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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The domestic uprising in Syria is intensifying with the situation becoming even more complex given vested international interests closely linked to the geo-politics of the Middle East region. "The carnage is going apace," argues analyst, Hamid Dabashi, who teaches at Columbia University. "Who exactly is killing who, is the subject of debate," he adds, as the opposition in Syria increasingly starts resembling the motley crew that brought down Libya's Muammar Gaddafi. The...
Dale T. McKinley -
One of the questions I am sure many in South Africa (and abroad) have been asking themselves more recently is how the state of the nation more generally and of the ANC itself more specifically has gotten to this point? Let’s face it; there is a huge amount of disillusionment and disappointment out there, of varying measure, intensity and origin, which cut broadly across our sizeable societal divisions.
Most often however, the ‘answers’ ignore the variegated but...
Walden Bello -
Ever since the beginning of the current global economic crisis, the focus of both critical analysis and public odium has been speculative capital. In the populist narrative, it was the breathtaking shenanigans of the banks in an atmosphere of deregulation that led to the economic collapse. The “financial economy,” characterized as parasitic and bad, was contrasted to the “real economy,” which was said to produce real goods and real value. Resources flowed into...
Private Bradley Manning, a US soldier accused of passing classified material to the whistle blowing website WikiLeaks has consistently made it into the headlines, mostly in connection with his trial. But now his name is on a different list, that of over 200 nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize. Manning's nomination was put forward in the Icelandic Parliament by the parliamentary group, "The Movement".
Birgitta Yonsdottir, Icelandic MP, a member of the parliamentary group says...
International Living magazine has just declared Ecuador the number one place in the world to retire. Yet the country seems to otherwise get fairly negative press in the West. What makes Ecuador such a great place to retire? It could be the massive amount it is investing in social infrastructure from monies collected by increasing taxation on the rich and changing the royalty structure of oil companies operating in the country, where the government now receives 87% of all oil revenues -- and...
Here's another issue that the market has failed to respond to: "neglected tropical diseases", otherwise known as the diseases of the poorest people in the world.
There are a billion people in the world, many of whom can be found in sub-Saharan Africa, affected by tropical diseases linked to a lack of water and sanitation infrastructure. These diseases caused by worms, parasites and bacteria, disfigure, cripple and often kill people. Only 1% of the drugs that have been...
