Watching the Springboks take on New Zealand this past weekend, I was struck by two rather profound thoughts. Firstly, that it still isn’t socially acceptable to drink hard liquor in the morning, judging by the disapproving looks I received from the other patrons at the coffee bar I was frequenting. Secondly — and most importantly […]
2008
Posted inLifestyle
Fatness and the void of dignity
There is very little dignity or coolness in being fat. Though people try to tell you differently, that you are normal, there are few occasions when fatness may be misconstrued as a positive. Yeah, there is winter, but that only comes around once a year and although the ladies are quite forthcoming during this rather […]
Posted inGeneral
Rob Stokes on Quirk, Google and Web 2.0
Welcome to Let’s Talk. This is the first interview of many more to come on my blog. The aim here of Let’s Talk is to provide a fun yet insightful interview platform for readers and industry leaders alike. The very first interview is with Rob Stokes the Group CEO of Quirk. What exactly do you […]
Posted inGeneral
When your country lets you down
In theory, I could live almost anywhere in the world. I have a US education, an EU passport, a work-from-anywhere career and have already called four countries home. I have chosen to settle in South Africa, not because it is my country of birth (it isn’t) and certainly not because of a lack of choices. […]
Posted inGeneral
Google pushes mobile to offline South Africans
Reading the (offline) newspaper this weekend, it was interesting to see a selection of Google adverts across various sections. For instance, in Independent Newspapers’ Travel 2008 supplement, there’s an advert with the caption “Find flights to Johannesburg on your mobile”. The advert features a picture of a mobile phone, in this case the Nokia N95, […]
Posted inGeneral
Do we need it?
I am sitting in front of my television on a day of which any sports lover dreams. Formula One, Tour de France, a Wimbledon final and replays of the Currie Cup rugby matches make up just a few of the channels I have at my disposal. As I watch the sport on the tellie, I […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mbeki is not like Mandela. Zuma is
News reports that President Thabo Mbeki has been meeting in Harare with Mugabe and a tiny dissident group from the MDC leaves me in no doubt that the next item on the table is going to be trying to convince Zimbabwe, the African Union and the United Nations that this is the only government of […]
Posted inGeneral
First blood: All Blacks (9) 19, Springboks (8) 8
While Adolf Hitler was losing his head at a waxworks museum in Berlin, the All Blacks were keeping theirs and recording a deserved victory in Wellington on Saturday. Not one for the faint-hearted, this Test was not so much ebb and flow but more bleed and go as the two juggernauts squared up. Definitely worth […]
Posted inGeneral
Football in the former Eastern Bloc
I have returned from a trip to Eastern Europe, one of the former enclaves of the USSR (remember them?). I went to Poland and saw a bit of Slovakia as well. It was, I must say, quite a revelation in many ways, including from a football perspective. As expected, the passion for club football over […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The Republicans’ worst nightmare
While Republicans prepare to bombard presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama with claims of flip-flopping on Iraq and everything else, Africa — should he prevail — stands on the threshold of gaining something more significant than just a first African-American president: liberation from an old boys club of despicable tyrants. Incredible as this may […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The flight of rigour
The lazy fallacy that the alternative (i.e. life organised on conscious production for need) to societies based on exploitation and the profit motive is incompatible with human nature represents the clearest sign yet of humanity strolling downhill with the inscription written in bold on its back: “The hour of rigour’s flight”.The strength of this fallacy […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Next week in (East) Jerusalem
My most recent memory of Jerusalem stretches back more than 20 years. I had just spent a year studying in Israel — first Hebrew in Jerusalem and then architecture in Haifa — and had decided to return home to Johannesburg. I was visiting friends at the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, […]