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Issues & Experts >  Issues & Experts Archive > Week of April 7 – 14, 2003

Week of April 7 – 14, 2003

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Apr 07, 2003
Test for South African democracy…South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has secured a clear two-thirds majority in parliament, allowing President Thabo Mbeki to rewrite the country’s democratic constitution. Opposition politicians are accusing the ANC of using controversial floor-crossing legislation to undermine the multi-party democracy proclaimed after adopting black majority rule. The legislation allowed nine MPs to defect to the ANC. SFU sociologist Heribert Adam, an expert on South Africa, says: "It’s a sad spectacle when opportunistic parliamentarians betray their voters by changing parties for more patronage. However, the enlarged ANC still needs the smaller opposition parties and will not change the constitution unilaterally." Adam says the test for South African democracy will come when disillusioned voters threaten the ANC’s hold on power. "South Africa is unlikely to turn into another Zimbabwe, although the ANC support for Mugabe’s tyranny is worrying," he says.


Covering war and its aftermath…Last fall SFU psychology graduate Debra Pentecost addressed international journalists at a war correspondents conference in Havana, Cuba, on war photojournalism in the new millennium. Pentecost studies the effects of war images on society and spoke on the challenges for those trying to visualize the effects of war. Such challenges go beyond surviving in what has become a deadly battle zone for several journalists in Iraq. "We also have to ask, when is war really over, given radioactive toxins seeping into water systems, and birth defects in returning veterans' children, possibly from vaccine mixtures they took?" she asks. Pentecost is concerned about the US military’s apparent use of depleted uranium as ammunition and as a coating on tanks, which she says was first used in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. She can look at similar issues raised by Canadian doctor Rosalie Bertell, who followed the aftermath of Chernobyl and Bhopal and later investigated Gulf War syndrome.

    Debra Pentecost, 604.736.3156, 604.505.3156 (cell); debrap@sfu.ca


The propaganda battle…In an atmosphere of war, paranoia and hysteria can run high, given a consistent bombardment of media war coverage. SFU English professor emeritus Peter Buitenhuis, author of The Great War of Words, an account of war propaganda from 1914-1933, says convincing Iraq or the world at large that the US is bringing freedom to the Iraqi people will be a tough sell, notwithstanding phrases such as Operation Iraqi Freedom. He can look at the catchwords and issues at play in the current conflict’s ongoing war of words, as well as issues surrounding control of the media.