South Africans are finally set to know who funds their political parties
Feb 10, 2019 10:53 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics
South African President Ramaphosa has finally signed into law a new bill aimed at regulating the funding of political parties. It was approved by Parliament in June 2018. The Political Party Funding Bill, when it...
A democracy or a kleptocracy? How South Africa stacks up
Feb 10, 2019 10:53 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics
South Africans have been held spellbound by the torrent of evidence of corruption emerging from two parallel commissions of inquiry into state capture, and the fitness to hold office of two senior officials of the...
Post-Brexit trade with Japan in jeopardy while uncertainty persists
Feb 10, 2019 10:52 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy
Nissan has said it will no longer be producing its new X Trail car at its Sunderland plant in north-east England. They will instead be produced in Japan. Although no current jobs are scheduled to be lost, the region was...
Venezuela: US sanctions hurt, but the economic crisis is home grown
Feb 10, 2019 10:51 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy
There appear to be two distinct responses to the current crisis in Venezuela. Either an authoritarian regime (led by Nicolás Maduro) is clinging to power against the wishes of popular forces arrayed around the new...
Facebook ten year challenge: how our need to belong trumps our distrust of social media
Feb 10, 2019 10:50 am UTC| Insights & Views Technology
When the ten year challenge began doing the rounds on social media, people rushed to post profile pictures of themselves from 2009, side by side with one from 2019, to highlight how much they had changed (or not) in the...

Where are the in-depth documentaries calling to account the institutions that are failing us?
Feb 10, 2019 10:46 am UTC| Insights & Views Entertainment
There is no shortage of documentary makers out there experienced and emerging who are ready and willing to bring Australian stories to worldwide audiences. But the ever shrinking pool of funding on which they can draw...

Amazon HQ2: Texas experience shows why New Yorkers should be skeptical
Feb 10, 2019 10:41 am UTC| Insights & Views Business
New York offered Amazon close to US$3 billion to build a second headquarters in Long Island City on the promise of 25,000 jobs. Since the deal was joyfully announced in November, however, many local residents and some...