by Adele on Feb 22nd, 2012
Nicoli Nattrass, head of UCT’s Centre for Social Science Research (CSSR) and professor in the School of Economics, was one of four speakers who delivered lectures in a series entitled “The Human Question” at UCT Summer School.
Nattrass, the author of Mortal Combat: AIDS Denialism and the Struggle for Antiretrovirals in South Africa, dedicated his talk to a discussion on “the way in which the human has been conceptualised by neoclassical economics as ‘homo-economicus’”.
The CSSR has made a podcast of his lecture, “Homo-Economicus?”, available online:
Nicoli Nattrass - Homo-Economicus? [65:51m]:
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by Adele on Feb 20th, 2012
Although president Jacob Zuma has always expressed the South African government’s commitment to tackling climate change, Patrick Bond, author of Politics of Climate Justice, believes that it is nothing more than “political hot air”.
In an article for Pambazuka News, Bond points out that Zuma’s State of the Nation address revealed “eco-destructive capital-intensive projects”, such as increased mining activities, iron ore and manganese exports, and the the creation of coal-fired power plants.
The latest acts in this country’s intensifying political drama include a sizzling summer-long battle between the young and old within the African National Congress (ANC), last week’s State of the Nation speech by president Jacob Zuma and the release of the ANC’s ‘research’ on alternatives to mining nationalisation, a demand by the ANC youth which is now one of the main wedge issues dividing the ruling party.
Amidst the chaos, stepping over the political corpse of ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema (about to be expelled for ‘throwing the ANC into disrepute’), Zuma apparently also wants to be considered a world eco-visionary. As co-chairs of the United Nations’ High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability, he and Finnish president Tarja Halonen published an article last week entitled ‘Seizing sustainable development.’ Zuma and Halonen ask, ‘How do we begin to tackle the massive challenge of retooling our global economy, preserving the environment and providing greater opportunity and equity, including gender equality, to all?’
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Cats: Green,
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Tags: Capital-Intensive,
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by Adele on Feb 17th, 2012
FunDza is a non-profit organisation that seeks to promote literacy among teens and young adults by distributing stories that reflect their lives in an accessible format, primarily through the mobile social network MXit.
They recently made available an excerpt of Mbu Maloni’s autobiography, Nobody Will Ever Kill Me, which he published with UKZN Press last year. The book tells the inspirational story of how Mbu Maloni used the power of education to rise above the terrible circumstances of his upbringing in the streets of Masizakhe and Masiphumelele townships.
Here is an excerpt from chapter 1a, titled, “Long ago: The baby I never was/Kudala: Azange ndibe lusana”:
What does one remember first in life? Maybe a smell, a voice, the warmth of the skin of your mom? I try to remember and I can’t.
The first thing I remember is something I am ashamed of. Maybe that’s why I don’t want to remember. I want to forget. I don’t have a first nice memory in life. So, I actually don’t want to be reminded of when I was small, when I was even more tiny than most other babies. That, at least, is what I heard many years later from my Auntie Nompumelelo, the one I loved more than my own mom.
It’s painful that even she has rejected me now. That even she does not greet me on the street anymore . . .
But I promised myself to be honest with this book. I want to write it to become stronger. So, I have to be honest. Even if the truth is not nice.
Like – when I was a baby. I was not only tiny, much too small for my age; maybe I just did not want to be born at all. Because my mom is an alcoholic. Because I did not know how much I would have to struggle after birth. I probably wanted to stay inside my mom’s tummy. There, it must have been warm and safe – and, probably, I was never hungry. But maybe not even this is true – maybe I was afraid already in her womb. Can an unborn baby hear the shouting of the outside world? Is an unborn baby hungry when the mother is not eating but mostly just drinking?
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by Adele on Feb 16th, 2012
Ray Maota spoke to Kate Wells, the organiser behind the Siyazama project, which uses beaded artwork to educate Kwazulu-Natal craftswomen and their communities about AIDS. The project is also detailed in Siyazama: Art, AIDS and Education, which is edited by Wells, along with Marsha Macdowell, Kurt Dewhurst and Marit Dewhurst.
Wells says that the project not only helps women to become self-sufficient, but it is also a way to “communicate their struggles” – something which is typically frowned upon in the community.
Already, the project has gone global and the beaded dolls have featured in several international exhibitions:
The Siyazama Project, featuring traditional beaded crafts from the Kwazulu-Natal hinterlands, has taken the art world by storm and is giving dignity back to those affected by Aids.
The project, started in 1998, gives the craftswomen involved a creative outlet to express their concerns about HIV/Aids and all of its complexities, through their colourful beaded cloth dolls and beadwork.
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Photo courtesy Siyazama
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by Adele on Feb 14th, 2012
University of KwaZulu-Natal Press and the Alternative Information Development Centre cordially invite you to the launch of Politics of Climate Justice by Patrick Bond.
Bond will be in conversation with Saliem Fakier of the World Wildlife Fund at the AIDC Solidarity Centre this Friday, 17 February.
See you there!
Event Details
- Date: Friday, 17 February 2012
- Time: 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM
- Venue: AIDC Solidarity Centre,
129 Rochester Road
Observatory
Cape Town | Map
- Guest Speaker: Saliem Fakier
- RSVP: 021 447 5770, andre40marais@gmail.com
or marc@aidc.org
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by Adele on Feb 13th, 2012
2 January 2012 marked the first anniversary of the death of Julius Chingono, co-author of the short story collection Together. On 9 February 2012, the Embassy of Spain in Zimbabwe hosted an event to pay homage to this courageous writer, who was detained in 2009 for reciting his poem “My Uniform”, about corruption in the police force. The Spanish Ambassador, Pilar Fuertes Ferragut, was a personal friend of Chingono and felt that he needed to be honoured in this way. The Financial Gazette reported on the event:
THE Embassy of Spain yesterday hosted an event to commemorate the first anniversary of the death of one of Zimbabwe’s great poets, Julius Chingono.
The event, held in the Theatre in the Park in the Harare Gardens, was attended by family and friends of the late author and dignitaries from a cross-section of the Zimba-bwean society and other invited guests.
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by Adele on Feb 7th, 2012
The Solidarity Peace Trust invites you to read a short paper by peacebuilding and development specialist Erin McCandless in which she presents some of the findings revealed in her recently published book, Polarization and Transformation in Zimbabwe: The Counter-Movement for Land Redistribution and Constitutional Change:
It is common and understandable for people living in divided or developing countries to tire of international researchers coming to examine their plight, observing their situation from particular disciplinary and/or experiential lenses, often rapidly assessing the situation after a short period in the country and after speaking with a limited number of people. They often don’t share the fruits of their labour with the society that hosted them.
Having lived in Zimbabwe (January 2001-June 2004) where I conducted my doctoral field research, followed by numerous trips back to the region in the years that have followed, I am finally publishing a book. I am guilty of taking a long time in sharing findings; like most doctoral students, I had to make a living in the interim and the book was put on the back burner. But my belief in the importance of these issues that drove my research ensured that I kept coming back to Zimbabwe.[1] In this short paper I want to present some of the findings of my forthcoming book – Polarization and Transformation: Social Movements, Strategy Dilemmas and Change. I also want to share my motives and assumptions that drove the research, and my thoughts on why I think Zimbabwe’s challenges matter greatly to a larger international audience, beyond the powerful forces focused on regime change.
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Zimbabwe
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by Adele on Feb 3rd, 2012
In Nobody Will Ever Kill Me vertel Mbu Maloni hoe sy alkoholis-ma hom uit die huis gegooi het en hy as straatkind moes oorleef.
Toe hy by sy ouma wou gaan bly, het sy hom daarvan beskuldig dat hy ‘n seun gemolesteer het, en is hy 185 dae as verhoorafwagtende in die tronk aangehou.
Gelukkig is Maloni vrygeskeld en het hy uiteindelik ‘n tuiste by HOKISA (Home for Kids in South Africa) se kinderhuis in Masiphumelele gevind. Sy beste vriend het egter nie die lewe op straat oorleef nie. Hy is kort na Maloni se skuif na die kinderhuis vermoor.
Pieter van Zyl van Huisgenoot het die bekendstelling van Nobody Will Ever Kill Me in Kalkbaai bygewoon, waar die afgetrede sielkundeprofessor Andy Dawes gesê het Maloni se verhaal herinner aan die Dagboek van Anne Frank.
Mbu Maloni, skrywer van Nobody Will Ever Kill Me, in Huisgenoot
Mbu Maloni, skrywer van Nobody Will Ever Kill Me, in Huisgenoot 2
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by Adele on Feb 1st, 2012
In an article co-written with Michael Dorsey of the Environmental Studies Program at Dartmouth College, Patrick Bond airs his views on the latest in climate change “Ponzi schemes” – what he calls the “privatisation of the air”. Bond and Dorsey argue that carbon trading is no solution to climate change, as it merely results in wealthy countries “buying the right to pollute”:
Last winter, when carbon prices fell 15% in one week, industry analysts called it “carnage”. Then, in the fortnight before last month’s Durban climate summit, carbon prices fell more than 30%, with front-year European Union (EU) Allowance permits dropping below €8,50 a ton. And they have crashed even further since.
As Deutsche Bank said during the Durban talks: “We do not expect the pricing outlook to improve materially in the foreseeable future.” A UBS analyst predicted a price of less than €3 a ton in coming months because the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme “isn’t working” and carbon prices are “already too low to have any significant environmental impact”.
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Tags: Business Day,
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by Adele on Jan 30th, 2012
Forthcoming from UKZN Press, Inheriting the Earth by Jill Nudelman:
This perceptive first novel speaks to the quest for personal identity amid the dilemmas of a white tribe ‘lost in transition’ between the imperatives of old and new social order.
Rose, the sensitive young protagonist, has been orphaned while still an infant and left with no clues to her ancestry. When the foster mother who raised her dies suddenly, Rose finds herself unexpectedly heir to a fortune – and in possession of a box containing artefacts that present baffling links to her heritage. This marks for Rose the beginning of a journey of self-discovery in search of her true identity – an identity beyond ‘whiteness’ and towards a greater sense of belonging and rootedness in African soil.
About the author
Jill Nudelman has a Master’s degree in English and in Creative Writing from the University of the Witwatersrand.
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