Posted inNews/Politics

Amend the Information Bill

The debate about the Secrecy Bill has shifted a little, from “OMG, what were they thinking” to a more nuanced discussion about what outcomes the civil-society coalition really want on the bill. This is less fun than the first debate, which was a love in where everyone agreed with everyone else, that something must be […]

Posted inGeneral

Crime and empowerment

I met a really interesting Syrian football fan in Nature’s Valley in the Western Cape during the World Cup. His way of avoiding the apparently terrifying crime In South Africa was simple — he stayed in the Valley, in a tent to start with, and then moved to a chalet when he realised winter in […]

Posted inMedia

That cartoon

Rape. It is a hard thing to think about, and not usually the subject of cartoons. Did the Zapiro cartoon cross the line? And what is that line, anyway? I don’t think it crossed the line. Michael Trapido thinks it did, and argues (in his blog “Will Mondli fire Zapiro?”) that it did so for […]

Posted inMediaNews/Politics

Games over, free Tibet

‘Games over, Free Tibet’ is one of the really good slogans coming out of the Free Tibet campaign. The campaign has got a lot of press recently. Mostly, of course, because of the useful insistence of the Chinese on parading the Olympic flame through cities in which there are a bunch of Tibetan exiles and […]

Posted inLifestyle

A pleasure to visit this library

So, you are all feeling a little glum, it seems. Between the Zimbabwe elections turning into a farce, our president denying that he said there wasn’t a crisis, the Scorpions being sent packing with their collective tails between their legs, food and fuel prices going up, the interest rate going up, and the general lack […]