The Inequality Debate

Picture: salary.com Video Within cities and countries around the world the gap between the rich and the poor is widening in a global trend that some economists have warned will have detrimental effects on society. In the US which has one of the highest levels of inequality in the West, the richest 10% of Americans receive about half of the nation's income. In a time when economic growth in many countries is slowing and governments are advocating fiscal austerity, is the question of inequality being factored into...

Movies that Justify the Use of Torture

Picture: MikeOliveri/Flickr Video What we're seeing now in the media is the justification of torture and a rehabilitation of the CIA in four new films, argues Michael Ratner, President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York and Chair of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin, as he talks about Zero Dark Thirty, Manhunt, Fargo and Green Zone. Ratner was at the recently held Sundance film festival where, Manhunt, the movie about the killing of Obama Bin Laden, received a standing...

Is Everything You Learned about Breakfast Wrong?

Picture:  PetitPlat - Stephanie Kilgast/Flickr Ari LeVaux - Recent studies suggest that the benefits of breakfast are not so simple. The institution of breakfast is rarely challenged. It ranks somewhere between sleep and oxygen in reputed health benefit, and supposedly supplies irreplaceable energy to get you going, primes your metabolic system, keeps your muscles healthy, feeds your brain, and generally prepares you for the day to come. But what if the age-old wisdom is an old wives tale? Recent studies suggest that at the very least, the benefits...

The Politics of the Black Middle Class

Picture: Mamphela Ramphele courtesy World Economic Forum/Flickr. Mandisi Majavu - Before the 2009 general elections, political pundits predicted that a shift of black electoral support from the African National Congress (ANC) to Congress of the People (COPE) was inevitable. It was further pointed out that this shift was going to occur along class lines; we were told that the black middle class perceived COPE as the political party that could represent its class interest. Although COPE won about seven percent of the national vote in the 2009 elections, the internecine feud...

The Rise of Yair Lapid: The Occupation Gets a Facelift

Picture: Yair Lapid courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Heidi-Jane Esakov - The story of Israel’s 22 January national elections was to be that of a right-wing government shifting even further to the right. In an unexpected outcome, political newcomer and suave former television talk-show host Yair Lapid scuppered that story when his ‘centrist’ and secular party, Yesh Atid, came second after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party Likud Beiteinu (formed with extreme right-winger, former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman). Although Yesh Atid...

Bono and Bob Geldof: Give Us the Money

Picture: U2005.com/Flickr Video From Live Aid to Make Poverty History, celebrities have become activists against poverty. Bob Geldof and Bono have been the most prominent voices advocating on behalf of the poor. Their concerts have raised millions on behalf of the poor. But have their concerts and campaigns really lifted millions out of poverty? Geldof, Bono and Bill Gates speak candidly about how to lobby effectively and how to play to politicians' weaknesses for glitz and popularity. © Why Poverty