I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. For months now I have been hammering South African selectors who even dared to breathe the word “quota”, yet Andre Nel, a South African who would die for the cause, is being axed due to racism — and if those selectors are misguided, how about the geniuses […]
2008
Posted inNews/Politics
The arms deal: The defining spectre of our past decade in politics
The current transitional phase that’s playing out within the ANC and, by consequence, in South Africa has led me — along with most political commentators — to look both back at the past decade in politics and governance and forward to our near-term future as a country. In doing this, it becomes immediately apparent what […]
Posted inBusiness, Tech
GAAP is so Web 0.0
I’m continually surprised at how much interest exists for the quarterly financial results of the online tech powerhouses such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!, as if they’re any indication of value created by the business during those three months. It’s fairly clear to me that AOL and Yahoo! are managing while spending an awful lot […]
Posted inLifestyle
Shamefully homebound, the neighbours are having a field day
What is it about us black people that makes us enjoy each other’s failures so much? Maybe it is the human condition, but in my experience, which is limited to the predominantly black community (except for my Indian neighbour) in which I grew up, it seems that black people enjoy each other’s failures way more […]
Posted inLifestyle
The definition of fun
You think fun is only to be had by kids on merry-go-rounds, teenagers in dark, sweaty clubs and millionaires cruising the Caribbean in extremely long yachts? Think again! In the interests of scientific research (that just so happens to have no science attached) I spent the weekend uncovering the essential ingredients to fun. There are […]
Posted inNews/Politics
I (hope one day I can) wear what I like
Submitted by Rumbi Goredema “Ain’t I a woman?” — Sojourner Truth A few weeks ago, Ncumisa Ngcukana was sexually assaulted at the Noord Street taxi rank because she was wearing a miniskirt. That’s the official version, at least. In the days that have followed, a bitter fight has raged between women (not just feminists, or […]
Posted inGeneral
(Mis)understanding ubuntu: A reply
The concept of ubuntu has been bandied about quite freely and mostly carelessly by writers who associate the term with the language in which it often appears. Ubuntu is bigger, broader and deeper than its Nguni “appearance”. I do not recall ever reading or hearing anyone say that ubuntu means that black people are morally, […]
Posted inBusiness
Coega and the Radiohead song
Every time I drive through the upgraded stretch of road around the turn-off to the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ), just before Port Elizabeth, a song floats unbidden into my head. The Coega IDZ is a multibillion-rand industrial development complex covering 11 000ha, centred on a new deepwater port. Nude is the haunting song, from Radiohead’s […]
Posted inGeneral
Designer vaginas: That’s what South Africans are made of
Ask anyone what it is that makes them a Zulu, Afrikaner, white, black or anything else and, chances are, they’ll be able to give you an answer. Ask them what defines us all as South Africans and they’ll probably not be as forthcoming. What are the common denominators that define South Africans? British journalists have […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Israel and a nuclear Middle East
As changes in the overall political setting of the Middle East have occurred it is important to focus on Israel’s nuclear strategy as the former possibilities of the superpowers to control and fence in the conflicts in the Middle East have given way to new power structures. A significant asymmetry has developed with respect to […]
Posted inSport
The brothers grim: Enter the Stofiles
On the night of the 27th of December 1944, squadrons of Allied B24 bombers pounded Hamburg into dust — which coincidentaly also happens to be the date that Makhenkesi Arnold Stofile, South Africa’s Minister of Sport and Recreation, was born. Left unchecked he and his brother Mike could well do to rugby and soccer what […]
Posted inLifestyle
‘Ubuntu’, the inherent goodness of blacks and (d)evil whites
If you grew up in dominantly black circumstances, like me, populated by oppressed Africans, especially in the townships or rural areas, then no doubt you will have heard many mythological stories about the inherent goodness and morality of blacks called “ubuntu”. Perhaps we should make one thing clear about MY definition or understanding of the […]