As the political hegemony of the ANC has frayed, elite forces have increasingly funded an array of opposition parties to shift power more in their favour, writes Eugene Puryear. Thirty years after the first democratic elections in 1994, South Africa finds itself at a political inflection point. The 2024 election [on May 29 for the Continue reading »
politics
In World War III the enemy is not an array of tanks, shells and soldiers, but a collection of beliefs damaging to the earth’s future. The enemies are the minds and actions of those with the cult of neo-liberalism and greed acting through the power of huge industries, the enemy within. In 2006 “Why we Continue reading »
Somalia, Syria, Myanmar, Boko Haram – and Israel. Together, and not by coincidence. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ decision to add Israel to the blacklist of countries that harm children insulted and shocked Israel. We and Syria? Yes, we and Syria. In Israel, everyone went on the attack, but no one asked: What did we think Continue reading »
Primary school students learn in their early days that accountability is a keystone of democracy. Not far into secondary school that reassuring notion is tempered as schoolies get to appreciate that for governments accountability equals political risk. It’s a pain in ministerial necks and should be kept within bounds sufficient to minimise electoral discomfort. These Continue reading »
Let me be the last to tell you the economy has almost ground to a halt and is teetering on the edge of recession. This has happened by design, not accident. But it doesn’t seem to be working properly. So, what happens now? Until we think of something better, more of the same. Since May Continue reading »
It hasn’t even finished its first year of operations, but those who were hoping for big things from the National Anti-Corruption Commission and its chair, Justice Paul Brereton would be wise to temper mightily their hopes and expectations of what it might achieve. An indicator, if only one of them, came on June 6 when Continue reading »
The title of “Empire” is not ascribed to the United States by observers but revealed by astute journalists as indeed what the powers that be in the US think of itself. The recent P&I article by Noel Turnbull (02/06/2024) titled “We’re an empire now, and we create our own reality…” attest to the statement above. Continue reading »
Opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has delivered a speech over the weekend where he pledged to take Australia back to the good old days by abolishing the metric system. ”People are confused and it’s time the Government acted and abolished this... Read More ›
I am 93 years old and come from a large Jewish family; My mother’s mother being one of 13 children I had dozens of Jewish uncles and cousins while growing up and through my maternal connection claim Jewishness. Being old enough my memory covers the whole history of the formation of modern Israel and the Continue reading »
Celebrations on Tel Aviv beaches followed news of the rescue of four Israeli hostages. As part of an alleged clinical, precise military exercise, as many as 300 Palestinians were killed and 700 injured, but in Israeli revellers’ eyes, this latest slaughter of Palestinians is of no consequence, even welcomed. This massacre of Palestinian men, women Continue reading »