Has porn been proved to cause sexual violence, as they claim? No. Does our Bill of Rights enshrine freedom of expression? Yes. And has DStv put systems in place to prevent children from accessing its adult channels? That would be another yes.
Author: Jacques Rousseau
FSI Conference 2010: Call for papers
Announcement and call for papers for the 2010 conference of the Free Society Institute.
Giving freedom the finger
In a recent interview, President Jacob Zuma expresses regret that, contrary to the urgings of Mandela for us to live in harmony, we have “not taken that discussion further”. But it is untrue that the discussion in question has become dormant. In the context of the divisive rhetoric emanating from some quarters of his party,… Continue reading Giving freedom the finger
The NILC calls on us to forgive Zuma
In a press release dated February 8, the National Interfaith Leadership Council (NILC) has called on us to forgive Zuma and move on as a nation. A response, written in my personal capacity, can be found here.
Inaugural conference: video’s of presentations
Recordings of the speakers at the inaugural conference (in no particular order) are available for download – sorry that it took so long for me to put these up. Please consult the programme before downloading any of these, as you may only want to watch some of them. The files are in .ogg format –… Continue reading Inaugural conference: video’s of presentations
Religion education in SA schools
The topic of religion education in South African public schools has recently been quite a hot issue – mostly in the Afrikaans papers – following Prof. George Claassen’s article about the topic on his blog and follow-up radio interviews and the like. To put it quite plainly, certain schools are clearly in violation of the… Continue reading Religion education in SA schools
Radio, September 22
Here is a recording of a brief radio interview following the publication of Goblins and Gobbledegook last week (10MB, mp3): JoziFM
Goblins and gobbledegook
A FSI response to the Morne Harmse sentence was published in The Star (14 September) – read it here (pdf, 405kb). The op-ed also appeared in the Durban Mercury and the Cape Argus.
The National Interfaith Leadership Council
A FSI response to this story from the Mail and Guardian (11 September 2009): Morally complex issues deserve careful consideration, rather than resolutions by appeal to tradition, prejudice or superstition. This is why we find professional ethicists on bioethics committees, and why insights from disciplines such as evolutionary psychology and moral philosophy need to be… Continue reading The National Interfaith Leadership Council
Conference feedback
Yesterday, around 30 (mostly) humanists gathered for an all-day conference to launch the Free Society Institute (photographs). The event was, to my mind, a qualified success – we experienced plenty of enthusiasm and robust debate, which unfortunately sometimes needed to be curtailed due to what was perhaps too packed a programme. There are legitimate concerns… Continue reading Conference feedback