Food security in the free state province: Meaning making as democratic agency

People\u27s stories are powerful means of explaining their realities, for their narratives reveal what meanings they make of the situations they are living, how they face these situations and what strategies they formulate to overcome them. Their meaning making is one of the most powerful tools of their agency, and this is what this study reveals. In it, I tell the stories of people in the Free State Province, South Africa, who face food insecurity within abundance, and their critical consciousness and agency as they struggle to survive in their democracy. Poverty is a rawness...Poverty is struggle... Poverty is shame...these were some of the themes running through people\u27s narratives as they explained their lives. Most studies on food insecurity focus on what resources are needed to produce more food, but few examine the issue of food insecurity as one of social, economic, political, and historic inequality and inequity. Neither do they do so through the qualitative inquiry lens of what meanings the people involved in the food system - and particularly the food insecure - make of food insecurity. Studies of this nature are greatly needed, and this is one such study. It is based on the premise that the food insecure of the Free State Province are theorists of their own reality and are agents in confronting the challenges of multidimensional poverty that they face. This study reveals that their food insecurity is not necessarily based on the lack of food, that is, that they go hungry day after day because there is not enough food in the province. Instead, the fundamental problem is their tenuous economic access to food, i.e. that there is food, but poor people cannot have a sustainable access to it through their own means because they are too poor. This study has shown that poor people perceive their main problem as being their poverty. Moreover, the findings reveal that because of this poverty that they live, some of them compare their present day situation to the apartheid era, casting a favourable light on that era in terms of people having food and employment; two of the issues that are their gravest concerns. Through my study, I make the case that it is fundamental that the voices of the food insecure be heard, and most importantly, that they be included in formulation of poverty alleviation and food insecurity in South Africa

Venezuela y Trinidad en 1899: La mirada británica

The objective of this paper is to describe in part the perception that the British colonial authorities in Venezuela and Trinidad had of the relations between this nation and the British colony in 1899. The same is part of a broader study, with the same objective, that covers the period 1899�1903. During this period, two important events are highlighted in the history of the relations between Venezuela and Great Britain; the arbitration process for the Essequibo and the blockage of the Venezuelan coasts in 1902-1903. For the purposes of this study, the focus has been on analyzing an important British source: the correspondence between the British colonial authorities in Trinidad and Venezuela and the Colonial Office in Great Britain, compiled in the Archives of the Colonial Office in the period studied. As has been mentioned above, the purpose is to partially re-create the British perspective of the relations between Venezuela and Great Britain, principally through its colony Trinidad. This re-creation is done from the very pen of the principal British actors of the historical events within these relations. With this, the intention has been to reveal a little known side of a very important year in the life of the young republic and the colony, a year often described in Venezuelan history, with respect to its foreign affairs, as the year in which Venezuela fought against British Imperialism; against the omnipotent aggressor that intended to steal territories that it considered were rightfully Venezuelan.El presente análisis tiene la finalidad de describir en parte la percepción que las autoridades coloniales británicas en Venezuela y Trinidad tenían de las relaciones entre esta nación y la colonia británica en el año 1899 y es parte de un estudio más amplio, con la misma finalidad, que comprende el período 1899-1903. Durante este período se destacan dos acontecimientos en la historia de las relaciones entre Venezuela y Gran Bretaña; el proceso de arbitraje por el Esequibo que culmina en 1899 y el bloqueo de las costas venezolanas en 1902-1903. Para este estudio se ha concentrado principalmente en analizar una fuente británica importante; la correspondencia entre las autoridades británicas en la colonia y en Venezuela con el Ministerio de las Colonias Británicas durante el período señalado, con el objetivo de recrear en parte la opinión británica de las relaciones de Venezuela con Gran Bretaña, principalmente a través de su colonia Trinidad. Esta correspondencia está compilada en los Archivos del Ministerio de las Colonias. La recreación de esta opinión se hace desde la pluma de los principales actores británicos de los acontecimientos históricos vividos en las relaciones entre las partes. Con ello, se ha intentado dibujar el retrato poco conocido de un año muy importante en la vida de la joven república y la colonia británica, un año señalado en la historia venezolana, en cuanto a sus relaciones exteriores, como el año en que Venezuela luchó contra el Imperialismo británico, contra el agresor omnipotente que le intentaba quitar las tierras que consideraba eran suyas por derecho

Visualizing the Ethnographic Voice of Community Revitalization

Visualizing the Ethnographic Voices of Community Revitalization is an immersive learning opportunity where Ball State University students partner with community residents from the Thomas Park / Avondale neighborhoods to create visual ethnographies. The ethnographies represent the community through the participants' eyes. In this immersive learning opportunity, Ball State University's Ross Immersive Learning Team (JOUR-302 Diversity and Media course) partnered with the Ross Community Center and Muncie Community Residents to create visual ethnographies and engage the community with photography

Visualizing the Ethnographic Voice of Community Revitalization

Visualizing the Ethnographic Voices of Community Revitalization is an immersive learning opportunity where Ball State University students partner with community residents from the Thomas Park / Avondale neighborhoods to create visual ethnographies. The ethnographies represent the community through the participants' eyes. In this immersive learning opportunity, Ball State University's Ross Immersive Learning Team (JOUR-302 Diversity and Media course) partnered with the Ross Community Center and Muncie Community Residents to create visual ethnographies and engage the community with photography