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?
VICE News traveled around the world speaking to people about democracy and differences in global attitudes towards popular rule. Covering many countries on almost all continents, VICE found young people disillusioned with the manner in which democracy is applied. People understand democracy to be a system of governance where elected politicians act out the wishes of the people who put them into power. It’s “peoples’ power”, but overall there’s a sense that...
Sometimes being moody is a good thing. For women, small fluctuations in mood allow for a more personal analysis of one's emotions. Expressing these emotions is important, argues psychiatrist Julie Holland who discusses the many benefits of small bad moods and why trying to suppress them through unnatural remedies is not a good idea. “The idea of why being moody can be good for you has to do with taking advantage of one of the biggest assets that women have, which is intuition. Knowing...
Mechanic, philosopher and author of "The Case for Working with Your Hands" and "The World Beyond Your Head", Matthew Crawford, argues that a new frontier of capitalism has been opened (the attention economy), which seeks to dig up and monetize every bit of private headspace. With ever-increasing demands on our attention, how do we focus on what's important? The answer is to stop being passive consumers of manufactured experiences and become people who engage in skilled...
Glenn Ashton -
“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places - and there are so many - where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the...
Alexander O'Riordan -
While the ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ protestors have successfully toppled the Rhodes statue at the University of Cape Town, the latest signs are that the global economic order is only getting stronger albeit with a few changed faces. In much the same way that replacing statues of old white capitalists with that of new black capitalists does not change the rules of the economy, so too is there growing evidence that China and other emerging economies are tracking closer and closer to...
With the debt clock ticking, Greece is fast running out of money. The country has ordered all state bodies to place their cash reserves in the nation’s central bank, the Bank of Greece, as it struggles to stay afloat. Greece is supposed to receive the last installment of its bailout funds from European creditors, but the country’s new leftist, anti-austerity Syriza party has expressed concerns about its terms. The creditors are reportedly pressuring the country to restructure...
