Geography Archives: South Africa

  • Second Class Citizens: Gender, Energy and Climate Change in South Africa

      Excerpt: Forty percent of South Africa’s 48 million people are poor, and more than half of poor people are female.  Official unemployment figures hover at around 25%, but since this statistics does not count those who have given up looking for work, real unemployment may be double this.  South Africa is, by world standards, […]

  • The Palestinian Authority’s Historic Mistake — and Opportunity

    No one knows the precise plans of the Palestinian Authority vis-a-vis September: will Mahmoud Abbas declare a Palestinian state within recognized borders and ask that it be admitted as a full member of the UN — or not?  Perhaps Abbas himself does not know.  Now political leaders often make decisions alone or in consultation with […]

  • Path to Solve Climate Talks: Be Clear about Targets and Honour Commitments

      13 June 2011 BONN — Today, Ambassador Pablo Solon of the Plurinational State of Bolivia addressed reporters at the UN climate talks in Germany.  Ambassador Solon outlined a clear plan, based on submissions from other countries and civil society, on how to move the talks forward in 2011. “The key issue at these talks […]

  • Agrarian Distress and Land Acquisition

    The recent agitation by farmers in Uttar Pradesh against cropland acquisition for non-agricultural purposes is only the latest in a long series of protests by farmers and rural communities, which started a decade ago in different parts of the country and which gathered momentum over the past five years and coalesced in some areas into […]

  • Mother Nature, Make Me Rich

      NBC recently aired a show called America’s Next Great Restaurant.  Contestants, each of whom hoped to open a restaurant chain, were put through a series of tests to see whose idea had the best chance for success.  A panel of judges eliminated one person at the end of each program, until the last one […]

  • On Syria and Libya

      Question: Today, Clinton stated that the US considered it necessary to step up pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.  How can you comment on this? Foreign Minister Lavrov: No one is happy when in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, as in all other states there are disturbing developments, with blood […]

  • South Sudan: Rethinking Citizenship, Sovereignty and Self-Determination

      Whatever your point of view, it would be difficult to deny that the referendum on South Sudan — unity or independence — was a historic moment.  Self‐determination marks the founding of a new political order. Nationalists may try to convince us that the outcome of the referendum, independence, is the natural destiny of the […]

  • Statement of Principles and Call for International Trade Union Support for BDS

      Occupied Palestine, 4 May 2011 — In commemoration of the first of May — a day of workers’ struggle and international solidarity — the first Palestinian trade union conference for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel (BDS) was held in Ramallah on 30 April 2011, organized by almost the entirety of the Palestinian trade […]

  • Norman Gottwald: A Pioneering Marxist Biblical Scholar

    Norman Gottwald belongs to a rare breed — an American Marxist biblical scholar.  More than one jarring juxtaposition in that epithet!  Unfortunately, he is less well known outside the relative small circle of biblical scholars than he should be.  In order to introduce him to a wider audience, let me say a little about his […]

  • The Class Dynamics of Asian America: A Primer

    The notion that Asian Americans are model minorities originated in the 1960s, mainly in reference to the socioeconomic gains of Japanese and Chinese Americans in particular.  It did not take long, however, for that very idea to be applied to Asian Americans as a whole, especially as it continues to be perpetuated by the mainstream […]

  • The Scorecard on Development, 1960-2010: Closing the Gap?

    Executive Summary: This paper is the third installment in a series (the first and second editions were in 2001 and 2005) that traces a long-term growth failure in most of the world’s countries.  For the vast majority of the world’s low- and middle-income countries, there was a sharp slowdown in economic growth for the two […]

  • COSATU to Swazi King: Stop Your Crime, or We’ll Block SA-Swazi Trade

    COSATU Mpumalanga memorandum directed to King Mswati III delivered during the protest march held on 12 April 2011 at the Oshoek border gate 12 April 2011 His Majesty King Mswati III Today, the 12 April 2011 members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, together with the Alliance partners are gathered here at the […]

  • The 12 April Movement and Developments in Swaziland

    The South African Communist Party greets the people’s determination and their actions in the epoch of Swaziland’s revolutionary crisis. Our party supports the victory of Swazi popular forces as a victory that will place the political struggle in the region on a new advanced footing.  It will mark a sea of change and intensify the […]

  • The Role Played by South Africa in the United Nations Security Council on the Libyan Situation

      21 March 2011 The African National Congress Youth League is concerned by the role played by South Africa in the United Nations Security Council.  South Africa voted in favour of UN Security Council Resolution 1973 to impose a No-Fly-Zone in Libya, and did not advocate for a peaceful solution or an African led solution […]

  • AU Calls for Cessation of Hostilities, Beginning of Reform Process in Libya

    Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) — The African Union (AU) Panel on Libya has demanded an immediate stop to all attacks in Libya, after a coalition of Western nations opened military action against the north African nation. The demand was issued by the panel, set up by the AU, after its inaugural meeting in Nouakchott, Mauritania, Saturday […]

  • Attack on Libya Slights African Diplomatic Option

    Dakar, Senegal (PANA) — Ongoing attacks on Libya by Western forces occurred in defiance of the ongoing efforts by the African Union (AU) to explore the diplomatic option to resolve the crisis in the North African nation. The Western coalition, including the US, UK and France, unleashed a barrage of missiles on Libya starting Saturday, […]

  • The Cash Option

    When I was growing up, several decades ago, middle-class society in India was always a little delayed in catching on to Western fashions whether in music or dress or in other aspects.  The past decades of globalisation seemed to have changed all that.  Modern communications technology has ensured that at least the upper income deciles […]

  • What Does the Libyan Opposition Want?

    As everyone knows, Muammar Gaddafi is an authoritarian dictator.  Authoritarian dictators are a dime a dozen in world history, though, so that is not what would distinguish him from the rest of his kind in history books.  What might make him stand out is this: in the twilight of his autocratic career, Gaddafi had become […]

  • Washington Can’t Block Aristide’s Return or Deny Haiti’s Sovereignty

    In 1915 the U.S. Marines invaded Haiti, occupying the country until 1934.  U.S. officials rewrote the Haitian constitution, and when the Haitian national assembly refused to ratify it, they dissolved the assembly.  They then held a “referendum” in which about 5 percent of the electorate voted and approved the new constitution — which conveniently changed […]

  • Haiti Resists US Pressure, Announces Aristide Can Return

    It didn’t get much attention in the media, but U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did something quite surprising on Sunday.  After taping interviews on five big Sunday talk shows about Egypt, she then boarded a plane to Haiti.  Yes, Haiti.  The most impoverished country in the hemisphere, not exactly a “strategic ally” or a […]