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?
Richard Pithouse - The State of Israel has criminalised political dissent. There are presently more than 300 Palestinian prisoners held under administrative detention by Israeli authorities - a method used by the State of Israel to imprison Palestinians without any charges being brought against them. In solidarity with their cause, 2 500 Palestinian prisoners are currently on hunger strike. This mass protest has attracted global attention and will culminate in a daylong international solidarity hunger strike on May 17. Will the people of South Africa support the Palestinian call for justice?
Glenn Ashton -
UNISA, the University of South Africa, has established an excellent reputation over its 138-year history. It has not only national, but global reach with students on every continent. The institution has expanded significantly since 2004, increasing enrolment figures to over 400 000 students in 2011. But questions are being asked, mainly from within the student body, as to whether this expansion has come at the cost of good governance, efficient administration and consistent standards.
Leonard Gentle -
The Presidential elections in France and the general elections in Greece are seismic events that have significance way beyond the characters involved. After three years of austerity programmes in Europe characterised by billions of Euros worth of public money redirected towards protecting bankers and speculators who indulged in an orgy of reckless bond buying, people are simply defying an elite consensus, which declares that belt-tightening to satisfy the markets is the only sane thing to do. This time, the people won't listen.
Panos Garganas -
The results of the Greek general election have exploded in the face of the ruling class. Parties that supported the "technocratic" coalition government, headed by former banker Lucas Papademos, suffered a crushing defeat. Early opinion polls show that the main beneficiary of the leftward swing is the Democratic Left, considered the most moderate of the left parties. Sunday's result in Greece is not some "superficial" electoral radicalisation. It follows a series of struggles stretching back to 2008.
Jane Duncan -
In 2009 South African soldiers marched on the Union Buildings to protest poor salaries in an incident that unfortunately turned violent. Three years later, in an apparent response to that incident, a new defence policy discussion document, the draft "2012 Defence Review", is proposing the banning of trade unions in the military. This attempt to deny full association and expression of rights is dangerously misguided. More gravely, however, it is unconstitutional.
Dale T. McKinley -
Not content with decent wage packages financed by the public purse, high-ranking politicians and public sector officialdom at every level have been awarding themselves super-salaries and a huge range of benefit sweeteners. South Africa has to be one of the only countries in the world where the majority of the public sector 'cadre' are made millionaires every year - and that's not counting what many of them make on the side.
Amy Good man of Democracy Now! talks to world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author Noam Chomsky about the Palestinian hunger strike. A tentative deal has reportedly been reached to end a landmark action that'a seen more than 2,000 jailed Palestinians go without food to pressure Israeli prison authorities to end the use of solitary confinement and ease a wide range of restrictions. "The hunger strikes are a protest against...violations of the elementary human rights," Chomsky says. He is Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of dozens of books, most recently, "Occupy."
Social strategist Renny Gleeson talks about the rise of a culture of availability with the proliferation of mobile devices such as cell phones -- and an obligation to that availability. In this funny and poignant 3-minute talk, Gleeson breaks down our always-on social world where the experiences of the moment are less interesting than our documentation of these moments, which we tweet about or find other ways to record and share.
In answer to a question from Democracy Now! presenter Amy Goodman about whether he thought former American President George Bush should be charged with war crimes. Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch responds, "There's no question. Whether it's war crimes or whether it's torture, he authorized the waterboarding, if nothing else. Waterboarding is mock execution by way of drowning. That is a classic act of torture. Bush has admitted ordering that. There is no escaping the fact that he should be a criminal suspect as should the other people in the room, people like Tenet, Rumsfeld, Cheney."
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