A rebuttal of Bert Olivier, whose recent opinion piece echoes every talking point of propaganda driving the agenda of authoritarianism
India
Posted inNews/Politics
India: The conspiracy of law
A short story of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in India
Posted inEquality, General, Media
What ‘decolonisation’ means: E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India
With all the talk about “decolonising” university curricula (see http://thoughtleader.co.za/bertolivier/2016/03/23/decolonisation-the-new-ideology/), which has again cropped up among the demands of the protesting students, I thought it might be productive to remind students and academic staff alike of one of the most eloquent – in fact, together with Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, exemplary – critical literary […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Can SA, India and Brazil reboot the global human-rights narrative?
There is a pressing need for southern democracies to reclaim the human-rights narrative from the strategic imperatives of traditionally powerful western governments. While the ability of India, Brazil and South Africa to emerge as moral voices from the south is not in doubt, their willingness to take the global centre-stage on human rights is certainly […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media, News/Politics
Keep calm and let karma find Zapiro
I’ve tried, really, really tried, to get offended by Zapiro’s cartoon, but I just cannot. I really don’t get what all the fuss is about. Even as I stare at a picture of our beloved Hindu god Ganesha, who is mythologised as the son of Shiva and Parvathi, and brother of Muruga, and as I […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, Lifestyle
Abuse of the sacred
A campaign called “Abused Goddesses” is drawing massive engagement and attention around the world. Initiated by a women’s empowerment organisation in India, called Save our Sisters, which helps prevent the trafficking of women and children, it makes use of a series of images of Hindu goddesses, Saraswathi, Lakshmi, Durga with bruises and cuts in an […]
Posted inEquality, General, Health
In India, HIV history repeats itself
By Sharon Ekambaram Recently, Mumbai Aids activists took to the streets protesting the Indian government’s failure to protect people living with HIV from discrimination. More than 20 years after South African activists took up the same fight at home, the protests are a stark reminder that the battle for equality, dignity and access to life-saving […]
Posted inNews/Politics
India: Rape, uproar…silence
By Ashish Sewgoolam Sexual harassment is so much the norm in India that foreigners are warned by travel agents to travel in groups and with a male if possible to deter local men from making advances or lewd comments. I would usually brush this off as Western exaggeration but I’ve seen it happen live, and […]