Since the late 1960s Western culture –- and the rest of the world’s cultures were not far behind –- has increasingly moved into a phase commonly referred to as ‘postmodernity’. To be able to operate in this cultural environment in an informed, knowledgeable way, regardless of the field within which one works, it is imperative […]
2008
Posted inNews/Politics
Gordon Brown and the Labour of love
British prime minister Gordon Brown, having just led his party to its worst local election’s showing in 40 years, witnessed its most dire polling since records began in the 1930s and having had a brief glimpse of what the Cherie Blair and John Prescott’s sure–to–be–bestsellers have in store for him, could be excused for thinking […]
Posted inLifestyle
Confessions of a travel slut
One of the best books I’ve ever read is William Sutcliffe’s Are you experienced?, a devastating send–up on the culture of middle–class kids on their obligatory gap year, backpacking around on a “third world poverty adventure holiday.” Read it — I guarantee you’ll laugh like a drain. Perhaps the reason I enjoyed that novel so […]
Posted inGeneral
Gunfights and Twitter – an African perspective
Isn’t South Africa just the most fun? We live in a land that is marked by one of the most incredible digital divides. Forget Third World South America, or Middle Africa. That’s different -– technology just never got off its feet and it’ll take many years, plenty discarded US laptops and OLPC’s from heaven before […]
Posted inGeneral
Social Media and ORM – The SEM Twist
Social media websites have only but taken over the WWW. Anyone spending time on the internet is signed into at least one of these websites, and more than likely signed into several. To name a selective few there are: Facebook, Myspace, Furl, Del.icio.us, Digg, Reddit, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Rojo, Meetup, Linkedin, Technorati, Slashdot, and more. With […]
Posted inGeneral
What makes a philanthropist?
What makes a philanthropist? What do philanthropists do? Is it about money or does it include time and skills that are donated for the betterment of our society? When can someone be called a philanthropist? These are some of the questions that arise out of the call for nominations for the Inyathelo Philanthropy Awards that […]
Posted inGeneral
Makro champs, Stax relegated in appliance store web site battle
Shopping for domestic appliances is the seventh circle of hell. You have to go to four or five shops to compare prices and each shop is in a different shopping centre. This means finding parking, getting out of the car, walking to the shop, trying not to get distracted by the other things in the […]
Posted inLifestyle
This is why I moved to Australia
I never thought I would say this. In fact, there was a time when I regarded anyone who moved to Australia as a traitor, and quite possibly racist. The sort of person South Africa would be better off without, as Pallo Jordan might say. When JM Coetzee moved to Australia and learned how to smile, […]
Posted inLifestyle
A brief hiatus
So here’s the thing — novel–writing takes up quite a lot of time. And while I do love writing blog posts, when I’m spending all morning with my head in a new book and all afternoon freelancing to make enough money to keep me in tea and toast, it’s quite tricky to comment on my […]
Posted inGeneral
Clash of civilisations? Human rights? THE WEST AND THE REST: AN AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE
Submitted by Demaine Solomons My intention with this piece is to attempt to connect two issues that still generates a fair amount of debate and controversy; Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilisations article and the idea or perhaps the possibility of the universality of human rights. However, I do want to do this from another perspective, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
A party by any other name …
A tongue-in-cheek suggestion that the DA was in desperate need of a branding overhaul was met with a broad spectrum of responses — from “DA who?” to indignant rebuttals from DA activists. The reality of the situation is that that the official opposition is severely stigmatised. Negative emotions towards the party — from mistrust to […]
Posted inGeneral
Manto-style madness from Mpumalanga
Whoever said that the wheels of justice grind slowly must have had Dr Malcolm Naude in mind. Almost seven years ago, he was dismissed from Nelspruit’s Rob Ferreira Hospital. At the time, government would not provide post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) — a course of antiretroviral (ARV) medicines to reduce the risk of infection following exposure to […]