South Africa

South Africa is a water-scarce country that is highly dependent on agriculture. This means that the local impacts of climate altering phenomenon, such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), are critical to understand. At a broad scale, these systems are known to affect rainfall distribution, resulting in drought (flood) conditions during El Niño (La Niña) events in the majority of the country, and the converse in the southwestern Cape. However, fine resolution analyses of local impacts of these events have been restricted to the coastal zone, and little is known for the interior. We explore the uniformity in the transition of the climatic deviations [for minimum temperature (T_min) and maximum temperature (T_max), and rainfall] along a 12-site transect spanning the South African interior. The majority of the deviations determined were not statistically significant which suggests that the common understanding of the climatic impacts of ENSO events in South Africa is not well understood. However, it should be acknowledged that all the locations used in this research, aside from Hermanus, were located inland which may be the reason the deviations at these locations were not statistically significant.

As the self-image of International Relations as a “hegemonic discipline”, under the influence of the American IR community, is questioned and challenged, the issue of “others” in IR, particularly those in the global South, and their approaches to and understandings of the “international” are becoming increasingly significant. IR communities in the global South are perceived to have different understandings of the “international,” which need to be reflected in IR to make the discipline more inclusive and global. As it is assumed that IR scholars in the more active and powerful countries in the international system have more interest in understanding the world, IR communities in countries known as regional powers can be seen as good candidates for having their voices heard in IR. This article, a comparative study of IR in South Africa and Iran as two major regional powers, examines the reception and application of the Western-centric IR by Iranian and South African IR scholars, as well as their home-grown innovations in order to illustrate the way in which the plurality in IR is reflected in scholarship in these two countries. Despite similarities in experience, their differences indicate the way in which voices from the global South are far from being monolithic.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between humor and stress in families, with positive affect as a mediating variable. Methods and Materials: The study employed a descriptive correlational design with 409 participants selected from families in South Africa, based on the Morgan and Krejcie sample size table. Data were collected through standardized questionnaires measuring humor, stress, and positive affect. Pearson correlation analysis was conducted using SPSS-27 to explore bivariate associations among variables. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was performed in AMOS-21 to test the hypothesized mediation model. Model fit was evaluated using multiple indices, including χ², df, χ²/df, GFI, AGFI, CFI, TLI, and RMSEA. Findings: The results revealed significant correlations between the study variables. Humor was positively correlated with positive affect (r = 0.53, p < .001) and negatively correlated with stress (r = −0.41, p = .001). Stress showed a significant negative correlation with positive affect (r = −0.47, p < .001). The structural model demonstrated acceptable fit (χ²(61) = 124.36, χ²/df = 2.04, GFI = 0.93, AGFI = 0.90, CFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.95, RMSEA = 0.049). Path analysis confirmed that humor had a direct positive effect on positive affect (β = 0.39, p < .001) and a negative effect on stress (β = −0.34, p = .001). Stress negatively influenced positive affect (β = −0.28, p < .001). Positive affect mediated the relationship between humor and stress, with a significant indirect effect (β = 0.09, p = .002). Conclusion: The findings highlight the protective role of humor in family contexts, showing that it reduces stress both directly and through the mediating role of positive affect. Integrating humor into family-based interventions may enhance resilience and emotional well-being.