Dear Dorothy, I’m in a relationship with a successful man who is also very handsome and because of this, he earned his name, Ladies Man. We’ve been dating for three years but it hasn’t been easy due to his flirtatious ways. Our relationship has survived this long because of my love for him. But, honestly Dorothy, I don’t sleep very well at night; I have lost a lot of weight. In fact, I have become a shadow of my former self and people close to me are beginning to notice. Dorothy, what do you advise me to do? I don’t…
Author: Pride Team
Bruce M Biccard, University of Cape Town The in-hospital maternal mortality rate following a Caesarean delivery in Africa may be 50 times higher than in high-income countries. These were the findings of the African Surgical Outcomes Study that followed more than 3500 mothers from 22 African countries during a week of surgery in 2016. The study found that maternal mortality rate was 5.43 per 1 000 operations, compared to 0.1 per 1000 operations in the UK. And one in six women developed complications following Caesarean delivery, which is nearly three times the rate in the US. Bleeding in the period…
Ruth Bridgstock, Queensland University of Technology The old jokes about creative arts and humanities graduates serving at the local fast food outlet are hard to put to rest – they speak to long-held concerns around the value of creative degrees, and to worries that students of creative arts programs aren’t employable when they graduate. But soon-to-be released national graduate tracking research findings conducted by my research team at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation show that, while Australian creative arts graduates can take a while to settle in to their careers, their outcomes are…
Brigitte Maass, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen For thousands of years South Americans have farmed guinea pigs – but this hasn’t taken root in most other parts of the world, including Africa. We spoke to Brigitte Maass about the opportunities that they offer as livestock and what challenges there are in producing them. What are guinea pigs? Guinea pigs are native to South America. In Peru they call them “cuyes”, but the animal has many different names all over the world. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), farmers call them “dende”, and we think this comes from the French name “Cochon…
Reading 1 Sir 5:1-8 Rely not on your wealth; say not: “I have the power.” Rely not on your strength in following the desires of your heart. Say not: “Who can prevail against me?” or, “Who will subdue me for my deeds?” for God will surely exact the punishment. Say not: “I have sinned, yet what has befallen me?” for the Most High bides his time. Of forgiveness be not overconfident, adding sin upon sin. Say not: “Great is his mercy; my many sins he will forgive.” For mercy and anger alike are with him; upon the wicked alights his wrath.…
Holy Humour Oh, they prayed! At the pearly gates, a taxi driver and minister are waiting in line. St. Peter consults his list and says to the taxi driver, “Take this silken robe and golden staff and enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” St. Peter next greets the minister saying, “Take this cotton robe and wooden staff and enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” “Just a minute,” says the minister. “That man was a taxi driver, and he gets a silken robe and golden staff while I get a cotton robe and wooden staff. How can this be?” “Up here, we work by…
Brooke Schedneck, Rhodes College Thich Nhat Hanh, the monk who popularized mindfulness in the West, has returned home to Vietnam to enjoy the rest of his life. Devotees from many parts of the world are visiting the ailing 92-year-old, who has retired to a Buddhist temple outside Hue. This thoughtful and accepting approach to his own failing health seems fitting for the popular Buddhist teacher, whose followers include a thousand Buddhist communities around the world and millions more who have read his books. For everyone, his teachings encourage being present in the moment. As a scholar of the contemporary practices…
I know you’re a virgin who didn’t know what men do with doors, what men do with buildings, what men do to doors, how men knock at doors, how men bark at doors to terrify it into running away, flaking away, rushing away to remove itself from its hinges, from its root, from its guardian angels. I know you don’t know how men shake doors, shake buildings, how men lay waste its flowers, lay waste its nectars, how men burn buildings down through sex and romance. You’re young with a voracious modulus for calculus; you’re probably naïve with the natives…
Bavesh Kana, University of the Witwatersrand The suffering and massive loss of life caused by Tuberculosis (TB) are proof that humanity hasn’t prioritised the development of tools to eliminate a disease dating back 9 000 years. Two stark facts highlight this: most of the antibiotics used to treat TB were developed decades ago. And, until very recently, some diagnostic approaches being used were a century old. There’s a chronic funding gap for TB research and development. The Global TB Alliance estimates that it’s as high as $1.3 billion per year. While still inadequate, there has been a shift towards reducing…
Pier Paolo Frassinelli, University of Johannesburg There is no better place to assess the state of “auteur” African cinema than at its premier showcase, the biennial film festival in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. Popularly known by its acronym, Fespaco, the Festival panafricain du cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou recently celebrated its 50th birthday. Fespaco and the 1966 Journées cinématographiques de Carthage in Tunisia were the earliest concrete steps towards the idea of African cinema on African soil. These two film festivals were the first major African events entirely dedicated to showcasing movies from across the continent.…