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Vesna Maric
by Kyle Francis Williams
The President Shop by Vesna Maric is one of the four books in world publisher Sandorf Passage's inaugural season. It is a novel that examines the conflict between people and ideologies – their own or those forced onto them, though even this distinction has a certain amount of bleed. Taking as its object a family who runs a president shop – a place where citizens can buy Party paraphernalia, like busts of the President – in the Nation's collapsing days. Student protests are on the rise in the capital, the President himself is getting old, and everything is poised to change
Kyle Williams: To start, I'd love to ask you about how it was to write this novel after your first book Bluebird, from 2009. The most obvious different, sentence-by-sentence, is the lack of the essential "I" present in that memoir, as the scope of the novel widens itself to this family in the Nation. What did the shift to fiction, and to the third person, allow for your writing of this story that perhaps couldn't have done with the "I"?
Vesna Maric: The difference between Bluebird and The President Shop sits mainly in the fact that Bluebird, as a memoir, demanded a first-person narrative in that it was an account of my own experience – though it involved narrating the stories of other people too – and with The President Shop I wanted to tell the story of an entire family, and a country, through the voice of an omnipresent narrator who could move between characters, unimpeded by the limitations of a first-person narrative. The shift to fiction allowed for a greater playfulness of interweaving historical facts – I mixed personal recollections of growing up in Yugoslavia with historical facts that I researched – and simple imaginings of characters and events and how their lives might interact with the circumstances in which they find themselves. There is an expansiveness that comes with fiction and a third person narrative, one can roam around (re)imagined landscapes and work within a cosmos that is at first invented and which then takes on a life on its own, and has its own rules. As we know, real life imposes certain limitations on storytelling, and sometimes fiction is more truthful than fact.
Not only is this book fiction, where your mode up to this point in your memoir and your essays has been rooted more essentially in "fact," but there is a speculative element to the novel that is – not to spoil anything – downright science fictional. What about this story made you want to turn to the speculative?
I was really interested in the concept of Fate – a powerful concept in the Balkans and many "old cultures," to use this expression – the idea that there is this greater something out there that holds our lives, or simply that we are actors in this predetermined script of the world and life as it unfolds. The very idea of the gods and superstitions and the traditional society are rooted in this idea of Fate, and I guess the 20th century was all about the rooting out of the old ways. This is where, I think, the modern and old worlds often divide – personal agency vs. something that is unchangeable. The book plays with these two things by portraying a country that is made through the agency of ordinary people, their work and dedication – yet is at the hands of tradition and in some ways, Fate itself. So my interest was in exploring the idea that we are here to learn life's lessons in different ways, and that these lessons are pre-determined, and it's up to us to work out what they are and accept them with grace. We live these individual lives, we think, yet we are part of this deeply intricate universe, and it often takes "historical events" to understand how interconnected we all are – perhaps this is Fate, in that our interdependence is inescapable, that we always affect each other.
The science-fictional elements are also a good way to write about the political – and I use this word in its widest sense – in how the collective and individual co-relate and how humanity interacts with power. We like to imagine the future, to know it, because it holds power to know the future – it gives us a sense that we're beating our worst enemy – uncertainty. Science fiction as a genre plays with that, and while this is not a science fiction novel, the elements that are speculative play with these ideas.
As well, rather than name names, the novel employs an almost fablistic use of capitalized terminology like "the Nation" and "the President," though the geography is still rather firm. Why opt for "the Nation" rather than "Yugoslavia," and "the President" rather than "Josip Broz Tito"? What compelled you to use that device? Did you find it in any way freeing, as a novelist?
You're completely right, of course. I did not name names simply because it helps lift one out of history in the geographic sense, and lends the story a greater universality, I hope. The fate of Yugoslavia was not unique in the human sense – the tragedies of nations are simply the tragedies of humanity, so this book can be read by anyone and it does not require historical or geographic or cultural knowledge or interest. There are so many nations and presidents that are built and adored and destroyed throughout history that it can be read as the story of any place. I did, however, include many historical details in the novel because I wanted to tell the story of this special place that was Yugoslavia, but to liberate it from the associations that the name Yugoslavia carries. There was a great deal of devotion to the country's formation and construction, there was this incredible architecture (MOMA dedicated an entire exhibition to it), and there was also the simple life, with its oppressions and difficulties. Considering that it is a place that has ceased to exist and exists largely in the memory of those who lived in it, I think fictionalising it is also a great metaphor for the place itself and the former-Yugoslavs' relationship to it.
So much of The President Shop concerns the particular psychological distresses of living under a regime enforced by ideological propaganda – or, as you said, "the simple life, with its oppressions and difficulties." Each character reacts to the Nation's political machine in their own way, even if they putatively agreed with the supposed ideology fed to them (as with Ruben). Some of these psychological struggles meet extreme ends. Is this psychological distress the result of being faced with Fate? And, if so, what does it mean to face our psychological distress with grace?
I think we all live inside ideologies, be they political, religious, economic, and so on. An ideology always supposes a system that involves a hierarchy, and this in itself is oppressive to the ways of being that don't fit in neatly within the prescribed system. In this way, tradition is an ideology, because we often follow rules that have been followed by generations of people who came before us, and those who subscribe to it are able to live inside it more comfortably, at least up to a certain point – Ruben is a true devotee of the Nation's project and of the President. Other characters struggle with how their freedom is impeded by the prescriptive ways of being – we are struggling with this right now, and always have, as human beings. It is one of the central – if not the central struggle of humanity: how do we live in freedom, without oppression, without harm? So if one is to see Fate as that which presides over us in the form of these apparently unequivocal rules – as was the case with mythical Greek gods who punished humans who got ahead of themselves and challenged the supremacy of the gods – then yes, psychological distress is the result of this encounter with Fate. In The President Shop, the ideology comes hand in hand with tradition, old ways of understanding the world and how life is lived – for example that duty is honoured, regardless of the value of doing so, that authority is a certain way and must be respected – so the characters who struggle with this are struggling with the old systems of thought that have had a particular political ideology imposed on it. An ideology is simply a compilation of ideas, and none of these ideas were created from nothing, in fact they always came from what was already there. And inasmuch as Fate is considered unchangeable, it is our duty to attempt to change our systems and our ideas. There are certainly things we come up against in life that are distressing and must be accepted with grace, although that does not mean that we do not challenge and try to change those systems that are oppressive.
The way psychology is mapped (but where the map is not the territory) onto ideology in your book makes me think of some old Russian masters, like Dostoevsky or Tolstoy. Is there a tradition there that you were interested in?
Ah, well, that's a compliment, so thank you. Any ideology, as I said earlier, comes simply from human psychology, so the rules of a country are just an extension of the rules of human kind, and as we hopefully evolve, so do our various systems. I studied Czech Literature at University and read a lot of the 19th and 20th century Russian authors, who were, in many cases, prophetic. But there is no tradition I followed, I read widely in general, and I am a huge fan of American literature, because it represents a wide range of cultural voices.
Do you see a line between having an ideology and being oppressed by an ideology? Or between believing and being brainwashed? Is this line the one between ideology and politics, if those are distinct categories to you?
I think the difference is always between personal ideas and beliefs and a systematic ideology that imposes a way of being that is singular and inflexible to difference, and which rests on the oppression of another. We always seem to worship the same set of things, in different guises – a god or a president, money, power, sex, etc. Whenever one is blind in one's belief or refuses difference, whether privately or systematically, and oppresses another in order to keep oneself in their higher position, that is a point of danger. Politics, in its ideal state, is about a polyphony that is able to find its way into a coherent system that caters to a variety of needs and ideas. I see ideology as a fixed state, one that does not bend to human need as it changes, as it always does, whereas politics should be flexible, based on dialogue, improvement, and on community.
To finish up, I was hoping you could talk a little bit more about the president shop itself, within the novel. It's a place where fetishes of the President and Party politics are sold, which presents a really compelling image of how propaganda is mass produced to be bought and sold, which would seem to be opposed to the Party's Marxist principles. In the existence of the president shop, it seems to me, there is a kind of double consciousness. Even religion is supplanted for a gold statue of the President's head. There is, in effect, a kind of totalizing: Everyone in the novel lives in the president shop. You'll have to excuse my historical ignorance on this but, were these real places? How do you imagine the space as a construction of both ideology and commerce? And how do you imagine identity being drawn along the lines of the commercial interaction engaged with there?
Yes, this is interesting. These were not real places, no such places existed at all. But it is true that the picture of the President was everywhere, in every public institution, we had all the memorabilia around, there were volumes of books written by and about Tito in probably every home in Yugoslavia, and one was not to speak badly of Tito in private or public. But the commerce aspect did not exist in this way – in fact we had a system of self-management, in which workers owned shares of the industry they worked for, and were provided with housing and so on. So the fictitious president shop is really something that is a safekeeping project for Ruben, who is awarded this honour by the state for his sacrifices in the war – it does not matter whether he sells the memorabilia, although it is assumed everyone would purchase something. The commerce idea, or rather the idea of the shop was really about our agreement as citizens, or as human beings, to 'buy into' certain ideas and use these objects as objects of worship that represent that ideology. It is precisely about the shop being a symbol, a centre, for this place where the image of the President is sacred and omnipresent, a place of worship almost (not to stretch it too far), which is crowned by the gold statue, a statue that is indestructible.
The President Shop
by Vesna Maric
Sandorf Passage
Kyle Francis Williams is a writer living in Brooklyn. He is an MFA Candidate at UT Austin's Michener Center, Interviews Editor for Full Stop, Director of Communications for Chicago Review of Books, and A Public Space's 2019 Emerging Writer Fellow. He is on Twitter @kylefwill.
Happy Hour – Marlowe Granados
Kasimma
This Life – Quntos KunQuest
Anna Cox


There had been other funerals, the little brother who had been drowned while playing in a forbidden stream, and the older brother who had gone off in search of gold or his own way, and had crawled back parched with fever to die in his mother's arms. But those, too, seemed long ago to the girl as she stood in the empty cabin and looked fearfully about her. They seemed almost blotted out by the last three that had crowded so close within the year. The father, who even at his worst had a kind word for her and her mother, had been brought home mortally hurt--an encounter with wild cattle, a fall from his horse in a treacherous place--and had never roused to consciousness again.
Then there had swept up into the girl's face one gleam of life that made her beautiful for the instant, and she had bowed to them with a slow, almost haughty, inclination of her head, and spread out her hands like one who would like to bless but dared not, and said clearly, "I thank you--all!" There had been just a slight hesitation before that last word "all," as if she were not quite sure, as her eyes rested upon the ringleader with doubt and dislike; then her lips had hardened as if justice must be done, and she had spoken it, "all!" and, turning, sped away to her cabin alone.
"Go!" she said with a flickering smile. "Go! For--a little while," and then she tried to smile again.
"But, Bess, this ain't the way to treat a fellow," he whined. "I came way back here to take care of you. I tell you I love you, and I'm going to have you. There ain't any other fellow going to run off with you--"
She could scarcely speak, so desperate she felt. O if she dared but say, "Forever," and shout it at him! She was desperate enough to try her chances at shooting him if she but had the pistols, and was sure they were loaded--a desperate chance indeed against the best shot on the Pacific coast, and a desperado at that.
"I am not afraid," calmly. "And no one will trouble me. Don't you know what they say about the spirit of a man--" she stopped; she had almost said "a man who has been murdered"--"coming back to his home the first night after he is buried?" It was her last frantic effort.


Mary Violet Leontyne Price was born February 10, 1927, and raised in the colored section of Laurel, Mississippi. Her mother, Kate, was a midwife, and her father, James, worked in a sawmill. She was nurtured under the watchful eye of the community, which extended even to her aunt's employers, The Chisholms, a family who lived in a white, affluent section of town. Her musical talents were encouraged, and her voice frequently was heard at area social events.
Price received a scholarship to attend Central State University, Wilberforce, Ohio. She began as a music education major, but she completed her studies there in voice. After hearing Price perform at an earlier engagement, famed bass-baritone Paul Robeson agreed to appear in concert in Dayton, Ohio, to raise money to support Price's continued vocal studies.
With Robeson's assistance–proceeds from the concert totaled $1,000 (over $10,400 in 2018 dollars), as well as that of the school's administration and the Chisholm family, Price was able to begin her vocal studies at Juilliard.
While attending Juilliard, she appeared in revivals of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess and Four Saints in Three Acts, by Virgil Thomson. The Porgy and Bess cast toured the United States and Europe with baritone William Warfield and Price singing the title roles. The two singers married in 1952, but the pressures of their separate careers eventually forced them to part.
Price was engaged to sing the lead for the National Broadcasting Company's production of Puccini's Tosca in 1955. There were strenuous objections, and some cancellations, from local affiliates; nonetheless, her dramatic portrayal and vocal performance in this historic broadcast were a critical success.
Other televised operatic roles soon followed. Then, in 1957, Price sang Verdi's Aida for the first time. She identified strongly with the character, and her success led her to Vienna to sing for conductor Herbert von Karajan and, in 1960, to the stage of La Scala.
In January, 1961, she debuted at the Metropolitan Opera as Leonora in Verdi's Il Trovatore. Her performance was a success not only to the audience who witnessed it, but to the New York critics as well. She was signed for additional roles there and at other houses around the world.
By the mid 1960's, her reputation had grown to the extent that she was offered the lead in the Samuel Barber opera commissioned especially for the opening of the Met's new facilities at Lincoln Center. The opening performance of Antony and Cleopatra in 1966, though marred by the extremes taken in costuming and staging, solidified Price's place as one of the world's great divas.
In the years that followed, Price's notoriety allowed her the freedom to select roles she wanted, often taking rests between runs. She increased the number of recitals in the 1970's and made several operatic and concert recordings. Price retired from the opera stage at the Met in 1985 with her signature role, Aida. This live telecast was viewed by millions, and her performance of the aria, "O Patria Mia," was the top ranked "Great Moments at the Met: Viewer's Choice" selection.
1 Dietz, Betty A. "Robeson's Singing Wins Acclaim at Concert Here," Dayton Daily News, June 1, 1948.
Leontyne Price was interviewed by tenor George Shirley on May 14, 1974, for Shirley's radio broadcast, Classical Music and the Afro-American. Listen to the historic broadcast, hosted by WNYC, which includes performance excerpts.
Afrocentric Voices in Classical Music. Created by Randye Jones. Created/Last modified: July 30, 2018. Accessed:. http://www.afrovoices.com/wp/leontyne-price-biography.


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DISA delivers new version of Enterprise Portal Service to SIPRNet
By Defense Systems Staff
The Defense Information Systems Agency has delivered the second iteration of the DOD Enterprise Portal Service on the Secret IP Network (SIPRNet). Version 2.0 of DEPS, as it's known, went live Feb. 28, DISA said.
The first version of DEPS replaced Defense Knowledge Online after it was shut down in May 2013, as part of DOD's transition to a new set of collaboration tools. DISA said the new version for the Unclassified IP Network (NIPRNet) will be available in the third quarter of this fiscal year.
DEPS 2.0, a scalable, cloud-based collaboration tool built on Microsoft SharePoint, has dedicated and shared services, giving users a choice of which services best suit their needs, while allowing for customization.
Among the services it offers:
Shared document libraries, calendars, task lists, blogs, and workflows.
Global, anytime access to shared resources.
Access to the highly secure Defense Enterprise Computing Centers, which consolidate administrative, hardware, and software resources.
DEPS 2.0 "will offer the ability to select shared or dedicated operating environments, while adhering to the principles of an enterprise service and delivering operational and budgetary efficiencies for the DOD," said Alan Lewis, DISA's program executive officer for enterprise services.
DEPS 2.0 offers three standard sizes of user environments, starting with one designated as Medium, for up to 50,000 users with 1 terabyte of storage. The Large size accommodates up to 100,000 users, with 2 T of storage, and Extra-Large handles up to 200,000 users, with 4 T of storage. Additional storage is available, as if the option of adding approved, third-party tolls, DISA said.
DOD started planning to move away from DKO, a Defense Department-wide outgrown of Army Knowledge Online, after users began showing a preference for SharePoint instead of DKO. DISA responded with the Enterprise Portal Services Branch, intended to provide file sharing, access to other enterprise services, and a marketplace for mobile applications and widgets.
Although DKO was shuttered last year, the Army said AKO would reamin operational, with users being transitioned to DEPS over the next several years.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Tilba Valley Wines is magnificently situated on the shores of Lake Corunna, under the foothills of Gulaga (Mount Dromedary).
Yering Station is one of the jewels of the Yarra Valley region, attracting tourists and wine enthusiasts from around the globe. Come visit us - you'll love it!


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FCA US Reaches Settlements on Emissions Requirements
FCA has reached final settlements on civil, environmental and consumer claims with U.S. federal and state agencies as well as private class actions to resolve differences over diesel emissions requirements
Estimated total cost of settlements is $0.8 billion, in line with financial charge taken for this purpose in third-quarter, 2018
FCA will provide free software update for an estimated 100,000 vehicles; service provided through an emissions recall and does not require any hardware modification
Settlements include an average of $2,800 in compensation for each eligible customer affected by the recall
Civil penalties under the settlement total approximately $400 million, payable to various U.S. federal and state authorities
FCA maintains its position that the Company did not engage in any deliberate scheme to install defeat devices to cheat emissions tests
The consent decree and settlement agreements contain no finding or admission with regard to any alleged violations
January 10, 2019 , London - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU / MTA: FCA) announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary FCA US LLC has reached final settlements on civil, environmental and consumer claims with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the State of California, 49 other States and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, agreeing to pay approximately $400 million in civil penalties to resolve differences over diesel emissions requirements.
FCA US has also settled a putative class action on behalf of private consumers.
Customer compensation, the estimated future cost of the extended warranty and the cost of environmental mitigation efforts also account for approximately $400 million. The resulting $0.8 billion total is in line with the financial charge taken by the Company for this purpose in third-quarter, 2018.
The settlements do not change the Company's position that it did not engage in any deliberate scheme to install defeat devices to cheat emissions tests. Further, the consent decree and settlement agreements contain no finding or admission with regard to any alleged violations of vehicle emissions rules.
"We acknowledge that this has created uncertainty for our customers, and we believe this resolution will maintain their trust in us," said Mark Chernoby, the Company's Head of North American Safety and Regulatory Compliance.
FCA US will conduct an emissions recall to update emission control software in an estimated 100,000 model-year 2014-2016 Ram 1500 pickups and Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs equipped with 3.0-liter EcoDiesel V-6 engines. The software reflash does not affect average fuel economy, drivability, durability or refinement of the vehicles.
Each current and former owner and lessee of these vehicles will be eligible to receive a payment averaging $2,800 as part of the plaintiff steering committee settlement. The affected vehicles will also qualify for an extended warranty in connection with the software update.
"We have implemented rigorous new validation procedures and updated our training programs to ensure continued compliance with the increasingly complex regulatory environment," Chernoby said. "Such measures are consistent with our mission to deliver advanced technologies that deliver value to our customers and that enhance the environmental performance of our products."
The settlements are now lodged with the San Francisco division of the United States District Court, North District of California, where they await judicial approval. The approximately $400 million in civil penalties includes:
$305 million payable to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for environmental claims
$13.5 million to the California Attorney General for consumer claims and mitigation expenses
$72.5 million to various other state attorneys general for environmental and consumer claims
$6 million to Customs and Border Protection
In addition, FCA US will pay $19 million to the State of California for emissions mitigation initiatives, while also financing the upgrade of 200,000 high-efficiency catalytic converters through the aftermarket.
Affected customers will be advised when they may schedule service appointments. FCA US is in the process of establishing the required logistics to identify vehicle owners and provide service and remuneration.
Eric Mayne
Rick Deneau


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Points Interview: Cannabis and control in South Africa with Thembisa Waetjen
Today's post features an interview with Thembisa Waetjen, a professor at the University of Johannesberg. She is a historian focusing on South Africa, who looks at twentieth century South African political and social history, with two main interests: medical humanities in South Africa and transnational Indian Ocean histories.
Thembisa recently authored 'Apartheid's 1971 Drug Law: Between Cannabis and Control in South Africa' in the upcoming Fall 2022 issue of the Social History of Alcohol and Drugs. Find out more about Thembisa's background, article and future research plans in this interview.
Categories Features, Points Interviews Tags Cannabis, Drugs, History, Marijuana, research, South Africa
Hamilton's Pharmacopeia: An Appreciation
January 26, 2022 July 20, 2021 by Points Editor
Editor's Note: Today's post comes from contributing editor Peder Clark. Dr. Clark is a historian of modern Britain, with research interests in drugs, subcultures, health, everyday life, and visual culture. He completed his PhD in 2019 at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and currently holds a position at the University of Liverpool.
Image courtesy ViceTV.
For the unfamiliar, Hamilton's Pharmacopeia is a documentary series that follows a young chemist, the titular Hamilton Morris, as he travels the world investigating the eccentric and esoteric cultures of intoxication surrounding the production and consumption of psychoactive substances—both common and uncommon. There is plenty of material here for the average Points reader. Indeed, prior to penning this article, I was surprised to learn via the search function that it hadn't previously been written about on Points. After the (COVID-delayed) release of the third season earlier this year, it seems an appropriate time to discuss the show's appeal—not least because Morris has hinted that this may well be his Pharmacopeia's final run.
The very first episode, screened in 2016, is a good place to start. It has many of the defining features that makes Hamilton's Pharmacopeia a compelling busman's holiday for drug historians. In the opening sequence, Morris sets out his pitch: "I've been fascinated by psychoactive drugs my whole life. I love to study their chemistry and impact on society. And my work has allowed me to investigate extraordinary substances around the world.… Yet there are still mysteries that remain."
Categories Peder Clark Tags documentaries, drug history, drug regulation, psychoactive substances, South Africa, television
Medical waste offers insights into South Africa's use of pharmaceuticals
April 21, 2020 by emilydufton
Editor's Note: Today is the last piece in our six-part series of articles discussing drug use in Africa. These articles originally appeared on The Conversation, but we're republishing them here as well. Today's article comes from Rebecca Hodes, Director, AIDS and Society Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
Much of what we know about human history comes from studying things that have been discarded. The archaeology of dumpsites and middens has long informed us about societies and their pasts. This has included how people survived and sustained themselves, what they gathered, made, amassed and discarded.
Histories of rubbish have also shown that beliefs about sanitation, and what makes for a clean environment, change. These changes are, in turn, influenced by developments in technology, forms of governance, and consumer norms.
I conducted a study on an archive of medical materials, collected over three years from public waste sites around South Africa's Eastern Cape. What I refer to as 'pharmatrash' serves as a proxy for which medicines were provided or purchased, consumed, and then discarded. Pharmatrash in post-Apartheid South Africa shows the vast proliferation of medical waste, the result of increased access to healthcare products in both the public and private sectors – and on the formal and informal markets.
Categories Guest Bloggers Tags Africa, African history, Pharmaceuticals, South Africa
The story of the pharma giant and the African yam
Editor's Note: Over the next few weeks, we're going to feature a series of articles discussing drug use in Africa. These articles originally appeared on The Conversation, but we're republishing them here as well. Today's article comes from William Beinart, professor at the University of Oxford.
It was a drug produced in Nottingham in the United Kingdom that led us on a journey to South Africa to visit muthi markets, archives, herbariums and nature reserves.
We spoke with traders, healers, scholars and conservationists to learn more about Dioscorea sylvatica.
Dioscorea is a wild yam. Its name in different languages connects to its appearance – its rough skin resembles a tortoise shell. It's known as 'Elephant's Foot' in English, in isiZulu 'ingwevu', meaning grey/old or 'ifudu', meaning tortoise; in Sepedi the name is 'Kgato' – 'to stamp'.
In the 1950s, the yam was heavily exploited by the British pharmaceutical firm Boots for the production of cortisone. But provincial conservation officials in South Africa fought back against the plundering of a wild plant that they recognised was in danger of being exploited to extinction.
Categories Guest Bloggers Tags Africa, African history, South Africa, United Kingdom
A history of how sedatives took hold in white South Africa
April 14, 2020 April 14, 2020 by emilydufton
Editor's Note: Over the next few weeks, we're going to feature a series of articles discussing drug use in Africa. These articles originally appeared on The Conversation, but we're republishing them here as well. Today's article comes from Julie Parle, Honorary Professor in History, University of KwaZulu-Natal.
In the early 1960s, pharmacists and government authorities were of the view that South Africa had experienced key aspects of a 'pharmaceutical revolution' over the course of the previous 40 years.
These were fulcrum decades in South African medicines' history in which newly invented medicines became critically important. Most of the new therapeutic substances in high demand were antibiotics. But the class of drugs comprising synthetic hypnotics, sedatives and tranquillisers were also important.
As early as the 1930s these substances – especially barbiturates – posed challenges to those who sought their control. Enmeshed in multiple issues of chemical, commercial, professional, and regulatory definition, timid controls were proposed in 1937. But even these failed to gain support, facilitating a permissive market for those who could afford the new drugs. These were, by and large, white South Africans.
Categories Guest Bloggers Tags Africa, African history, sedatives, South Africa
"Beyond the Medicines/Drugs Dichotomy: Historical Perspectives on Good and Evil in Pharmacy in Johannesburg, South Africa (5-7 December 2019) – Conference Report
January 21, 2020 by emilydufton
Editor's Note: Today's post comes from contributing editor Dr. David A. Guba, Jr., of Bard Early College in Baltimore and Jamie Banks of the University of Leicester.
Twenty-one delegates from ten countries gathered in Johannesburg, South Africa from 5 to 7 December for the "Beyond the Medicines/Drug Dichotomy: Historical Perspectives on Good and Evil in Pharmacy" conference. Masterfully organized by Thembisa Waetjen (University of Johannesburg) and co-sponsored by the Alcohol and Drugs History Society (ADHS), the Wellcome Trust, the University of Johannesburg, and the University of Strathclyde's Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare (CSHHH), the conference was held at the stunning facilities of the South Gauteng Branch of the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa. The event also marked the latest step forward for the "Changing Minds: Psychoactive Substances in African and Asian History" project under the direction of Jim Mills (University of Strathclyde), which works to connect scholars of drugs and alcohol history in China, Africa, the UK, and beyond.
Categories Conferences and Events, David Guba Tags Conferences, Drugs, medicine, South Africa
CFP: Beyond the Medicines/Drugs Dichotomy: Historical Perspectives on Good and Evil in Pharmacy
September 12, 2019 by emilydufton
Editor's Note: You know you've always wanted to visit South Africa. Here's your chance! Check out this CFP for an exciting conference at the University of Johannesburg this December. Beyond the Medicines/Drugs Dichotomy: Historical Perspectives on Good and Evil in Pharmacy University of Johannesburg 5-7 December 2019 The dichotomy between pharmacologically-active substances considered legitimate (and …
Categories Calls for Papers, Conferences and Events Tags CFP, Pharmaceuticals, South Africa
Video: Thembisa Waetjen at Cannabis: Global Histories
January 31, 2022 July 12, 2018 by emilydufton
Editor's Note: We hope you enjoyed Thembisa Waetjen's article that we published on Tuesday on how cannabis, or dagga in local parlance, became a "drug" in South Africa. Today you can see Prof. Waetjen discuss her work at the Cannabis: Global Histories conference. Enjoy!
Categories Cannabis: Global Histories Tags Cannabis, Cannabis: Global Histories, Marijuana, marijuana history, South Africa


The Shell station at River Street and Zorn Avenue moves forward of rising Ohio River water after being closely damaged in last yr's flood.
After the Ohio River crammed their eating room with 7 half ft of floodwater last yr, River Street BBQ's house owners didn't take any possibilities after listening to dire forecasts calling for the river to rise steeply again this week.
On Sunday and early Monday morning, a crew at the casual eatery north of Zorn Avenue and River Street packed up tables, chairs, refrigerators, chrome steel preparation tables and, most crucially, the smoking pits — all of it now on wheels — and moved the whole lot to storage.
As rain continued to fall Monday, meteorologists predicted the river would inch toward average flood stage by the top of the workweek. The circumstances pressured dozens of businesses and householders on each side of the Ohio River to move out or to begin preparations with an eye fixed on river ranges.
By Monday afternoon at the McAlpine Upper Dam, the water was nearing 22 ft, a few foot away from the 23-foot benchmark to hit flood stage. The water is anticipated to rise to just about 30 ft — which is average flood stage — by Friday morning.
The Nationwide Weather Service issued a flood warning for Kentucky and Southern Indiana cities near the Ohio River beginning Tuesday afternoon until additional notice.
The region is predicted to obtain 2 to three inches of rain via Wednesday through the time the flood warning is in effect. Elements of Western Kentucky might see three to four inches, NWS meteorologist Jessica Bozell stated.
That's dangerous information for businesses and householders located between River Street and Zorn Avenue and the Harrods Creek area. Apart from the barbecue restaurant, Captain's Quarters and Cunningham's Creekside had shut down by Monday and extra companies have been anticipated to close their doors by midweek.
"We will take 30 ft," but when the water retains rising, "I've received every little thing ready to go," stated Rusty Hocker, owner of Harrods Creek Tavern.
The timing couldn't be worse for eateries trying to money in on Valentine's Day, a large day in the local restaurant scene. At the upscale River House, the employees on Monday canceled 400 reservations, manager Kim Weir stated, adding that the enterprise expects to shut Wednesday.
Like Harrods Creek Tavern, River House sits up excessive sufficient that average flooding does not swamp the buildings' inside, however the companies at occasions are pressured to close if excessive water cuts off street entry.
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"state of being legitimate" in any sense, 1690s of children, 1812 of kings and governments, general use by 1836; see legitimate (adj.) + -cy. Legitimateness (1610s) is an earlier word for it. Middle English had legitimation (mid-15c.).