In a three-part series on South Africa’s land question, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi takes a look at the colonial conquests that drove us here
Europe
Posted inNews/Politics
South Africa has never had a good government
The only time change has taken place, it is in response to global events such as World War II. This government faces the changes that the Covid-19 pandemic will bring
Posted inEquality, General, Health, Media, News/Politics
The resurgence of anti-Semitism
The spectre of anti-Semitism is once again stalking us, according to Vivienne Walt (TIME, July 1 2019, p. 33-37). Unbelievable, one might exclaim. Not really, and I’ll explain why – or rather, I’ll let Freud – one of the most original thinkers in history – explain why. But let’s look at the evidence for the […]
Posted inEnvironment, Equality, Gender violence, General, Health, News/Politics
The battle for America’s soul is also the battle for the world’s soul
Watching the tragicomedy playing itself out in America around the determined attempt on the part of Trump and the Republicans on the Senate, to appoint Brett Kavanaugh as lifetime judge on the panel of judges of the US Supreme Court, I had the uncanny feeling that this showdown between the forces of retrogressive neoconservatism and […]
Posted inEquality, General, Health, News/Politics
The decline of the American Empire
It is no exaggeration to say that America ain’t what it used to be. Several articles I have read recently indicate this, whether they focus on Trump’s disastrous presidency, on social or educational matters. One in particular caught my attention yesterday (see here), and another this morning (see here), both of which draw one’s attention […]
Posted inEnvironment, General
Our troubled world
A number of things have struck me since we arrived in Europe to attend a number of conferences, travelling from Ghent in Belgium through Munich in Germany to beautiful Venice in the Veneto of Italy, and they do not augur well for the future of human society or the planet. These range from observations in […]
Posted inEquality, General
An important conference for Afrikaans in Europe
Summer is a good time for attending conferences in Europe, and 2017 has proved to be no exception. This afternoon we had to brave a thunderstorm that would hold its own against any Highveld thunderstorm in South Africa, and that in Venice, Italy, just after our arrival here from München by bus. We were on […]
Posted inNews/Politics
A Le Pen victor in France!? Fault lines and the Future of the EU and Europe
As France undertakes its general elections this week, the world’s eyes will be on Marine Le Pen as concern grows about the future of the European Union (EU). Lingering insecurity, especially in the wake of the most recent terror attack on police on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, will have a marked effect on voter sentiments in […]
Posted inBusiness, General
Brexit, capital as meta-body, and mytochondria
So it did happen in the end. Brexit. Against expectations, judging by the polls immediately before the referendum on 23 June. But looking back, it is not surprising that it happened. Most of those voting to leave are older voters, whose emotional ties to a Britain before the “free movement” immigration from European Union countries […]
Posted inBusiness, General
Read Yanis Varoufakis’s “The Global Minotaur”!
Until recently, Yanis Varoufakis was the Greek Minister of Finance, who resigned after the Greek populace voted overwhelmingly against the imposition of more austerity measures against them in order to service the country’s crippling debt — resigned, because he believed that would give Alexis Tsipras, the prime minister, more negotiating space with the representatives of […]
Posted inBusiness
Greece: What you think you know may hurt you
“Nescience”. What a lovely word. It means not knowing. Looking at reactions to the Greek crisis, outside Greece, before and after a somewhat puzzling referendum makes me wish more people would accept the state of nescience on some issues. For me, the Greek tragedy presents a fascinating study of how politics and economics are inseparable. […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Living in present-day South Africa
I don’t believe in generalisations when it comes to experience, except in the natural sciences. In fact, philosopher Hans Reichenbach, in The Rise of Scientific Philosophy, goes so far as to claim that “generalisation” is what is distinctive about science – in the language of the philosophy of science, it is science’s “demarcation criterion”. Because […]