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IOL News
11 hours ago
- Politics
- IOL News
Civil society at G20 gathering: 'No democratic society with huge unemployed population'
C20 South Africa chairperson Thulani Tshefuta highlighted the group's role, not as adversaries of the government but as crucial partners who advocate for those most vulnerable in society. Image: Itumeleng English/Independent Newspapers With just over 23 weeks left before South Africa gets to host the G20 Summit in November this year, more than 14 working groups from diverse civil society organisations gathered at The Capital on the Park in Sandton as part of the C20 South Africa Launch on Sunday. Chairperson Thulani Tshefuta highlighted the group's role not as adversaries of the government but as crucial partners who advocate for those most vulnerable in society and emphasised the need for advocacy work to align with South Africa's medium term development plan and the United Nations' agenda for 2030. His call for a mass-based, people-centred approach resonated throughout the launch, pointing to the urgent need for comprehensive consultations that address the issues faced by communities across the country. "We are not anti-government as we have been labeled as friends of government. When we have to respond to the plight of the poor, we are told this is expensive we can't afford that, but ours is to press on. "'m not about to pretend when we do our advocacy at community level. our work must align with the medium development plan and the agenda 2030. Our strategic approach should be truly mass-based, people centred and imbued with awareness of our advocacy issues. The challenge is that we must rise above our immediate challenge and look at strategic development instruments, we must be big and wide in our consultation," he said. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad Loading The 14 working groups include Women and Gender Equity, People to people interaction and Solidarity, Poverty Alleviation and Food Sustainability, Democratic governance, Civic Space, Anti-Corruption and Access to Justice, Cultural Diversity Recognition and Embracement, Trade and Sustainable Development, Digital and Inclusive Economies, Sustainable and Resilient Communities and Disaster Risk Reduction. These working groups also include four themes that include youth empowerment, addressing issues affecting women, meaningful inclusion of persons with disabilities and ensuring that LGBTQI+ people are not left behind. Tshefuta said intentional actions are needed to reverse the tide of poverty and unemployment, adding that this cannot be done without active market policies. "There will be no democratic society with such a huge population which is unemployed and idle. Poverty is real. Poverty is alive. There are people we refer to as being vulnerable, but we say nothing anything about those who are fully marginalised. It is a struggle to keep them surviving in the marginst," he said.
BBC News
06-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Muslims in Belfast gather to celebrate Eid al-Adha
Thousands of Muslims in Northern Ireland have gathered in south Belfast to celebrate Eid said about 4,000 people were expected to attend the event at a sports centre on al-Adha, one of the main festivals in the Islamic calendar alongside Eid al-Fitr, will be marked in the UK between Friday and chair of the Belfast Islamic Centre, Mohammed Arshed, said there was no doubt that the Muslim community in Northern Ireland is growing. "I remember the days when there were very few people over here, but now it's such a large community," he said."We are part of the local community - I think immigrants contribute to the economy at large and I think they are a good asset for the country as a whole." Pashmina Kashif, the secretary of the Belfast Islamic Centre, said it was getting harder to secure a venue large enough to accommodate an Eid celebration."Because the community is so big we try to accommodate everyone but sometimes it's not possible," he said. "It's a happy occasion, it's a celebration. "Our community is so diverse - I am from Pakistan, there are people from Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia, all over the world."There are over 42 different nationalities and this is the day that brings everyone together, regardless of their background, their culture, their language." 'A global celebration' Faiz Mohammad Faisal, a student at Queen's University Belfast, said it was a global celebration."To be able to do it here in Belfast, with so many thousands of people from different cultures, nationalities, it's really special," he said."You just see and meet so many people from different parts of the world."
CBC
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Regina sisters embrace Ukrainian dancing at Mosaic and Japanese language at home
This story is part of a series from CBC Saskatchewan featuring four stories from the 15 pavilions that are part of Mosaic 2025. For more, visit our Mosaic home page. When audience members watch the Ukrainian dancers at this year's Mosaic festival, they may be forgiven for assuming that the dancers all speak just English or Ukrainian. But Kiko and Maya Malnyk have the heritages they've inherited from both their parents — learning Ukrainian folk dances from their father's side and speaking Japanese with their Japanese-born mother. "I sometimes think that maybe I'm a little bit special …because not a lot of people are just part Japanese and part Ukrainian," 11-year-old Kiko said. That's something their mother said she tries to get her two daughters to understand and appreciate. "I just keep telling them that they're lucky. They're just lucky that they have so many opportunities to learn," said Izumi Kanayama, adding they get to grow up in Canada and try things like Ukrainian dancing, but also get regular opportunities to visit her own home country of Japan. The girls' father, Chris Malnyk, has also seen how diverse the Ukrainian dancers are, bringing together people who don't necessarily have Ukrainian ethnicity or background. "There's quite a few people from Japan who are involved in it, at least three families," said Malnyk, adding that he could hear Japanese spoken at rehearsals at times. "It's really kind of unique and not what I would have expected going to a Ukrainian dance school. It's been multi-ethnic." A blending of cultures Kanayama was born and raised in Japan before coming to Canada in 1995 to learn English and staying on to study economics. It was at the University of Regina that she met her husband through mutual friends. She exclusively speaks Japanese with her daughters so that they can communicate with their Japanese grandparents and extended family. "When they were little, I was just speaking to them in Japanese only. So we didn't do much writing or read that much, but then they just picked it up," Kanayama said. In addition to their Ukrainian dancing, both girls attend Japanese language classes on Saturdays, and even sit to eat meals at a kotatsu, the traditional low table. "We usually eat traditional Japanese food," said Kiko. "I really like it." Both parents feel that their children are fortunate to be able to see and embrace both sides of their cultural heritage. Kanayama said she wants her children to see it gives them opportunities other people may not have, and will help them become kind and productive humans.
SBS Australia
03-06-2025
- General
- SBS Australia
"It's a step in the right direction" New multicultural office established
With a new Multicultural Affairs Minister in place, there's a new office to come with it. Anne Aly will be the Minister responsible for the Office for Multicultural Affairs, after being elevated into cabinet last month. "It's going to be an office within the Department of Home Affairs that is specifically focused on the multicultural interests for Australia." Programs like the Adult Migrant English Program, grants for humanitarian entrants and other eligible migrants and communities, as well as translation and interpreting services, and multicultural affairs policy are expected to be part of the office, although exactly what's included will be confirmed in the coming weeks. The office is expected to start operating before the new parliament sits in late July. The plan falls short of an urgent recommendation made to the government last year, to establish a standalone Department of Multicultural Affairs, Immigration and Citizenship with a dedicated minister. Chair for the Multicultural Framework Review, and Chair of the Australian Multicultural Foundation, is Hass Dellal. "It's not the full recommendation of a dedicated department that included immigration and citizenship as well, but however, this is a step in the right direction. The fact that we have an office now that's being established that sits within cabinet that will have the ear of the Prime Minister and cabinet itself. And I think that's an important feature that wasn't there before." Last year's review raised concerns about the Department of Home Affairs, with communities feeling like they were being monitored or managed, rather than supported. Since then, the department has been expanded to include additional law enforcement and security agencies, with the Australian Federal Police and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation moved into Home Affairs after the election. Dr Dellal says the government must ensure there is separation from those operations in the department. "It's really important to ensure that, although it is sitting within Home Affairs that we ensure that there is more of an inclusive approach and more celebratory approach, rather than giving the feeling or the sense that there is an approach of monitoring or creating marginalisation." Alongside the security and enforcement agencies, the Home Affairs department is responsible for immigration, citizenship, border control and enforcement, offshore detention, cyber crime, and counter terrorism. Dr Aly says there have been long standing concerns about how diaspora communities are treated. "We've heard those concerns from multicultural communities, and I must say, you know, I heard those concerns before I was a member of parliament as a professor and a researcher. It's something that I've written about myself and expressed my own concerns about that securitisation of multicultural communities and securitisation of Multicultural Affairs. That's why we've established this office to carve out Multicultural Affairs and to give it a spotlight within the department and within the caucus and within the government more generally as well." Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke will still hold the Immigration and Citizenship portfolios. Dr Aly says she wants to change how multicultural issues are viewed. "For too long, multiculturalism has been about citizenship and immigration. I want to make multiculturalism about all Australians. I want to make all Australians proud of our multicultural character, our multicultural nature. I want it to be more than about celebrating diversity. I want it to be about valuing diversity in all its forms. And this is the opportunity to do that." The multicultural program in the Department of Home Affairs almost exclusively focused on social cohesion and the Israel/Hamas war during Labor's first term. Since the start of war in 2023, more than $30 million in grants for 'community funding to support social cohesion initiatives' have been awarded. Anthony Albanese also created a special envoy for social cohesion last year, although the role will not continue in the new Parliament. Dr Aly says she respects the need for social cohesion. "Social cohesion, I believe, is a worthwhile pursuit in its own right, and we should pursue social cohesion. We should be vigilant about social cohesion." But says the combination of the two issues has impacted multicultural communities. "Multiculturalism isn't solely about social cohesion and multicultural communities aren't solely responsible for social cohesion. Social Cohesion is about everybody. Making multicultural communities solely and wholly responsible for social cohesion, I think, has added to that perception of multicultural communities being over securitised, being responsible for things like social cohesion"
Malay Mail
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Malay Mail
Met reopens African art wing with 500 works, explores complexity of sub-Saharan cultures
NEW YORK, May 30 — From a delicate 13th-century clay figure to self-portraits by photographer Samuel Fosso, New York's Metropolitan Museum reopens its African art collection today, exploring the "complexity" of the past and looking to the present. After a four-year renovation with a US$70 million price tag, the reopening of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing comes amid heated debate over the representation of cultural diversity in Western museums and the return of works to their countries of origin. The reopening should be "an opportunity to recognize that the achievements of artists in this part of the world (sub-Saharan Africa) are equal to those of other major world traditions," Alisa LaGamma, the Met's curator for African art, told AFP. In a spacious gallery bathed in light, visitors are greeted by a monumental Dogon sculpture -- "a heroic figure, likely a priest," LaGamma explained. Next to it sits a clay sculpture of a curled body from the ancient city of Djenne-Djenno, in present-day Mali, which is believed to be one of the oldest pieces in the collection, dating back to the 13th century. Complex history The exhibit does not present the works of sub-Saharan Africa as a single unit, but in chapters to better distinguish between the various cultures. "We don't want people to oversimplify their understanding of an incredibly complex history," LaGamma said. "There are over 170 different cultures represented among the 500 works of African art on display," she pointed out. "That gives you a sense of how many different stories there are to tell in this presentation." The museum wing, which also displays arts of Oceania and the "ancient Americas" — prior to European colonization — opened in 1982 after former Republican vice president and philanthropist Nelson Rockefeller donated his monumental collection. It is named for his son. "This is a collection that was formed essentially following independence in a lot of what were new nations across sub-Saharan Africa," LaGamma said. "It doesn't have necessarily the heavy weight of a collection that was formed under colonialism," she said, hinting at the pressure faced by many museums to respond to questions about the origins of works on display. African Spirits A third of the works shown here were newly acquired. The museum was thus able to benefit from a donation of thousands of photographs from the renowned Arthur Walther collection. Among the vast trove of pieces donated is a 2008 series of self-portraits entitled "African Spirits" by Fosso, a Cameroonian-Nigerian photographer. Among Africa's leading photographers, Fosso poses as major figures in African independence and civil rights struggles, from Congolese independence leader and first prime minister Patrice Lumumba, to Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X. Through around a dozen films directed by Ethiopian-American artist Sosena Solomon, visitors can also explore iconic cultural sites across the continent, like Tsodilo rock paintings in Botswana, the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela and Tigray in Ethiopia, and the tombs of Buganda kings at Kasubi in Uganda. "In an art museum like this, it is important that rock paintings should be reflected," said Phillip Segadika, chief curator for archeology and monuments at Botswana's national museum, in residence at the Met to participate in the project. "It tells us that what we are seeing today, whether it's in European art, medieval art, whatever — it has a history, it also has an antiquity." — AFP
