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?
Glenn Ashton -
Inflation is generally described as too much money chasing too few goods. This is based upon a central tenet of economics, which states that as goods become scarce they become more valuable, and vice versa. Humbug, I say.
We have recently seen a steady rise in levels of consumer inflation in South Africa. A major driver of inflation has not been properly identified in the media, by economists or even amongst those whose aim is to regulate national economic policy, is the influence of the...
Tara Lohan -
Last month, the world got a glimpse of an epidemic that has hit India in the last decade when news reports alerted readers to the suicides of 1,500 farmers in the Indian state of Chattisgarh.
But this has been only a fraction of the suicides committed by farmers since 1997, says Vandana Shiva, Ph.D., a physicist, environmentalist, feminist, science policy advocate and director of Navdanya and the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology.
While initial news reports blamed the...
Fazila Farouk -
The next time you find yourself reaching for bottled water, consider the implications of your actions. Purchasing and drinking bottled water is not only pricey for your pocket; it affects the sustainability of our planet and undermines the right to water as a public good.
Unless you find yourself in a rural outpost with dubious water infrastructure or in an industrial town where the 'big factory' is pissing its by-products into rivers and streams, there is little basis for the...
Jeff Conant -
Behind the World Water Forum's public posture as a trade expo and an educational exchange among water advocates lies a labyrinth of political intrigue and corporate cronyism. Corporate interests that make up the World Water Council are in constant contact with the World Bank and other financial institutions; each Forum pretends to be a quasi-United Nations event, to the extent of issuing a Ministerial Statement at the Forum's close promoting global policy approaches to water and sanitation....
In the clip above, Amy Goodman talks to Maude Barlow about the global water crisis and examines the documentary film "FLOW - for love of water", a film about how the privatization of water is diminishing the world's supply of water. Barlow is the head of the Council of Canadians, Canada's largest public advocacy organization, and founder of the Blue Planet Project. In a later interview, Goodman talks to Barlow again as well as Irena Salina, the producer of the movie FLOW. Some...
The World Economic Forum is taking place from 28 Jan to 01 Feb 2009 in Davos, Switzerland. From most reports, it sounds like a gloomy event where some of the chief culprits behind the global financial crisis are gathering for their annual hobnob. This time round, some navel gazing is anticipated. Pablo Camacho won the 2009 YouTube Davos Debates competition that posed the question: Should CEOs have a code of ethics? This clip is his winning entry. Winning the competition has given...
