With most new cars coming with ABS brakes, air con, a sound system, electric windows and more than enough power to get the job done, it’s easy to wonder why anybody should bother going upmarket when shopping for new wheels. But what do you get for the extra money? Probably the most expensive item on […]
2007
Posted inNews/Politics
Rape and the African Peer-Review Mechanism
I know the African Peer-Review Mechanism Country Report is not everyone’s idea of a good read. So let me point you to the interesting bit. It comes right at the end, on page 376 of the copy that was sent to me in the post. The report cites the rape statistics from the South African […]
Posted inMedia
News companies are paddling without a compass
In the week that a South African journalist was fired for moaning about his employer on a competitor’s website, the Los Angeles Times launched a spectacular new blog, called the Readers’ Representative Journal. It is a thing of beauty, I tell ya. Clear, lovely and as well put together as only an American news organisation […]
Posted inLifestyle
Township survival guide for non-blacks
A few weeks ago I posted a piece called “Single white male” from which much controversy arose. I was accused of all manner of racially biased crimes and being a typical black South African who feels entitlement to everything and never wants to work for anything or add any value. I was called all manner […]
Posted inTech
Tony, meet Bubba. He’s your new cellmate
Richard Catto thinks I should be jailed. He wrote this piece on his curiously titled Cape Town News blog which, basically, said that as I had created the spoof Thabo Mbeki Facebook page I should be thrown in jail. I see that Mr Catto belongs to the Ronald Suresh Roberts school of debate — play […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, Tech
Facebook 2: The search engine is coming
It’s tough being Mark Zuckerberg. A few weeks ago, you had your competitors running scared and Microsoft desperately hung on to the front of the queue to do a deal with you that, by some estimates, values your company at $15-billion. Unfortunately, you face these nasty rumours that the clickthrough rate for Facebook display advertising […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, Tech
Want to buy the Team.com name for $300 000? Too late
How do you choose a name for a new company? There might be many rules in that book, but I will tell you rule number one: no matter what the new company will do, make sure its .com domain name is available. If the .com name is not available, and you are absolutely, definitely, beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt […]
Posted inGeneral
Want to buy the Team.com name for $300 000? Too late
How do you choose a name for a new company? There might be many rules in that book, but I will tell you rule number one: no matter what the new company will do, make sure its .com domain name is available. If the .com name is not available, and you are absolutely, definitely, beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Where is ‘our generation’?
Where is “our generation”? I do not mean the generation of which I am part. I am rather speaking of the generation that the journalist and activist Zubaider Jaffer called Our Generation — which is the title of an interesting book that provides a personal account of the struggle; that generation that fought the street […]
Posted inLifestyle
Dear Mr Mandela, or should that be ‘Persondela’?
Dear Mr Mandela While everyone is mesmerised, shocked or thoroughly disgusted by the preliminary rounds of the Thabo vs Jacob punch-up in Polokwane, I know that you are probably deeply disturbed by the unseemly and puerile nature of this egoistic contretemps. I feel it my duty at this painful time for you to try to […]
Posted inGeneral
The raging silence on black and white racists
I have been asked to write nothing but my truth, as I know it, to promote the right to freedom of expression. I guess I have been invited by destiny and history to break the silence. You see, since 1994, far too many have chosen silence. The silence was not imposed by the Madiba magic. […]
Posted inGeneral
From cyberspace to an ancient space …
I am blown away! Just when you think no one cares about some over-the-hill pale male hack who had his arse kicked for venting his frustration in cyberspace, you find out people care. A lot of people care a helluva lot. My inbox quite literally reeled under the load of messages of support after last […]