After seeing the decidedly deluxe and off-beat design of the Google Zurich office that has made the rounds of the internet, it is vaguely disappointing to see this blog post about Google South Africa’s sales office. Google Zurich reeks of money and Euro-hip design which seems entirely appropriate for Google in Switzerland. Schedule a meeting […]
2008
Posted inLifestyle
Battle of the b(r)ands
First we had My Coke Fest, now we have the Virgin Festival. Yes, the V Festival that is such a huge deal overseas — just the South African version. So how do the two big days compare? Let’s see. Both are being held only in Jo’burg and Cape Town. Both have a mix of international […]
Posted inSport
Saru must come clean on De Villers ‘blackmail’ episode
When it comes to the new South Africa, Saru generally do the right thing. On issues of transformation, racism and policy, they can be relied upon for transparency and integrity while following clearly defined strategies. However when it comes to the issue of Peter de Villiers and the purported blackmail saga, they are not doing […]
Posted inGeneral
SA and Africa: Human development, the biggest challenge of our lifetime
In agreeing with Davidson Nicol of Sierre Leone on the meaning of Africa, Ali Mazrui states that “yes, Africa is a concept, pregnant with the dreams of millions of people”. In fact, in Mazrui’s outstanding book, Africa since 1935, a number of essays take the reader through a number of important issues on Africa and […]
Posted inGeneral
Defending the legacy of Mbeki on HIV/Aids
I was very pleased to read an article by an HIV-positive radio talk show host, Criselda Kananda, titled, Mbeki was brave to enough to challenge HIV orthodoxy. She says, “I would fail myself and what I stand for if I were to allow the legacy of Mbeki to be reduced to im being called a […]
Posted inGeneral
Don’t shoot the messenger
The media is an integral part of our lives and helps shape who we are and who we may become. In first year sociology you get taught the agents of socialisation for an infant/child, and one of them is the media. In our society there has been constant debate about the role of the media […]
Posted inGeneral
Why pussyfoot with health?
Until a year ago, social scientists, analysts, historians and the local peanut gallery had been formulating complete genealogies to understand HIV/Aids denialism in the highest office. Sociologists and anthropologists had fallen over one another in weaving theory between meta-theory, digging up Foucault, Spivak and Said in attempting to construct an Africanist approach to understanding vitamins, […]
Posted inBusiness
Fall of the Lehman Wall and the US as hyperpower?
When Mikhail Gorbachev became ruler of the USSR in March of 1985 he was acutely aware of the fact that the Soviet economy had failed to post positive growth for just on a decade. His introduction of firstly “Perestroika”, economic restructuring, and later “Glasnost”, an element of political freedom, could not, however, ward off the […]
Posted inGeneral
The wiles of the inarb (I’m Not A Racist But…)
I was naively thrilled when Ryland Fisher posted Black people can be among the most racist. I didn’t like the title. It was an obvious attention-getter, and, before reading the blog, I thought it was probably a spurious opinion. However, his final words, “I’m a racist. You’re a racist. Let’s talk,” moved me to write […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Obama’s from Venus, McCain’s from Mars
Gerard Baker of the Times of London confirms that in a snap poll held after the first Obama/McCain debate in Mississippi on Friday, the Democrat nominee proved the overwhelming favourite among women while the Republican held a significant margin among men. The columnist puts this down to the fact that McCain looks firm on foreign […]
Posted inLifestyle
How Dick and Fanny became Rick and Frannie
I am discovering that I am increasingly grateful for political correctness. Despite my childhood addiction to anything written by Enid Blyton, I find I am unable to read any of my old Noddy collection to my children. It’s not just the absurd and depressingly weak storylines or the whole lot of spanking that goes on […]
Posted inGeneral
iPhone social networks
With the launch of the iPhone 3G in South Africa and witnessing the hype first hand, I was thinking iPhone-only social networks have a serious chance at generating traction internationally and even in our local market. iPhone owners, like most users of Apple products, are a fairly obsessed, elitist group of people. An iPhone-only social […]