While much has been made of Jacob Zuma’s stature — and in particular his championing of the poor and oppressed — I, as a result of my ignorance of factors on the ground, would like to make a few observations and ask some questions. First of all, there is no doubting the ANC president’s charm […]
2008
Posted inMedia, Tech
Will Wikia Search become as popular as Wikipedia?
Wikia Search is to take on the big three search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN) in the next couple of weeks. With the dominance of the top three, it is going to take nothing short of a miracle to upset the current status quo. Enter Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. Wales launched the popular […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, News/Politics
The paranoid Mr Zuma
Daniel Gross, financial columnist for online magazine Slate, bumped into Jacob Zuma at Davos this week and nominated him as “the world leader with the most aggressive bodyguards“. It seems that Mr Zuma’s paranoia is not limited to the remote possibility of being molested in the Swiss Alps. He also believes the media in his […]
Posted inGeneral
And then the racists came …
Not long ago I remarked to a colleague that I had not run into much trouble while moderating reader comments on Thought Leader. Apart from the occasional personal insult or such, readers were mostly contributing well-reasoned and interesting comments, putting forward their views without attacking Thought Leader bloggers or other readers unfairly. Sadly, in the […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media, Tech
YouTube’s OK for scholars, non-profits and the queen
What do Marilyn Manson, the Testical Festival and Queen Elizabeth have in common? They’re all on YouTube. No longer only the domain of the cute, the weird and the insanely boring (think family holiday videos), YouTube is becoming a platform for information dissemination and community engagement for more serious content. Scholars, international organisations and the […]
Posted inGeneral
YouTube’s OK for scholars, non-profits and the queen
What do Marilyn Manson, the Testical Festival and Queen Elizabeth have in common? They’re all on YouTube. No longer only the domain of the cute, the weird and the insanely boring (think family holiday videos), YouTube is becoming a platform for information dissemination and community engagement for more serious content. Scholars, international organisations and the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Turf out the ANC liars
Isn’t it time to fire the liars, for a start, and then revisit the notion that government is capable of delivering services? Isn’t it time we rely on the energy, innovation and hard work of ordinary South Africans to make a better life for themselves?
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Yes, Mr President! The media are out of touch with the society in which they exist!
Perhaps South Africa is the only democracy on the continent and the whole world that allows an oppositional press, especially print, to operate in a way that undermines the goals and gains of almost 400 years of liberation struggle. This black government (sic) is the only one that I know in contemporary history that allows […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zuma amnesty a breakdown of law and order? Are we still in transition?
When Mail & Guardian editor Ferial Haffajee speaks, I listen. This gutsy lady has a proven track record on the hard but fair approach to journalism with an in-built radar that steers her towards doing the right thing at the right time. When she went on SABC television just before Polokwane, her assessment of President […]
Posted inLifestyle
I’m a little heartbroken about Heath Ledger’s death …
… I was mildly to moderately infatuated with him. So, in honour of my number-one teenage-boy crush, here are a few of my favourite movie stars (only men today, I’m afraid, but all you manly men out there — feel free to add in the female quotient): Jake Gyllenhaal. Yip, Heath’s lover from Brokeback Mountain. […]
Posted inLifestyle
Fan fiction: Improving youth literacy
For many fans of Harry Potter, the last book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, does not signify the end of the story. There are thousands of young people who write their own additions to, subplots within, and alternative endings or continuations to the world of sorcery and Hogwarts. At the time […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle
Madiba, the millionaire and the music man: Memories of Michelle
I never met Mandela, but Michelle did, twice. I asked her what she thought of him the first time because I placed huge value upon her judgement, and knew she’d soon be gone. A few months later she was dead, but she’d told us she liked the old man because he treated her like a […]