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?
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Noam Chomsky recently delivered the 5th annual Edward Said Lecture at Columbia University. According to Chomsky, Said's greatest achievement as a literary critic was to put imperialism at the centre of western civilization. Said comprehensively uncovered and explored the different manifestations and impact of imperialism. Chomsky's lecture highlights events that opened the way to the famous unipolar moment that led to unchallenged US global hegemony 20 years ago -- the fall of the...
John Perkins, author of "Hoodwinked: An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded - and What We Need to Do to Remake Them" provides some astonishing insights into events that contributed to Iceland’s economic crash. Perkins, a self-confessed former economic hit man worked as a high-level consultant for multinational corporations. His job was to create the conditions for them to enter and extract wealth from countries, primarily in the developing...
The secret draft climate agreement leaked to The Guardian newspaper yesterday sets unequal limits on per capita carbon emissions for developed and developing countries in 2050. This means that people in rich countries would be permitted to emit nearly twice as much as those in poor countries. The document also proposes a $10 billion a year fund to help developing nations cut emissions and tackle the effects of climate change. But the fund is far smaller than what many delegates say is...
'Stayin Alive in Joburg' is a gritty take on inner-city life in Johannesburg. It examines the changing landscape of South Africa's biggest post-apartheid city, providing an eye opening account of the trials and tribulations of Johannesburg's poorest inhabitants engaged in a daily struggle for survival, as they get overlooked by authorities and development agencies fixated on elite projects, including, but not limited to the 2010 soccer world cup. The film is informative, exposing a...
The Story of Cap & Trade is a fast-paced, fact-filled look at the leading climate solution being discussed at Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill. Host, Annie Leonard, introduces the energy traders and Wall Street financiers at the heart of this scheme and reveals the "devils in the details" in current cap and trade proposals: free permits to big polluters, fake offsets and distraction from whats really required to tackle the climate crisis. If you've heard about Cap & Trade,...
The city of Cape Town appears intent on rounding up homeless people and shipping them off to temporary camps, in an effort to sanitize the city for the 2010 soccer world cup. Though organizers of the world cup insist that they are trying to "integrate" the homeless with the event, there are still persistent reports that the homeless are in danger of being completely marginalized by the 2010 soccer world cup. For more details about the challenges faced by the homeless in Cape Town...
