There is a reason why 15th century explorers conveniently divided Earth into the “New World” (including North America) and the “Old World” (including Africa). They might not have intended it in this sense, but there is much the New World can, nay, must, learn from the Old World. After all, age implies experience and experience […]
2009
Posted inNews/Politics
Was Israel’s response to Gaza too heavy-handed?
This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: Was Israel’s response to Gaza too heavy-handed?
Posted inGeneral
Ebook distribution and the problems of aggregation
The internet, and particularly the ebook industry, is littered with debates about aggregation and monopoly, and in many of those debates the two concepts are confused. Let’s be clear: aggregation is good, monopoly is bad. For instance, a serious discussion is finally emerging over the Google Books settlement, a discussion that recognises the value of […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Woes facing SA pensioners, the State and our responsibility
“Please, Rod, make sure you and Marion stick away enough money for when you are older. Promise your old mother. Believe you me, no matter how much you save, it just isn’t enough for when you are older.” In Shanghai I listen to my mother’s youthful, imploring voice on the phone half a world away […]
Posted inLifestyle
A New Earth … the follow-up
I apologise — I assumed there had been so much hoo-ha about A New Earth that everyone knew what it was about and that I could just fleetingly mention it in my blog about how much I’ve enjoyed Oprah’s webcasts with author Eckhart Tolle. My bad. So, without giving too exhaustive a book review, let […]
Posted inNews/Politics
President Motlanthe’s right to privacy versus freedom of expression
“Freedom of expression as safeguarded in various constitutional and international law instruments has been developed and expanded by the case-law and the doctrine of western countries and by the struggles of journalists in a dynamic and progressive manner in line with the liberal trends and ideas of democracy that have emerged during the years following […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Is Zimbabwe a province of South Africa? ; Vote ANC to prop up Mugabe?
Why is it that, despite overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing and ever increasing calls for an end to the Mugabe regime, the SADC and its worst offender, South Africa, refuse to accept that this will be the inevitable short-term outcome? All that we are really waiting to see is how short the period will be and […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Time for the ANC to grow up
So the ANC is bleating about what it sees as an “unwarranted intrusion” into the private life of acting President Kgalema Motlanthe — who, it seems, suffers from the Bill and Jacob syndrome of being pathologically unable to keep his hands off women he is not married to. In fact, that bastion of sense and […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Some thoughts on African representations in the media (foreign and local)
This might not be a topical area today given the global excitement around Obama and other developments in the continent. However, I have been hoping to put my thoughts on paper on African representations and interpretations in the media for some time now. The following are just thoughts and must be treated as such. The […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Should Mbeki publicly endorse Cope but remain an ANC member?
Imagine a scenario where former president Thabo Mbeki decides to announce his endorsement and intentions to vote for Cope but decides to remain a member of the ANC. I cannot imagine a situation that could rattle the feathers of some of the over inflated egos at Luthuli House more. Some of those egos are “too […]
Posted inNews/Politics
On Australia Day
(Warning: this is long. It’s intended primarily as reportage rather than opinion.) THE WEATHER on Australia Day is most un-Australian. Cool and overcast, it’s more reminiscent of the soggy island whence this continent’s first European immigrants sailed. Still, it’s a welcome change from the heat wave that has baked New South Wales for more than […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle, News/Politics
You pessimistic quietistic anarchist, you!
“Crackdown on pirate DVDs” or words to that effect, are routinely touted in the local English newspapers in China. I can assure you on the same day and any other day I can take you to my favourite DVD vendors who will sell me the latest pirated DVDs for a mere seven or eight RMB, […]