When sexual harassment is rewarded with a golden handshake

In March 2017 a 44-year-old government female employee in the labour relations unit of the Sekhukhune District municipal council in Limpopo reportedly had to apply for a protection order against “the institution’s corporate services director. Her complaints to her seniors were ignored for eight years. At the end of August 2017, the Executive Mayor proposed that the municipality give him a golden handshake of R600,000 paid over six months, as well as senior manager benefits. dullahomarinstitute.org.za/

Media must be rape activists, not bystanders

I have known for a very long time that rape is more about the familiar, “normal” man using his power than the dangerous stranger. I have known too that rape victims are victimised again because our laws demand that they accuse and stand up and make the complaint, and be tested for the degree of the harm done to them and the validity of their claim. mg.co.za/

Mnangagwa ‘has betrayed thousands of Zimbabweans’, opposition claims

News Day reported this week that street vendors in Harare and Mutare cried foul on Monday after they were forcibly driven off their illegal vending sites in the city during a combined cleansing operation involving the military, municipal and members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police. dailymaverick.co.za/

President Mnangagwa Led Zimbabwe Military Junta Caused Tuesday Internet Blackout

Zimbabwe government which has been under military control for over three weeks since the ouster of Robert Mugabe is almost certainly responsible for Tuesday internet blackout that shut down virtually all Internet service in the country, according to a senior military operative based at the University of Zimbabwe’s Centre for High-Performance Computing (Zim-CHPC). pazimbabwe.com/

DR Congo: Cursed by its natural wealth

The Democratic Republic of Congo is potentially one of the richest countries on earth, but colonialism, slavery and corruption have turned it into one of the poorest. bbc.com/

Over 40 million people caught in modern slavery, 152 million in child labour – UN

Global estimates of modern slavery: Forced labour and forced marriage show that among the victims, about 25 million were in forced labour, and 15 million were in forced marriage. un.org/

Enough of aid – let’s talk reparations

Debate around reparations is threatening because it upends the usual narrative of development. The impact of colonialism cannot be ignored. theguardian.com/

An Insider’s View of SYRIZA-Led Greek Capitulation to EU Blackmail

There were specific economic decisions that created the Greek crisis. It needn’t have happened if it weren’t deemed useful by the powers-that-be in Europe. The crisis was real, but it was largely manufactured by people who were creating distractions from Europe’s real problems. mintpressnews.com/

Israel minister: It’s time to recognise the West Bank ‘as Israel’

Israeli Education and Diaspora Affairs minister, Naftali Bennett has reiterated his call for the occupied West Bank to be formally annexed, speaking at an event organised by a pro-settler news site. middleeastmonitor.com/

Israel to Coordinate with Google, YouTube, to Censor Palestinian Videos of Conflict

The Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, Tzipi Hotovely, held meetings with representatives of YouTube and Google to find ways of cooperating to censor Palestinian videos from occupied Palestine, videos she dubbed as “inciting violence and terrorism.” globalresearch.ca/

Now on Oracle’s Campus, a $43 Million Public High School

Tech companies ship all kinds of products to public schools: laptops, online writing programs, learn-to-code lessons and more. Now Oracle, the business software services giant, is trying the opposite tack: bringing a public charter school to the company. nytimes.com/

NEW TECHNOLOGY

Rise of the racist robots – how AI is learning all our worst impulses

There is a saying in computer science: garbage in, garbage out. When we feed machines data that reflects our prejudices, they mimic them – from antisemitic chatbots to racially biased software. Does a horrifying future await people forced to live at the mercy of algorithms? theguardian.com/

Breaking the Information Blockade: Labor, the Internet, Social Media and Communication Technology