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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Sierra Leone is pleading for more international help to fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. On Saturday, the country recorded 121 deaths in one of the single deadliest days since the disease appeared there more than four months ago. At least 678 people have now died in Sierra Leone, with the official toll for West Africa topping 3,400. Dr. Atul Gawande from Harvard Medical School argues, “The epidemic in West Africa is severe, and it’s getting worse fast…this is a...
French economist Thomas Piketty caused a sensation in early 2014 with his book on a simple, brutal formula explaining economic inequality: r is greater than g (meaning that return on capital is generally higher than economic growth). Here, he talks through the massive data set that led him to conclude: Economic inequality is not new, but it is getting worse, with radical possible impacts. In this TED, which took place in Berlin, Piketty argues that wealth inequality is always a lot higher...
"Where is democracy today and where is it likely to go tomorrow?" asks Marwan Bishara of Al Jazeera. He argues that democracy, together with capitalism, has brought astonishing levels of prosperity. So why is it in trouble, not only in the West, but in all regions of the world? Is the concentration of wealth a threat to democracy? Are we seeing the return of a more radical right based on ethnic nationalism with xenophobia and racism thrown into the mix? Is there a renewed desire...
On Monday, US judge Thomas Griesa, said Argentina was in contempt of court for bypassing his ruling that the country should pay all its debtors under conditions stipulated by him. Argentina says it will pay its debtors under its own conditions.
The US court ruling previously blocked Argentina from making $539m in interest payments to the majority of bondholders until a deal with hedge fund creditors was reached. The hedge funds reject the restructuring accepted by 93 percent of...
Oxford University Professor, Danny Dorling, unpacks the latest research into how the lives and ideas of the 1% impact the remaining 99% in the UK. He says there’s a new cleavage opening up. The 1% used to have a more diverse group of professions, but increasingly it is concentrated in the financial sector. Britain’s 2,200 bankers earn over a million euros annually. In comparison Swiss bankers earn only half as much. A consequence of this growing division is that the UK now has...
Millennials are broadly defined as people born after 1980. Paul Taylor of the Pew Research Centre outlines a few distinguishing characteristics of the Millennial generation based on research done in the U.S.
1) Millennials are the most non-white generation (at least insofar as research in the U.S. demonstrates).
2) They are very liberal in their social and cultural values.
3) Millennials are not attached to the idea of marriage.
4) Many Millennials are not religious.
5)...
