I’ve met two retired American couples in the past three weeks, both very chatty and pleasant. We met the first, from Phoenix, Arizona, on the ferry to Paramatta; the second, from Los Angeles, stood behind us in the queue at the airport this morning. In both of our conversations, the subject of the US elections […]
2008
Posted inLifestyle
‘The problem with all you bloody white Sawth Effricens …’
“The problem with all you bloody white Sawth Effricens is that yer all racist but yer’ve all got black blood in you,” Hamish the British journalist cheerily announced to me in Long Bar, a pub with a truly colonial feel to it on West Nanjing Road in Shanghai, near where I live. I winced and […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zim unity government: Thabo’s toxic legacy
Part of Thabo Mbeki’s toxic legacy could well prove to be the disastrous unity deal he engineered between Zanu-PF and the MDC in Zimbabwe. Democracy has been defeated in Zimbabwe, and this largely due to Mbeki’s willingness to legitimise Mugabe’s tyrannous regime through his chairing of the power-sharing negotiations. It was a marriage doomed from […]
Posted inBusiness
The implosion of virtual finance: It had to happen sooner or later …
It is difficult not to feel vindicated in an “I told you so” sort of way, given that I have been labeled an “anti-capitalist clown” on Thought Leader — as I pointed out at the time, clowns or jesters have customarily been allowed to speak the truth, where others could not. It had to happen […]
Posted inSport
Luke Watson, international man of dysentery
If we ever held a contest to choose South Africa’s “foot-in-mouth sufferer of the year”, then Luke Watson would be unbeatable. The only time this genius seems to open his mouth is to change feet. What can be said about this national disgrace that hasn’t already been said about diarrhoea? The following was sent to […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zuma and Lekota a catalyst for positive change?
The time has come for the ANC to abandon finally the mentality of the liberation movement and become the government of the people of South Africa. Accept that all this talk of divorce and dissention is a blessing in disguise rather than the straw that finally broke the camel’s back. The Zuma trial with all […]
Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle, Media
A nightmare called Nedbank
Nedbank will likely deny this till the cows come home, but the truth is they pocketed a large sum from my company 10 days ago and wouldn’t give it back until, in desperation, I asked my journalist wife to rattle their cage. Suddenly, things started to happen. Which raises the question: if you don’t have […]
Posted inNews/Politics
McCain’s half-baked Alaskan
Sarah Palin’s family feud with her former brother-in-law, which formed the subject matter of an investigation dubbed “Troopergate” by the media, finally came home to roost yesterday and the result was not a Norwegian omelette but rather a half-baked Alaskan. The inquiry into the conduct of the governor of Alaska found that she had abused […]
Posted inGeneral
What is creativity?
With the whole country agog in the face of the rumblings within (and without) the ruling party, I thought I should write on something else, lest the party in question come to the erroneous conclusion that it is the only thing worth writing about, which it certainly is not. In fact, every time, lately, that […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Is the end of the equity cult nigh?
A deep and cold current of fear running through the markets right now is something market commentators will avoid speaking about openly. I’m not referring to the credit crisis and widespread recession. That is worrying enough. I’m talking about the meltdown of stock markets themselves. Markets rise and markets fall, and then rise again. The […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Thinking the unthinkable: Beyond the ANC
Submitted by Marius Redelinghuys For many, including myself, it is very difficult to imagine any other political home outside or beyond the African National Congress. This is particularly difficult to imagine as the ruling party has often been seen as the “natural party” of the people as it fought against the oppressive and exclusive apartheid […]
Posted inLifestyle
The Friendly City – wine, women and calm
I can’t get over seeing amaXhosa do manual labour; I just cannot get over it. To the Sumo, a boitjie born and bred in the lush bosom of the KwaZulu-Natal’s North Coast and exposure to amaXhosa strictly limited to what I saw on TV (Government officials and celebrity personalities) and heard (through the folklore which […]