Small white dots, each with a single letter from the words “Issey Miyake”, reconfigure themselves on a black background, transforming unmistakably into a model marching down the catwalk. They multiply, alter and seemingly simple changes in position turns them into other figures and forms. The drumbeat of the soundtrack stopped our hearts and the cleverness […]
2009
Posted inNews/Politics
Malema’s utterances: Fair comment or below the belt?
This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: Malema’s utterances: Fair comment or below the belt?
Posted inGeneral
ANC candidate list: Winnie and the new/old morality
I love my new teaching job. I get paid rather well, if we convert from the Chinese RMB to the SA rand. It is, after the ridiculously low tax which my agency has wangled, a reasonably decent income by Johannesburg north standards. That given, I only work just over fourteen hours a week at a […]
Posted inGeneral
Do dof people know that they’re dof?
Reading through my last offering titled “Other people’s kids”, I realised that I had made an accidental point. You know, one I didn’t mean to make. I do that quite often and then when my readers point out that I made an excellent point, I pretend that I was aware of it all along. It’s […]
Posted inLifestyle
Masters of unreality get real
Reality and humanity strode on to the stage at this year’s Design Indaba, responding perhaps to the wake-up call offered by the global economic crisis. As Canadian designer and change activist Bruce Mau pointed out on day one of this most chichi of conferences, the current crisis shows us that what we are currently doing […]
Posted inGeneral
Are Zille’s spin doctors obsessed with Malema’s schlong?
The word schlong is an offensive and “dirty” word in Yiddish which refers to the male reproductive organ and naturally, being Yiddish, most schlongs are circumcised. However, while circumcision is a common practice it is nonetheless varied in its implementation. Some get it done at a temple, some in a mountain cave, some in a […]
Posted inLifestyle
My empathy with David Cameron on his terrible loss
Conservative Party leader David Cameron’s son, Ivan, an epilepsy and cerebral palsy sufferer, passed away at St Mary’s Hospital in London yesterday. According to the Independent (click on link) there was a sudden illness which occasioned the six-year-old being rushed to hospital where he later died. There are no words that really offer comfort to […]
Posted inGeneral
In defence of the view that Afrikaans is still imposed on learners
This blog seeks to cover new information in support of the thesis that Afrikaans is still imposed on learners at the expense of other African languages. This information is sub-divided into the following topics: scientific, statistical and factual realities to politics of language in education, proof of the author’s historical involvement in the struggle for […]
Posted inGeneral
Why Tito and Cyril won’t go to parliament
Depending on how you choose to look at things, prominent people who have declined nomination for the ANC parliamentary list are either snobbish or just hold utter contempt for the people’s choices. The two cases that come to mind are business magnate Cyril Ramaphosa and Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni. It may be difficult for […]
Posted inGeneral
Big business paid $1-billion for Obama hope
Few people have wondered how much it cost America to have its first … er, post-racial president. Not long ago I heard former cabinet minister Kader Asmal tell a public gathering that it cost $1-billion! Of course if that is true the historic inauguration of Barack Obama as the so-called first “black president” of the […]
Posted inGeneral
Why most BEE types lead lives of quiet desperation
Not too long ago a friend of mine was telling me how difficult it is to be a man, especially today. He says he has not had a lot of fun over the last 10 years or so because he has not yet become a multi-millionaire. Instead, he has been on a campaign trial trying […]
Posted inLifestyle
Arabi: A portrait of an impresario and selfless artist
Neither time nor self-effacing humility is going to diminish Arabi Mocheke’s profound influence on the struggle to use culture as an instrument of transformation and economic self-reliance among artists. Mocheke, who died after a long battle with prostrate cancer, was a cultural visionary and leader known for his passionate love and unrelenting commitment to the […]