When Mastercard sent the emergency card ydy they said cash could not be drawn at an ATM, but at any bank. Last night Mastercard supervisor Michael Monk phoned to apologise for the lack of service I had received and said I would have no problems with the card. Today before my Italian class at 8.30 […]
Charlene Smith
Charlene Smith is a multi-award-winning journalist, author and media consultant. She has had 14 books published, one of which was shortlisted for an Alan Paton award.
Television documentaries for which she has worked have also won awards.
She has worked as a broadcast journalist and radio-station manager. Smith's areas of expertise are politics, economics, women's and children's issues and HIV. She lives and works in Cambridge, USA.
Posted inBusiness
The lies they tell: Banks and travel insurance
Yest (Saturday) my purse was stolen @ Rome Termini shortly before I boarded a train for Salerno, Italy. I have no money + 5 biscuits until my Mastercard is replaced on Wednesday. I disc the theft on t train when I wanted to buy tea + a sandwich. By 11.13 my branch had stopped my […]
Posted inGender violence, Lifestyle
Finding sex
There are a number of unspokens in the most silent of crimes. The one is that most rapists experience erectile dysfunction, in other words they get it up but they can’t keep it up and that is when the person raped is in most danger because they will often become angry. Ananias Mathe, who is […]
Posted inGender violence
The odds are stacked against men
The odds are stacked against men. There are about 750 million sperm per ejaculate, yet only one sperm can fertilise the single egg a woman produces once a month. A male foetus is less likely to survive full-term pregnancy than a female, and boys are more likely to die in infancy. Boys are more likely to […]
Posted inGender violence, Lifestyle
How do we help children exposed to criminal violence?
How do you help children forced to watch while their mom is gangraped? Or a shy, teenage boy whose mother remains silent when a gang threatens to rape him unless she reveals the safe? (*see below for help organisations) Perhaps the more important question is why are there not massive campaigns in schools to help […]
Posted inGender violence, Lifestyle
Cows, Makarovs and the dangers of charming men
In Namibia the sentence for stealing a cow is higher than that for raping a woman. For the first offence both rape and theft of a cow carries a 10 year sentence but for second offenders rape carries a 15 years sentence while a person who steals a cow will go to jail for 30 […]
Posted inGender violence
No is not an acceptable answer
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which we celebrate on December 10, came at a time when the world was reeling under the devastation of a global war that had seen millions die. But the words from Nuremberg, “never again”, have shown we never learn. They were repeated a little over 40 years later after […]
Posted inGender violence, Lifestyle, News/Politics
It’s your attitude
If the world relied on politicians for meaningful progress we’d still be in animal skins hunting rabbits. Individuals have always driven real change. And you cannot do it by email petition or Facebook group. You have to get out of the office or your home and into the world, you have to make the time, […]
Posted inGender violence, News/Politics
Every 26 seconds a woman gets raped, it was my turn last Thursday night
Every 26 seconds in South Africa a woman gets raped, it was my turn last Thursday night. Before I began writing this I took AZT, 3TC and Crixivan — they are anti-retroviral drugs, they will hopefully help lessen the potential of me getting Aids from the rapist, assuming of course, that he is HIV positive. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Ignoring the math: Political folly from the US to SA
Whether in Kabul, London, Washington or Pretoria global leaders appear to believe that big mouth is more important than sound math. In South Africa only a small percentage of the populace pay tax, electricity bills or television licences, they are also the best educated and most productive part of the population and those most likely […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Sex, Semenya, steel balls and femininity
What makes a 100% woman? Pierre Weiss of the International Association of Athletics Federations has said “it is clear that (Caster Semenya) is a woman, but maybe not 100%”. What is a woman? We know that genetically all women carry a certain level of male chromosomes and all men carry a percentage of female chromosomes. […]
Posted inGeneral
The absent president, again, and arrogance of dominance
Jacob Zuma has been president for three months but where is he? We get the odd pic of him at the G8 uncomfortably returning a strong hand put out by US President Barack Obama but as yet he has shown no leadership. He worked so hard and waited so long for this job, surely he […]