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?
Ever since the January attack on French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, the hacker group Anonymous has embarked on efforts to challenge the tech savvy radical Islamic group, ISIS, which does much of its recruiting via the Internet. It is argued that freedom of speech is sacrosanct for the hacker community, hence, Anonymous' motivation to get involved in the struggle against ISIS after the Paris attack. Earlier this week Anonymous released a statement which said that they had exposed or...
Gerard Boyce -
I am not Charlie, though I’ve been mistaken for him often enough.
I am not offended by this. Not in the least.
I have that sort of face you see, a face that is an easily recognisable mosaic of indistinct features.
I’m told that I bear a strong resemblance to the frustrated young township dweller who is fearful that unemployment and poverty will condemn him to the life of limited prospects for advancement that was his forefathers’ lot during the dark days of...
Jane Duncan -
Terrorism. In the wake of the recent attacks in Sydney, Paris and Baga, it’s a word that’s been on many people’s lips. After the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, some have argued vehemently against trying to explain the context in which terrorism arises as an attempt to be ‘soft’ on terrorism.
Yet at the same time, it cannot be denied that the word terrorism is politically loaded. To name an attack as terrorist, rather than purely criminal, is to call on the...
John Feffer -
In the first Crusade, on their way to fight the Muslim infidels in Jerusalem, the armed pilgrims asked themselves a provocative question: Why should we trek so far to kill people we barely know when we can just as well massacre infidels closer to home?
And thus the crusaders of the 11th century embarked on some of Europe’s first pogroms against Jews. These anti-Semitic rampages in the heart of the continent had the added advantage of helping to finance that first Crusade, as the...
Fazila Farouk -
There likely aren’t many journalists, bloggers, cartoonists or comedians anywhere in the world who don’t feel a connection with the massacred staff of French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo. These are the men and women of the world who regularly scale the chillingly exposed platform of public opinion to hold a mirror to the world. It’s a frightening space to inhabit in a world of such diversity and difference of opinion. One never really knows how those whom one has...
RT’s Abby Martin speaks with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author, Chris Hedges, about the roots of the attacks in France and the relationship between global events and the rise of radicalisation. Hedges argues that young men like the Kouachi brothers, responsible for the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, are easily preyed on by radical organisations because of their dispossession, aimlessness, poverty and despair. Worse, the Kouachi brothers were of Algerian descent and their...
