Headlines from the Financial Times, February 21: Markets tumble amid fears over banks Investors flee to gold and government bonds 19 000 Anglo American jobs to go Saab files for bankruptcy protection Eurozone lurches deeper into recession Other headlines Soros sees no bottom for world financial “collapse” — Reuters Roubini says crisis end distant — […]
2009
Posted inLifestyle
A privilege, called … life!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’ He chortled in his joy. Good on you, Lewis. Today I begin a new life. I will look upon all things and see the wonder in them. My clothing? I own three pairs of trousers, about eight T-shirts (my teaching job in downtown Shanghai has no dress code) and one […]
Posted inGeneral
‘Follow the evidence’, Grissom said, ‘follow the evidence’
Three seemingly divergent articles found their ways on to my screen within the last 24 hours. I’m not sure if some supernatural puppeteer planned it that way or whether my innate penchant for irony simply sees connections where there aren’t really any. The first was Time‘s Friday 13 article by John Cloud, “Is Genius Born […]
Posted inGeneral
God is now black and our evolving consciousness
One of the best articles I have read of late is “God is Black” by Michael Kinsley. Aptly, it appeared in Time Magazine’s inauguration preview issue of Obama becoming president (January 26 print edition), an issue which focused on the new US president’s policies and “the burdens that await him”. It was a delight and a […]
Posted inGeneral
ANC must support Zille’s call on Zuma
Khampepe, Ginwala, Niehaus, corruption charges, two centres of powers, kill for Zuma, formation of Cope, recall of Mbeki, Nicholson, Hlope — a never-ending list of reasons why the ANC and not the Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille should have called for ANC president Jacob Zuma to withdraw his presidential candidacy. Each case, incident, investigation represents […]
Posted inGeneral
‘You can’t harness the power of social media in niche markets’
The social media buzz is barely dying down as more and more mainstream companies jump on the well-oiled bandwagon that has been created in the last couple of years. There is, however, one problem the social media gurus never told us — harnessing the power of electronic-based tools to further your business may in fact […]
Posted inGeneral
Other people’s kids
People assume that just because one is a parent, one loves kids. Rubbish, I can’t stand kids that are not my own. And there’s nothing I hate more than parents who can’t stop jabbering on and on about their kids and how smart they are and how “little Sizwe said the sweetest thing the other […]
Posted inMedia
Finding a way forward as African broadcast reform falters
Transformation of African state-owned broadcasters into proper public-service institutions has come to a standstill. For instance, Zambia’s progressive laws passed in 2002 have yet to be implemented. In role-model South Africa, the crisis around the SABC shows the need for a major re-design of the public broadcaster, but parliament is focussed only on getting rid […]
Posted inBusiness
The Budget with the benefit of hindsight
Looking back at the Budget presented just over a week ago, I find the tax proposals present the most surprising twist. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel announced a R13,6-billion adjustment to personal income tax to account for the effects of inflation and then took back a big chunk of that with increases in the fuel levy […]
Posted inGeneral
The tired, absurd and uninspiring in Zim’s political amphitheatre
Inside the Zimbabwean political amphitheatre are scenes of the tired, the old and the uninspiring. These are scenes not too gladly and willingly watched but forcefully shown to the audience. It sounds really absurd but in reality no one is spared from the ever-disappointing drama coming out of Zimbabwe. Like many, I have watched with […]
Posted inGeneral
Obama chimpanzee cartoon is clearly racist
Most of you will recall the cover of the /New Yorker magazine which depicted US President Barack Obama as being Muslim and his wife as a gun-toting terrorist. It appeared in July last year and resulted in such a deluge of hate mail, threats and outrage that you would have thought it would have given […]
Posted inGeneral
2010: The point of no return
In aeronautical terms, the point of no return is known as the “radius of action formula”. Either way, it refers to the moment beyond which a current course of action must continue because turning back is physically impossible, prohibitively expensive or dangerous. And so it is with South Africa’s charge towards hosting the 2010 World […]