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?
Sreeram Chaulia -
Historic change eventually comes via small and modest beginnings. The current revolts in Brazil and Turkey actually started in low-key fashion at least one decade ago. Had they been spotted earlier, there would be less befuddlement about explaining the genesis of the mass protests that have mushroomed to force the governments of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to rethink their policy paths.
Brazil’s middle and working classes shot to...
“Does the media have a human rights agenda?” SACSIS’ Fazila Farouk put the question to William Bird, Director of Media Monitoring Africa, an organisation that tries to hold the media accountable to human rights principles.
Bird argues that editorially there is a very clear bias in favour of the Constitution in South Africa, but in trying to see if that translates into overall trends in reporting, and specifically a human rights bias, then the answer is very clearly no....
In the third week of social unrest related to Brazil hosting the 2014 Soccer World Cup, President Dilma Rousseff, met governors and mayors to discuss demands being made by those protesting on the streets. Brazilians are outraged that millions are being spent building stadiums when the country’s public services, such as transport, are unable to meet the needs of the population. In response to the protests, President Rousseff promised to invest $25 billion in public transport and...
Alex Kane -
The Egyptian street has erupted once again. Two and a half years after the revolution that overthrew longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak captivated the world and fundamentally changed the Middle East, another massive shock to the Egyptian political system is unfolding.
After a year of rule by President Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood-backed politician who won Egypt’s first-ever free and democratic elections last year, ordinary Egyptians have had enough. Responding to a grassroots...
Bob Ostertag -
In 2006 I gave my music away. That music had previously existed on CDs and LPs (yes, I began making music in the days of vinyl and tape). I moved all of it to the Web, downloadable for free.
Today, seven years later, I see that giving away music for free is not as easy as I had imagined. In some ways, it turns out to be impossible. The reasons why this is so say a lot about creativity, property, and power in a networked world of corporately owned digital commons policed by netbots and...
Alexander O'Riordan -
When the UK announced it would end aid to South Africa, many pundits and African leaders heralded the decision as an end to Africa’s dependency on aid. These African leaders and elites see aid as patronising, an indignity to be resisted, a charity not needed. This critique of aid complements critiques by post-colonial theorists that criticise aid as another form of imperialism. At the same time, since 2007, the financial crisis and protracted narrative of austerity have allowed Western...
