Pay more for less service — this was pretty much the message from Eskom this week. Now, I know, before you start jumping up and down, that price escalation is critical to ensure capital availability to construct generation capacity and infrastructure, which may deliver power in 10 years’ time at approximately the same levels of […]
2008
Posted inGeneral
Art and science; images and concepts
Some of the responses to my previous posting suggested that the relation between images and concepts, as explained by Leonard Shlain in his book on the link between alphabet literacy and patriarchy (The Alphabet versus the Goddess), requires clarification. What better way to do that than by referring to his earlier book, Art and Physics: […]
Posted inBusiness
Lies — more lies — and then there are financial firms
A blogger friend posted a lovely short article recently with the title “6 Reasons Why We Lie”. All of his reasons were absolutely spot-on. However, his final summary was the best. He maintained that the fundamental reason why people lie is because it mostly works. I want to add to this: it mostly works when […]
Posted inGeneral
Barack Obama echoes Mandela: The rainbow nation address
“Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote: “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many […]
Posted inGeneral
Honey, I’m home!
Isn’t Cape Town the most beautiful graveyard you’ve ever seen? Okay, that’s maybe too cynical. But let’s get real about a few things. Cape Town is not the most beautiful place in the world. It doesn’t have the best beaches and neither does it have the greatest value for money. I say this not to […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Five years on, Bush says Iraq war was noble, necessary and just. Do you agree?
This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: Five years on, Bush says Iraq war was noble, necessary and just. Do you agree?
Posted inGeneral
Indifference to national holidays is an insult to democracy
For those who died on 21 March 1960 so that we could live While poor people, mostly black Africans, burst into song and wave bright and colourful national flags that flap in the wind to celebrate national holidays like Human Rights Day, for instance, a sense of betrayal and shame should shrivel up the souls […]
Posted inGeneral
Politics on the couch: Getting in touch with our inner Thabo Mbeki
“They fuck you up, your mum and dad. / They may not mean to, but they do. / They fill you with the faults they had / And add some extra, just for you”. So begins the British poet Philip Larkin in This Be The Verse but his wry observations are just as applicable to […]
Posted inLifestyle
Say yay for long weekends!
Have you noticed that most people are rather grumpy this week? I think it’s the knowledge that there’s an impending four days of freedom, but before we get there we have to climb through a mountain of work, more than usual because of said freedom. Also, naturally, because everyone’s wondering if the Easter Bunny will […]
Posted inLifestyle
A special day
This Friday, March 21, is special not only because it is both Human Rights Day and Good Friday, but also because it has significance in a range of different religions. Human Rights Day is the day on which South Africans celebrate the Bill of Rights contained in the Constitution. Initially March 21 was known as […]
Posted inBusiness, Sport
The Silicon Valley of sun
In May 1961, President Kennedy addressed a special session of the US Congress. It was the height of the Cold War. There was a sense in the land that the US was falling behind and needed to pick up its game. Kennedy announced a number of initiatives, mostly now forgotten. The last, however, has proved […]
Posted inLifestyle
No rest for the (occasionally) wicked
I need to get more sleep. A smiling doctor in a white coat, with pens in his pocket and a clipboard, informed me of this yesterday evening while I was doodling around on the internet waiting for an email. His picture appeared next to a chart with the title “How much sleep you need — […]