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?
Twitter's been around for two years and is currently experiencing explosive growth as an online social networking tool. It is second in popularity only to Facebook. The number of people using Twitter has risen from just two million to 20 million in the past year. These are not just people using the tool to stay in touch with friends (many are), but a key trend that is emerging is Twitter's ability to take citizen journalism to new heights. Due to the format of the tool (short messages...
Saliem Fakir -
Think Darfur, think genocide and then straight to China. Think Tiananmen Square, think China and repression. Think Africa, think neo-colonialism, think China. Think Tibet, think the Dalai Lama and the South African government buckling under Chinese government pressure, denying the Dalai Lama entry.
Think Wal-Mart, cheap labour and the countless Chinese suppliers producing cheap goods for US consumers. Think Google, think censure, as Google bends to the Chinese government's pressure to block...
Glenn Ashton -
Is President Jacob Zumas proposal to create the 'opportunity' for half a million jobs in South Africa over the next six months a goal that we all must embrace?
Perhaps the greatest risk South Africa faces is of the chasm between rich and poor widening to ever more extreme proportions, threatening to rend the fragile social fabric of our young nation. So how can we, as a nation, reduce the economic disparity in the most efficient manner?
Social polarisation through increased disparity...
Using comic relief to speak truth to power, Bill Maher cuts to the chase in this hilarious, but scathing critique of the Obama presidency, highlighting critical issues not being addressed sufficiently by the most popular president in the world - healthcare reform, climate change, the banking system - all come under the spotlight in this hugely entertaining clip. "Barack Obama needs to start putting it on the line in fights against the banks, the energy companies and the health care...
There's something fishy about the election results in Iran. It's odd that President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad won the elections by almost a "two to one margin," says Pepe Escobar, given the energy of the "green revolution." But the results are even more surprising given the timeline of the vote counting. Polling booths closed at 22h00 on election day on Friday, 12 June 2009 and results declaring Ahmedinejad the victor were announced at 02h00 on Saturday morning, just four...
Richard Pithouse -
From the Communist Party across to the corporate spin-doctors and down to the Development Committees in the shack settlements, more or less everybody in South Africa speaks the language of development. In some ways this is a good thing. It indicates a hard won agreement that the realities of inequality in our society are so cruel and perverse that any social project can only be credible if it will ameliorate these divisions and the suffering they cause.
But one of the key problems with...
