Why do we keep paying more for food at supermarkets even as the petrol price and producer prices fall? Business Day’s explanation in an editorial this week is far from convincing. It starts off praising Woolworths for cutting the price of 245 “selected food lines” (what is the difference between food lines and food?) — […]
2009
Posted inGeneral
Why does China or any country bother with censorship any more?
We were living in China when Tom Cruise arrived to do some scenes for Mission Impossible 3. One of the scenes showed the endless trails of laundry hanging out on the rails of apartment buildings. The Chinese censors delayed releasing the film and deleted scenes of tatty underwear and bras hanging on rails outside apartment […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The Orwellian rewriting of nursery rhymes
In George Orwell’s 1984, one of Winston Smith’s depressing jobs at the Ministry of Truth is to rewrite historical documents to make them fit with party orthodoxy. He destroys evidence of problematic past events, amends newspaper articles and deletes from the historical record any people who have since been identified by the party as “unpersons”. […]
Posted inGeneral
Bob celebrates 85 years
A Times Online article on Robert Mugabe’s little 85th birthday party makes for interesting reading. A veritable feast in the land of famine is planned for this auspicious event. Lobster, Moët & Chandon, prawns and definitely no maize meal. Just as an aside any brand that associates itself, by supplying its goods, with this event […]
Posted inBusiness
The crisis: get a grip
A phrase that seems to be cropping up lately is, “It may not technically be a recession, but it doesn’t matter whether it is or not, it feels like one”. Well, recession for me means an actual contraction in the economy as a whole. We are either in it or not. What worries me is […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Cosatu: Anti-Semitic?
Readers who are of a mind to do so may scroll back and go through articles where I have tackled Islamophobia. This is an exercise I have done repeatedly not for any recognition but because I believe that intolerance is an evil which should not be allowed to go unchecked. It has also included an […]
Posted inGeneral
What is it with all this “willy-nilly”?
Why do South Africans, especially South African politicians, love the expression “willy-nilly” so? What exactly is its appeal? Here’s a selection of quotes, acquired willy-nilly — pronounced weelie-neelie — online, though they don’t begin to reflect the popularity of the word (I’ve heard it often in interviews on 702 and the SABC, for example): “We’re […]
Posted inGeneral
Tony Leon leaves parliament a bitter man
In his farewell speech this week, Tony Leon stood before parliament and reflected on his tenure in the legislature as leader of the opposition; a tenure that no sane man can proclaim to have been inspiring. His was two decades of disappointment. Under the false pretext of fighting for justice, order and good governance, Leon […]
Posted inGeneral
My Coke blogger gets the boot
This story has captured my interest mainly because most people commenting on the post (link expires February 16) seem to be fairly misinformed about what is considered fair play on the web and the law. To summarise the story it goes something like this: A fairly well-known and prolific blogger registers the domain name www.mycoke.co.za. […]
Posted inGeneral
What are we thinking (if we are thinking) when we vote?
“You miss too much these days if you stop to think” — Bono of U2 I scowled as I watched Eric, a bright 16-year-old Chinese student. He liked to sit in the back of the class. He was blissfully ignorant of the fact that I could see him playing with his PlayStation behind his desk. […]
Posted inGeneral
Why are we not immortal?
It seems as if, in light of the success of recent experimental scientific attempts to extend the life of certain insects and animals, immortality is not in principle impossible, as Ulrich Bahnsen observes in Zeit Wissen’s feature on “the 12 big questions of science”. Astonishingly, by means of genetic manipulation scientists have managed to extend […]
Posted inGeneral
Chuck Norris, where are you when we need you?
Walk the talk. Chat is cheap, money buys whisky. Meer bek as binnegoed. Don’t tell me — show me. These are threadbare cliches. And deservedly so because it is a helluva lot easier and cosier and neater and ultimately innocent to fill the good air with carbon dioxide through rhetoric and oratory than it is […]