Some say yes, some say no. But after a whole weekend of training to be a laughter yoga leader (which is less hippy-ish than it sounds, I promise!), I have to admit laughter is pretty profound. Here are a few of my favourite things about laughter yoga: It forces you to breathe deeply and get […]
2008
Posted inNews/Politics
On the affirmation of Sim Tshabalala and beef!
The appointment last week of Soweto-born Simpiwe Tshabalala as the chief executive of Standard Bank’s local operations is a fabulous move indeed. I have personally always admired Tshabalala and even more so after reading a piece about him yesterday. It turns out Tshabalala went to a Catholic school called Marist Brothers and has his hard-working […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Mega-crisis in the making?
Things come together, the capitalism system cannot hold. That’s the message from Canadian activist academic Dr Sandra Rein, speaking at a seminar on gender activism at Rhodes University on the weekend. And here we were thinking that our biggest problems are racism, crime, political degeneration and electricity. “We have a global crisis if you look […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
(Maybe) I wish for too many things
The invitation letter from the Thought Leader website brains suggests that it would be ideal to post at least one blog entry a week from my fingertips to the aforementioned website. I wish I could do that; be more regular in meeting the “ideal”. But I don’t always have something to say. Well, actually there […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Should ANC muzzle Zuma or follow Solidarity’s call for an early election?
Jacob Zuma’s interview with the Financial Times of London, wherein he expressed the view that it is the ANC rather than the government that is the centre of power, has given rise to a call for early elections by the trade union Solidarity. In the interview with the British newspaper, JZ claims that the national […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Race relations: It’s about human rights, silly!
It was in his 2000 State of the Nation address that President Thabo Mbeki — after reading an email by a white engineer that had at the core of its message the many ways black South African rulers had messed up the country, presumably for the previously advantaged minority — quoted Bertold Brecht, mainly, to […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
And now, from the manufacturers of blacks, whites and coconuts, a whole new race!
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, after decades of research and years of trials, the manufacturers of whites, blacks, coloureds, coconuts, Indians, plurals, tricamerals, old-style liberals, diehard Nats, Oranians, black diamonds — basically of anyone you know or have ever known — have invented a whole new race which, with immediate effect, replaces all races that have […]
Posted inGeneral
Where has all the hope for peace and fulfilment gone?
Driving to work on Saturday morning, I was listening to the soundtrack of Milos Forman’s film, Hair, based on the 1967 Broadway hit musical, and I was swept away by the sheer force of the first track, Aquarius, sung by a woman with an unbelievably powerful, yet melodious voice. The beat, the rhythms and the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zuma and the death-penalty referendum
A High Court Justice in Botswana — nothing to do with the genius who was the first to be evicted from the Big Brother Africa house — has sentenced Michael Molefe of Soweto and a citizen of Botswana to be hanged for the murder of two Zimbabweans seven years ago. The reports of the dramatic […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Nationalise Eskom now!
When the government backed off from selling 30% of Eskom some years ago I was relieved. I knew that the wheel would turn, as it always does, and Eskom would change from being loved to being loathed, as it was in the early 1980s. It emerged a stronger organisation from that time of intense animosity. […]
Posted inGeneral, Media, News/Politics
The pitfalls of South African journalism:racism and capitalism
The biggest achievement of the recent Human Rights Commission hearing on the Forum of Black Journalists and racism in South African newsrooms has not only plunged the profession into its deepest crisis but got it to hang its dirty linen in the public. The heated debates and personal attacks among some of the players have […]
Posted inNews/Politics
How to mop up criminals quickly
The Free Market Foundation’s Jim Harris did some back-of-the-envelope calculations, and found some interesting statistics that suggest there aren’t all that many criminals in South Africa. It then proposes a market-based solution to the problem.