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?
Glenn Ashton -
The ongoing public debate about electricity price hikes raise questions about how our national energy policies are decided. Public interaction with the National Electricity Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) cannot yield expected results, as NERSA is little more than a messenger and not the framer of policy. The real problems revolve around the relationship between Eskom, the state and the ruling party and the degree of influence that our electrical generation behemoth wields.
The...
Jane Duncan -
The recent controversy about an e.tv story featuring two criminals who threatened robbery and violence during the 2010 World Cup, has raised once again the controversial issue of whether journalists should have a right to protect their confidential sources of information.
The journalists responsible for the story have been issued with subpoenas in terms of Section 205 of the Criminal Procedures Act. For many years, media freedom advocates have argued for an amendment to this provision...
When Barack Obama became president of America he promised that the Guantanamo Bay prison would be closed in a year. One year later, Guantanamo is still open with seemingly no end in sight for its 242 inmates. Michael Ratner, president of the Centre for Constitutional Rights in America, denounces Obama’s human rights record in relation to the Guantanamo situation. Ratner notes his disappointment (and anger) that Obama has not done enough to break with the legacy of the Bush...
Saliem Fakir -
If there were to be a beauty contest, Sarah Palin (formerly Governor of Alaska) would win over ANC Youth League President, Julius Malema by far in the looks department.
However, as political celebrities for a growing anti-intellectual movement in two different parts of the world, they share a real and symbolic place in contemporary popular culture and politics.
Palin, like Malema, shows no great intellectual curiosity. Their erudition of complex geopolitical and economic issues is not going...
Isobel Frye -
“It happens that you see it is better that the little ones eat and you can stay as you are, and there is nothing that you can do, and when the children ask why is it that mommy is not eating, you will say that you will eat after them.
My son eats tea and the crusts of the pap, he is 28 years old and he has tried to get work and vacancies are scarce. The biggest problem is that he does not have matric and I can see when I look at him that he longs to eat like other people, but all...
Dubbed the "half-mile high tower," at 828 metres, Dubai's recently completed Burj Khalifa is the world's newest tallest building. Professor Philip Goad, Professor of Architecture at the University of Melbourne, Australia, argues, "Modern skyscrapers are simply 'very large consumer objects' that value excess over practicality and often indicate approaching economic doom. High-rises like the new Burj Khalifa in Dubai are a 'result of too much money...and too...
