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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Nigerian writer, poet and academic, Chinua Achebe, known as the father of African literature died on 21 March aged 82 in Boston, America, after a long illness. We remember this great man of African poetry and prose with this 1988 Achebe interview conducted by American journalist, Bill Moyers. Achebe was well known for railing against the injustices of racism and Western civilisation that denigrated and dismantled African traditions and culture. In this interview, Achebe, known as the father...
On the 10th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, a team of 30 economists, anthropologists, political scientists, legal experts and physicians has released a massive new report about the Iraq War’s impact.
"The Costs of War" report found the total number of people who have died from the war, including soldiers, militants, police, contractors, journalists, humanitarian workers and Iraqi civilians, has reached at least 189,000 people, including at least 123,000 civilians....
Heidi-Jane Esakov -
For every two Jewish people, there are three opinions. Contained in this quip is a proud Talmudic tradition that values and encourages debate and enquiry. Despite particularly contentious issues, such as the tensions between Orthodox and Progressive Judaism seeing eruptions of intolerance, the space for debate and enquiry are still vibrant. Yet this tradition is being suffocated by a prevailing Jewish community mentalité, given vitality and validity by community structures, of...
Everything the donating public has been taught about giving is dysfunctional, says AIDS Ride founder Dan Pallotta. Too many nonprofits, he says, are rewarded for how little they spend -- not for what they get done.
Instead of equating frugality with morality, he asks us to start rewarding charities for their big goals and big accomplishments (even if that comes with big expenses). In this bold talk, he says: Let's change the way we think about changing the world.
© TED
Richard Pithouse -
On Friday night Thembinkosi Qumbelo was gunned down in a local bar where he was watching a football game on television. It was a well organised hit on a man who had, for years, been at the centre of a local struggle around land and housing - the keenest point of conflict between citizens and the local state – in Cato Crest in Durban.
Qumbelo made a remarkably bold entrance onto the local political stage on Freedom Day in 2005. Thabo Mbeki was set to speak in the King's Park stadium...
The market for smart phones is now dominated by two companies. Apple Inc. is the biggest corporation in the field, followed by the South Korean headquartered Samsung. But the two companies have been engaged in a legal battle over patent rights for more than a year and their battle looks set to obstruct innovation. Patent law is frequently understood as a mechanism to safeguard the rewards for innovation. But companies who employ batteries of lawyers and spend hundreds of millions of dollars...
