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/ 28 November 2007
"Africa needs to realise that without dealing with the issue of women, there will be no progress in turning HIV/Aids around," says the United Nations special envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa, Elizabeth Mataka. "Unless we empower women we will remain with limited success," she says.
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/ 28 November 2007
With her unkempt hair tucked into a woolen hat, a faded T-shirt, skirt and a pair of torn canvas shoes, Nokhuthula Tshuma* does not fit the stereotypical profile of a commercial sex worker. Yet, the mother of three, like thousands of impoverished Zimbabwean women, is at great risk of HIV/Aids infection.
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/ 28 November 2007
Increasing international cooperation in exchange for guns and improving the sense of domestic security are promising strategies for reducing the number of small weapons in the hands of civilians in developing countries, a leading expert on the matter says. Keith Krause, programme director of the Small Arms Survey, says that taking weapons from civilians in developing countries is the toughest part of cutting down on the number of small arms around the world.
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/ 28 November 2007
Bombarded by HIV/Aids campaigns, South Africans have grown almost immune to the messages so crucial in the fight against the pandemic. For many it is a case of ”we’ve heard it all before”. This is why many organisations have put on their creative shoes to find unique ways to reach affected people and help the cope.
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/ 28 November 2007
It is time South Africans acknowledge that what can be done technically to prevent and treat HIV/Aids is being done. We won’t solve the crisis by simply improving the techniques, be it ABC campaigns, counselling, testing or treatment. They are tools that depend on the hand that guides them, write Obed Qulo and Tim Quinlan.
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/ 28 November 2007
When one starts noticing more and more signs that indicate that some of the pillars of the democratic organisation of society are being eroded, it should be a stimulus to all reflective citizens to stand up, or speak up, in defence of what one might call democratic space. I have in mind those signs pertaining to the place occupied by the media in a democracy, writes Bert Olivier.
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/ 28 November 2007
Five minutes in the company of Rhodes Park library assistant Edith Mvelase is sufficient to dispel any residual images of librarians as people with pursed lips and dusty fingers. Not only does she have apple cheeks and laughing eyes, Mvelase is also quite likely to have muddy hands from digging in the library’s food garden.
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/ 27 November 2007
There are two really big problems with the struggle for leadership of the ANC and they are both covered by the deployment of one simple metaphor: the iceberg. Most of what you see is the tip protruding from the water. Much of what matters is below. But the water is very dark and very cold. Few people, if any, really know all that is happening below the surface.
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/ 27 November 2007
Joburg. It’s the hottest day of the year so far. The air’s as suffocating as a fat man’s hand pressed full against the face. Joubert Park, that inner-city cesspool, is littered with sun-beaten unfortunates, as if they were dumped there from a height, perhaps from the belly of a great big army transport helicopter through swung-open doors, writes Lev David.
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