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?
Saliem is an independent writer and columnist for SACSIS based in Cape Town.
He is currently active in the sustainable energy field and works for the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Saliem was previously a senior lecturer at the Department of Public Administration and Planning and associate Director for the Center for Renewable and Sustainable Energy at the University of Stellenbosch (2007-2008) where he taught a course on renewable energy policy and financing of renewable energy projects.
Saliem previously worked for Lereko Energy (Pty) Ltd (2006) an investment company focusing on project development and financial arrangements for renewable energy, biofuels, waste and water sectors. He also served as Director of the World Conservation Union South Africa (IUCN-SA) office for eight years (1998-2005).
Saliem has served on a number of Boards. Between 2002-2005 he served as a chair of the Board of the National Botanical Institute. He also served on the board of the Fair Trade in Tourism Initiative, and was a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Global Reporting Initiative, based in Amsterdam.
He currently serves on the advisory board of Inspired Evolution One, a private fund involved in clean technology.
Saliem's qualifications are: B.Sc Honours molecular biology (WITS), Masters in Environmental Science, Wye College London. He also completed a senior executive management course at Harvard University in 2000.
Saliem Fakir -
One of the enduring images I have of the death penalty, when I think of it, is a sort of revenge - this desire to extinguish another’s life with the hope to cleanse the earth of a lingering rot by an act of violence as reprisal.
It may well be one of our primordial cultural traits from the by-gone days when tribal law required that we preserve our honor by taking a life-for-a-life.
When we did not have good social skills we relied on the symbolic power of brute force to keep the...
Saliem Fakir -
In the glare of the international audience, we are being treated with Obama-mania. It is a wonderful and exciting media spectacle.
Barack Obama is undoubtedly a new breed of leader – everybody has been watching. He has already made history and may well make further history if he is elected the President of the United States.
It is easy to be captivated by Obama. He has traversed where no black person in the US has been able to go before. Obama is the story of the American dream coming...
Saliem Fakir -
Malema's 'Kill for Zuma' slogan is filled with ironies. The very day he was giving his infamous speech on June 16th, Zuma followed by giving his own. Zuma castigated elements within the ANC Youth League for displays of what he regarded as unacceptable behaviour.
Zuma was referring to the chaotic state and ill discipline that prevailed at a National ANC Youth League Conference, the very conference Malema got elected as the new president.
Zuma also pointed to unruly behaviour at other forums,...
Saliem Fakir -
The key to the success of the Kyoto Protocol, which is meant to protect us from climate change, is dependent on collective global action.
Collective action is a product of enlightened self-interested power using its soft power to garner the world’s support and leadership. It too, requires a shared system of values and beliefs.
But whatever there was of this enlightened self-interest before 9/11 has gone to the wind. When you run the world economy and geo-politics on the winner takes...
Saliem Fakir -
Even in the purview of John Stuart Mill’s political economy, the insight was not lost on him that opportunities for cultural and intellectual exchange lay so pregnant with potential and concurrent with the growth of commerce between trading countries.
Mill wrote:
“..commerce is the purpose of the far greater part of communication which takes place between civilized nations. Such communication has always been, and is peculiarly in the present age, one of the primary sources of...
Saliem Fakir -
Democracy is an imperfect system. Its characteristics can vary – from being a creation of populist traditions to democracies run by elites.
In the common imagination when we think of democracy we think of people’s power. Power is delegated as a trust to holders of political office and from whom we expect that they would manage our affairs wisely and judiciously. They would protect us from vulnerability.
Depending on what is within their power or outside of...
