Will the world ever be ready for a female American president? Especially, God forbid, one with bad fashion sense? Look, I love Obama as much as the next South African. It was a thrilling election night: we were collectively moved and touched when Barak Obama took to the stage to acknowledge victory. It was exciting, […]
2008
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Commentators, bring it on!
No one should be surprised that Thought Leader is the top blog site of most local aggregators. Few other sites provide such vivid, candid and diverse comments in response to postings. Bearing in mind that most of us regular contributors are here by invitation — an exceptional requirement — the commentators are not. Where other […]
Posted inGeneral
Training social entrepreneurs
The Inyathelo Philanthropy Awards have once again highlighted the role of philanthropy in South African society. They revealed inspiring examples of individuals who have become passionately involved in South African institutions and civil society, from small beginnings to ambitious programmes such as NOAH and SAEP. The Awards included a university Vice Chancellor who took a […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Dear Mr Obama — what if Bush won’t go?
Dear Mr Obama, While the rest of the world celebrates your election victory, I worry about the future of your great country. Not because I question your ability to perform, but because everybody, everywhere, is overlooking an enormous and obvious threat to your presidency. What happens if George won’t go? It’s happened before, you know, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Why Zola Skweyiya is right about lack of truth between whites and blacks and among Africans themselves
Not too long ago, while the world celebrated Barack Obama’s post-racial victory, I found myself applauding uncomfortable truths expressed by one of the ANC veteran thinkers and social development minister, Dr Zola Skweyiya. Long before Skweyiya gave a rare interview to show that the most sensible leaders are not abandoning the ship to join Shikota, […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Can African voters break with the political tradition of voting ANC?
SOMETHING magical in the air seems to have aroused the black giant from its political slumber. Of course, this spirit has always been there and was easy to notice in 1994, 1999 and, again, in 2004. Ironically, the experts and other political commentators have always missed it by more than a mile. I guess it […]
Posted inMedia, Tech
Blogging South Africa
A group of American bloggers will be arriving at the end of the month to create what the International Marketing Council hopes will be some very entertaining and informative web content – words, pictures, audio and video — about South Africa. The idea is have a dozen smart, creative and credible people record their impressions […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Was the suspension of Vusi Pikoli an obstruction of justice?
Much has been said and speculated about the motive for the September 2007 suspension of the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Vusi Pikoli, by the former president Thabo Mbeki. Pikoli himself, the media and opposition parties have concluded that the suspension was primarily to defend the National Commissioner of Police, Jackie Selebi, from prosecution. Pikoli […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Obama and Africa: I do not see much reason to celebrate yet
All this celebratory talk of Obama and how great he will be for Africa; a tad early to celebrate. I hated Bush and am no Republican supporter and I am glad Obama won the election, but I can see no reason why we in Africa should think another Democrat would be great for Africa. We […]
Posted inGeneral
Capitalism and the environment
The recent turmoil on financial markets has put the spotlight on a certain kind of capitalism, which is driven by the so-called “free” market, and judging by government responses from the US to Europe and Britain, there seems to be an emerging consensus that this greed-driven sector is unlikely to be left to its own […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Maybe we all need to calm down
Submitted by Setumo Stone It only dawned on me after he had said it, that this man was once an executive major. He was definitely not your average taxi driver. What he said also made sense: “It is about time that South Africans calm down, and pay each individual respect, regardless of whether we feel […]
Posted inNews/Politics
SADC’s Zimbabwe insanity
Is it any wonder that the Southern African Development Community continuously fails to achieve closure on the issues that affect the region? Zimbabwe is just the latest in their long line of failures to act with anything like the courage, vision and resolve required to bring solutions to problem areas. Indeed if it were left […]