Amandla

American President : an online reference
An online reference source maintained by the Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, which provides free access to indepth information on all US presidents from 1789 to the present day. It is possible to browse the site by president's name, timeline or theme. Entries for individual presidents include biographies, photographs and online recordings of key speeches. There are also many academic essays from Miller Center and other scholars discussing the role, style and importance of each president. These also include some webcasts of discussion events. There are links to information on the private and public papers of each of the presidents and presidential bibliographies. Copyright and technical information is displayed on the website. From Intute.ac.uk
http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident

From within and without: sustainable security in the Middle East and North Africa
This site provides free access to the full text of a paper by Chris Abbott and Sophie Marsden which was published by the Oxford Research Group in March 2009. The 10 page paper summarises the outcomes of a consultation that the Oxford Research Group (ORG) and the Institute for Peace Studies (IPS) held in Egypt in October 2008. This brought together security experts, academics, government officials and civil society leaders from across the Middle East and North Africa, and explored the main causes of regional insecurity and East and the problems blocking change. From Intute.ac.uk
http://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/publications/briefing_papers/withinandwith

Public disaffection and electoral reform: pressure from below?
This site provides free access to the full text of a paper by Pippa Norris of Harvard University which was delivered at the ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops, Lisbon, 14‐19 April 2009. The 15 page paper considers the proposition that when the public accept a political / electoral system as legitimate there is little incentive to change the status quo. Using data from the World Values Survey (WVS),collected from around 50 nations worldwide in the early to mid‐1990s and mapping them with actual changes to national electoral systems, it discusses the influence of public disaffection on changes to electoral systems. From Intute.ac.uk
http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~pnorris/Acrobat/ECPR%202009%20Electoral%20Reform%20N

Nuclear renaissance: nuclear weapons proliferation and terrorism
This site provides free access to a report by Frank Barnaby published by the Institute for Public Policy Research in March 2009. The 12 page report discusses the security risks that might ensue if increasing dependence on nuclear energy led to a more widespread availability of access to plutonium that could potentially be used to fabricate nuclear weapons, both by countries and by terrorists. From Intute.ac.uk
http://www.ippr.org.uk/publicationsandreports/publication.asp?id=650

Death sentences and executions in 2008
This site provides free access to Amnesty International's 2008 annual report on death sentences and executions which was published as Index: ACT 50/003/2009 in March 2009. The 30 page report provides statistics, plus analysis of global and regional trends in capital punishment worldwide during 2008. It also considers longer historical trends towards the abolition of the death penalty worldwide. From Intute.ac.uk
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ACT50/003/2009/en

The upcoming 2009 elections are exciting - uncertainty is in the air and people aren’t quite sure what to expect. So we ask - what should these elections be about? What are the questions and concerns that South Africans should be discussing as they head to the polls on 22 April?

This brief looks at the following issues in detail: an overview of political issues in South Africa; the effect of the global crisis; the prevalence of inequality; unemployment and job creation; poverty alleviation; service delivery; education and public health... [More]

 http://www.ngopulse.org/article/what-should-we-be-discussing-we-head-polls

 

To download the full brief from IDASA PIMS, CLICK here

Isandla Institute and the Open Society Foundation for South Africa invite you to a Development Dialogue 

on

 The shape of things to come: Does the development state need a planning ministry?

 

 Thursday 2 April 2009, 16h30 - 18h00 

 

 (tea and coffee served beforehand, please be seated at 16h30)    

It is highly expected that the forthcoming ANC administration will restructure Cabinet. One of the expected changes is the introduction of a planning ministry, which will be responsible for planning, prioritising and co-ordinating across government. This is a role National Treasury has de facto played, leading to criticism from ANC allies that Treasury is wielding too much power and influence. The proposed planning ministry (or, as some say, planning commission) is seen by its proponents as the institutional vehicle to enable the state to play its developmental role in a co-ordinated and effective manner. While the planning ministry is likely to become a defining feature of the next administration, to date there has been little public debate on this ‘super-ministry’. It is unclear what exactly the role and scope of the planning ministry will be, how it will function and to what extent it will have the clout and authority to direct other government departments. Is a high-powered centralised planning structure what South Africa needs to overcome poverty, inequality and unemployment? Or will such an entity lack accountability and at best end up with (more) high level policies and plans, without real teeth or capacity to ensure implementation?

 

Jeremy Cronin, MP (SACP), Hildegarde Fast (Western Cape Department of Housing) t b c  and Omano Edigheji (Human Sciences Research Council) t b c, have been invited to share their perspectives on these questions.  

 

The Development Dialogue will be held on Thursday 2 April 2009 from 16h30-18h00, at the Centre for the Book, 62 Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town. Tea and coffee are made available between 16h00-16h30. Kindly note the event will start at 16h30. Afterwards, there will be an opportunity for informal interaction over drinks and snacks. 

If you are interested in attending this event, please r.s.v.p. on admin@isandla.org.za by Tuesday 31 March. You will receive confirmation of your attendance.

 
We look forward to seeing you there!

 

From The Resourceshelf

A Review of International Labor Organization Databases Accessible on the Web
by Stuart Basefsky, MLIS
Martin P. Catherwood Library, School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR), Cornell University
Director, IWS News Bureau, Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS)
Contributing Editor, ResourceShelf

ILO Databases

http://www.ilo.org/public/english/support/lib/dblist.htm

ILO databases are available in the following subject areas and nearly all of them are free and unrestricted.
+ Country and Regional Information

+ Labour Legislation

+ Labour statistics

+ Occupational safety

+ Social security

+ Terminology

+ Vocational training and rehabilitation [Disabilities]

+ World of work

Resources of the Week: Modern-Day Piracy
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

No, we’re not talking about downloading “illegal” media. We’re talking about piracy on the high seas — something that has lately bubbled to the surface in the news media. 2008 has been a good year for pirates, judging by this Live Piracy Map from UK-based ICC Commercial Crime Services (CCS), the anti-crime arm of the International Chamber of Commerce.

This map shows all the piracy and armed robbery incidents reported to the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre during 2008. If exact coordinates are not provided, estimated positions are shown based on information provided. Zoom-in and click on the pointers to view more information of an individual attack. Pointers may be superimposed on each other.

IMB stands for International Maritime Bureau, “a specialised division of the International Chamber Of Commerce…established in 1981 to act as a focal point in the fight against all types of maritime crime and malpractice.” The IMB’s Piracy Reporting Center is an excellent place to read up on the problem.

Before 1992, shipmasters and ship operators had nowhere to turn to when their ships were attacked, robbed or hijacked either in port or out at sea. Local law enforcement either turned a deaf ear, or chose to ignore that there was a serious problem in their waters.

The International Maritime Bureau aware of the escalating level of piracy, wanted to provide a free service to the seafarer and established the 24 hour IMB Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The main objective of the PRC is to be the first point of contact for the shipmaster to report an actual or attempted attack or even suspicious movements thus initiating the process of response.

The main aim of the PRC is to raise awareness within the shipping industry, which includes the shipmaster, ship-owner, insurance companies, traders, etc, of the areas of high risk associated with piratical attacks or specific ports and anchorages associated with armed robberies on board ships.

The PRC works closely with various governments and law enforcement agencies and is involved in information sharing in an attempt to reduce and ultimately eradicate this crime. Besides the piracy map, the agency offers other current information, such as:

+ Weekly Piracy Report
+ Piracy Prone Areas and Warnings

More...

 

Democracy as subjective function
This site provides free access to the full text of a conference paper by Callum Neil which was delivered at the Political Studies Association (PSA - UK) 2008 annual conference. The 12 page paper considers issues relating to the nature of democracy, The paper draws on Lacan's theory of the subject to put forward a theory that democracy should be understood as a subjective function, rather than a political system. From Intute.ac.uk
http://www.psa.ac.uk/journals/pdf/5/2008/Neill.pdf

The State of African Cities Report 2008, released by UN-HABITAT notes that with rapidly increasing urban population, cities in Africa are faced with enormous challenges and will have to find ways to facilitate by 2015 urban services, livelihoods and housing for more than twice as many urban dwellers than it has today (full-text, pdf, 6129Kb).

UN Pulse permalink

Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power
Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power is a peer-reviewed journal published six times a year by Taylor and Francis which aims to examine "the collective representations of social, political, economic and cultural boundaries as aspects of processes of domination, struggle and resistance, and it probes the unidentified and unarticulated class structures and gender relations that remain integral to both maintaining and challenging subordination". From Intute.ac.uk
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/1070289x.asp

Recovered Histories
The Recovered Histories website provides free access to a digital library of 18th and 19th Century literature about slavery, the slave trade and abolition taken from the archives of Anti-Slavery international. It includes over 30,000 pages of pamphlets, illustrations and texts including classic works from British campaigners such as William Wilberforce, pro and anti-slavery lobbies and writings of former slaves such as Frederick Douglass. Other features of the site include timelines of key events, a glossary of terms and an educational section with book lists and links to curriculum related resources. Copyright information is displayed on the website. From Intute.ac.uk
http://www.recoveredhistories.org/

The goal of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is to seek "sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty." Their work is supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, which is an alliance of 64 governments, private foundations, and international and regional organizations. A substantial part of their work involves performing and disseminating research papers and policy briefs for different stakeholders. This 4-page policy brief was published in February 2009, and was written by Joachim von Braun and Maximo Torero. In the brief, the authors look at ways in which various governments and non-governmental organizations might be able to avoid international food price crises in the future. The report looks at recent food price spikes and the role that speculative capital has played in the past, along with advocating the creation of reserves in order to avoid future crises. [KMG] Scout Report

http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/bp/bp010.pdf

In the 1950s, a group of scholars in Cornell University's Southeast Asia Program initiated the Cornell Modern Indonesia Project (CMIP). The intent of the program was to make contemporary analyses of Indonesia available to scholars and students. The titles were digitized by the Cornell University Library, and this marvelous collection represents the fruits of their endeavors and captures "the drama of Indonesia's political and social evolution through the twentieth century." Some of the topics covered include the development of Indonesian civil government, their civil insurgencies, and the Japanese Occupation. Visitors can search the collection, or they can also browse through the offerings here, which are arranged by author name and title. Visitors who are finding themselves a bit lost should also feel free to click on the "Help" section for hints on searching through the site and viewing and navigating these documents. [KMG] From The Scout Report
http://cmip.library.cornell.edu/

 

The Community Video Education Trust (CVET) in Cape Town is building a digital archive of videos taken in South Africa in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The raw footage available on this website documents anti-apartheid demonstrations, speeches, mass funerals, celebrations, and interviews with activists. Videos capture the activism of trade unions, students and political organizations, including the activities of the United Democratic Front.

The CVET archive is a unique, publicly accessible video record of the peak of popular resistance against apartheid.

Genres:

Celebrations
Demonstrations
Drama
Finished films
Funerals
Interviews
Meetings
Other
Seminars
Speeches
Vigils

Gaza Sderot: life in spite of everything
Gaza Sderot is a TV documentary project conceived by Arte.tv, the official site of ARTE, the French-German cultural television station, in coproduction with an Israeli TV team. It provides access to short video film clips from 6 Arab citizens in Gaza and 6 Israelis in Sderot which provide a video diary of their daily lives in a 2 month period at the end of 2008. They include coverage of hardships during the period of violence, including experiences of deprivation and rocket attacks. The website provides free acccess to the films, plus maps of the region and supplemetary information about the film makers and participants. Copyright and technical information is displayed on the website. From Intute.ac.uk
http://gaza-sderot.arte.tv/

India: Human Rights Data Analysis Group
The Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) was originally founded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). It develops statistical techniques to enable human rights groups and committees of investigation to produce evidence based analyses of human rights abuses worldwide. In this role it has supplied data to truth and Reconciliation committees and International criminal Tribunals. Its website provides information on the aims and work of the group. It includes free access to press releases, project reports and full text statistical datasets. The latter relate to war crimes, genocide and human rights abuses. This section contains materials relating to India from approximately 2008 onwards. They include quantative analysis of violence and insurgency in the Punjab. From Intute.ac.uk
http://www.hrdag.org/about/india-punjab.shtml

Freedom of the Press reports : Freedom House
This site is maintained by renown civil rights watchdog Freedom House. It provides free access to the full text of all its annual surveys from 2002 onwards. These offer surveys of press freedom in individual countries, as well as world wide rankings, tables and graphs. Information on the methodology used is provided. From Intute.ac.uk
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=16

Obama in his own words
This site is maintained by the United States State Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP). It provides free access to a 50 page book containing a collection of speeches by American president Barack Obama. They include the full text of his presidential inauguration speech as well as extended exerpts from key campaign speeches made from approximately 2002 onwards. They include his comments on the decision to go to war in Iraq and acceptance of the presidential nomination. Copyright information is diplayed on the website. From Intute.ac.uk
http://www.america.gov/publications/books/obama_speech.html

The 2008 edition of the Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean has been issued (full text, 2.78 MB) in English and Spanish (press release). The Yearbook is divided into four chapters:

Journal of power
Journal of Power is published three times a year by Routledge and focuses not only on the classic theoretical debates on power "from Dahl to Lukes and, recently, between followers of Foucauldian perspectives and more modernist view points" but also provides an "outlet for those doing empirical work on relations of power and powerlessness". The first issue published in 2008 has free access but full-text articles in following issues are available to subscribers only. There is online access to contents list and abstracts for each issue. From Intute.ac.uk
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=t778749998~tab=summary