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?
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Acclaimed journalist, author and political activist, Barbara Ehrenreich, explores the darker side of positive thinking.
Ehrenreich finds a pattern in many aspects of life that demands mandatory optimism.
Embedded in this is the idea that a person can change the physical world with their thoughts.
According to Ehrenreich, there are two problem with this.
Firstly, it is delusional and delusion is a mistake. She links delusions of positive psychology to the financial meltdown of...
The failure of capitalism is what some blame for the current global economic crisis. But is it as simple as that?
Europe has been hit especially hard, prompting many to wonder if free markets can exist alongside the welfare state.
Riz Khan of Al Jazeera asks, "If capitalism is indeed failing, what are the alternatives?"
He speaks to Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic, Slavoj Zizek who explains what he thinks is causing the downward slide, and points to the faltering...
Alide Dasnois, Editor of the Cape Times, said that the South African economy was not on the right growth path when she spoke at a roundtable discussion co-hosted by SACSIS and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung South Africa Office. She also highlighted the problem of ideology that does sometimes creep into reporting, despite editors' best efforts to clean it out.
Dasnois talked about the importance of encouraging debate in newspapers. To this end, the Cape Times launched a series called...
"Is Inequality Good or Bad? It Depends," said Prof. Haroon Bhorat of the University of Cape Town's School of Economics, setting off a heated debate at a roundtable discussion co-hosted by SACSIS and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung South Africa Office.
Every issue should not be a normative one, said Bhorat who urges people to follow the numbers to find the real answers.
Our normative response to the question, "Is inequality wrong?" is "yes, of course it's...
SACSIS columnist, Leonard Gentle, challenged Dr. Haroon Bhorat's assertion that every issue does not have to be a normative one, at a roundtable discussion co-hosted by SACSIS and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung South Africa Office.
Surely the starting point is to take a position on inequality, he argued.
The roundtable discussion, which examined the media's perspective of the South African economy, put the following questions to editors: Is the economy on the right growth path? What are the...
The media lacks a grand narrative on the political economy said SACSIS columnist, Saliem Fakir, at a roundtable discussion co-hosted by SACSIS and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung South Africa Office.
Fakir argues that the media does not even understand its own role in society.
The roundtable discussion, which examined the media's perspective of the South African economy, put the following questions to editors: Is the economy on the right growth path? What are the prospects for making it more...
