University of KwaZulu-Natal Press – författare

This is an extract from the author..."I have to be fully aware of the legacy that we carry of poetry on the page, by being aware of style and form all the time, especially when trying to make language do new things. In what I call psycho-narration, I try to write beyond the understanding the 'inside of one's head' and 'the objective world' are really distinct worlds".

Matiwana's handwritten poems started while he was in prison in Port Elizabeth. They were deeply felt lyrics, mostly love poems, with haiku-like surprises in their shifts of tone. Matiwana was released from prison, but he was soon back again. During the 20 months that he was awaiting trial, he continued writing poems, almost daily. In August 2003, after an appeal to readers of donga, bail was raised and Matiwana, now a devout Muslim, was released - at least until his tril. The poems in his first book cover a range of subjects - love, prison, poverty, religion - always with this poet's unique delicacy.

Can global warming be mitigated by carbon trading? With climate change posing perhaps the gravest threat to humanity in coming decades, and with free market economics still dominated by a few wealthy nations, it is little wonder so much effort has gone into creating a carbon market, no matter how much evidence has recently emerged about its flaws. South Africa, a revealing pilot site, has initiated carbon trading projects with adverse economic, environmental and social impacts. This country pollutes at a rate twenty times higher than even the United States of America, measured by CO2 emissions generated by each GDP dollar per person, so the idea of trading for carbon reductions is seductive - and potentially lucrative. Current state policy is supportive and a former environment minister is a market promoter, alongside the World Bank, the Dutch government and big oil companies.