Dear President Bush, What with all your known knowns, unknown knowns and unknown unknowns, we’re sure you’re absolutely overrun about now. We were however wondering if you could kindly email South Africa a copy of our president’s recent letter to you, apparently asking you to stay out of Africa, which he claims belongs to him. […]
2008
Posted inGeneral
Of rugby, soccer and editors in therapy
My first break in journalism was given to me by Rob Hardie, one of the editors of the Derby Evening Telegraph (DET) in England. The newspaper covers the city of Derby and surrounds and is at the forefront of anything to do with Derby County Football Club (The team that won two league titles under […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Working families, workers and pubic wigs
In every political culture, there’s a favourite construct, a sort of Pavlovian bell that is designed to trigger the immediate cessation of critical thought. In South Africa, it’s “the workers” or “the people”. The workers want, the people demand: appeal to this amorphous entity and people will vote for you. In America, Dubya likes to […]
Posted inNews/Politics
UNASUR: will it work?
There have been active developments across the borders of a number of Latin American countries since 2004 to form what was seen as a regional forum for, among other things, the social inclusion of these countries’ different nations. Last year, during the first ever South American Energy Summit, held in Venezuela, twelve Latin American countries […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Strange silences
If there is one certainty in the American Presidential elections, it is that none of the candidates of either party can ever stand watch on the walls of beleaguered cities, peering through the darkness infested by every multinational company imaginable…and do so in the name of the American working and middle classes. Their vigil keeping, […]
Posted inMedia
Confessions of a journalist
When I studied journalism, I was taught, among other things, that in order to call yourself a competent journalist you should have the ability to remain a fly on the wall at all times. “Your job is to observe, not to interfere, and to switch off your emotions in order to be as objective as […]
Posted inGeneral
Introduction to the South African Rugby Legends Association
When John Allan, the former Scottish and Springbok hooker, a group of our contemporaries and I got the idea of putting together an organisation which would use former rugby players to promote the amateur game and charities, we dared to dream of it’s future success. Vital at it’s inception was the understanding, by all involved, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
In the aftermath: Tasks for the South African Working class
The crisis is not over, despite official statements claiming it to be so. What the army has done was to drive the attacks underground, resulting in war parties of five to seven thugs combing through settlements, picking foreign nationals out one by one. No system of community policing can be successful without the concerted co-operation […]
Posted inGeneral
Super 14 and the Sharks
If you are a Sharks fan you would have been extremely disappointed with the Sharks’ dismal performance in the Super14 semi-final against the Waratahs. However, when looking back clinically, it was always going to be a tall order after travelling half way across the world to face a team which nailed them in the prelim […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Is this really a victory for ‘decency’?
‘Decency’ is one of the most overused and abused words in the English language. It is a word that has emerged in two events to capture the attention of Sydneysiders in recent weeks. One of them, a police raid on an art exhibition featuring photographs of nude adolescents, has drawn stark lines between the anti-child […]
Posted inBusiness, Media
The first step to building a brand is having one
One of the most critical elements in marketing a business is its brand. It’s the symbol that identifies and distinguishes a business. Achieving name recognition in the marketplace usually takes years to establish and big advertising expenditure. Why then, do businesses not take the time to develop a proper symbol, name or logo to help […]
Posted inNews/Politics
I’m forced to be foreign — ranting and raving…
Submitted by Cynthia Ayeza Mutabaazi Most of us have by now read a lot about the current xenophobic attacks on “foreign” people/non-South Africans in South Africa. We have read about it in the papers, seen it on television, heard it on radio and the internet continues to carry the story across the globe. I do […]