South Africa has arguably the world’s most inept approach to immigration, snarled in a cats-cradle of corruption and muddled thinking.
2009
Posted inLifestyle
Sipho the goatherd
No self-respecting African male is complete without a convincing herd boy experience in his past. It’s very “previously disadvantaged”. If you didn’t grow up in the rural areas and thus couldn’t have herded anything larger than a skinny township chicken, you can supplant the herd boy past with a taxi boy past. Truth be told […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Why Simelane for the NPA?
Constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos has suggested that the appointment of advocate Menzi Simelane as national director of prosecutions is “the darkest and most scandalous day yet in the short life of President [Jacob] Zuma’s tenure”. Writing two pieces on the new head of the NPA, De Vos is scathing calling Simelane “a liar” […]
Posted inGeneral
If you like using Windows, you’ll love Windows 7
By Richard Catto Like most avid computer users, the whole concept of trashing my computer and reinstalling everything from scratch is not something I relish doing because it is a task fraught with many technical difficulties that could easily leave one without a functional computer, which would be a major disaster, of course. So when […]
Posted inGender violence
No is not an acceptable answer
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which we celebrate on December 10, came at a time when the world was reeling under the devastation of a global war that had seen millions die. But the words from Nuremberg, “never again”, have shown we never learn. They were repeated a little over 40 years later after […]
Posted inGeneral
The electricity crisis: Are we making progress?
By Bryan Hadfield Some time ago, during the days of planned and unplanned load shedding, I wrote an article, published in this forum, in which I tried to throw some light on the origins of South Africa’s electricity crisis. My aim at the time was to dispel a lot of misrepresentation about the causes and […]
Posted inLifestyle
Being a Twit makes you MORE social in the real world, you Twat
So often the argument I hear from anti-social media types is that it makes us worse at being social in the real world. Hell, my girlfriend has moaned at me a number of times when I wanna tweet a pic of the cool time we are having together — “why can’t you just enjoy the […]
Posted inGeneral
A brilliant student’s work on the ecological crisis
Below, I have posted an essay written by one of my media master’s students, Carla Zdanow, for a course in the philosophy of culture. I have placed it unmodified, to give readers of TL the opportunity to see what excellent research work is being done by some students. I have another to post after this […]
Posted inGeneral
The beerpocalypse is upon us
Warning: the next few paragraphs contain an extremely one-sided and highly indignant view on a contentious issue. No, I haven’t joined the Desperate Alliance or the selective amnesia support group that broke away from the ANC, this isn’t at all about politics. It’s bigger than that nothingness. In the UK, the noble Birtish Beer and […]
Posted inGeneral
Benitez walking on thin ice
You just wonder how long Rafael Benitez has until the big axe or the curtain closes on his Liverpool managerial career? He has been walking on thin ice this season after losing 5 of their 13 league encounters so far. To his credit Benitez has remained defiant despite all the troubles surrounding him and Liverpool […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Are SA mercenaries assisting Guinea’s military junta?
Within a matter of weeks of Britain’s Simon Mann being granted a pardon for his part in a foiled 2004 coup attempt on Equatorial Guinea (which included a number of our guys), South Africans are once again being linked to mercenary activity. This time the allegations relate to Guinea where they are purportedly training soldiers […]
Posted inLifestyle
Embarrassing surnames
One can only pity the wretched rugby commentator in straight-laced 1930s New Zealand who, on reading the Springbok team list, was confronted with the name “Ebbo Bastard”. “This one, I think we’ll call Smith”, was what he actually said in the end. In a previous post, I recounted my ordeal over once having to ask […]