August 2011

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Political Humour: Where Will Revolution Spark Next?

Video Rap News, Episode 7: It's 2011 and amid a flurry of political leaks and revelations, revolutions have rolled across North Africa and The Middle East. Join your host Robert Foster for long overdue analysis of these events, asking the question that's on everyone's lips -- where will revolution spark next? But when a news flash comes in from a special embedded correspondent, the episode takes an unprecedented turn, as that very question is answered in dramatic fashion. How will the...

Where There's a Will There's a Way: How the Corrupt Arms Deal Could Have Been Avoided

Picture: Radio Netherlands Worldwide Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen - Two successful bidders - SAAB and Ferrostaal – have provided damning evidence of corruption in South Africa’s arms deal.   As South Africa focuses on the unfolding evidence of possible corruption, we must however pause and ask how it came to be that we not only entered into deals with these companies, but how it was possible that the decision was taken to spend our nation’s money on the most expensive deals on offer during a period of excessive fiscal restraint. ...

A Way to Justice: Engaging Men for Women's Rights and Gender Transformation

Video Across the world, in places expected and unexpected, men are joining women to challenge patriarchy, end men's violence against women and promote gender equality. To capture a sense of this growing movement, the Sonke Gender Justice Network recently commissioned a filmmaker to interview leading activists who participated in the 2009 MenEngage Africa symposium, to create the film, A Way to Justice: Engaging Men for Women’s Rights and Gender Transformation.

Libya: Is NATO Intervention Illegitimate?

Video The NATO intervention in Libya has been a huge blow to international law, says Phyllis Bennis of Washington DC based, Institute for Policy Studies. The legitimacy of the United Nations as well as the legitimacy of any idea of international responsibility has been shredded through this Libyan intervention, she contends. Editor's Note: You might also be interested in additional reporting from the The Real News Network, NATO Tries to Control Libyan Revolution and "Boots on the Ground"...

Semantics of the Slut Walk

Picture: manifestzine.blogspot.com Gillian Schutte - In 2008 hundreds of South African women donned their miniskirts and protested at the taxi rank where a young girl was brutally accosted by taxi drivers and hawkers for wearing a short denim skirt.  The men who accosted her allegedly stuck their fingers into her vagina and called her a "slut." Women were outraged.  The angry protestors wore mini skirts and T Shirts saying, “Pissed-Off Women.”  They stormed the ranks and told the perpetrators in no...

Mother City to Some: The Story of Housing in Cape Town

Picture: Lizane Louw Mandisi Majavu - Cape Town is the second largest city in South Africa. Affectionately known as the ‘mother city’, it is home to about 3,4 million people. Helen Zille recently argued in the Sunday Times that Cape Town is “the least unequal city in South Africa.” The point, however, is that Cape Town is an unequal city - a white city that is not very motherly towards poor people of colour. A large number of people of colour live in poverty. It is estimated that 400 000 families of...