Reality television seems to have really caught on. If you look hard enough, you will find a show where someone’s doing something you’re into and is being followed around by a production crew. I’m surprised no-one has come up with a show that gets a dysfunctional family to represent the African continent. The show could […]
2009
Posted inLifestyle
For once the superlatives truly apply
It was fascinating to watch Beauty and the Beast in Cape Town just three weeks after having watched a production of that other great Disney musical The Lion King in London. There were so many South Africans on that West End stage that I lost count thanks to that show’s former run in Johannesburg. So […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Bye-bye Balfour?
MM died in August 2006. Four months before his death, as an inmate at Westville Correctional Centre (WCC), he joined 15 others in taking Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour to court. That case resulted in Balfour and others being compelled to take reasonable steps to ensure access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment at WCC. MM only […]
Posted inGeneral
Sentletse, be careful where you dip your pen
Words have consequences. That is why the Germans speak of ‘Schreibtischtaeter’: people who were innocent of killing any Jews, gays or Gypsies in person, but who contributed to the holocaust through their writing.
Posted inMedia, Sport
Here’s to a great champion who deserves more fans
He doesn’t get a lot of publicity. When he wins, again and again, it often doesn’t make the papers. As an athlete, he ranks right up there with the best in the world. He’s earned over R7,7-million, but chances are that many of you can’t recall his name. “Let’s hope,” Charl Pretorius wrote recently, “there […]
Posted inNews/Politics
SA approach to Zimbabwe is a condonation of apartheid
The decision by the MDC to join the Zimbabwean government of national unity is both vexing and understandable in light of the conduct of the South African government and the elitist club known as SADC. Tsvangirai and his elected party were sold down the river and given little choice but to accept a deal which […]
Posted inGeneral
Joost a bit ticked off
When I got back to the office from court this morning I bumped into Joost van der Westhuizen, the former Blue Bulls and Springbok scrumhalf who was recently inducted into the Rugby Hall of Fame. Winner of everything the game has to offer, including the World Cup 1995, I was surprised to see that this […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Why African leaders can’t solve the Zimbabwe crisis
Robert Mugabe has no intention of relinquishing power. He’s even said as much. And this is merely confirmed by the ongoing abduction, incarceration and torture of opposition activists and a bloody-minded refusal to share key ministries in the proposed unity government. The SADC (Southern African Development Community) is only too aware of the Zanu- PF […]
Posted inLifestyle
Why do we avoid South Africans?
I have just done a survey among fellow ex-pats of other countries, via email or on the phone, including those who are not in China. The question was: Do you feel, as an ex-pat of sorts from your country, that your countrymen feel you have “deserted” or “betrayed” your country? On the whole, to boil […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Jews do wield immense power and influence
Responses to this post: Sentletse, be careful where you dip your pen Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories have abounded for centuries In 2002 Mark Weber, a director of The Institute for Historical Review wrote an article about the powerful Jewish Lobby in the United States (US). What Weber articulates in his article is very relevant to the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Motlanthe must call referendum if South Africa is to aid Mugabe
Anyone who saw Zimbabwe’s acting Minister of Finance Patrick “whose fooling who” Chinamasa deliver his budget, to roars of derision and laughter from the MDC members of Parliament on SABC 3 News last night, would immediately have begun phoning around to see if this genius does children’s parties. None of your one-liners or knock knock […]
Posted inLifestyle
All yesterday’s parties
It was almost a year and a half ago that, after months of travelling between Jo’burg and Durban with little more than my dancing shoes and a toothbrush, I packed everything that mattered to me into my little car, drove up the hill, and made Jo’burg my home. I don’t know what I was expecting. […]