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/ 22 February 2005
Majdi Galep (23) spent the past three years in jail for membership of a banned organisation, Hamas. On Monday he and about 500 other Palestinians were freed in the largest prisoner release in 10 years, one of the confidence-building measures agreed between the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas.
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/ 22 February 2005
Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu is carrying the flag for her Cabinet colleagues. She is implementing President Thabo Mbeki’s <i>raison d’être</i> — to mesh the three levels of government to create jobs and halve poverty. Sisulu speaks
to Vicki Robinson about hard work, inspiration and a new approach to housing.
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/ 22 February 2005
In the fight against Aids, prevention still matters, but prevention programmes in Africa have so far largely failed. "Safe sex" messages promoting abstinence or condom use have been largely ignored. Most Africans, like most Europeans, have sex young, often and with a variety of partners. Few regularly use condoms.
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/ 22 February 2005
Futuregrowth Asset Management is the country’s pioneering socially responsible investment fund. It does things differently — from shopping centres in townships and rural areas to making social impact a key investment criterion. With 16 township and rural malls in eight provinces, the company has proven non-traditional markets can score investment returns averaging 14%.
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/ 22 February 2005
The SMME Forum, a body that represents small business, has given its backing to Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri on the issue of self-provisioning. It has, however, accused industry players of hypocrisy for criticising the minister on this issue.
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/ 22 February 2005
The response by the editor of <i>The Economist</i>, Bill Emmott, to criticism levelled against the publication in the African National Congress’s newsletter recently is an interesting illustration of how the media can claim to provide balanced (sometimes even called "objective") coverage of issues while still setting a particular agenda.
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/ 22 February 2005
In the annals of utterly shameless wartime propaganda, Britain’s casting of the Kenyan Mau Mau as bloodthirsty savages, and its own colonial administrators as heroic benefactors, is pretty much the gold standard. Now an Oxford scholar has unearthed new evidence of Britain’s ruthless response to the Mau Mau rebellion.
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/ 22 February 2005
More than a decade after its last headcount, Nigeria is preparing to conduct the country’s fifth census this year. However, religion and ethnicity — long the bane of national life — appear set to bedevil the process. The eventual publication of statistics on religion and ethnicity could deepen existing divisions along these lines — and even lead to social unrest.
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/ 22 February 2005
Last Wednesday, after 13 years of negotiation, the Kyoto protocol on climate change came into force. No one believes that this treaty alone — which commits 30 developed nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 4,8% — will solve the problem. The reality of climate change is that the engines of progress have merely accelerated our rush to the brink.
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/ 21 February 2005
It is understandable that the independent media should celebrate Jonathan Moyo’s political slide for he epitomised probably the worst form of abuse of power to settle both personal and state scores in recent times. As a Zimbabwean weekly noted, the information minister ”personalised his crusade against media freedom”.