There is a road I drive along frequently whenever I’m in Durban — a road that cuts through a squatter camp and passes a number of makeshift roadside stalls (hairdresser, general store, butchery) and a glut of fast-food joints (Nando’s, KFC, Chicken Licken). I was stopped at a traffic light last time I was in […]
2007
Posted inLifestyle
Eskom II — This time with solar water heaters
From the makers of “Colour-coded power-shedding warnings R Us” in conjunction with Disney Channel and MGM we bring you the moving story (which you will be if this goes wrong), of a power company’s attempt to get everyone into hot water … or something like that. The technicians were shot on location. It all begins […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Jacob’s ladder
Regular readers will know that I believe the president will be regarded by history as one of our finest leaders. I’ve dealt with this in a number of previous articles that you can source elsewhere on this blog. While I disagree with many of Mbeki’s (ANC) policies and his approach to certain issues (as set […]
Posted inSport
It’s official: 2010 won’t exist
There has been much talk lately of trademarks in light of 2010. My view is that Fifa has gone slightly bonkers on the whole subject … a year is, after all, just a year. But yet virtually every single iteration of the year has been trademarked and protected by phalanxes of lawyers (is that the […]
Posted inSport
Centre stage
For quite some time now, debate has ebbed and flowed over the value of Francois Steyn to the Bok cause and the position best suited to maximising this value. There is no question that he can add value — young, big, fast, precocious, he seems to have it all.
Posted inLifestyle, Sport
Humour-writing instruction — part one
The second-most-popular question I get asked is: “When you sit down to write, are you consciously trying to be funny?” (The most popular is: “Why do you keep embarrassing yourself writing rubbish on a platform such as Thought Leader when you could be using it to write something meaningful that adds something to public debate? […]
Posted inLifestyle
Is religion rubbish?
Following my post several weeks ago arguing for atheism and against gods and religion of all kinds, much debate has ensued. At some stage, I will try to summarise the main points in a new post. However, you might like to check out the intense discussion in the comments of the original piece: Why atheists […]
Posted inGeneral
Dying to live
Randy Pausch is dying of pancreatic cancer. In fact, he only has about two to four months of healthy life left. He is a professor at Carnegie Mellon, and recently participated in the Last Lecture series. The Last Lecture series is an US initiative, run by various universities who invite their best professors to give […]
Posted inLifestyle
The angriest man in Grahamstown
If I were at home at this moment, there is no question that I would be the angriest man in Grahamstown. But I’m not. I’m in Port Elizabeth, which Idols judge Gareth Cliff recently described as the armpit of South Africa. I don’t care much for Gareth, but in this case he has a point. […]
Posted inLifestyle
Weekend lockdown
This past weekend was both the Johannesburg party person’s dream and nightmare: so much to pick from and so little time. The Arts Alive programme was out in full swing, there was DJ Kenzhero’s monthly Party People session, there was the annual Soweto beach party … I could go on but then this post would […]
Posted inLifestyle
Of men and stupid hats
I was at the Rocking the Daisies festival in Darling this past weekend, and I couldn’t help noticing how many men in stupid hats were strolling around without any semblance of shame. Tell me, menfolk of South Africa, is this some kind of latent desire that only creeps out in places of loud music and […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
You didn’t get this from me …
Al Neuharth, the founder of USA Today, the United States’s largest newspaper, once remarked that “anonymous sources are the root of all evil in journalism”. That may have been an overstatement, but not by much. In many cases, journalists can’t do their jobs without using anonymous sources; often, however, they are simply an excuse for […]