Kristin Palitza is a freelance journalist, editor, media consultant and trainer. She writes in-depth African features for the South African, German and UK print media, covering socio-politics, health, lifestyle and wildlife.
She lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa, but is available for assignments anywhere on the continent.
+27 72 287 2202 kristin@iburst.co.za
A little while ago, I was interviewed by podcaster Tony Lankester about the ins and outs of blogging - as one of the contributors to the Mail & Guardian Thought Leader blog. Click here to listen to the podcast.
Saturday, June 20, 2009 at 10:50AM Inter Press Service | 19 Jun 2009
Kristin Palitza interviews MAHMOOD MAMDANI, professor of anthropology and political science
CAPE TOWN, Jun 19 (IPS) - Analysing the colonial and historical roots of the violence in Darfur, Mahmood Mamdani concludes that the crisis in Darfur is not genocide, but a fight for land, triggered by drought, which has been racialised by outside powers.
Friday, June 12, 2009 at 08:37AM Inter Press Service | 11 June 2009
By Kristin Palitza
CAPE TOWN, Jun 11 (IPS) - African economic experts at the World Economic Forum on Africa have called for a regional approach to the global financial crisis, but South Africa - the continent’s strongest economy - does not want to play ball.
South African minister of trade and industry, Rob Davies, believes strict trade policies, regulation and export to developed countries are the most suitable mechanisms to protect the South African economy.
Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 09:16AM Inter Press Service | 10 Jun 2009
By Kristin Palitza
CAPE TOWN, Jun 10 (IPS) - The global financial crisis has taught African governments a lesson. More than ever, they recognise the need to diversify their countries’ mining operations as a key defence against economic instability and cyclical swings.
Monday, May 18, 2009 at 03:55PM Inter Press Service | 18 May 2009
By Kristin Palitza
CAPE TOWN, May 18 (IPS) - International donors and African governments are likely to cut health budgets due to the global financial crisis. Health experts fear that increasing unemployment and poverty will lead to less food security and quality of nutrition, which will in turn put more stress on already weak health systems.
The implications, warns a newly-released World Bank report, could be grave.
Saturday, April 25, 2009 at 01:38PM Inter Press Service | 24 Apr 2009
by Kristin Palitza
DURBAN, Apr 24 (IPS) - Gender activists are calling on the new South African government to improve the country’s gender legislation. Current gender policies focus on women, ignoring the rights, roles and responsibility of men and boys, they say.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 04:16PM Inter Press Service | 20 Apr 2009
by Kristin Palitza
DURBAN, Apr 20 (IPS) - Hundreds of traders at the Early Morning market in Durban fear the municipality’s plans to turn the area into an upscale shopping mall that will cost them their livelihoods. The redevelopment is one of many currently underway in South Africa’s urban centres to upgrade city infrastructure for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
Monday, April 13, 2009 at 12:15PM Mail & Guardian | 9 Apr 2009
By Kristin Palitza
The HI virus is reversing strides Namibia has made in improving children's health. The country was well on its way to reducing child mortality, but over the past decade the pandemic has annulled previous gains.
Thursday, April 2, 2009 at 09:19AM Inter Press Service | 1 Apr 2009
By Kristin Palitza
DURBAN, Apr 1 (IPS) - Researchers are now investigating if antiretroviral (ARV) drugs can play a role in not just treating HIV, but in preventing infection. Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), called it "a pivotal moment in HIV/AIDS research".
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 07:27AM Inter Press Service | 23 Mar 2009
By Kristin Palitza
LUSAKA, MAR 23 (IPS) - Parliamentarians across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have failed to put HIV on the political agenda.
"Considering SADC is at the epicentre of the HIV pandemic, not enough is being done to address it. HIV has a very negative impact on [the region’s] development," lamented SADC Parliamentary Forum secretary general Dr. Kasuko Mutukwa at a media briefing in Zambia’s capital Lusaka on Mar. 18.
Thursday, March 12, 2009 at 08:57AM Inter Press Service | 11 Mar 2009
Kristin Palitza interviews BILLY KAHORA, editor of Kenyan literary journal Kwani?
DURBAN, Mar 11 (IPS) - The goal is ambitious: Kenya’s first literary journal, Kwani?, wants to bring new thinking to the country - and ultimately the continent - and reshape African identities. The journal aims to provoke, create, entertain and develop a literary community that isn’t afraid to question the status quo.
Friday, February 27, 2009 at 10:12AM Mail & Guardian | 27 Feb - 5 Mar 2009
Solutions to a rising food crisis in Southern African countries are becoming more elusive, writes Kristin Palitza
What’s the price tag on hunger? A whopping $30 billion. That’s what’s needed each year to feed the world’s 5.7 million starving people – a number that’s expected to grow to eight billion within the next four decades.
Friday, February 27, 2009 at 08:24AM Inter Press Service | 27 Feb 2009
By Kristin Palitza
ROME, Feb 26 (IPS) - Organic and eco-friendly farming can feed the world, contrary to the common belief that biotechnology and chemical-intensive farming are indispensable, modern strategies to increase production, agricultural experts say.
Thursday, February 26, 2009 at 09:45AM NGO Pulse | February 2009
By Kristin Palitza
Six months after the violent attacks against foreign nationals in South Africa have ebbed down, xenophobia has become a topic that is little discussed in the public sphere. Yet, human rights activists are well aware that the underlying issues that caused the violence have not been solved but continue to bubble beneath the surface.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 06:52PM Inter Press Service | 24 Feb 2009
By Kristin Palitza
ROME, Feb 24 (IPS) - Almost five million children under the age of five die of malnutrition every year in the developing world. Food aid – which mainly contains nutrient-poor carbohydrates - does little to address the absence of a diverse diet that would prevent the condition.
Monday, February 23, 2009 at 03:14PM Panos | January 2009
By Kristin Palitza
Durban, South Africa (2010 Features): "When I was growing up, I understood manhood to mean that the woman has no say in the relationship, no matter if this regards day-to-day decisions or decisions around sexuality," says Zithulele Dlakavu.
Dlakavu grew up in a South Africa where the man is King. Where culture dictates and supports men having multiple sexual relationships and refusing to practice safer sex.
But that is now in the past –- at least for Dlakavu.
Saturday, December 27, 2008 at 05:39PM Inter Press Service | 25 Dec 2008
By Kristin Palitza
MTHATHA, South Africa, Dec 25 (IPS) - Sonwabo Qathula puts on his apron and starts peeling a pile of butternuts, while a pot of rice boils on the stove next to him. The 50-year-old is preparing lunch for poor and orphaned children who attend a rural school in the Eastern Cape.
When the meal is ready, he dishes out the food and serves it to the boys and girls. Later, he collects the empty plates and washes the dishes.
Monday, December 22, 2008 at 08:25AM Inter Press Service | 15 Dec 2008
Kristin Palitza interviews Gertrude Matsebe and Louiza Duncker, Sustainable Human Settlement group, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)
PRETORIA, Dec 15 (IPS) - Sanitation is a key element of health, and hygiene a basic need for survival. Yet, millions of South Africans, especially those living in rural areas, do not have access to basic services, such as clean, running water and sanitary toilet systems.
Monday, December 22, 2008 at 08:23AM Inter Press Service | 18 Nov 2008
By Kristin Palitza
BAMAKO, Nov 18 (IPS) - Health systems on the continent are riddled with inadequate policies, strategies, lack of institutional capacity, poor scientific review mechanisms and weak funding for research in the public and private sector, said Luis Sambo, regional director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Africa.
Monday, December 22, 2008 at 08:19AM Sawubona | November 2008
By Kristin Palitza
As we walk along a narrow trail through dense acacia forest, we hear the distinct 'tok-tok-tokking’ call of the Purple-Crested Lourie. Our guide, Mdu, motions us to pause, so we wait quietly and soon see the vivid-coloured bird bounding along the overhead branches.
Monday, December 22, 2008 at 08:17AM Inter Press Service | 7 Nov 2008
Kristin Palitza interviews PETER DRAPER, South African Institute of International Affairs
JOHANNESBURG, Nov 7 (IPS) - Countries around the world aim to eradicate poverty and hunger by 2015 as one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
With only seven years left to the deadline, Peter Draper, head of the Development Through Trade Programme of the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), highlights the importance of linking domestic and regional trade policies to developmental strategies as a step towards poverty alleviation.