Mayo fisherman Pat O'Donnell, described by Judge Raymond Groarke as a thug and a bully, was jailed for seven months in Castlebar Courtin February for his activism against Shell's planned gas pipeline through his community. For most people observing from afar, with little more than tabloid headlines to feed on, the story ended there. Pat O'Donnell
Source: Green Left Weekly
In an indication that the global climate justice movement is becoming broader, there is now intense opposition to a climate-destroying energy loan for South Africa.
The campaign’s leaders are community activists in black townships allied with environmentalists, trade unionists and international climate activists.The World Bank is trying to lend nearly US$4 billion to the Johannesburg-based parastatal (quasi-government-run) Eskom. The power company is the world’s fourth largest and Africa’s largest carbon emitter (responsible for 40% of South Africa’s total emissions).
The loan is mainly for building the world’s fourth most CO2-intensive coal-fired power plant, Medupi, in the ecologically sensitive Waterberg area north of the capital of Pretoria.
As census forms reach homes across the country, some people are being approached by scam artists who disguise themselves as census workers. What they're after, in most cases, is personal information like Social Security numbers, work history and home values, baseline data for possible identity theft. But others are more afraid of what the government might do with the information it collects.
On the shores of the Magdalena River, in a lush green valley dotted with cattle ranches and farms, sits the Palanquero military base, an outpost equipped with Colombia's longest runway, housing for 2,000 troops, a theater, a supermarket, and a casino. Palanquero is at the heart of a ten-year, renewable military agreement signed between the United States and Colombia on October 30, 2009, which gives Washington access to seven military bases in the country.
Source: Pambazuka
The press conference celebrating 100 days before the World Cup kick-off left the big question unanswered, argues Azad Essa: How will South Africans benefit from the World Cup? For Essa ‘only the dim-witted, government or FIFA communication officers walked away feeling that the World Cup was really about anything more than ending Afro-pessimism and stroking a couple of shiny suits.’
I don’t like press conferences.
Organised to propagate nothing more than a particular message, they are spaces where real questions are rarely asked because there is no place for real answers.
An activist is a person who feels strongly about a cause and who is also willing to dedicate time and energy towards advancing and realizing this cause. This might be my own limited interpretation of what activism means. I was born and raised in a
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