Thought Leader

Searching for a new political cosmology

2 December 2019 Bert Olivier

This morning my eye caught a report about Brazil’s climate-change denialist, neoconservative president, Jair Bolsonaro — evidently in an attempt to divert attention from his own egregious responsibility for the fires that rage unabated in (what is rapidly ceasing to be) the Amazon rainforest — accusing Leonardo DiCaprio of ‘paying’ non-governmental organisations to set fire…

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Throwing Shade

28 November 2019 Avishkar Govender

It seems that when I write in rhyme The words seem clearer from my mind Rather than when I write my posts Whose words seem to concern the ghosts Of things gone by and Christmas past My own grandeur and their bawdy cast Of merry thieves and gay warlords That carouse and sing in many…

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Unfortunately they are criminals

27 November 2019 Avishkar Govender

A crime syndicate is an organisation that commits or commissions crimes, whether directly or indirectly, and benefits from crimes, whether directly or indirectly. Therefore if an organisation commits or commissions crimes, whether directly or indirectly, and benefits from crimes, whether directly or indirectly, it is a crime syndicate. Now, some criminals, who seemingly rather enjoy…

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Who’s responsible?

20 November 2019 Avishkar Govender

Let’s assume that the first Europeans to land at South Africa arrived in the year 1497, or between the year 1497 and the year 1502. That’s Vasco da Gama’s expedition from Portugal. They arrived to find local South Africans. That is people who were already inhabitants of present-day South Africa. Let us consider that for…

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A Very Independently Serious Hong Kong Kowloon Association Report

13 November 2019 Avishkar Govender

It is not in the best interests of Hong Kong for the People’s Republic of China to exert influence over the livelihoods of the people of Hong Kong. It is definitely not part of the make-up of the history and culture of Hong Kong for there to be an exogenous force that interferes in the…

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Walls and razor wire, or acceptance of different others?

12 November 2019 Bert Olivier

Two days ago, November 9 2019, marked 30 years since the fall of the Berlin wall, and the irony has not escaped some people, that today one witnesses walls going up again everywhere. Nick Miller, in the Sydney Morning Herald (November 2 2019), for example, writes: Thirty years ago the Berlin Wall fell, pulling the…

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Tasty, very tasty, indeed

31 October 2019 Avishkar Govender

Many years ago, while still involved with student politics, I tasted Lipton Ice Tea, the lemon flavour, for the first time. I immediately asked, “Is this available in peach flavour, and is this available in mango flavour?”. I was told that the peach flavour would be released soon. Immediately thereafter, I was asked what I…

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