Since the ratification of the 22nd amendment of the US constitution in 1951, which imposes a two-term limit on the presidency, every occupant of the Oval Office who has bumped up against that restriction has faced scandal in their second term.
Television has been hailed, at least since the 1960s, as one of the most powerful forces of social change in the developed world.
“Regional agreements are not to be embraced carelessly, like teenage love affairs.” These words by Pascal Lamy, the director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), may have referred to regional integration in Europe but resonate clearly in the context of South Africa’s ambitious pursuit of bilateral trade agreements, particularly those with strategic partners of the South.
This is an abridged version of the 20 October 2005 inaugural speech by Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, the new national director of the South African Institute of International Affairs.
In her inaugural address, Ms Elizabeth Sidiropoulos looked at how Africa is evolving and how the continent needs to have an open and frank self-assessment to meet its challenges head-on.
Labour market regulation is a thorny issue in African economic policy debates. In many African countries, labour movements played an important role in liberation struggles.
The apartheid regime funded, banned and bombed them, the Mugabe regime is legislating them out of existence and the Godfather of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is now questioning their integrity.
Two weeks ago, Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi announced, out of the blue, that the drafting phase in the South Africa process for the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) would start this coming Wednesday and end in November.
The Kyoto Protocol may be the first global environmental agreement, but it isn’t the first attempt at creating a market for hot air. The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), a voluntary big-business initiative to curb emissions, pioneered by 28 large American corporations such as Ford and DuPont, opened in early 2003. The scheme involves participants making legally binding pledges to reduce their emissions, and provides for trade between members, along the same lines as Kyoto, to achieve this.
Innovative countries are starting to finance new projects through the Kyoto treaty, which allows industrialised nations to cut emissions by paying for pollution reduction in the South.
Tel: +27 (0)11 339-2021 | info@saiia.org.za
© All rights reserved South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA)
Powered by THINKTEAM
