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?
Hilary Clinton recently went on a tour of Latin America in an attempt to repair Washington's relations with the region, especially after the events in Honduras, reports The Real News Network (TRNN). Many Latin American presidents still refuse to recognize the new president of Honduras, as the election that brought him into power was the result of an illegal coup. In contrast, Clinton says that the situation in Honduras was well managed and non-violent. Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the...
Keane Bhatt -
Aid Should Go to Haitian Popular Organizations, Not to Contractors or NGOs
For decades, Noam Chomsky has been an analyst and activist working in support of the Haitian people. In addition to his revolutionary linguistics career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he has written, lectured and protested against injustice for 40 years. He is co-author, along with Paul Farmer and Amy Goodman of Getting Haiti Right This Time: The U.S. and the Coup. His analysis "The...
Saliem Fakir -
The expression, as phrased here, is an attempt to demonstrate the hollowness of human rights and a rights based constitution if all they are can be reduced to normative ideals written on fine paper with no material effect on those that matter. Or as the philosopher Jeremy Bentham once mockingly called it, a mere exercise in “bawling upon paper.”
To phrase it differently: What is the point of political justice when there is no economic justice?
Is it good enough to say...
A "Dream Deferred" is a documentary made to accompany the book, "Forgotten Voices in the Present." The book and documentary compile the "oral histories" of some of South Africa's poorest residents who recount their experience of living in the post-apartheid era. According to information provided by the South African History Archives, "The book is made up of carefully selected excerpts of in-depth interviews with residents of Maandagshoek, Rammolutsi...
Yash Tandon -
The term apartheid describes a system of governance in South Africa from about 1948 when the Nationalist Party came to power to independence in 1994, but it has acquired a broader usage. “Global apartheid” was first used during the 1980s by scholars, but became famous when Thabo Mbeki, in 2001, explained why the 2006 World Cup was given to Germany, not South Africa, due to a New Zealander’s vote switch.
In 2002, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, he defined...
Robert Scheer -
What a shame that the one movie about the Iraq war that has a chance of being viewed by a large worldwide audience should be so disappointing. According to press reports, members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences finally found a movie about the Iraq war they liked because it is “apolitical.” Actually, “The Hurt Locker” is just the opposite; it’s an endorsement of the politically chauvinistic view that the world is a stage upon which Americans get...
