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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A Russian court has ordered eight Greenpeace International activists be held in custody for two months over a protest against offshore drilling in the Arctic. In addition, Vladimir Putin’s government is holding in custody the Arctic Sunrise, Greenpeace’s command ship. The ship was seized by armed members of the Russian Coast Guard after Greenpeace activists tried to board an offshore oil platform as a protest against drilling for fossil fuels in the fragile environment of the...
Glenn Ashton -
South Africa boasts a constitutional democracy founded on a dual yet complimentary approach to governance. The first pillar involves elected representative governance and the second, participatory democracy. Each is constitutionally entrenched yet neither can operate in isolation. The dualism should ideally manifest as a harmonious continuum where we, the people, are not only able to elect our representatives but equally to inform, lobby and interact with them – and allied officials and...
Jodie Gummow -
1. United States Signs Arms Trade Treaty Despite NRA Opposition
The United States, the world’s number one exporter of weapons, celebrated joining 106 other countries in finally signing the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), AFP reported. The ATT is the first global attempt to regulate the illicit trade in conventional weapons by requiring signatory countries to abide by rules and conditions to control the international transfer and flow of arms.
While human rights groups cheered...
Scientists announced recently that Arctic sea ice has officially reached its minimum extent for the summer, shrinking to 5.1 million square kilometers. That’s significantly higher than last year’s record low of just over 3.4 million square kilometers. This fact has led conservative news outlets to suggest that worries about global warming and melting ice are overstated.
Climate denialists are no doubt thrilled by this news, but astronomer Phil Plait argues that these claims...
Harry Browne -
Tim Adams' in-depth interview with Bono, published in last Sunday’s Observer, gave the celebrity activist an opportunity to respond to his left-wing critics. Unfortunately that criticism was misrepresented, and so his rebuttals hit only straw.
The interview suggested that those who criticise Bono do so largely because, as Adams put it in the comments below, ‘Bono has tried to work on these issues [of poverty, aid and development] with people Browne and [George] Monbiot believe...
Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats are the clear winners of the German elections on Sunday, September 22, with a result of 41.6%. Backed by relatively good economic figures for the German Republic, Merkel has capitalized on the widespread impression that she has led Germany through the crisis and defends German interests abroad.
However, the opposition, consisting of the social democratic SPD, the socialist Left Party, and the Green Party, now have a slight parliamentary majority....
