As much as those who identify themselves as social progressives would like to believe otherwise, writes Dale McKinley, ‘the reality is that South Africa is a bastion of social conservatism’. One of the most glaring contradictions of South Africa’s post-apartheid ‘transition’, says McKinley, ‘is (...)
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Chile’s Socialist Rebar
How Allende’s Socialism - not "free-market" dictator Augusto Pinochet - Protected Chileans from Earthquake Fall-out. Read more
Globalization on the rocks
Corporate globalization in the ‘real’ world economy lay behind what appeared at first to be a strictly financial crisis. It was hooked on debt, a deadly vice which eventually crushes everything in its grip, to the point where no-one knows the value of anything. So it could be that, in August (...)
Indigenous knowledge meets science
Kenyan ’rainmakers’ collaborate with scientists in climate change adaptation project. Read more
Young Western Muslims Fight Misperceptions
Islamophobia is rising in the West, and sectarian clashes have undermined unity in the Muslim world, but there is hope from "within", says a group of young Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow (MLTs) working to address these problems. Read (...)
A casualty of nationalism
Sri Lanka’s formerly effective school system has been damaged by over-politicisation. In Lanka, there has been a loss in terms of offering a values-based education, which in decades gone by promoted tolerance, free debate and rational discussion, a sine qua non for a healthy society. A first (...)
Good on paper
With the government incapable of designing Nepal’s school education, bilateral and multilateral donors are forced to step in. As a result, Nepali education has for decades lurched from one internationally assisted mega-project to another. Read (...)
Identities in Transition: Developing Better Transitional Justice Initiatives in Divided Societies
In post-conflict societies, histories of exclusion, racism and nationalist violence often create divisions so deep that finding a way to agree on the atrocities of the past seems near-impossible. This project seeks, first, to ensure that transitional justice measures are sensitive to the ways (...)
Chhattisgarh: Lost battle
The people of Chhattisgarh (India) appear to have lost the battle against industrialisation without rules. Even those who held out longest against the acquisition of their lands, forests and rivers are giving up the fight. Dilnaz Boga travels through the villages of Raigarh district, where (...)
Climate change policy needs indigenous knowledge
Researchers have published a compendium of more than 400 case studies which reveal how indigenous people have been affected by and are adapting to climate change. The report recommends that Western scientists draw on the knowledge and experience of indigenous people when creating climate change (...)
State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples: New UN Report
Millions of people around the world who belong to indigenous communities continue to face discrimination and abuse at the hands of authorities and private business concerns, says a new U.N. report.
It is happening not only in the developing parts of the world but also in countries such as the (...)

State of the World 2010. Transforming Cultures: From Consumerism to Sustainability
Like a tsunami, consumerism has engulfed human cultures and Earth’s ecosystems. Left unaddressed, we risk global disaster. But if we channel this wave, intentionally transforming our cultures to center on sustainability, we will not only prevent catastrophe, but may usher in an era of (...)
US: Journey into the Heart of Whiteness
By the middle of this century, white Americans will no longer be in the majority. Yet even as the country grows more diverse, nearly all-white enclaves are on the rise. Richard Benjamin, a senior fellow at Demos, a think tank, spotted this trend several years ago and began venturing into these (...)
Abortion law’s grey zone: retarded mothers
In India, a disabled girl-child is usually at the receiving end of a lot of contempt and neglect. Women with disabilities have been consistently denied their rights. In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court (SC) of India recently allowed a 19-year-old mentally challenged orphan girl to carry (...)
Not all cultural traditions are worth keeping
‘Whatever our culture, we must treat animals in a humane way,’ William Gumede writes in this week’s Pambazuka News, following the recent approval of South African courts for the sacrifice of a bull as part of a traditional thanksgiving ritual. ‘African culture has a long tradition of democratic (...)

Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America
Barbara Ehrenreich, Metropolitan/Holt, October 2009
In her new book, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the origins of contemporary optimism from nineteenth-century healers to twentieth-century pushers of consumerism. She explores how that culture of optimism prevents us from holding to account both corporate heads and elected officials. Read more here (...)
Crisis of the Capitalist System: Where Do We Go from Here?
Immanuel Wallerstein comments on the global financial crisis from a long-term historical perspective, and on the opportunities it offers for global justice movements (Harold Wolpe Lecture, University of KwaZulu-Natal, 5 November 2009). Read (...)
The Migrant Condition
Migrants’ rights have to be addressed on two fronts: end the neoliberal policies that are responsible for creating poverty in their home countries, thus forcing them to emigrate, and demand that they are given full rights in their host countries. Read (...)

Bazaars, conversations & freedom. For a market culture beyong greed and fear
Penguin Books India, 2009, 464 pages, 450 INR
Financial wizards, economists, business persons and social activists around the globe have been challenging the free market orthodoxy. They seek to recover the virtues of bazaars from the tyranny of a market model that emerged about two centuries ago. This book is a chronicle of their (...)
Africans Won’t Just Be on Receiving End of Arts and Culture
Global initiatives have in recent years stressed the contribution that arts and culture can make to development. This has led African and European artists, bureaucrats and policy makers to increasingly confront the unequal relations in North-South cultural and artistic exchanges. Read (...)