Posted inGeneralLifestyle

I won’t take money for my socks!

“I won’t take money from you for my socks!” the sock lady cries, “Take them! They’re yours for free”. “No ways, you’re crazy,” I mutter in Chinese. She is shaking her hand at me, palm raised in the classic Han Chinese gesture for NO. (This was like waving a red flag at a bull in […]

Posted inLifestyle

We’ll need two planets by 2030

At the beginning of his latest book, Treading Softly: Paths to Ecological Order, American ecological scholar Thomas Princen quotes from the Living Planet Report of 2008: “Our global [ecological] footprint now exceeds the world’s capacity to regenerate by about 30%. If our demands on the planet continue at the same rate, by the mid-2030s we […]

Posted inLifestyle

My moment of truth

By Zandile Manana The fourth session of the Qiniso Dialogues took place in the backdrop of the announcement of a referendum in Greece, which left the world guessing on the future of that country and implications for the eurozone. As the radio debate ensued in the background on the morning of November 4, my mind […]

Posted inLifestyle

No politics as usual

Here’s a question for you. When was the last time you heard a political hip-hop track done by a South African artist? I can’t speak for other genres here — try as I might, I cannot bring myself to listen to the entire ouevre of Locnville — but when it comes to hip-hop, I can […]

Posted inLifestyle

Things I am curious about in this city

Joburg skyline in lipstick Sacks that look like dead animals lying in the road until you get closer. Why diners in restaurants and coffee shops started asking waiters for “the machine”. Whether, if I take Jan Smuts Avenue to get to my appointment, I would have got there faster than if I’d used the highway. […]