A few weeks ago, in my editorial on the Skills Portal newsletter, I complained about union calls for an additional public holiday. Leaders of union federations were writing letters to Thabo Mbeki and holding interviews with the media, all for one extra day’s holiday. With all the social challenges we face in our country, was […]
2008
Posted inGeneral
Is religion the new social evil? Pope on the slippery slope?
In a poll conducted by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in the United Kingdom, faith — defined here not as limited to extremism but rather in the broadest possible terms — was considered to be tantamount to “intolerance, irrational behaviour and the basis for justifying persecution”. Many of those polled not only believed that faith was […]
Posted inLifestyle
Why do white people emigrate?
I think that there is a false perception among certain white people who believe that they are somehow under siege; that crime only affects them. Blacks are more heavily affected by violent crime. And so this begs the question: Why do white people emigrate and blacks don’t? (This is a YouTube video.)
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
What makes a person great?
Robert Mugabe won’t leave office. Thabo Mbeki made a bid for a third term and will leave a country ravaged by inflation, high unemployment, ineptness at high levels in government and business, and erratic electricity supplies. The Economist last week said, in the angriest editorial I can ever recall from that journal: “Can Thabo Mbeki, […]
Posted inLifestyle
Going nowhere slowly
“So is the flight on time?” I ask. “Yes,” she replies, lying through her teeth. “Are you sure there are no delays today?” “Not as far as I know,” she smiles, maintaining her chirpy disposition. She hands me my boarding pass knowing full well that once I pass security, there is no way I can […]
Posted inLifestyle
African beauty is not in the hands of the beholder …
Submitted by Cynthia Ayeza There was a time that I believed that the idea behind the Nokia Face of Africa was brilliant as it inspired young girls to get into modelling careers. The show inevitably gave a limited variety of girls the opportunity to compete more on a physical level than on an intellectual level. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The FBJ’s ‘blacker than thou’ racial reasoning is political suicide
The most exciting feature of the SAHRC ruling against the Forum of Black Journalists is the loud echo of black voices that have welcomed the decision and denounced the latter’s insistence on its right to exclude whites on the basis of skin colour. This reveals that more and more blacks are willing to turn against […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Our president has blood on his hands
South Africa’s continued inaction on Zimbabwe is a disgrace. Mbeki’s “quiet diplomacy” is merely a euphemism for his cowardly indifference. He continues to turn a blind eye while the Mugabe regime systematically rages war on its people, avenging them for daring to exercise their democratic will at the ballot box. “No crisis.” Yes, that is […]
Posted inGeneral
Brains think, skin doesn’t
The race card: Frequently used among South Africans from all backgrounds to express their disapproval in an argument, debate or discussion with a person from another race. The race-card is usually flashed in case of significant or arbitrary differences of opinion between one or more individuals. The object exists in various shapes, sizes and, of […]
Posted inGeneral
Recolonisation of Africa? Choose South Africa first
Kenya and Zimbabwe have refocused the minds of Africans, and those further afield, on how vulnerable the countries of this continent are to political opportunism. What tribal divisions in the north and a lack of willingness to intervene in the south have shown is that unless countries are based on something more substantial than mere […]
Posted inGeneral
Another take on human fulfilment and happiness
There are, indeed, many ways of addressing the issue of human happiness, and even in the work of one particular thinker one encounters more than one set of concepts to do so. In my previous posting, I looked at Martin Heidegger’s notion of the existential structure of being-human (thrownness, projection and falling) in relation to […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Sense and civility
“The mark of an educated mind is the ability to entertain a thought without accepting it.” That’s one lesson to take from the Big Bad Bullard Barney.