1.
South Africa
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South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is the southernmost country in Africa. South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and it is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different Bantu languages, the remaining population consists of Africas largest communities of European, Asian, and multiracial ancestry. South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a variety of cultures, languages. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the recognition of 11 official languages. The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup détat, however, the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. During the 20th century, the black majority sought to recover its rights from the dominant white minority, with this struggle playing a role in the countrys recent history. The National Party imposed apartheid in 1948, institutionalising previous racial segregation, since 1994, all ethnic and linguistic groups have held political representation in the countrys democracy, which comprises a parliamentary republic and nine provinces. South Africa is often referred to as the Rainbow Nation to describe the multicultural diversity. The World Bank classifies South Africa as an economy. Its economy is the second-largest in Africa, and the 34th-largest in the world, in terms of purchasing power parity, South Africa has the seventh-highest per capita income in Africa. However, poverty and inequality remain widespread, with about a quarter of the population unemployed, nevertheless, South Africa has been identified as a middle power in international affairs, and maintains significant regional influence. The name South Africa is derived from the geographic location at the southern tip of Africa. Upon formation the country was named the Union of South Africa in English, since 1961 the long form name in English has been the Republic of South Africa. In Dutch the country was named Republiek van Zuid-Afrika, replaced in 1983 by the Afrikaans Republiek van Suid-Afrika, since 1994 the Republic has had an official name in each of its 11 official languages. Mzansi, derived from the Xhosa noun umzantsi meaning south, is a name for South Africa. South Africa contains some of the oldest archaeological and human fossil sites in the world, extensive fossil remains have been recovered from a series of caves in Gauteng Province. The area is a UNESCO World Heritage site and has termed the Cradle of Humankind
2.
Activism
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Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, or direct social, political, economic, and/or environmental reform or stasis with the desire to make improvements in society. One can also express activism through different forms of art, daily acts of protest such as not buying clothes from a certain clothing company because they exploit workers is another form of activism. One view holds that acknowledging privileges and oppressions on a daily basis ranks as a form of activism, research has begun to explore how activist groups use social media to facilitate civic engagement and collective action. The Online Etymology Dictionary records the English words activism and activist from 1920, Activists can function in roles as public officials, as in judicial activism. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. introduced the term judicial activism in a January 1946 Fortune magazine article titled The Supreme Court,1947, some activists try to persuade people to change their behavior directly, rather than to persuade governments to change or not to change laws. Other activists try to persuade people to remain the same, in an effort to counter change, the cooperative movement seeks to build new institutions which conform to cooperative principles, and generally does not lobby or protest politically. Activism is not always an action by Activists, every year more than 100 environmental activists are killed, in 2014116 environmental activists were assassinated, in 2015185 activists were killed around this planet. Since the 1990s, the Internet has been a tool used by activists for mobilization and communication of causes, specific platforms like MoveOn. org, founded in 1998, allow individuals to establish petitions and movements for social change. Protesters in Seattle in 1999 used email to organize protests against the WTO Ministerial Conference, throughout the 2000s, protesters continued to use social media platforms to generate interest. The power of Internet Activism came into a lens with the Arab Spring protests. They use different means to political persecution, such as Tor Browser. The activism industry consists of organizations and individuals engaged in activism, Activism is often done full-time, as part of an organizations core business. Many organizations in the industry are either non profit organizations or non-governmental organizations. Most activist organizations do not manufacture goods, the term activism industry has often been used to refer to outsourced fundraising operations. However, activist organizations engage in activities as well. Lobbying, or the influencing of decisions made by government, is another activist tactic, many groups, including law firms, have designated staff assigned specifically for lobbying purposes. In the United States, lobbying is regulated by the federal government, many government systems encourage public support of non-profit organizations by granting various forms of tax relief for donations to charitable organizations. Governments may attempt to deny these benefits to activists by restricting the political activity of tax-exempt organizations, randy Shaw, The Activists Handbook, A Primer for the 1990s and Beyond
3.
Zackie Achmat
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Abdurrazack Zackie Achmat is a South African activist and film director. He is a co-founder the Treatment Action Campaign and known worldwide for his activism on behalf of living with HIV. Achmat was born in the Johannesburg suburb of Vrededorp to a Muslim Cape Malay family and he was raised by his mother and his aunt who were both shop stewards for the Garment Workers Union. He did not matriculate but nevertheless graduated with a BA Hons degree in English Literature from the University of the Western Cape in 1992 and studied filmmaking at the Cape Town Film School. Achmat set fire to his school in Salt River in support of the 1976 student protests and was imprisoned several times during his youth for political activities and he joined the African National Congress in 1980 while serving time in prison. Between 1985 and 1990 he was a member of the Marxist Workers Tendency of the ANC, Achmat describes his political ideology as democratic socialist since the unbanning of the ANC in 1990. In 2006, Achmat called on party members to formulate appropriate HIV policies. He has also been outspoken in his criticism of President Jacob Zuma, the AIDS Law Project and TAC work closely together in all the legal matters that arise in the course of advocating for the right to health, including prosecuting cases and defending TAC volunteers. Achmat publicly announced his HIV-positive status in 1998 and refused to take antiretroviral drugs until all who needed them had access to them and he held firm in his pledge until August 2003 when a national congress of TAC activists voted to urge him to begin antiretroviral treatment. He finally announced that he would start treatment shortly before the government announced that it would make available in the public sector. The protesters were charged with trespassing and ordered to appear before court, the inmate was one of 15 prisoners who were plaintiffs in a case against the Departments of Health and Correctional Services, suing to be provided access to antiretroviral drugs. The court ordered the government to provide the drugs immediately, in 2009 he co-founded the Centre for Law and Social Justice, subsequently renamed Ndifuna Ukwazi, with Gavin Silber. Achmat was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1990, in 2005 he suffered a heart attack, which his doctor said was unlikely to be caused by his HIV-positive status or treatment. He recovered sufficiently to return to his activism work, on 5 January 2008, Achmat married his same-sex partner and fellow activist Dalli Weyers at a ceremony in the Cape Town suburb of Lakeside. The ceremony was attended by then Mayor Helen Zille and presided over by Supreme Court of Appeal judge Edwin Cameron, the couple divorced amicably in June 2011. Achmats story is one of the 28 stories featured in the 2007 nonfiction book 28, Achmat is portrayed as a Saint in the 2009 video opera Fig Trees. Achmats critical role in the battle for mass antiretroviral treatment in Africa is portrayed in the award-winning 2013 documentary film Fire in the Blood, English, Is Europe Going to Hell. – directed by Robert Cibis Darling
4.
Direct action
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Direct action occurs when a group takes an action which is intended to reveal an existing problem, highlight an alternative, or demonstrate a possible solution to a social issue. This can include nonviolent and less often violent activities which target persons, groups, examples of non-violent direct action can include sit-ins, strikes, workplace occupations, blockades, or hacktivism, while violent direct action may include political violence or assaults. Tactics such as sabotage and property destruction may be considered violent if people are hurt in the action, by contrast, electoral politics, diplomacy, negotiation, and arbitration are not usually described as direct action, as they are politically mediated. Direct action tactics have been around for as long as conflicts have existed, the radical union the Industrial Workers of the World first mentioned the term direct action in a publication in reference to a Chicago strike conducted in 1910. American anarchist Voltairine de Cleyre wrote an essay called Direct Action in 1912 which is widely cited today. In his 1920 book, Direct Action, William Mellor placed direct action firmly in the struggle between worker and employer for control over the life of society. Mellor defined direct action as the use of form of economic power for securing of ends desired by those who possess that power. Mellor considered direct action a tool of both owners and workers and for this reason he included within his definition lockouts and cartels, as well as strikes, over and over they were arrested, fined, and imprisoned. Till they finally compelled their persecutors to let them alone, —de Cleyre, undated Martin Luther King felt that non-violent direct actions goal was to create such a crisis and foster such a tension as to demand a response. The rhetoric of Martin Luther King, James Bevel, and Mohandas Gandhi promoted non-violent revolutionary direct action as a means to social change. Noteworthy, Gandhi and Bevel had been influenced by Leo Tolstoys The Kingdom of God Is Within You. By the middle of the 20th century, the sphere of action had undoubtedly expanded. Some sections of the movement used direct action, particularly during the 1980s. In the US, mass protests opposed nuclear energy, weapons, many groups also set up semi-permanent peace camps outside air bases such as Molesworth and Greenham Common, and at the Nevada Test Site. Environmental movement organizations such as Greenpeace have used direct action to pressure governments, on April 28,2009, Greenpeace activists, including Phil Radford, scaled a crane across the street from the Department of State, calling on world leaders to address climate change. Soon thereafter, Greenpeace activists dropped a banner off of Mt. Rushmore, placing President Obamas face next to other historic presidents, overall, more than 2,600 people were arrested while protesting energy policy and associated health issues under the Barack Obama Administration. In 2009, hundreds blocked the gates of the coal fired power plant that powers the US Congress building, following the Power Shift conference in Washington, D. C. Anti-globalization activists made headlines around the world in 1999, when they forced the Seattle WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 to end early with direct action tactics
5.
Apartheid
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Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation and discrimination in South Africa between 1948 and 1991, when it was abolished. The countrys first multiracial elections under a universal franchise were held three years later in 1994, Apartheid as a policy was embraced by the South African government shortly after the ascension of the National Party during the countrys 1948 general elections. Apartheid was also enforced in South West Africa until it gained independence as Namibia in 1990, with the rapid growth and industrialisation of the British Cape Colony in the nineteenth century, racial policies and laws became increasingly rigid. Cape legislation that discriminated specifically against black Africans began appearing shortly before 1900, the policies of the Boer republics were also racially exclusive, for instance, the Transvaal constitution barred nonwhite participation in church and state. Places of residence were determined by racial classification, from 1960 to 1983,3.5 million nonwhite South Africans were removed from their homes, and forced into segregated neighbourhoods, in one of the largest mass removals in modern history. Most of these targeted removals were intended to restrict the population to ten designated tribal homelands, also known as bantustans. The government announced that relocated persons would lose their South African citizenship as they were absorbed into the bantustans, Apartheid sparked significant international and domestic opposition, resulting in some of the most influential global social movements of the twentieth century. It was the target of frequent condemnation in the United Nations, some reforms of the apartheid system were undertaken, including allowing for Indian and coloured political representation in parliament, but these measures failed in appeasing most activist groups. In 1990, prominent ANC leaders such as Nelson Mandela were released from detention, Apartheid legislation was abolished in mid-1991, pending multiracial elections set for April 1994. Apartheid is an Afrikaans word meaning separateness, or the state of being apart and its first recorded use was in 1929. The governors and assemblies that governed the process in the various colonies of South Africa were launched on a different and independent legislative path from the rest of the British Empire. In the days of slavery, slaves required passes to travel away from their masters, in 1797 the Landdrost and Heemraden of Swellendam and Graaff-Reinet extended pass laws beyond slaves and ordained that all Khoikhoi moving about the country for any purpose should carry passes. Ordinance No.49 of 1828 decreed that prospective black immigrants were to be granted passes for the purpose of seeking work. These passes were to be issued for Coloureds and Khoikhoi, but not for other Africans, the United Kingdoms Slavery Abolition Act 1833 abolished slavery throughout the British Empire and overrode the Cape Articles of Capitulation. To comply with the act the South African legislation was expanded to include Ordinance 1 in 1835 and this was followed by Ordinance 3 in 1848, which introduced an indenture system for Xhosa that was little different from slavery. The Glen Grey Act of 1894, instigated by the government of Prime Minister Cecil John Rhodes limited the amount of land Africans could hold, in 1905 the General Pass Regulations Act denied blacks the vote, limited them to fixed areas and inaugurated the infamous Pass System. The Asiatic Registration Act required all Indians to register and carry passes, one of the first pieces of segregating legislation enacted by Jan Smuts United Party government was the Asiatic Land Tenure Bill, which banned land sales to Indians. The United Party government began to move away from the enforcement of segregationist laws during World War II
6.
Thabo Mbeki
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Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served nine years as the second post-apartheid President of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008. R. Nicholson of improper interference in the National Prosecuting Authority, on 12 January 2009, the Supreme Court of Appeal unanimously overturned judge Nicholsons judgment but the resignation stood. During his time in office the economy grew at a rate of 4. 5% per year. Mbeki created employment in the sectors of the economy and oversaw a fast-growing black middle class with the implementation of Black Economic Empowerment. This growth exacerbated the demand for trained professionals strained by emigration due to violent crime and he attracted the bulk of Africas Foreign Direct Investment and made South Africa the focal point of African growth. He was the architect of NEPAD whose aim is to develop an integrated socio-economic development framework for Africa, Mbeki has mediated in difficult and complex issues on the African continent including Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, and some important peace agreements. He oversaw the transition from the Organisation of African Unity to the African Union and his quiet diplomacy in Zimbabwe, however, is blamed for protracting the survival of Robert Mugabes regime at the cost of thousands of lives and intense economic pressure on Zimbabwes neighbours. He became a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement in the United Nations. Mbeki has received criticism for his stance on AIDS. He questions the link between HIV and AIDS and believes that the correlation between poverty and the AIDS rate in Africa was a challenge to the theory of AIDS. His fate was not helped by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and the overhaul of the industry in South Africa. His ban of antiretroviral drugs in public hospitals is estimated to be responsible for the deaths of between 330,000 and 365,000 people. Thabo Mbeki has also criticised for responding to negative comments made about his government by accusing critics of racism. Born and raised in Mbewuleni, Cape Province, Union of South Africa, Mbeki is one of four children of Epainette, the economist Moeletsi Mbeki is one of his brothers. His father was a stalwart of the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party and he is a native Xhosa speaker. Mbeki attended primary school in Idutywa and Butterworth and acquired a school education at Lovedale. In 1959, he was expelled from school as a result of student strikes, in the same year, he sat for matriculation examinations at St. Johns High School, Umtata. In the ensuing years, he completed British A-level examinations and undertook a degree as an external student with the University of London
7.
Management of HIV/AIDS
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The management of HIV/AIDS normally includes the use of multiple antiretroviral drugs in an attempt to control HIV infection. There are several classes of agents that act on different stages of the HIV life-cycle. The use of drugs that act on different viral targets is known as highly active antiretroviral therapy. HAART decreases the total burden of HIV, maintains function of the immune system. Treatment has been so successful that in parts of the world. In the same paper, he noted that an estimated 700,000 lives were saved in 2010 alone by antiretroviral therapy, the United States Department of Health and Human Services and the World Health Organization recommend offering antiretroviral treatment to all patients with HIV. The first effective therapy against HIV was the reverse transcriptase inhibitor. It was approved by the US FDA in 1987, subsequently, several more NRTIs were developed but even in combination were unable to suppress the virus for long periods of time and patients still inevitably died. To distinguish from this early therapy, the term highly active anti-retroviral therapy was introduced. This concept of 3-drug therapy was quickly incorporated into practice and rapidly showed impressive benefit with a 60% to 80% decline in rates of AIDS, death. There are five classes of drugs, which are used in combination. Use of these drugs in combination can be termed anti-retroviral therapy, anti-retroviral drugs are broadly classified by the phase of the retrovirus life-cycle that the drug inhibits. Typical combinations include 2 NRTIs as a backbone along with 1 NNRTI, entry inhibitors interfere with binding, fusion and entry of HIV-1 to the host cell by blocking one of several targets. Maraviroc and enfuvirtide are the two currently available agents in this class, maraviroc works by targeting CCR5, a co-receptor located on human helper T-cells. Caution should be used when administering this drug due to a possible shift in tropism which allows HIV to target an alternative co-receptor such as CXCR4. In rare cases, individuals may have a mutation in the CCR5 delta gene which results in a nonfunctional CCR5 co-receptor and in turn, however, as mentioned previously, this can be overcome if an HIV variant that targets CXCR4 becomes dominant. To prevent fusion of the virus with the host membrane, enfuvirtide can be used, nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors are nucleoside and nucleotide analogues which inhibit reverse transcription. HIV is an RNA virus and hence unable to become integrated into the DNA in the nucleus of the human cell, since the conversion of RNA to DNA is not done in the mammalian cell it is performed by a viral protein which makes it a selective target for inhibition
8.
International Human Rights Day
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Human Rights Day is celebrated annually across the world on 10 December every year. The day is marked both by high-level political conferences and meetings and by cultural events and exhibitions dealing with human rights issues. In addition it is traditionally on 10 December that the five-yearly United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights, many governmental and non-governmental organizations active in the human rights field also schedule special events to commemorate the day, as do many civil and social-cause organizations. Human Rights Day is the day in 1948 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the measure was received by both advocates and critics alike as being more declarative than legislative, more suggestive than binding. Combating poverty, deprivation and exclusion is not a matter of charity, by tackling poverty as a matter of human rights obligation, the world will have a better chance of abolishing this scourge in our lifetime. Poverty eradication is an achievable goal, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights occurred on 10 December 2008, and the UN Secretary-General launched a year-long campaign leading up to this anniversary. Because the UDHR holds the record as the most translated document. On December 9,2001, President George W. Bush made a Presidential proclamation that Human Rights Week began on December 9 and he also made the same proclamation on December 10,2008. In South Africa, Human Rights Day is celebrated on 21 March and this massacre occurred as a result of protests against the Apartheid regime in South Africa. South African Human Rights Day was declared a holiday when the ANC was elected as the government with Nelson Mandela as the first democratically elected leader. Parliaments role on this day is to empower the people so that the democratic processes becomes known to all South Africans and it is celebrated on 11 December in Kiribati
9.
The New Yorker
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The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It is published by Condé Nast, started as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is now published 47 times annually, with five of these issues covering two-week spans. Although its reviews and events listings often focus on the life of New York City. The New Yorker debuted on February 21,1925 and it was founded by Harold Ross and his wife, Jane Grant, a New York Times reporter. Ross wanted to create a humor magazine that would be different from perceivably corny humor publications such as Judge. Ross partnered with entrepreneur Raoul H. Fleischmann to establish the F-R Publishing Company, the magazines first offices were at 25 West 45th Street in Manhattan. Ross edited the magazine until his death in 1951, during the early, occasionally precarious years of its existence, the magazine prided itself on its cosmopolitan sophistication. Ross famously declared in a 1925 prospectus for the magazine, It has announced that it is not edited for the old lady in Dubuque, although the magazine never lost its touches of humor, it soon established itself as a pre-eminent forum for serious fiction literature and journalism. Shortly after the end of World War II, John Herseys essay Hiroshima filled an entire issue, D. Salinger, Irwin Shaw, James Thurber, John Updike, Eudora Welty, Stephen King, and E. B. White. Publication of Shirley Jacksons The Lottery drew more mail than any story in the magazines history. In its early decades, the magazine published two or even three short stories a week, but in recent years the pace has remained steady at one story per issue. Kurt Vonnegut said that The New Yorker has been an instrument for getting a large audience to appreciate modern literature. Vonneguts 1974 interview with Joe David Bellamy and John Casey contained a discussion of The New Yorkers influence, No other art requires the audience to be a performer. You have to count on the readers being a good performer and those writers you mentioned and myself are teaching an audience how to play this kind of music in their heads. Its a learning process, and The New Yorker has been a good institution of the sort needed. They have an audience, and they come out every week, and people finally catch on to Barthelme, for instance. The non-fiction feature articles cover an array of topics. Recent subjects have included eccentric evangelist Creflo Dollar, the different ways in which humans perceive the passage of time, the magazine is notable for its editorial traditions
