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RedditIn South Africa, the only country in the world where people's right to water is actually written into the Constitution, the townships surrounding cities like Johannesburg and Durban have become hotbeds of resistance to water privatization. More than 10 million residents have had their water cut off since the government implemented a World Bank-inspired "cost recovery" program (which makes availability dependent on a company's ability to recover its costs plus a profit)--something that never happened in the worst days of apartheid. More than 100,000 people in Kwazulu-Natal province became ill with cholera recently after water and sanitation services to local communities were cut off for nonpayment.
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Fathers and Sons
Joseph H. Cooper: A teacher discovers that sixty years after its publication, Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country still stirs deep emotions about fathers and errant sons.
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Can Soccer Stop the Violence?
Dave Zirin: In South Africa ethnic violence against foreigners is beginning to spread and the growing voice of opposition comes from an unlikely source--soccer stars.
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Water Warriors
Maude Barlow: Not everyone considers access to water to be a human right. A global water justice movement is changing that notion.
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Energy Lessons from South Africa
Nicholas von Hoffman: South Africa's growth rate is outstripping its ability to generate electricity. There's a message here for us.
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Foes
William Deresiewicz: J.M. Coetzee, now out with a new novel and a collection of essays, reminds us what a master he is at turning life into narrative.
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Revenants
Laila Lalami: In South African writer Zakes Mda's fiction, the past hovers like a ghost--seductive and terrifying.
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South Africa's Winter of Discontent
William Johnson: As the gap widens between rich and poor, millions of black workers are challenging African National Congress rule. How did a victory against apartheid turn into class war?
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Water Warriors
Maude Barlow: Not everyone considers access to water to be a human right. A global water justice movement is changing that notion.
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Fight-Back in Bolivia
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Water Apartheid
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Who Owns Water?
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The Fight for the Americas
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