So I’ve mended my heathenish ways and started going back to church again. After last year’s less than happy encounter with low church Anglicanism, I found another church more to my liking, more traditional — so much so that I have joined the choir. So far I am enjoying going to church more than I […]
2009
Posted inMedia
I wish more advertising was like this
I’ve always believed in the power of advertising, not just to sell stuff, but to transcend the narrow boundaries of commercial speech, to express joyful creativity or capture a particularly telling insight — and sometimes both. This is especially true in South Africa. Think back to the 1990s, when the little white mouse used the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Drawing the line: Road rage
If you tune into SABC 2 at 12h30 this Sunday you will catch the start of the second season of the morality debate/talk/game show Drawing the Line. The whole point of the show is to pose a question to find out where South Africans draw the morality/right-and-wrong line. This will be the case for the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Could a UDF ever emerge again?
Over the last week issues have been highlighted in the press regarding support for political parties by the non-profit sector, particularly public benefit organisations. Even the churches have entered the fray, with the obvious example being Rhema, which is classified as a public benefit organisation. According to the tax laws, it should not be supporting, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Sometimes a Jade Goody can trump a Pope
In the past few days Britain has mourned the passing of Jade Goody aged 27 who was famous, quite frankly, for being famous. This bubbly lass, who owed most of her fame to a variety of Big Brother reality shows, primarily the one where she had a major fall out with Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, […]
Posted inLifestyle
A brief look at whores, virgins and ‘progress’ in China
Lit candles in the intense summer, the trailing willow branches are snuffed out, their smoke and shadows burning in the canals of Shaoxing, our first home in China, two and a half hours by bus north-west of Shanghai. Here the washing women bang their laundry against the huge steps that descend to the ancient canals. […]
Posted inGeneral
A Canadian’s view on xenophobia
I’m writing as a Canadian who has made South Africa my home on and off for the past 8 years. I’ve been made to feel welcome by most, but there have been some xenophobic remarks directed at me. They usually come from middle-class South Africans who don’t wish to hear any critique of their country […]
Posted inNews/Politics
SABC: Don’t cry for me Christine Qunta
The resignation of Christine Qunta from the board of the SABC is a moment to celebrate and savour for, in her sudden but welcome departure, justice, democracy and the interests of the country are well served. • Justice is served because, on her watch, we have seen the SABC become a place where corruption, malpractice […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zumagate
South Africans are waking up to news this morning that the National Prosecuting Authority have purportedly been placed in possession of tapes, ostensibly handed over to them by the Zuma team as part of their representations to have the charges against the ANC president dropped, which include tapped telephonic conversations between inter alia former president […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Winnie, taxis and xenophobia
The Independent Electoral Commission has confirmed that Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is entitled to be nominated as a candidate for the African National Congress despite the objections that they have received. This may not be the last word on the issue as the Freedom Front Plus has confirmed that they are taking this matter to the electoral […]
Posted inGeneral
SA scores a spectacular own goal
Shortly after the 2006 World Cup in Germany, a team of Fifa heavyweights visited the hosts of the next edition of the tournament in order to lay down the rules. South Africa, they told us, does not own the 2010 World Cup. Rather, it belongs to global football’s governing body and the international football community. […]
Posted inBusiness
The psychology of fraud
That fine line that divides good and evil. When I was young, the product of Calvinist schooling, I thought good and bad people where two separate things. That the good guys fought the bad guys at some proverbial high noon in a shoot-out between the just and the wicked. Only later when I understood the […]