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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Our medical systems are broken. Doctors are capable of extraordinary (and expensive) treatments, but they are losing their core focus: actually treating people.
According to doctor and writer, Atul Gawande, "There is not a country in the world that now is not asking whether we can afford what doctors do. The political fight that we've developed has become one around whether its government that's the problem or is it insurance companies that are the problem."
"The...
On April 4th 2012, the Open Society Foundation in New York hosted a panel discussion to explore what impact secret governmental operations are having on America's democratic processes, and whether decisions that are being made behind closed doors are helping or harming the country's national security.
Former National Security Agency (NSA) employee, Thomas Drake, who turned whistleblower, contends that 9/11 became a profit centre for the NSA and many companies aligned with the military...
What Does It Mean to be Black and Middle Class in South Africa? You might be surprised by the answers provided in this documentary, "Phakathi Soweto's Middling Class", which follows the work of sociologist Mosa Phadi, a researcher at the University of Johannesburg who conducted a perception study in Soweto, South Africa's most famous township, where she quizzed respondents about what it means to be middle class.
A surprising 66% of Sowetans consider...
In early April 2012, Fazila Farouk, executive director of the South African Civil Society Information Service (SACSIS) made an input at a roundtable discussion in Sao Paulo, Brazil, which focused on how to build "sustainable democracies". On the sidelines of this event hosted by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, she caught up with Jan Kreutz, advisor to the Party of European Socialists, and talked to him about the debt crisis in Europe.
Kreutz argues that the crisis in Europe is...
American graffiti artist, ABOVE, was recently in Johannesburg. It is reported that he “convinced the traders at Johannesburg’s Jewel City - the southern hemisphere's largest exporter of diamonds…to let him paint a wall with the slogan ‘Diamonds Are A Woman’s Best Friend’.” But ABOVE wasn’t entirely honest with the owners of Jewel City and made an addition to the mural in protest against blood diamonds, which it is claimed are traded at this...
On Tuesday, 3 April 2012, after three years of deliberations, the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced it has finally reached a decision to reject the the Palestinian request to join. If it were accepted it would not only give the Palestinian Authority (PA) the possibility of inviting the ICC to prosecute Israelis or Palestinians accused of war crimes, Genocide, or crimes against humanity, but would have also forced the ICC to establish whether the Palestinian territories...
