Pambazuka News: "Reading recent dispatches from Kenya, I was pleased to notice that the Times has responded to years of complaints about the biased terms 'tribe' and 'tribal,' replacing them with 'ethnic group' and 'ethnic.' This editorial policy, however, seems to be confined to the news. Roberta Smith's article 'Face Time: Masks, Animal to Video' in the Arts Section on Jan. 11 uses the egregiously offensive phrase 'a tribal, almost animalistic ritual.' It is exactly that equation that makes it necessary to remove 'tribe' and its related words. In the case in question, removing 'tribal' would have put the focus on 'animalistic' without designating Africans as inherently animalistic. It is particularly odd to find such a cliché in a discussion of the work of Yinka Shonibare, a highly sophisticated, learned, and ironic artist."
The World Cup football tournament kicks off in one week, and host South Africa is busy putting on the finishing touches. But not everyone is looking forward to the tournament. Authorites in cities including Cape Town are being accused of clearing the poor from the streets - to create a good impression for visiting fans. Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa has more.