operating environments. Although the primary research motivation for wide bandgap ICs has been to provide control and protection circuitry for power devices, the circuitry designed in this work can be incorporated in stand-alone applications as well. Battery or generator powered data acquisition systems targeted towards monitoring industrial machinery is one potential usage scenario

Africanizing Employment in Zimbabwe: The Socio-Political Constraints

A ZJE article on 'job-creation" for African people in the 1970's.The racially-structured nature of the occupational structure in Zimbabwe during the "Rhodesian Years", 1890-1979, with its built-in bias favouring White employees, has been amply documented elsewhere O) and requires no amplification here. Equally patent is the fact that a major policy objective of the new government which comes to power as a result of the February 1980 elections will be to redress this bias. What is not clear is the extent and form which this redressive action will take. The debate on these questions is likely to take place under an obfuscating cloud of assertions concerning goals; propositions stated axiomatically in terms of values and objectives, what is considered to be 'right', 'proper', 'ethical' or 'desirable'. But planning is not simply "the art of the desirable". It is, like politics, also "the art of the possible". To be effective, planning must take into consideration the constraints which circumscribe progress towards goals and must therefore balance principle with pragmatism. One of the best descriptions of this tension was made by Henry Kissinger who, speaking on U.S. foreign policy, once wrote, "Foreign policy is, like life, a constant effort to strike the right balance between the best we want and the best we can have - between the ends we seek and the means we adopt." While recognizing the importance of "ethical purpose" he went on to add, "But we need as well a mature sense of means, lest we substitute wishful thinking for the requirements of survival."(2