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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For the past four years that the US’ drone programme has been operational, President Barack Obama, with John Brennan for some of that time, has been sitting down and deciding who gets killed. On Thursday, 7 February 2013, for the first time, the Obama administration released documents to explain the legal basis for the drone attacks to a select senate committee on intelligence.
Human rights lawyer, Michael Ratner, argues that despite the release of these legal documents, the drone...
Adele M. Stan -
Not since the 15th century has a pope resigned his throne. Speculation abounds regarding the pope's unusual decision. Was it the sex-abuse scandal?
Pope Benedict XVI stunned the Roman Catholic Church -- and the world -- with his announcement that he would turn in his sceptre, effective February 28. To find a precedent for Benedict's action, one needs to go back through six centuries of history to Pope Gregory XII's resignation in 1415.
In a statement issued in Latin, the pope wrote:...
Richard Pithouse -
In December last year Jyoti Singh Pandey, a student on the cusp of her adult life, stepped into a bus in Delhi. She was with a friend. They had been to see the film version of the Life of Pi and were on the way home. And then, without warning, their passage through the night suddenly dropped out of the flow of ordinary life and into hell.
The bus went off the expected route, the doors were closed and Jyoti's friend was beaten unconscious by the six men in the bus. In what sounds like...
Dale T. McKinley -
If ever there was a classic example of the fundamental contradiction informing the raging debate about South Africa’s ‘developmental model’ (and thus the macro-framing for the delivery of public services), it is to be found in the ongoing ESKOM saga.
On the one hand, the ruling ANC recently emerged from its Mangaung conference with a clear resolution (on ‘economic transformation’) for “increased state ownership in strategic sectors, where deemed...
Conn Hallinan -
Back in the 1960s, the U.S. peace movement came up with a catchy phrase: “What if the schools got all the money they needed and the Navy had to hold a bake sale to buy an aircraft carrier?” Well, the Italian Navy has a line of clothing, and is taking a cut from a soft drink called “Forza Blu” in order to make up for budget cuts. It plans to market energy snacks and mineral water.
Things are a little rocky in Europe these days.
Unemployment is over 25...
Nicola F Pritchard -
The Why Poverty project is a recent collaboration between the Open University and the BBC that attempts to highlight the causes of global poverty and explain the different contexts in which it is experienced. The project was extensive, including a detailed website, radio programmes, and a BBC4 television series which will undoubtedly have had an impact on how poverty is understood by a wide audience. In my view, however, parts of the BBC 4 series, as well as the overall narrative of the...
