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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Noam Chomsky recently delivered the 5th annual Edward Said Lecture at Columbia University. According to Chomsky, Said's greatest achievement as a literary critic was to put imperialism at the centre of western civilization. Said comprehensively uncovered and explored the different manifestations and impact of imperialism. Chomsky's lecture highlights events that opened the way to the famous unipolar moment that led to unchallenged US global hegemony 20 years ago -- the fall of the...
Fazila Farouk -
Sporting an anomalous gaze, President Jacob Zuma stares righteously from Time magazine’s 7th December cover.
Making the cover of Time Magazine has come to symbolise the ultimate accolade and establishment endorsement for rising stars as well as those deemed worthy of redemption. And even if Zuma did only make the cover of Time’s Africa edition, the chief architects of public discourse have indeed remodelled and redeemed him.
"Could Zuma be what South Africa...
Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen -
A central message from government since the 2009 elections is that the "economy needs coordination."
To this end, in addition to the already existing National Treasury and the Department of Trade and Industry, government has created the Economic Development Department (EDD). The creation of the EDD recognises that departments such as communication, agriculture, arts and culture and science and technology all play important roles in the economy. In addition, the restructured...
Glenn Ashton -
The more people in a meeting, the more difficult it is to achieve consensus. Accordingly the UN negotiating system, built on consensus processes and inordinately influenced by the wealthy G8 nations, makes agreement difficult.
Big talk shops have poor records of delivery even after fragile consensus has been reached. Agreements made during The World Summit on Sustainable Development have largely fallen by the wayside. The Millennium Development Goals and associated promises from the G8...
Richard Pithouse -
The 2010 World Cup is being sold to us as a moment of collective redemption. Patriotism and theological sentiments are being mobilised to persuade us that a moment of millennial grace is at hand. Africa's time, we are told, has come.
Back in 2007 Thabo Mbeki heralded the World Cup as "an event that will send ripples of confidence from the Cape to Cairo - an event that will create social and economic opportunities throughout Africa. We want to ensure that one day, historians will reflect...
John Perkins, author of "Hoodwinked: An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded - and What We Need to Do to Remake Them" provides some astonishing insights into events that contributed to Iceland’s economic crash. Perkins, a self-confessed former economic hit man worked as a high-level consultant for multinational corporations. His job was to create the conditions for them to enter and extract wealth from countries, primarily in the developing...
