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?
Glenn is a multidisciplinarian with a background in geography. Besides being a published author, he also edited "A Patented World? The Privatisation of Life and Knowledge," published by Jacana in South Africa. He currently is on the editorial board of the SA Journal of Natural Medicine.
Additionally, Glenn has written many commentaries and analyses of wide ranging issues including waste management, water use, food security, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, health, agricultural fuels, marine resources, climate and many other environmental and socially relevant issues.
He has also presented many papers and talks to a wide range of audiences. He specialises in communicating complex scientific issues in an accessible manner. He is a freelance writer and researcher.
Glenn Ashton -
Conventional wisdom insists that our burgeoning global population requires ever increasing quantities of food to feed its numbers. We need to ask two questions of this received wisdom. Firstly, is it true that we need to produce more food? Secondly, are the proposed methods of increasing food production suitable, adequate or acceptable?
In order to provide improved food security for the significant proportion (anywhere between 1 and 3 billion people, depending on whose figures you believe)...
Glenn Ashton -
So it looks like Wal-Mart may establish its African beachhead in South Africa. Rumours have flown around the South African business community for more than six months that Massmart, the South African based retail giant that includes well-known brands such as Dion, Game, Makro and Builders Warehouse, was a target for acquisition by the world’s biggest company, the retail behemoth Wal-Mart.
At the end of September the rumours were put to bed as Wal-Mart made a formal but...
Glenn Ashton -
The role that Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO’s) play in South Africa regionally is under unprecedented threat from several fronts.
Under apartheid, and particularly during its dying days, NGO’s had a massive influence on the emergence of the new democratic state of South Africa. Many NGO’s were de facto political instruments of the disenfranchised majority and they also had a profound reach into society as a result of the failure of the apartheid state to provide the...
Glenn Ashton -
National and provincial authorities have for years attempted to get to grips with scholar transport, yet real solutions remain elusive. Controls have supposedly been imposed on buses and taxis that move this most precious cargo of all, yet our children continue to be exposed to unnecessary daily risks.
Our society is unequal in so many ways, but perhaps one of the most obvious is the huge gap that exists in how the children of the wealthy and the poor commute to school.
Anyone...
Glenn Ashton -
Our constitution is clear about equal rights. It unambiguously says; “Everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law.” It goes further to clarify that there is to be no discrimination on any grounds – age, race, sex, religion, class and so on. Justice is meant to be blind to individual circumstance.
One can argue that equality is ensured through, say, the right to representation of anyone charged with a crime, or by the fact...
Glenn Ashton -
The recent announcement by President Zuma that certain traditional leadership positions would be not be continued when the incumbent leaders died was met by a remarkable lack of reaction and discussion in the media. A far more profound level of debate would certainly have happened in the affected rural areas where these chieftainships are to be phased out.
Against the bigger picture this was a cosmetic change to traditional and customary practice in South Africa. Surely we must continue to...
