Anyone doubting the enormity of the World Cup should have been swayed by the events of the past few days. The deciding 2010 World Cup qualifier between Algeria and Egypt resulted in riots outside the Algerian embassy in Cairo with President Hosni Mubarak vowing in a televised speech that attacks on Egyptians abroad will not […]
2009
Posted inLifestyle
Elusive books
Perhaps I am over-dutiful as a film reviewer. I often feel I have to read a famous book before I see the film adaptation, and frequently try to catch up with a filmmaker’s other work before reviewing his or her new movie. Sometimes I tell myself that the book/film comparison is unduly academic and probably […]
Posted inGender violence, Lifestyle, News/Politics
It’s your attitude
If the world relied on politicians for meaningful progress we’d still be in animal skins hunting rabbits. Individuals have always driven real change. And you cannot do it by email petition or Facebook group. You have to get out of the office or your home and into the world, you have to make the time, […]
Posted inBusiness
MTN reveals the meaning of Ayoba
So cellular giant MTN has finally revealed the massive scam behind its supremely irritating Ayoba campaign: this Christmas, 500 employees will be getting job cuts in their stockings. Ayoba, we are told, means “super-cool”. And by extension, everything about MTN is cool. What a hideous joke. There is nothing cool about hacking jobs for Christmas […]
Posted inGeneral
On the punishment of children
I sit in my teacher cubicle throwing crumpled bits of paper over the cubicle wall. On the other side of the wall is a Chinese boy who has been punished for not doing his homework. He is about twelve. I cannot see him. He has to sit there at that desk and finish his work […]
Posted inLifestyle
Road Tripping for Dummies
Having only just returned from a most eventful road tripping experience (Durban to Cape Town via the garden route), I consider myself somewhat mildly qualified to write this piece. It must, however, be said that this trip was undertaken as novices and by two young girls with only a vague idea of what they were […]
Posted inGender violence, News/Politics
Every 26 seconds a woman gets raped, it was my turn last Thursday night
Every 26 seconds in South Africa a woman gets raped, it was my turn last Thursday night. Before I began writing this I took AZT, 3TC and Crixivan — they are anti-retroviral drugs, they will hopefully help lessen the potential of me getting Aids from the rapist, assuming of course, that he is HIV positive. […]
Posted inGeneral
Kallis injury puts selection posers in perspective
An interesting development, if you follow the touring English cricket team, has been the absence of Jacques Kallis from South Africa’s ODI squad. I wrote a loving hymn (or chunder-worthy appraisal depending on your point of view) about JK last week, focusing on his quest for greatness, present-day anxieties have brought his importance to the […]
Posted inGeneral
The plight of the blue-light bully
Last week I wrote about South Africa’s hate affair with the pedestrian. And judging by some of the comments, there is a lot of hate out there! One chap even said he would go out of his way to knock me down if he saw me on the street. Needless to say I have shaved […]
Posted inMedia
Spartans would have thrived on Twitter
Spartans prided themselves in never using more than six words when one would do. This is why they would have been brilliant on Twitter. Each tweet has a maximum of 140 characters. This explains why Moammar Gadaffi is not on Twitter. You have to use as few words as possible when expressing, explaining and replying. […]
Posted inGeneral
Murdoch, Microsoft might team up against Google
News Corp, whose founder Rupert Murdoch has for some time been railing at freely available online news has now announced that it will be teaming up with Microsoft in its fight against free news providers, specifically Google. How this is going to pan out is that “little piece of code in each article would make […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mbeki not a candidate for genocide charges
My regulars know that I’m a fan of former president Thabo Mbeki and as such I thought it best that I give the rest of you the heads-up before starting this discussion. Of course that does not mean I am unaware of his faults, the worst of which was his administration’s approach to the question […]