AFRO-NETS> Small thing: definition of seasons (3)

[Mladen Poluta <poluta@cormack.uct.ac.za>]

Small thing: definition of seasons (3)
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Hi AFRO-Netters,

A happy and healthy new year to all. Some light relief, I guess:

> was this piece of news from South Africa:
> "The government has been dispensing nevirapine to pregnant women only 
> through two pilot projects initiated last spring, not on a national 
> scale (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 8/21)"
> 
> Now in December and January we are in "summer" in Southern Africa. 
> Does this "spring" in the sentence above mean September, October or 
> November? Please, could you start to use the names of months instead 
> of seasons in your news! 

By all means - as soon as our northern hemisphere colleagues show 
similar sensitivity ! For too long we "southerners" have been dis-
criminated against!! ;)

> Even the names of seasons seem to be inap-
> propriate, since at least in Namibia there are in my opinion three 
> seasons, the rainy season, the cold and dry season and the warm and 
> dry season... and even these seasons differ around Africa. 

Well, that's all changing with global weather patterns, isn't it?

> How do these fit into the North American and European spring, 
> summer, fall and winter categories?

I think it's only fair that people interested in this "fit" do the 
same mental transformation that we have to do most of the time - it's 
not that difficult. And what about the rest of the northern hemi-
sphere (Asian countries especially) or they too again have different 
seasons?  ;)

--
Mladen Poluta
Director: Healthcare Technology Management Programme, 
University of Cape Town / Groote Schuur Hospital & 
MRC/WHO Collaborating Centre for Essential Technologies in Health
Dept. of Human Biology
UCT Faculty of Health Sciences
Anzio Road
Observatory 7925, South Africa
Tel: +27-21-406-6545
Fax: +27-21-448-7226
cell:+27-82-353-8614
mailto:poluta@cormack.uct.ac.za

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