The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
SACSIS promotes the principle of just economies. We are opposed to economic development that violates social and economic rights and increases inequalities in the pursuit of economic growth.
Leonard Gentle -
People the world over are facing an economic crisis unseen since the Great Depression of the 1930's. Despite the talk of "green shoots" and the emergence of the United States of America (US), Germany, France and others from recession, this "recovery" (if one can all it that), is extremely fragile. Witness the scare of Dubai World defaulting, and at some stage the costs of some US$14 trillion dollars will have to be carried somewhere.
The long wave of decline in capitalist...
Michelle Pressend -
I'm in Geneva, Switzerland and wrote this article on the eve of the 7th World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial meeting taking place from 27 November to 2 December 2009 at the WTO's head quarters.
I've also just returned from a protest march against the WTO here in Geneva, attended by many people, including activists from many parts of the world.
The march was, unfortunately, marred by a handful of violent protestors on the fringes of the main demonstration. They've been getting...
Glenn Ashton -
It is fascinating how the majority of well-educated and generally sussed people are continuing with their lives as if there is not a single problem on the horizon. As hard as I think about it, I simply cannot arrive at any firm conclusion as to why so many supposedly aware people are so averse to changing our ways.
Living as I do on the fringes of the activist society, where techno-hippies talk of change, of transition towns where we can set up barter systems, urban gardens and car...
Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen -
There is some confusion over whether the idiom should be a "600 pound gorilla" or the much larger "800-pound" creature. The usage also differs with some using it as a form of praise for companies that have dominant positions in markets, and others using the idiom to describe a difficult situation, which is not being addressed.
One would hope that public policy analysis would be as simple as identifying the gorilla, but the power underlying public policy choices is...
Glenn Ashton -
The nomination of Elinor Ostrom for the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences is a timely recognition not only of her work but also of the mess that conventional economic theory has landed us in. It is probably safe to say that the awarding of the prize to Ostrom is as close to inciting revolutionary economic activity that the Royal Swedish Academy on Sciences, who decide the recipients, can get.
Not many people outside the rarefied world of academic or developmental economics were aware...
Fazila Farouk -
How charming it’s been to see photographs of the “Obama’s looking cute” waiting for their guests to arrive at the G20 dinner in Pittsburgh. We are told that the leaders of the world’s strongest economies dined on organic food, giving the nod to Michelle Obama’s organic food garden at the White House and also connecting the summit to the principle of sustainability.
First lady Obama played the part of hostess with aplomb, as she shepherded the presidential...
