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Monitoring Population Pressure in the SemiArid Zone of Kenya
Get PDFPopulation pressure is a maladjustment between resources of a community and its population. This maladjustment worsens when the population increases at a faster rate than the development of the economy. The pressure leads to the deterioration of land resources and low, risky income opportunities and widespread poverty. Kenya\u27s population growth rate of 4 percent per year is one of the highest in the world. Its populationresource relations are deteriorating and foreshadow the country\u27s future. In the semi-arid and arid parts of the country, especially those occupied by traditional pastoral people, population pressures are particularly serious. Here, the pressures of people and large animal populations (both domestic and game) lead to overgrazing, overcutting, and trampling. Other destructive activities include cultivation on hillsides and pasturing livestock on steep slopes with little attempt to control their movements or numbers. These activities expose soils to erosion in the period of intense rains and cause severe land damag
Sleeping sickness in Kenya Maasailand
No full textSleeping sickness is one of the most harmful diseases in East Africa and the tsetse an ecologically important ecto-parasite and vector. In Kenya Maasailand both sleeping sickness and tsetse were insignificant at the beginning of the twentieth century. This paper examines the detailed processes which brought about the expansion of tsetse and epidemic sleeping sickness in the study area. It finds that changes in plant associations, ecosystem complexes, wildlife and human ecology enabled tsetse and trypanosomiasis to spread easily and maintain their infestation in the region. Such changes were initiated by British colonial interventions.
Population And Development In Maasailand, Kenya
No full textPopulation pressure is an imbalance between population and resources. This imbalance worsens when population grows faster than the economy can be developed. In the semi-arid and arid areas of Kenya population pressure has reached a crisis level. Recurrent food shortages, escalating undernutrition and malnutrition especially among infants and children, and chronic poverty are divesting residents\u27 hope of ever leading a secure life. On the landscape, severe soil erosion and general vegetation and water abuse all are signs of the overexploitation of resources.
This study investigates the magnitude and spatial variation of population pressure in Maasailand. Another purpose is to assess government response to population pressure. It is argued that population is a critical component in regional development especially in the short term.
An historical analysis is used to trace the emergence of population pressure. Contemporary population pressure is investigated through the computation of carrying capacities and the analysis of its consequences in various ecological zones. Both documentary and field research provide data for the study.
The findings are that modern population pressure began during the colonial era. Exogenous factors (the colonial and postcolonial economic system and immigration) and internal societal dynamics (population growth) led the Maasai to lose control of their production system and to their inability to respond to changed circumstances. The Maasai were \u27conquered\u27 and incorporated into colonial rule, and then isolated and ignored. A mix of insensitive government policies and failure of the Maasai economic system to adjust, and increase productivity led not only to the impoverishment of the resource base, but to impoverishment of the people themselves. The empirical results show that within Maasailand, population pressure is greatest in the drier parts (zones IV to VI). Food insufficiency is characteristic and incomes are depressed. Overgrazing and soil erosion are severe. The same areas are also the most remote in terms of access to basic development infrastructure such as roads, markets, health facilities, and water
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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