Carina Bruwer, University of Cape Town The world’s oceans are at the centre of transnational organised crimes committed by profit-driven networks operating across borders. The United Nations Security Council recently convened to discuss the threat this poses to international peace and security. While Somali piracy in the Western Indian Ocean focused the world’s attention on the oceans, numerous other transnational organised crimes are taking place across the globe. The Western Indian Ocean also serves as a highway for multiple ton shipments of heroin, Somali charcoal and illegal wildlife products. Piracy and armed robbery are also found off South East Asia,…
Author: Pride Team
Bonny Ibhawoh, McMaster University As long as unresolved historic injustices continue to fester in the world, there will be a demand for truth commissions. Unfortunately, there is no end to the need. The goal of a truth commission — in some forms also called a truth and reconciliation commission, as it is in Canada — is to hold public hearings to establish the scale and impact of a past injustice, typically involving wide-scale human rights abuses, and make it part of the permanent, unassailable public record. Truth commissions also officially recognize victims and perpetrators in an effort to move beyond…
Nick Haslam, University of Melbourne; Melanie J. McGrath, University of Melbourne, and Melissa A. Wheeler, University of Melbourne Values such as care, compassion and safety are more important to us now than they were in the 1980s. The importance of respecting authority has fallen since the beginning of the 20th century, while judging right and wrong based on loyalty to country and family has steadily risen. Our analysis, using the Google Books database and published in Plos One, showed distinctive trends in our moral priorities between 1900 to 2007. How we should understand these changes in moral sensibility is a…
Barry Morton, Indiana University South Africans have for decades been hoodwinked by unscrupulous pastors. Recently a spate of incredible “miracles” by these self-styled, flashy miracle men offering healing and prosperity have again been in the headlines. The latest prominent one is a “resurrection” perpetrated by Pastor Alph Lukau of Alleluia Ministries International. In a widely circulated video, Lukau called on a “dead” man in a coffin to “rise up”. It was so farcical that the #ResurrectionChallenge, in which people are mocking it, has been trending on social media ever since. There have been other notable examples. Three years ago, Paseka…
Dawn is all yours my son to readjust your sail and achieve more than Columbus, It’s all yours, my son, to readjust your power and achieve more than caeser, It’s yours, my son, to learn the follies and mistakes of the greatest men. Where they failed and missed it, Where they rushed and missed it, What they feared that ruined them, Where they ruled and missed it, Where they searched that wrecked them, Who they rushed that drowned them, Dawn is all yours my son. Dawn is all yours to correct their follies, To correct what they couldn’t,…
Holy Humour Hearsay The new minister stood at the church door greeting the members as they left the Sunday morning service. Most of the people were very generous telling the new minister how much they liked his message, except for one man who said, “The was a very dull and boring sermon, pastor.” A few minutes later, the same man again appeared in line and said, “I don’t think you did much preparation for your message.” Once again, the man appeared, this time muttering, “You really blew it. You didn’t have a thing to say, pastor.” Finally, the minister could stand…
Feast of St. Polycarp Reading 1 Heb 11:1-7 Brothers and sisters: Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. Because of it the ancients were well attested. By faith, we understand that the universe was ordered by the word of God, so that what is visible came into being through the invisible. By faith Abel offered to God a sacrifice greater than Cain’s. Through this, he was attested to be righteous, God bearing witness to his gifts, and through this, though dead, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he…
…Continued from last week. Tola was my closest friend and I really hated the distance between us especially now things were going well with doctor Obi. I had a lot of mixed emotions and I wasn’t sure if I was concerned for Tola’s wellbeing or this was just plain jealousy. The reappearance of Lekan had put a strain on our relationship and I had to figure out a way to win her back, so I called Lekan, armed with a brilliant plan. “Hello Ebbie, I’ve been expecting your call. I knew you’d come around.” “Can we meet up, it’s really…
Olayinka Ajala, University of York Mixed reactions greeted Nigeria’s 2019 presidential elections outcome. The 2019 presidential election was expected to be a close race because the two main candidates are from the northern part of the country. But, in the end, the final result showed Muhammadu Buhari polling 56% of the total vote cast. The 2019 elections featured a total of 73 presidential candidates but the real contest was between the incumbent of the All Progressives Congress and the former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar of the platform of People’s Democratic Party. Despite Atiku’s perceived popularity and Buhari’s lacklustre performance during his…
Yap Boum, Mbarara University of Science and Technology; Jean-Jacques Muyembe, University of Kinshasa ; Sabue Mulangu, University of Kinshasa, and Steve Mundeke Ahuka, University of Kinshasa Since August last year the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been facing its 10th Ebola virus disease outbreak. As of early March this year, 907 cases and 569 deaths have been reported. The virus seems to be gaining ground in this current outbreak in North Kivu. This despite extensive control measures being put in place. These were sufficient to end the 9th outbreak region of Equateur, 2500km from North Kivu. Part of the…