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?
Tax the Rich: An Animated Fairy Tale, is narrated by veteran American actor, Ed Asner. It’s an eight-minute video about how a fictitious country arrived at a moment of poorly funded public services and widening economic inequality that bears a startling resemblance to many real-world countries of today. Things go downhill in a happy and prosperous land after the rich decide they don't want to pay taxes anymore. They tell the people that there is no alternative, but the people aren't so...
Gillian Schutte -
Madonna modelled herself on a sexually unrestrained, powerful and de-sanitised version of Marilyn Monroe and rebelled against patriarchal Catholic constraints of the feminine, using the notion of wanton sexuality as her arsenal. Michael Jackson refused to be categorised according to race and gender and mixed these up in both theatrics and surgery, to much public speculation and psychoanalysis. Freddy Mercury was openly sexually promiscuous and gay and celebrated his choices with an engaging...
"Why Poverty?" is an international multi-media campaign that seeks to answer some of the most pressing questions about the systemic causes of poverty through documentaries. As part of the series, the Frontline Club in London hosted a panel discussion this week about how to improve the media’s coverage of poverty in a world that seems largely indifferent to the problem. Related to this issue is the role of public figures in anti-poverty campaigns. An important question...
Richard Pithouse -
We need to draw a clear distinction between redemptive fantasies that, while they may be comforting, ultimately function to legitimate injustice and, on the other hand, redemptive visions that can inspire collective action against injustice. We also need to understand that politics is dynamic - that organisations, processes and ideas that emerge from living struggles ossify, exhaust their capacity to express emancipatory energies and become detached from the lived experience of struggle that...
Adele M. Stan -
A day after Walmart workers and their allies staged protests and rallies outside the company’s stores across the U.S., a fire erupted in a factory across the globe in Bangladesh, killing 112 workers who were trapped inside, where they sewed jeans and other apparel for the retail giant’s Faded Glory brand. Another 200 were injured in the fire. On Monday, the streets of Dhaka, the capital city, were filled with thousands of garment workers, who demanded justice.
The main doors of...
Glenn Ashton -
Read any newspaper, magazine or blog about cars and similar symptoms of a pernicious ailment are revealed: big powerful cars are potent, sexy, macho and cool. Green, economical or hybrid cars are underpowered, boring, made for bunny huggers, lentil eaters, housewives or any other cliché springing from the abridged motor writer’s thesaurus.
There is a serious disjuncture here, which needs to be remedied. It is time for motoring journalists to cease portraying themselves as...
