Is this a good idea ?

South Africa is thinking of legalising prostitution during next year’s World Cup to limit HIV infection among visiting fans.

It poses just a few questions : does short-term legalisation work ?

If it does, why not do it for South Africans, and not just foreigners ? 

and why not spend the money on AIDS awareness instead ?

On air: Shoot first, ask questions later…

Many of you have been talking about South African president Jacob Zuma’s move to let police shoot even if criminals haven’t fired first. We’ll be discussing this on tonight’s programme.

50 people a day are murdered in South Africa. Zuma told station commanders :

“We have an abnormal criminal problem, for that we have to explore extraordinary means”

On air: Are white South Africans victims of racism?

Brandon Huntley is 31 years old and South African. And he doesn’t live in his home country. He lives in Canada where he’s been granted refugee status after a series of muggings that he says were racially motivated. The tribunal panel chair William Davis found “that the claimant was a victim because of his race (white South African) rather than a victim of criminality.”

The ANC’s none too impressed and has labelled the decision ‘racist’ and says it will further ‘perpetuate racism’. The case’s been rapidly picked up online – here’s a Facebook group for him, and against him.

Rape : South Africa’s shame.

South Africa is a democratic country with a proud tradition of overcoming apartheid and struggling for human rights.

 So why does it have such a high incidence of rape?

 I’m Jerry from Newshour and we’ll be talking about this later today.

Why are we covering the topic this week?

South African township reporters

Next week on the World Service, Your Story will be presenting citizen reporters telling the story of the South African elections and the issues that matter to them. Asanda Booi was brought up to believe in the ANC, but has concerns about the leader, and doesn’t know who to vote for. Thamsanqa ‘Lucky’ Gadi Siko says his passion is to help his community, and has started up an organisation to do what he says the politicians aren’t – give hope to the youth. Lenny Mkhize lives in a wooden shack on the Joe Slovo informal settlement. The government built him a house, but it was so badly done he still hasn’t moved in. Read their stories on the Your Story blog.

Talking Points 15 August

Goodmorning, it’s Karnie…sorry about the delay..my computer’s been playing up!!

Thanks Mike, Brett, Steve and Will for stepping in at the last minute to moderate the blog..

By 2042 whites in the United States will be outnumbered by other racial groups due to significantly higher birth rates among immigrants. Several states, including California and Texas, have already reached the point where members of minorities are in the majority. The change will have far-reaching consequences for politics in the United States, pushing immigration and social reform to the top of the agenda.

The refugee camp in Africa’s richest city

This is Simon, who’s editing today’s show. We’ve broadcast WHYS from all sorts of places but Tuesday’s show looks like it could be one of the most chaotic venues. It’s the Central Methodist Church in down-town Johannesburg. You can see our pictures of it here, and news stories about it here. This is what I’ve seen of it over the past few days….

Zimbabwe: Mandela’s shame?

NB: Jon wrote this before Mr Mandela made his comments last night..
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So Nelson Mandela turns 90 this week. But as he celebrates his birthday he’s facing growing criticism for failing to take a stand over Robert Mugabe’s regime in Zimbawe. Some people are even calling it Mandela’s shame . Should he be ashamed? Or it is fair enough, given that he’s long retired from political life?

Talking Points for 27 May

Hello, It’s Priya with a few ideas for what we might do today… any comments or suggestions are welcome. Thanks Abdul in Oregon for moderating this page overnight.

First, there is something of theme developing surrounding the protection of children.

Talking Points for 20 May

Goodmorning..It’s Karnie…

Thank you to Brett in Virginia for looking after the blog overnight.  Will has mentioned one story we’re likely to discuss…more about that in a bit, first up though, a story that Ros mentioned last night which have many of you already engaged.  MPs here in the UK will vote today to lower the limit on abortion.  The current limit is 24 weeks.  In this country 200, 000 women a year have abortions.