May 2012

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Welcome to the 2012 Hunger Games

Picture: Hunger Games Rebecca Solnit - Sending Debt Peonage, Poverty, and Freaky Weather Into the Arena When I was growing up, I ate books for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and since I was constantly running out of reading material, I read everyone else’s -- which for a girl with older brothers meant science fiction. The books were supposed to be about the future, but they always turned out to be very much about this very moment. Some of them -- Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land -- were comically of...

Political Humour: Superb Spoof of Kony 2012 Video

Picture: Juice Media Video It was only a matter of time before someone produced a spoof of the video Kony 2012, the Internet sensation that went viral despite its misrepresentation of issues in Uganda. Juice Media have stepped up to the plate to produce a rap news segment that speaks truth to power with flair. From Africom to the International Criminal Court, there are no sacred cows for the penetrating wit of Robert Foster who raps about America's quest for a new dark skinned villain -- Africa with its boundless...

Latin America Delivers a Good, Swift Kick to the U.S.

Picture: UN Women Conn Hallinan - On one level, April’s hemispheric summit meeting was an old-fashioned butt kicking for Washington’s policies in the region. The White House found itself virtually alone—Dudley Do-Right Canada its sole ally—on everything from Cuba to the war on drugs. But the differences go deeper than the exclusion of Havana and the growing body count in Washington’s failed anti-narcotics strategy. They reflect profound disagreements on how to build economies, confront inequity,...

May Day 2012: Low Wages and High Food Prices Affect Workers around the World

Picture: Banksy - www.artofthestate.co.uk Video May Day is celebrated in over 80 countries around the world, including South Africa, on May 1st. To mark the occasion workers took to the streets in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe yesterday. The Real News filed this report of rallies from around the world, including South East Asia (where turnouts were massive), Japan, Spain, Greece, Germany, Russia, Turkey, Bahrain, Egypt and more. Low wages in a time of high food and oil prices, job security and harsh working conditions were...

Has South Africa Become a Sunny Place for Shady People?

Picture: www.youngteacher.org Glenn Ashton - The last few years has seen a steady procession of various shady characters from around the world paraded across our headlines and through our legal systems. So is South Africa becoming a sunny place for shady people? To be more precise, are our democratic institutions at risk from infiltration by international criminals and crime networks? Crime and corruption are ancient confederates. Apartheid South Africa was not only morally corrupt, it was corrupt to its core. Despite denials by...