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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Watching the mainstream try to climb inside the head of formidable human rights advocate, Mary Robinson, makes for fascinating viewing. For human interest enthusiasts, Robinson talks about what inspired her monumental human rights journey, in part one (this clip) of the Bloomberg interview. Her exceptional rights-based analysis of politics, socio-economic and development issues in parts 2-6 of the interview, makes watching the entire program, well worth the effort. Find links to the rest of...
Robert Jensen and Pat Youngblood -
We have nothing against voting. We plan to vote in the upcoming election. Some of our best friends are voters.
But we also believe that we shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that the most important political moment in our lives comes in the voting booth. Instead, people should take politics seriously, which means asking considerably more of ourselves than the typical fixation with electoral politics.
First, we won't be coy about this election. Each of us voted for Obama in...
Every art-form has the potential to influence people. Can comedy create social change? No, says comedian Hari Kondabolu, but it can open some thought. Kondabolu and Ahamefule Oluo talk about how comedy, as an art-form, can be used to deal with the issue of racism in this short documentary produced by Colours North West.
Saliem Fakir -
It must have started somewhere of course. Someone let the genie out of the bottle. Thabo Mbeki denies he let it out. He believes he had good grounds to fire Jacob Zuma and disagrees with Judge Nicholson's interpretation that he used the National Prosecuting Authority to pursue a political vendetta.
He has also challenged Zuma to debate him live on TV, Obama and McCain style, in an attempt to once and for all set the record straight. Zuma refuses the duel.
In the meanwhile, Mbeki has filed...
Jospeh Stiglitz argues that there are a large number of ways in which a focus on GDP is not a good measure of economic performance and societal wellbeing. GDP doesn't tell you about what happens to the typical citizen and this is a problem when you have growing inequality in societies where most people, not just the poor, are becoming worse off. There are many alternative measures that we could be focusing on such as a focus on green GDP that takes into account of environmental degradation...
Richard Pithouse -
Shack fires burn hot and fast. It’s not always easy to predict their speed and direction because as paraffin stoves explode in large balls of flame fires can suddenly jump ahead or to the side.
In most settlements the number of taps is entirely inadequate for people to be able to try and put the flames out on their own. Usually the only viable strategy to fight shack fires is to demolish a ring of shacks around the fire and let it burn itself out. But when the wind is...
