April 2010

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Music Video: The Dlamini King Brothers Sing 'Abahlali baseMjondolo'

The hauntingly beautiful song "Abahlali baseMjondolo" about the heartbreaking lives of South Africa's shack dwellers, performed by the isicathamiya choir group Dlamini King Brothers. The song appears in the upcoming documentary film Dear Mandela. The Dlamini King Brothers lived at the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban and have just released their debut album titled Hlis’uMoya. According to information provided by Abahlali BaseMjondolo, "The Dlamini King...

Houses to Die For?

Picture: moladi.blogspot.com Jane Duncan - Last November, Grahamstown-based media activist Xola Mali produced a documentary about the plight of residents in the Vukani settlement, Grahamstown East.  Previously an informal settlement, Vukani now consists mostly of Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) houses, which were completed in 2003. Mali interviewed a resident and activist, Nomiki Ncamiso, who sustained injuries after the wall of her RDP house collapsed on her and injured her leg when a mini-tornado struck the...

The Opium Wars in Afghanistan: Can Anyone Pacify the World's Number One Narco-State?

Picture: illuminating_911 Alfred W. McCoy - In ways that have escaped most observers, the Obama administration is now trapped in an endless cycle of drugs and death in Afghanistan from which there is neither an easy end nor an obvious exit. After a year of cautious debate and costly deployments, President Obama finally launched his new Afghan war strategy at 2:40 am on February 13, 2010, in a remote market town called Marja in southern Afghanistan's Helmand Province. As a wave of helicopters descended on Marja's outskirts spitting up...