Democracy
30 Years After the Beginning of the End of Apartheid, Where is South Africa Going? Part I
February 11, 1990 the release of Nelson Mandela was announced. It was the beginning of the dismantling of the Apartheid system. The hopes for a change for the majority of the black population were high at the time. The reconciliation between black and white people seemed on the right path,… »
North Africa: Algeria – Open letter to Mr. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations
Human rights activist Rabah Arkam has written a letter to United Nations Secretary General António Guterres regarding unacceptable human rights violations in Algeria. The activist’s objective is to call for an end to the wave of arrests resulting from the repressive policy and human rights violations by the Algerian regime. »
Can Democracy Survive the Coronavirus?
By Sonali Kolhatkar The COVID-19 global pandemic has prompted a major question about leadership in a time of crisis: how to balance the importance of public health with the respecting of individual liberty? The virus respects no borders. It cares little for how nations are run, whether through democratic governance… »
“We Want Democracy!” Mass Protests Continue in Dominican Republic After Local Elections Suspended
Thousands in the Dominican Republic took to the streets of the capital Santo Domingo Thursday to protest the abrupt suspension of local elections earlier this month and to commemorate the country’s Independence Day. Protests have been ongoing since February 16, after the government suspended the municipal elections four hours after… »
The East-Side Gallery, CNN and Fairytales
Similar to the narrative of the “victor”, where it is claimed that the reunification of Germany was due to the USA and not to Gorbachev, CNN is trying to equate the creation of the East Side Gallery in Berlin to wishful thinking. They didn’t have to look far for a… »
The Struggle To Vote, From the Suffragettes To Today
One hundred years ago, women won the right to vote in the United States. The women’s suffrage movement took decades of organizing to achieve success, from the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, to mass civil disobedience and protest leading up to the adoption and ratification of the 19th Amendment in… »
Why people vote for politicians they know are liars
Stephan Lewandowsky, University of Bristol for The Conversation Britain recently elected a prime minister who unlawfully shut down parliament to escape democratic scrutiny and who tells blatant falsehoods whenever it suits him. Boris Johnson casually denies the presence of media in front of TV cameras and… »
Five Lessons for Journalism in the Age of Rage– & Where Lies Travel Faster Than Truth
By Karin Pettersson The news-media industry has long lamented how the digital revolution has broken its business models. Today, a majority of digital advertising money goes to Facebook and Google, and media companies are struggling to reinvent themselves through digital subscriptions. But the disruption hasn’t only affected… »
Quo vadis East Side Gallery?
Despite its enormous popularity, the East Side Gallery has been neglected, left to decay, and hacked into pieces, parts sold off and the rest declared a dead museum piece. This work of art and the symbol it represents for the non-violent overcoming of walls between people and the walls in… »
Dangers and questions of the Zuckerberg era
This year the Worldwide Web is thirty years old. For the first time since 1435, a citizen from Brazil could exchange their views and information with another in Finland. The Internet, the communications infrastructure for the Web is a little older. It was developed from the ARPANET, a US Defense… »