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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Following the announcement of the 2012 budget speech on Wednesday, February 22, SACSIS' Fazila Farouk, spoke to Wits University Economist, Seeraj Mohamed, about President Jacob Zuma's now well-known infrastructure development program aimed at job creation, which received much budgetary support from our finance ministry.
We do need to spend on infrastructure, says Mohamed, the question, of course, is are we spending enough and are we spending in the right areas.
Within the budget speech,...
In this fascinating Al Jazeera documentary, filmmaker, Clifford Bestall, takes a personal journey to the heart of one of South Africa's most dangerous neighbourhoods, Hillbrow, where he once grew up.
Through the stories of some of its latter day inhabitants, including an old white lady that never left, he reveals a rich seam of today's urban South African experience. The majority of Hillbrow's residents today are not South African and hail from the wider African continent.
Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah is a philosopher advocating a school of thought called 'cosmopolitanism'.
He describes cosmopolitanism as a very old tradition because the word "cosmopolitan" comes from the Greek phrase from the 4th century BC, 'kosmopolites', which means "citizen of the world".
It is a tradition of thought, which tries to develop a metaphor for the idea that we are all citizens of the world, he explains.
Cosmopolitans welcome diversity of culture,...
In Washington when it comes to foreign policy issues, of course, Syria is being talked about. But the bigger picture is Iran. In fact most people think the Unites States is interested in Syria because of Iran. Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell was on Capitol Hill talking to senators and congressman about what's happening in Iran vis-a-vis the United States and Israel. He says there are three aspects of the mood in Washington that are disconcerting.
One of...
Athens now looks like a devastated war zone, says, Maria Margaronis, London correspondent for The Nation magazine, after massive demonstrations against a new austerity package that was approved on Sunday in exchange for a European Union-International Monetary Fund bailout.
Under the austerity deal, Greece will fire 15,000 public sector workers this year and 150,000 by 2015. The minimum wage will be reduced by 22 percent and pension plans will be be cut.
As lawmakers voted, 100,000...
Dozens of musicians demonstrated outside the Grammy Awards on Sunday protesting the Recording Academy’s decision to eliminate dozens of ethnic music award categories, including Hawaiian, Haitian, Cajun, Latin jazz, contemporary blues and regional Mexican. Some protesters see racial bias in the revisions, others see them as harmful to low-budget indie labels.
Under the Grammy’s restructured categories, Whitney Houston would not have won four out of her six Grammys. They were...
