Submitted by Matthew Beetar I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United Provinces of South Africa, and to the Republic for which it stands … Then again, maybe not. I have run into a fair amount of criticism for not being completely patriotic and enthusiastic about the construction of a compulsory South African identity. […]
2008
Posted inGeneral
On ‘kaffirs’, ‘queers’, ‘moffies’ and other hurtful terms
I am not a very squeamish or prude person and have been known to let out a swearword or 10. At the same time, I know that words are powerful things and can deeply hurt and offend others. I was therefore taken aback when I read that Irvin Khoza had told a black journalist at […]
Posted inLifestyle
If you could change one thing about your religion, what would it be?
This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: If you could change one thing about your religion, what would it be?
Posted inNews/Politics
Of racists, kaffirs and coconuts (part one)
It has always been my assertion that the phenomenon we call human intelligence is as real as Santa Claus, leprechauns, tokoloshes and a politician’s conscience. Yes, yes, I’m generalising, but I think it’s a fair generalisation if it is true for the rule. Bugger the exception. One feature of human beings that illustrates this is […]
Posted inGeneral
The need for a new enlightenment
Enough with the pig ignorance, violence and stupidity. Enough with bowing to religious bullies and bigots, racists and sexists. And, most of all, enough limiting ourselves to the narrow confines the past has laid down. The time has come to shake all that off, like the famous workers’ chains, and rise up to the potential […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zuma adds to national depression
Adding to the national depression is the news that the president of the ANC and the putative next president of our country, Jacob Zuma, has approached the courts of a fellow SADC member, Mauritius, slagging off President Thabo Mbeki and our institutions, accusing him of using the National Prosecuting Authority to engineer a political conspiracy […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Unlike a rose, ‘kaffir’ does NOT smell the same to black and white
Township blacks will not say the precise moment when it hit them, but it was a good few days after township “klever” Irvin Khoza allegedly made a booboo by calling a black journalist a “kaffir”. Slow thinkers that they are, they have now started noticing that the wise guys who protest too much about Khoza’s […]
Posted inMedia
Furore over FBJ and its coconut journalists
I have it on good authority that the biggest sellout and “father of African journalism” is planning a marathon party among the dead to congratulate white journalists and their coconut cohorts who have, so far, managed to suppress the relaunch of the Forum of Black Journalists. As I understand it, media-created coconut journalists will make […]
Posted inBusiness, Tech
African leadershift: social capitalism
There’s an emerging realisation that the strength of distributed nodal power bases is almost unconquerable. Guerrilla movements, social media and small, focused niches of the Long Tail cause disruption that produces evolutionary economic shifts. Market-making is shifting into the hands of some unlikely new leaders in the quick online world. The butterfly effect of the […]
Posted inBusiness
Black economic disempowerment
Given the exaggerated praise that BEE received at its introduction, one would have expected that all of us — blacks — would be rich by now. Not so; we are still wallowing in the same poverty as we did before this empowerment arrived, save for a few black politicians and business people related to one […]
Posted inLifestyle
More design genius
Just a quickie before I pop back to the Design Indaba. Here are a few stands that caught my eye yesterday … they stood out for their beauty or innovation, or just because they were downright cool. Tintown (www.tintown.co.za) is Andre Serfontein’s creation of metalworked decorative homeware. Whether “seriously sophisticated or wildly whimsical”, he’s doing […]
Posted inGeneral
What do we want from our life?
The American elections are quite interesting to outsiders for a change. Usually as a non-involved party, the endless primaries and the actual elections tend to be terrible yawn affairs. It’s normally time to cancel all newsletter subscriptions from the US. Not this time around. It’s good to see some of the younger generation engaging in […]