Thought Leader

Revolutionary

16 November 2018 Avishkar Govender

I take great exception to larceny. It is something that just irritates me. Then again sarcasm also irritates me, and for what its worth I don’t think that highly of narcissism either. Notice that all three of these words: larceny, sarcasm and narcissism have the letters ~arc~ in the middle of them. That must mean…

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How (virtual) ‘speed’ has changed our way of life

13 November 2018 Bert Olivier

Paul Virilio is a very important, if unusual, thinker. An architect and philosopher, his work has transformed the way people think about the relationship between speed (or acceleration), visuality (or visual culture), technology, the military, and the distinctive mode of existence of people in the early 21st century. This is how Virilio expresses the links…

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Why Americans should vote Democratic in the mid-term elections tomorrow

5 November 2018 Bert Olivier

The American midterm elections – halfway through the American president’s term, where voters decide on their representatives in the two houses of American ‘democratic’ government, Congress and the Senate (as well as on some state governors) – take place tomorrow, on 6 November 2018, and all indications are that these will be the most significant…

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Does Philosophy have a function in society?

23 October 2018 Bert Olivier

A doctoral student in philosophy at the University of the Free State, Mark Amaridakis, recently reminded me of the important contribution made to philosophy — specifically the Critical Theory of the so-called Frankfurt School — by Max Horkheimer, one of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research’s early directors. This made me pick up one of…

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What we’ve learnt from analysing 300 calls to a mental health helpline in South Africa

23 October 2018 Psychological Society of South Africa

By Dessy Deysel and Dr. Linda Eskell Blokland We see the toll-free numbers on TV, read about them in magazines and newspapers, hear radio personalities encourage us to reach out. Helplines for depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric conditions are being used daily in our country, where one in three of us will likely experience a…

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Election day in my new ‘home’: A migrant’s reluctant vote for integration

18 October 2018 Mandela Rhodes Scholars

By Zdena Mtetwa-Middernacht It is Election Day in Belgium. I am not voting but I’ve taken the walk to the polling station. The polling station is a school a few hundred meters from our home, in a little Flemish town on the outskirts of Brussels. I’m at the playground with the kids while my husband…

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Dutch Reformed Church leader misrepresents paedophilic disorder as same-sex sexual orientation: An open statement by PsySSA

18 October 2018 Psychological Society of South Africa

Introduction The Psychological Society of South Africa’s (PsySSA) Sexuality and Gender Division (SGD[1]) welcomed the Dutch Reformed Church Synod’s decision in 2015 to embrace gay and lesbian ministers/reverends, ordain them in their calling as ministers/reverends, and acknowledge and bless gay and lesbian congregants’ unions by conducting and officiating their marriages under the Civil Union Act….

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