Posted inBusinessEnvironmentGeneralLifestyleNews/Politics

Things aren’t alright

I’ve been writing for Thought Leader for roughly two years, and consistently on the same types of issues. I write about consumerism, “affluenza”, climate change, environmental degradation, oil and coal addiction, and the politics of eating meat — and after each piece, when I go through the comments, I’m left with the same overwhelming feeling: […]

Posted inLifestyle

My year of panic

Yesterday I spotted Nianell, the singer, on the front page of a magazine with revelations of her panic attacks and depression. It’s interesting how many celebrity depression stories are running these days, usually in You and Huisgenoot. There once was a time when nobody would come out of the depression closet, but now it’s much […]

Posted inLifestyle

Has ‘friend’ become meaningless?

“Blah blah fishpaste,” a friend said to me the other day. It’s the sort of thing I write in this blog all the time, but it’s starting to worry me. Who gets to be a friend these days? Does saying that you are “friends” with somebody have any meaning now that you can have 5 000 […]

Posted inLifestyle

Rich, white and crazy

The suburban landscape of Pretoria East is dotted with a spattering of rugged, rocky hills that overlook the city bowl, rising up from a plain crisscrossed with strip malls and chain franchises. During a recent trip to the area to visit some friends, I noticed that these little hills have become the sites of affluent […]

Posted inBusinessLifestyle

76 airbags and 11 885 words…

So what do you think about Top Gear — the BBC’s motoring show featuring the irrepressible Jeremy Clarkson and his two much-abused sidekicks? The programme is irreverent and boorish, it’s offensive, it’s insensitive to the feelings of minorities and, ultimately, it has little to do with mainstream motoring journalism because Clarkson and company never let […]

Posted inLifestyle

My unfortunate weakness for Interesting Men

I have a weakness for interesting men. Sadly, 90% of the people I meet — male and female — are horrifically boring. I’d imagine they’d say the same of me; one person’s fascinatingly entertaining friend is another’s eye-stabbingly dull social chore. But the problem remains that I find it very hard to find men who […]