Search results for: First Focus

Paradigm-shifting elections don't shift paradigms if there aren't corresponding social movements for change.By VIVIEN LABATON AND GARA LAMARCHE  One thing we now know with certainty, more than two years into Barack Obama's presidency, is that change is an uphill battle. We're already defending hard-won gains on health care…

Interview by Jacob SimasEDITOR'S NOTE: Schools across the nation are increasingly adopting punitive measures as a way to control and deter violence and other disruptive behaviors. These “zero-tolerance” policies can encompass anything from metal detectors to increased police presence on school campuses to the handing…

By Gara LaMarcheIt is too early to know whether the current wave of school reforms will lead to lasting improvements in student achievement. But it is not too early to note that many of these reforms have a troubling consequence: a doubling-down on harsh, ineffective zero-tolerance…

 Night and a Day in QueenstownPosted by Gara LaMarche  | 18 March 2011, South AfricaAs Jack has chronicled, we arrived in Queenstown, the final leg of our journey in the Eastern Cape, in the dark, around 7 p.m.  This was a problem for two reasons.  First, we’d…

By Louis Freedberg.  Two of the state’s largest districts are undergoing a major expansion of health centers on school campuses after promised help from Sacramento never came.To build new facilities, Oakland and Los Angeles are tapping a combination of voter-approved bond money, fees from Medi-Cal…

When Lynne Winfield first came to Bermuda to work from England, she walked right into a secretarial job. She assumed she was the most qualified person for the job, and the words “white privilege” never crossed her mind.Today, she is outgoing president of the organisation…

The Civil Society Conference held on 27-28 October 2010 was a historic turning point in the history of South Africa. Over 300 delegates from 56 mass-based civil society organisations, with a combined membership of millions of South Africans, came together to rebuild a strong, mass…

29th September 2010:  President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, attended the Tallaght Stadium today to mark the success of the Tallaght West Childhood Development Initiative, which will support more than 2,000 children through its innovative programmes by 2011. The €15million initial phase of the project has…

FRANNY RABKINSA’s political tumult loomed large at Liliesleaf Farm in Johannesburg on Thursday as a group of business, legal and intellectual leaders came together to form a new civil society body to promote the constitution and guard against what the Congress of South African Trade…

When you have as much money as Bill Gates, you have to work damn hard to get rid of it. At least if you want to disposeof it wisely. So in May the Microsoft founder, whose fortune is estimated at $53 billion (¤40 billion), was…