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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One of the biggest banks in the US, Wells Fargo, has agreed to pay $175m to settle allegations it charged higher mortgage rates and fees to Black and Latino customers. Discriminatory lending practices in the banking industry left Black and Latino neighbourhoods blighted by foreclosures after the housing bubble burst.
A government investigation found tens of thousands of cases of African Americans and Hispanics being charged more than White customers with similar credit profiles. The...
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a Syrian activist tells Democracy Now! that the people of Syria need popular solidarity from the global community as well as support for their armed struggle against the Assad regime. However, she is adamant that Syrians do not seek international military intervention.
"People here think that the United States and Turkey and some powerful countries in the world will get into Syria after Assad falls. This is the general feeling here in the...
Inspired by Einstein, Vandana Shiva, became a nuclear physicist, but turned her attention to food security and environmental issues early in her career. Much of her work focuses on protecting indigenous seeds.
Shiva takes a strong stand against genetically modified seeds, which are "more costly and leave local farmers deep in debt as well as dependent on suppliers. Shiva, who founded a movement in India to promote native seeds, links genetic tinkering to problems in our ecology,...
"Journalism is really being remade all the time," says leading new-media academic, Adrienne Russell, who examines the underlying cultural changes that reflect the new news reality. A new style of networked journalism has taken shape in the larger media landscape based on new products, tools, new players and sensibilities.
While the rise of the web and the fall of newspapers has heightened anxieties about the watchdogging role of journalism, Russell argues that journalism is also...
The Sky is Pink a recently released “emergency” short film from Josh Fox, Oscar-nominated director of the documentary Gasland, which addresses the urgent crisis of drilling and fracking in New York State, as that state’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, increasingly appears disposed to reversing a temporary moratorium on natural gas fracking.
The people of the Karoo in South Africa find themsleves in a similar situation, as our Minister of Mineral Resources, Susan Shabangu,...
A Japanese parliamentary inquiry has concluded that the 2011 nuclear meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was "a profoundly man-made disaster that could and should have been foreseen and prevented".
The more than 600-page report urged greater safety around nuclear plants. It also urged the Japanese government to be more transparent about its relationship with the nuclear industry. In a surprise turn, the report also leveled criticism at the Japanese culture of...
