When the United States and the European Union indicated that they would assist Zimbabwe if the power sharing deal gave de facto control to Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC, it offered the parties the prospect of substantial progress in bringing material relief and a start to rebuilding the country. It also afforded the Zanu-PF an […]
2008
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Emigration: rethinking plans to leave
In September I speculated on the kind of impact the global financial crisis would have on emigration from South Africa. The lead story in yesterday’s Sunday Times confirms — without any hard numbers — that things are panning out as I thought they might: South Africans planning to emigrate are having to reassess whether they […]
Posted inGeneral
Zimbabwe: Mugabe earns Jarman for cholera
When an irate Iraqi TV journalist flung his shoes at US president George W Bush during a press conference it seemed to me that a new era in political awards had dawned. I mean what better way to “celebrate” political achievement, or lack thereof, than to present African “leaders” with an order of the boot: […]
Posted inGeneral
Measuring the social conversation? More important than ever …
I’ve often commented on the vacuous nature of social media. Echo chambers and shallow content — its like “small talk” on a volume never before experienced. Why, just yesterday a friend of mine and I did a little experiment to attract attention on FaceBook by commenting on a status update. Sure enough, four or five […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Boesak and the Duckworth-Lewis method of political morality
In case you aren’t aware of the Duckworth-Lewis method, it is in fact a mathematical formula used in cricket to calculate what the team batting second has to score in order to win, as a result of the match overs being reduced by bad weather. This calculation it seems has now been extended by Allan […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Jacob against the media
Jacob Zuma is at it again, attempting to suppress the freedom of expression. He has instituted a lawsuit against the cartoonist Zapiro for about R7-million in response to the cartoon depicting him as raping the figurative Lady Justice. It is not beyond comprehension that the uninformed may have misinterpreted such cartoon as having had a […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
The floccinaucinihilipilification song of South Africa
I AM MORE than mildly perplexed by Achmat Dangor’s lashback at Breyten Breytenbach’s “attack” on Nelson Mandela. Firstly, I confess I haven’t read Breytenbach’s article and would dearly love to do so. A subscription to Harper’s magazine, though perfectly justified at the price — it is one of the 10 best English magazines in the […]
Posted inGeneral
A response to Breytenbach
Just read Breyten Breytenbach’s piece in Harpers. If you don’t have anything nice to say, shut up, is not a piece of advice I’ve generally taken. But this time I’ll make an exception and talk about another poet, the American Carl Sandburg, and his ode to Chicago, where he worked as a reporter. If you […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zuma vs Zapiro: the quest to leave no can of worms unopened
Unless I’m very much mistaken, every morning the senior leadership members of the ANC are requested to remove their shoes in order to inspect their feet and thereby avoid putting a bullet in the same foot as they did the day before. And every day almost like clockwork the sounds of gunshots ring out from […]
Posted inNews/Politics
What was the defining moment of 2008?
This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: What was the defining moment of 2008?
Posted inNews/Politics
Was it worth it?
I remember giving up on my country a couple of years ago. I remember being really frustrated with the national fixation on Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe and not being able to see beyond the struggle that was day to day life. I imagined that there were bigger, more important things happening in the rest […]
Posted inNews/Politics
A dawn of a new era — towards a unified South Africa
South Africans remember December 16 as the day of extraordinary courage on part of thousands of Zulu warriors under the command of Dambuza and leadership of Dingane kaSizangakhona who, armed with spears, launched an offensive against Voortrekkers, with the advantage of gunpowder, in the battle that historians coined as the Battle of the Blood River […]