Justyna Kajta
Public financing is contributing to the rise of the far right in Poland. In May 2021 the country’s Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sports announced the results of a competition for funding cultural and scientific periodicals. More magazines with a right-wing, conservative, nationalist or Catholic stance receiving funds than left-wing or liberal-oriented ones. One of the beneficiaries is Poland’s National Social Institute, which publishes ‘National Politics’ (
Polityka Narodowa), described by Press magazine as ‘a quarterly journal of nationalists associated with the National Movement and All-Polish Youth’.
The National Social Institute also received funds from the Civic Organisation Development Programme, organized by another public institution, the National Freedom Institute Centre for Civil Society Development. The latter presents itself as the first executive agency in the history of Poland responsible for supporting civil society, public ben
In Poland, public funding is given to those threatening liberal democracy opendemocracy.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from opendemocracy.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
South Africa has a drinking problem and addressing it is not a short-term project. It’s a matter of mindset and culture, and the Band-Aid of a temporary alcohol ban does nothing to address it, and perhaps only serves to strengthen the causes of the petty bureaucrats and authoritarians, writes
Jacques Rousseau.
President Cyril Ramaphosa reinstated a ban on the sale of alcohol at both restaurants and retail outlets on December 28 2020, and that ban is still in place today, with an end-date to be determined by the whims of the National Coronavirus Command Council.
Two background points: South Africa has a very unhealthy relationship with alcohol. We drink a lot, and we die on the roads a lot, whether behind the wheel or stumbling into oncoming traffic. Futhermore, alcohol has historically been used (and still is, although in increasingly rare/marginal cases) as a mechanism to buttress racial injustice in our wine industry, even though the “dop system” (where farm workers a