The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question: How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question: How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A reflection on life and the arts from a progressive perspective. Here you will find social commentary on movies, the performing arts, issues of cultural significance and life in general.
Anna Majavu -
The Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) fatwa against the annual New Year’s festival by Cape Town’s minstrels and ‘Malay’ choirs has thrown the city’s ever present class and race problems back into the spotlight.
The fatwa prohibits Muslims from participating in the minstrel troupes, or watching the minstrels – on the grounds that “it is generally degrading and undignified for Muslims to dance around in public with painted faces and colourful...
Michael Kasenbacher -
In this often personal interview, renowned linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky outlines a libertarian perspective on work and education, arguing that freedom is the root of creativity and fulfilment.
MICHAEL KASENBACHER: The question I would like to ask is what is really wanted work? Maybe we could start with your personal life and your double career in linguistics and political activism? Do you like that kind of work?
NOAM CHOMSKY: If I had the time I would spend far...
Jeremy Adam Smith -
Last year’s most surprising, provocative, and inspiring findings on the science of living a meaningful life.
The science we cover here on Greater Good—aka, “the science of a meaningful life” — has exploded over the past 10 years, with many more studies published each year on gratitude, mindfulness, and our other core themes than we saw a decade ago.
2012 was no exception. In fact, in the year just past, new findings added nuance, depth, and even some...
Gillian Schutte -
Madonna modelled herself on a sexually unrestrained, powerful and de-sanitised version of Marilyn Monroe and rebelled against patriarchal Catholic constraints of the feminine, using the notion of wanton sexuality as her arsenal. Michael Jackson refused to be categorised according to race and gender and mixed these up in both theatrics and surgery, to much public speculation and psychoanalysis. Freddy Mercury was openly sexually promiscuous and gay and celebrated his choices with an engaging...
Tomas Moniz -
The other day I found myself telling my two daughters, 16 and 14, “Don’t have sex until you’re in your 20s—but here are some condoms!”
I’m not sure if there is a better example of sending mixed messages.
Let me explain. I had just discovered that my eldest daughter spent the night with her boyfriend. And though I believe that sex is powerful and beautiful and a profound ritual for entering adulthood, I am still a dad, worried about her well-being. I...
Scott Barry Kaufman -
Four-year-old Heidi Hankins was all over the news earlier this year. According to the Daily Mail, she "has an IQ of 159 -- only one point below Albert Einstein's -- and has become one of the youngest members of Mensa." As her father has pointed out, she has always shown an intense need for intellectual stimulation, bursting at the mouth to speak at birth, acquiring vocabulary by the age of one, and voraciously reading through all 30 books in the Oxford Reading...
