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?
In keeping with Barack Obama's presidential campaign promise, the US has withdrawn its troops from Iraq and by the end of 2012 US spending in Iraq will be just five per cent of what it was at its peak in 2008.
In a special two-part series, Al Jazeera's Fault Lines travels across Iraq to take the pulse of a country and its people after nine years of foreign occupation and nation-building. Now that US troops have left, how are Iraqis overcoming the legacy of violence and toxic remains of the...
Gillian Schutte -
In the wake of the many global revolutionary rumblings over the past two years I have been pondering the prospect of a mass women’s revolt against the male-owned beauty industry that mostly diminishes women to mere objects and creates untold conflict in our psyches. This industry, along with the mainstream media, is premised on beautyism and has employed a very effective tool of “othering” those who do not fit into the idealised picture of what is pleasing to the...
Jane Duncan -
Last month, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) released draft Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) regulations for a second round of public consultations. The DTT transition provides South Africa with an opportunity to address the uneven development of television, given the enhanced capacity for more broadcasters to offer more channels.
In theory, South Africa is meant to have three tiers of broadcasting - commercial, community and public service - to ensure...
Daphne Koller is enticing top universities to put their most intriguing courses online for free - not just as a service, but as a way to research how people learn. And many of the world’s top universities are obliging, including Stanford, Princeton and so on.
Koller’s free online university has 640,000 students enrolled from 190 countries. While the students gain qualifications, the professors learn valuable lessons about how learning takes place. Each keystroke, comprehension...
Known for his sharp wit, legendary American author and playwright Gore Vidal, a critical commentator on American politics known to speak truth to power, died on Tuesday, 31 July 2012 aged 86. In his later years, Vidal brought context to our latter-day understanding of where we are in the world today with his deep first hand knowledge of historical fact. In this fascinating interview with the Real News Network he provides extremely valuable insights into how the Cold War started.
For more...
Glenn Ashton -
2012 is the year to dispel any doubt that capitalism is terminally ill. The recent Libor scandal in the United Kingdom, where the head of Barclays was pilloried for his responsibility in fixing one of the world’s most important international interest rates was shocking, not for the fact that it happened, but because it was exposed at all. The incestuous relationship between the international banking industry and the fiat-money based central banks is a shell game of staggering duplicity,...
