This thesis considers the colonial literary relationship between the ???centre??? and the ???margin??? in the field of post-colonial counter-discourse. As such, this thesis investigates the possibility of disrupting the dominance of Empire, which is often rhetorically constructed through the certainty of the parent and child binary relationship. By analysing the orphan???s affiliational associations, which exist beyond the traditional binary of parent and child in the colonial relationship, I argue that the orphan, as both figure and trope, becomes a site of resistance to the dominant colonial discourse. Re-reading Charles Dickens???s Great Expectations with two Australian re-writings of his text in mind ??? Peter Carey???s Jack Maggs and Gail Jones???s Sixty Lights ??? this thesis investigates the particular case of post-colonial counter-discursive practice, and explores the way in which the orphan figure in each re-writing inscribes their expectations and thereby refigures the power hierarchy between the canonical European text and the post-colonial re-writing. In order to do so, I have organised this thesis into four main chapters, each of which develops a specific interrogation of the orphan figure in light of post-colonial theory and criticism. So, chapter one considers the colonial figure and the trope of parent and child, investigating the influence that this trope wields in casting the racialised colonial Other as ???savage??? and ???primitive???, but, ultimately, ???child-like???. Chapter two furthers this observation by highlighting the disruptive affect of such naturalised perspectives of the colonial Other???evidenced in post-colonial theory through the motion of the key concepts of ambivalence and abjection. And, it is in this context that chapters three and four stand as direct examinations of the disruptive affect of the orphan figure. Discussing Peter Carey???s Jack Maggs and Gail Jones???s Sixty Lights (respectively), these last two chapters formalise the subversive agency assumed by the orphan, and locate it in the very practice of ???writing back to the centre???.

???Journey??? as a term in the dictionary, indicates a distance covered in travelling, usually by land, from one place to another. In my paper, ???journey??? becomes equal to life experience, consisting of time, space or place, and thoughts. I see my life as a linear journey, made up of many points, in different time and space, facing diverse scenes, causing various emotions, and creating distinct relationships with the world. My project deals with time, space and thoughts in my life???s journey. I have turned to the space of everyday life in order to explore its shifting physical, social and psychological dimensions. This is where I would locate my work in relation to Contemporary Art, where the relationship between the inner and outer world, between private and public, between art and everyday, are also the key issues. These are my truly personal experience of my stay in Australia, where I have been provided an opportunity to experience the differences in various ways. Since all experiences take place in time and space, the two categories provide a comprehensive framework, in which my thoughts have a place to occur and develop. In my real life experience, what I have been through is not only to confront the conflicts and the uneasiness, but also to understand the differences, and then to accept and get used to these until I have harmony in my heart.

On a global basis over A$450 billion is invested each year in foreign direct investment and aid with a view to supporting development. Developing countries themselves allocate significant sums out of their own budgets in order to stimulate development. Development is concomitantly a major goal and enterprise of the global economy. Developed countries through aid (Official Development Assistance) spend large sums purportedly to improve the development status of developing countries. Recently voices from within the developed world???s establishment have derided the performance of aid and by default the performance of state organisations charged with managing aid delivery. Australia has not been immune from this criticism. Its aid program while modest by global standards still consumes A$1.5 billion in taxpayers money each year. Australian aid is delivered primarily by the Australian International Aid Agency (AusAID) with smaller contributions through the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Defence and Australian Federal Police. AusAID has recently faced severe criticism over failure of the aid investment in the South Pacific to engender development. Most South Pacific countries (excluding Fiji and Samoa) have failed to show desired development. A number have faced bankruptcy (Naru, Solomon Islands), while others have increasing lawlessness (Papua New Guinea). It is important in the above milieu to examine the delivery mechanisms of Australian aid through its chosen vehicle (AusAID) and determine whether aid has really been effective or not. This thesis reviews the development effectiveness of Australian aid in one Pacific island nation ??? Samoa. In this context, the effectiveness of Australian development assistance is reviewed in terms of the results of four case studies of project aid to Samoa. The four case studies cover a range of project activity in differing sectors and offer specific insights into aid policy and delivery and the effects other variables such as culture, history and development status have on development outcomes. The thesis tests the hypothesis that Australian aid to Samoa has resulted in only limited development success and then in ways that are not generally sustainable. In confirming the hypothesis, this thesis identifies that while variables such as the procedural and policy underpinnings of the Australian aid program, aid design/delivery and management, and the history, culture and development status of Samoa impact on the development outcomes, they do not prohibit development. This thesis concludes that development outcomes will be maximised when there are good macro policies present, sound sector policies and real commitments of the government and people to development. Moreover, this thesis finds that while development theories inform the debate over aid none successfully encapsulates the actual development process.

On a global basis over A$450 billion is invested each year in foreign direct investment and aid with a view to supporting development. Developing countries themselves allocate significant sums out of their own budgets in order to stimulate development. Development is concomitantly a major goal and enterprise of the global economy. Developed countries through aid (Official Development Assistance) spend large sums purportedly to improve the development status of developing countries. Recently voices from within the developed world???s establishment have derided the performance of aid and by default the performance of state organisations charged with managing aid delivery. Australia has not been immune from this criticism. Its aid program while modest by global standards still consumes A$1.5 billion in taxpayers money each year. Australian aid is delivered primarily by the Australian International Aid Agency (AusAID) with smaller contributions through the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Defence and Australian Federal Police. AusAID has recently faced severe criticism over failure of the aid investment in the South Pacific to engender development. Most South Pacific countries (excluding Fiji and Samoa) have failed to show desired development. A number have faced bankruptcy (Naru, Solomon Islands), while others have increasing lawlessness (Papua New Guinea). It is important in the above milieu to examine the delivery mechanisms of Australian aid through its chosen vehicle (AusAID) and determine whether aid has really been effective or not. This thesis reviews the development effectiveness of Australian aid in one Pacific island nation ??? Samoa. In this context, the effectiveness of Australian development assistance is reviewed in terms of the results of four case studies of project aid to Samoa. The four case studies cover a range of project activity in differing sectors and offer specific insights into aid policy and delivery and the effects other variables such as culture, history and development status have on development outcomes. The thesis tests the hypothesis that Australian aid to Samoa has resulted in only limited development success and then in ways that are not generally sustainable. In confirming the hypothesis, this thesis identifies that while variables such as the procedural and policy underpinnings of the Australian aid program, aid design/delivery and management, and the history, culture and development status of Samoa impact on the development outcomes, they do not prohibit development. This thesis concludes that development outcomes will be maximised when there are good macro policies present, sound sector policies and real commitments of the government and people to development. Moreover, this thesis finds that while development theories inform the debate over aid none successfully encapsulates the actual development process.

The main aims of the investigation conducted here are to draw out important debates in theory and in the South African social context over the concepts of responsibility and accountability for human rights abuse, and to look at how these were present within, and impacted on, discussions within and around the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The TRC did not specifically discuss or define theoretical concepts of responsibility or accountability. However, I argue that it is possible to draw out some important features of its implicit approach ??? particularly in terms of its emphasis on collective responsibility and social context (in addition to individual responsibility), and its emphasis on moral arguments for individuals and collectives to accept responsibility and hold themselves accountable by contributing to future change. This ambitious and complex approach raised some important theoretical issues, which have been discussed and debated in the theoretical literature. These include: the relationship between individual responsibility, collective responsibility and the influence of ???the system???; the nature of collective responsibility; the nature of morality; the distinction between moral and political responsibility; and how individuals and collectives can or should be held accountable. In South Africa, these theoretical debates inter-mingled with a range of other factors, including individual and collective interests, motives and political perspectives. From an analysis of the existing literature on the TRC and original interviews conducted with key informants, I draw out three main opposing views which I argue arose in the South African social context about responsibility and accountability, and what the TRC could and should have done to address these. In a detailed analysis of the TRC???s hearings and Final Report, I draw out how theoretical debates, and these three opposing views, were present within and impacted on the TRC???s work. I argue that it was impossible for the TRC to satisfy everyone and resolve these debates, and that its approach led to unrealistic expectations of its work and its role more generally. This has impacted negatively on how the TRC was and is perceived.

It is known in many gold operations that less than 2% of the cyanide consumed accounts for the gold and silver dissolution. The majority of the cyanide is consumed by minerals contained in the gold ore to produce many different cyanide soluble complexes or used in converting cyanide to other related species such as thiocyanate and cyanate. The high costs associated with cyanide and thiocyanate detoxification and excessive cyanide utilisation encountered when treating ores with high cyanide consumption constitutes a significant proportion of the overall processing costs. This study examines the possibility of recovering free cyanide from thiocyanate using a process based on the Acidification-Volatilisation-Regeneration (AVR) circuit in conjunction with a pre-concentration stage using commercially available ionexchange resin. From thermodynamic modelling based on the STABCAL program it was found that it was thermodynamically possible to recover cyanide from thiocyanate if the oxidation of cyanide to cyanate can be stopped. Addition of copper to the system found that the majority of the thiocyanate exists as copper(I) thiocyanate (CuSCN) solid. Using ion-exchange resins can be an effective way to concentrate thiocyanate from tailing solutions or slurries. Four different models were successfully used to model the equilibria between thiocyanate and chloride on commercial ion-exchange resins. By normalising the equilibria data when applying the Mass action law the equilibria becomes independent of ionic strength within the range of concentration considered. An advantage of this is that only one unique equilibrium constant is used to describe the ion-exchange process. The electrochemical and kinetic studies showed that the reaction between thiocyanate and hydrogen peroxide is catalysed by hydrogen ions. Secondly under acidic conditions the rate of cyanide recovery by the AVR circuit was faster than at higher pH conditions. The overall reaction of thiocyanate with respect to the concentration of thiocyanate and hydrogen peroxide is an overall third order reaction. The derived third order rate expression is first order with respect to thiocyanate concentration and second order with respect to hydrogen peroxide concentration. Previous studies showed that the production of cyanide inhibits the reactions between thiocyanate and hydrogen peroxide, but by removing cyanide from the reaction by air stripping, this was not observed. Addition of copper to the system did not show a catalytic effect on the reaction but it was found that copper (II) ions suppresses competing reactions that occurred without affecting the reaction between thiocyanate and hydrogen peroxide.

By elucidating the origins of the banlieue rouge, a belt of communist-dominated suburbs surrounding Paris that arose during the interwar years and reached its apogee under the Fourth Republic, this thesis addresses the problem of why twentieth-century France was home to a pro-Soviet communist party with mass support. Specifically, a local study of the PCF in Arcueil and Cachan, two neighbouring communes south of Paris with divergent political evolutions since World War I, is used to discern how and why the Parti communiste fran??ais (PCF) came to exert hegemony in the working-class suburbs of Paris. After surveying the historiography of communism in France and beyond, this thesis concludes that the communist banlieue rouge was born of working-class alienation from bourgeois society that was nourished by a communist counter-society that was contingent upon the PCF???s capacity to adapt and respond to local circumstances. Using archival sources and statistical analysis, it demonstrates that in Arcueil and Cachan rapid suburbanisation and an attendant proletarianisation created the pre-conditions for the rise of the PCF. This study finds that during the interwar period the PCF rapidly emerged as an electoral force in both suburbs as it set about laying the foundations of a communist counter-society, especially in Arcueil where it won control of local government in 1935. In Arcueil, the PCF spearheaded the local Resistance movement during World War II and then under the Fourth Republic went on to consolidate a nascent communist communal identity, while in Cachan its influence fell victim to Cold War politics. The pre-conditions for the rise of communism were apparent earlier and to a greater degree in Arcueil, an industrialised, working-class suburb with long-standing radical traditions, than in the traditionally conservative Cachan. In Arcueil, the PCF was more successful than its counterpart in Cachan at exploiting an alienation that was not only part of the deep-seated historical traditions of the French working class but was also part of everyday life f or workers forced to live in miserable conditions. In suburbs such as Arcueil, suburban working-class pride at being a social outcast was conflated with communism to create a durable communist communal identity.

The main aims of the investigation conducted here are to draw out important debates in theory and in the South African social context over the concepts of responsibility and accountability for human rights abuse, and to look at how these were present within, and impacted on, discussions within and around the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The TRC did not specifically discuss or define theoretical concepts of responsibility or accountability. However, I argue that it is possible to draw out some important features of its implicit approach ??? particularly in terms of its emphasis on collective responsibility and social context (in addition to individual responsibility), and its emphasis on moral arguments for individuals and collectives to accept responsibility and hold themselves accountable by contributing to future change. This ambitious and complex approach raised some important theoretical issues, which have been discussed and debated in the theoretical literature. These include: the relationship between individual responsibility, collective responsibility and the influence of ???the system???; the nature of collective responsibility; the nature of morality; the distinction between moral and political responsibility; and how individuals and collectives can or should be held accountable. In South Africa, these theoretical debates inter-mingled with a range of other factors, including individual and collective interests, motives and political perspectives. From an analysis of the existing literature on the TRC and original interviews conducted with key informants, I draw out three main opposing views which I argue arose in the South African social context about responsibility and accountability, and what the TRC could and should have done to address these. In a detailed analysis of the TRC???s hearings and Final Report, I draw out how theoretical debates, and these three opposing views, were present within and impacted on the TRC???s work. I argue that it was impossible for the TRC to satisfy everyone and resolve these debates, and that its approach led to unrealistic expectations of its work and its role more generally. This has impacted negatively on how the TRC was and is perceived.

It is known in many gold operations that less than 2% of the cyanide consumed accounts for the gold and silver dissolution. The majority of the cyanide is consumed by minerals contained in the gold ore to produce many different cyanide soluble complexes or used in converting cyanide to other related species such as thiocyanate and cyanate. The high costs associated with cyanide and thiocyanate detoxification and excessive cyanide utilisation encountered when treating ores with high cyanide consumption constitutes a significant proportion of the overall processing costs. This study examines the possibility of recovering free cyanide from thiocyanate using a process based on the Acidification-Volatilisation-Regeneration (AVR) circuit in conjunction with a pre-concentration stage using commercially available ionexchange resin. From thermodynamic modelling based on the STABCAL program it was found that it was thermodynamically possible to recover cyanide from thiocyanate if the oxidation of cyanide to cyanate can be stopped. Addition of copper to the system found that the majority of the thiocyanate exists as copper(I) thiocyanate (CuSCN) solid. Using ion-exchange resins can be an effective way to concentrate thiocyanate from tailing solutions or slurries. Four different models were successfully used to model the equilibria between thiocyanate and chloride on commercial ion-exchange resins. By normalising the equilibria data when applying the Mass action law the equilibria becomes independent of ionic strength within the range of concentration considered. An advantage of this is that only one unique equilibrium constant is used to describe the ion-exchange process. The electrochemical and kinetic studies showed that the reaction between thiocyanate and hydrogen peroxide is catalysed by hydrogen ions. Secondly under acidic conditions the rate of cyanide recovery by the AVR circuit was faster than at higher pH conditions. The overall reaction of thiocyanate with respect to the concentration of thiocyanate and hydrogen peroxide is an overall third order reaction. The derived third order rate expression is first order with respect to thiocyanate concentration and second order with respect to hydrogen peroxide concentration. Previous studies showed that the production of cyanide inhibits the reactions between thiocyanate and hydrogen peroxide, but by removing cyanide from the reaction by air stripping, this was not observed. Addition of copper to the system did not show a catalytic effect on the reaction but it was found that copper (II) ions suppresses competing reactions that occurred without affecting the reaction between thiocyanate and hydrogen peroxide.

By elucidating the origins of the banlieue rouge, a belt of communist-dominated suburbs surrounding Paris that arose during the interwar years and reached its apogee under the Fourth Republic, this thesis addresses the problem of why twentieth-century France was home to a pro-Soviet communist party with mass support. Specifically, a local study of the PCF in Arcueil and Cachan, two neighbouring communes south of Paris with divergent political evolutions since World War I, is used to discern how and why the Parti communiste fran??ais (PCF) came to exert hegemony in the working-class suburbs of Paris. After surveying the historiography of communism in France and beyond, this thesis concludes that the communist banlieue rouge was born of working-class alienation from bourgeois society that was nourished by a communist counter-society that was contingent upon the PCF???s capacity to adapt and respond to local circumstances. Using archival sources and statistical analysis, it demonstrates that in Arcueil and Cachan rapid suburbanisation and an attendant proletarianisation created the pre-conditions for the rise of the PCF. This study finds that during the interwar period the PCF rapidly emerged as an electoral force in both suburbs as it set about laying the foundations of a communist counter-society, especially in Arcueil where it won control of local government in 1935. In Arcueil, the PCF spearheaded the local Resistance movement during World War II and then under the Fourth Republic went on to consolidate a nascent communist communal identity, while in Cachan its influence fell victim to Cold War politics. The pre-conditions for the rise of communism were apparent earlier and to a greater degree in Arcueil, an industrialised, working-class suburb with long-standing radical traditions, than in the traditionally conservative Cachan. In Arcueil, the PCF was more successful than its counterpart in Cachan at exploiting an alienation that was not only part of the deep-seated historical traditions of the French working class but was also part of everyday life f or workers forced to live in miserable conditions. In suburbs such as Arcueil, suburban working-class pride at being a social outcast was conflated with communism to create a durable communist communal identity.