South Africa

Omar Barghouti - BDS: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions book launch

miotailtmilidh — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 14:03:50 +0000

The evening started with Victoria Brittain, who chaired the evening, and Omar Barghouti both speaking for about 10 minutes and was followed by an electrifying 40 minutes of questions and answers. Full video of the event is provided below. Victoria Brittain introduced the book and commented on some of the glowing reviews it has received (see box below). Omar Barghouti read out a personal message of solidarity for the peoples of the Arab world who are rising up to break the shackles of neo-colonialism.

Source: Omar Barghouti - BDS: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions book launch

FREEDOM ENOUGH

Dean Omori — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 19:52:05 +0100

Eugene Terreblanche killed in South Africa

DrPot — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 09:33:41 +0100

South African white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche has been killed on his farm in the country's north-west.
Mr Terreblanche, 69, was beaten to death by two farm workers after a dispute over unpaid wages, police say. Two people have been charged.
President Jacob Zuma has appealed for calm, saying the killing should not incite racial hatred.
Mr Terreblanche, who campaigned for a separate white homeland, came to prominence in the early 1980s

Source: Eugene Terreblanche killed in South Africa

squattercity: Squatters and the World Cup

vero — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:03:44 +0000

South African squatters are suggesting that they will protest during the soccer World Cup to dramatize the lack of affordable housing and horribly deprived and neglected condition of their communities.

Understandable. After all, the South African government and various municipalities are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the Football World Cup, including, the Telegraph notes, $170 million just for security.

Source: squattercity: Squatters and the World Cup

Economic cleansing' in BBC's World Cup backyard

Niluccio — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:49:23 +0000

On the one hand, a glass-sided television studio with panoramic views of Table Mountain and Cape Town's spectacular new 68,000-seater football stadium is installed by the BBC for the forthcoming World Cup. On the other, destitute locals are evicted from their only home, barely 100m away. Welcome to the two faces of modern South Africa.

Source: Economic cleansing' in BBC's World Cup backyard

Violent attacks on settlement in South Africa

vero — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:54:59 +0100

Quarter of men in South Africa admit rape, survey finds | World news | The Guardian

DrPot — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:25:33 +0100

One in four men in South Africa have admitted to rape and many confess to attacking more than one victim, according to a study that exposes the country's endemic culture of sexual violence.
Three out of four rapists first attacked while still in their teens, the study found. One in 20 men said they had raped a woman or girl in the last year.
South Africa is notorious for having one of the highest levels of rape in the world. Only a fraction are reported, and only a fraction of those lead to a conviction.
.

Source: Quarter of men in South Africa admit rape, survey finds | World news | The Guardian

Horror of South African miners' deaths

Niluccio — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 08:42:16 +0100

Around a mortuary in Thabong, in South Africa's Free State Province, the families of illegal miners, missing underground, wait to see if they can identify their relatives' bodies.

Source: Horror of South African miners' deaths

China, Tibet and the dialogue of the deaf

Niluccio — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 07:48:34 +0000

Is it possible to be 'neutral' over the issue of Tibet? Probably not, but if for sake of argument, it were possible then a 'neutral' person might wonder why it is this issue which causes so much friction between China and the outside world.

Source: China, Tibet and the dialogue of the deaf

South Africa bans Dalai Lama trip

DrPot — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:18:39 +0000

South Africa has denied the Dalai Lama a visa to attend a peace conference linked to the 2010 Football World Cup, which the country is hosting.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has pulled out of the meeting in protest and branded the decision "disgraceful".
A government spokesman has denied suggestions that the ban was a result of Chinese pressure.

Source: South Africa bans Dalai Lama trip

Raped and killed for being a lesbian: South Africa ignores 'corrective' attacks | World news | guardian.co.uk

DrPot — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:04:53 +0000

The partially clothed body of Eudy Simelane, former star of South Africa's acclaimed Banyana Banyana national female football squad, was found in a creek in a park in Kwa Thema, on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Simelane had been gang-raped and brutally beaten before being stabbed 25 times in the face, chest and legs. As well as being one of South Africa's best-known female footballers, Simelane was a voracious equality rights campaigner and one of the first women to live openly as a lesbian in Kwa Thema.

Source: Raped and killed for being a lesbian: South Africa ignores 'corrective' attacks | World news | guardian.co.uk

MIRIAM MAKEBA - MAMA AFRICA DIES | FLY | NEWS

damianrafferty — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:16:20 +0000

She vowed never to return to South Africa while it was under Apartheid and when she outlasted the evil system she had done so much to expose, she would be welcomed by Nelson Mandela as Mama Africa. She lived to see the United States elect a black President, something that must have seemed unthinkable to a woman whose life was spent on the fault lines of racial prejudice.

Source: MIRIAM MAKEBA - MAMA AFRICA DIES | FLY | NEWS

Jurist: 'World Is Losing Respect for Human Rights' | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com

Lightowl — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:28:00 +0100

The world has undeniably changed since the September 11 attacks triggered George W. Bush's declaration of a global war on terror. One of the biggest consequences, says jurist Arthur Chaskalson, has been a widespread decline in respect for basic human rights. Chaskalson, a former chief justice of South Africa, was part of the legal team that defended Nelson Mandela before the African National Congress leader's 1964 sentence to life imprisonment for trying to overthrow the white minority government. Chaskalson, 76, now leads the International Commission of Jurists, a human rights advocacy group consisting of lawyers and academics from 62 different countries.

Source: Jurist: 'World Is Losing Respect for Human Rights' | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com

U.N. human rights chief condemns 'vicious' killings in South Africa

Euley — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 09:33:48 +0100

The U.N. human rights chief on Tuesday condemned the brutal slaying of a Somali woman and her three children in South Africa as a xenophobic attack.

"This is one of the most vicious examples we have heard of recently," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay said of the killing Friday in an Eastern Cape village.

Source: U.N. human rights chief condemns 'vicious' killings in South Africa

BBC NEWS | UK | Tutu: 'God is weeping'

Patrick Corrigan — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 08:25:32 +0100

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said that the Church has an 'obsession' with homosexuality when it should be focusing on issues such as poverty.

Source: BBC NEWS | UK | Tutu: 'God is weeping'