Your vice-captain or the new hot hand on the block? After a rocky start, Ashwell Prince has proven to be a reliable steady influence in the Proteas’ middle order. That summer against the Pakistanis proved to be his making and he’s not looked back since, while his maturity and leadership within the team saw him […]
2009
Posted inLifestyle, Media
The paralyzing pessimism of the Market Theater
Considering that this is the beginning of a new year, I thought it would be important to critically examine the role of artists in our society. Now the other day I went to the Market Theater to watch what was in their first offering. It turned out to be a multi award-winning play that reveals […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Haters on my mind …
The hip-hop world has a term “(player) hater”; this refers to one who gets by on hate, malice and envy. A hater doesn’t aspire to be as rich/famous as the object of his envy, the “player”, but rather to bring his nemesis down to his level and, if he can’t, drag his name and reputation […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Me, Madame Fifi and dripping taps
The last time I paid my brothel a visit, I left feeling much better about myself. No, not because of the clothes-pegs-on-earlobes thing Luscious Lulu likes doing. Frankly, I find that whole S&M routine disgusting. And immoral. It’s a good thing that I’m close to completing the scientific study I’ve been conducting in brothels for […]
Posted inGeneral
Is there such a thing as an ebook designer?
Here in the ebook-making world there’s a lot of to and fro about how much design matters when text is getting reflowed in different screens and applications, from tiny phones to 22-inch LCDs. Will book designers have jobs in a publishing world dominated by ebooks? A few years ago when Mobipocket dominated the ebook market, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Woody Allen is Thabo Mbeki
The Golden Globes rewarded Hollywood’s latest presidential offering John Adams (second president of the USA) with a couple of awards just as Will Smith, having completed his first really deep and serious role, was expressing a desire to play the part of Barack Obama. Indeed there seems to be a never-ending production line of these […]
Posted inGeneral
Stadium projects remain on target
Former Dutch Sport Minister Erica Terpstra is rarely short of words, but when she led a delegation representing 37 Dutch companies on a 2010 World Cup Trade Mission to South Africa late last year, she was left speechless by Durban’s Moses Mabhida stadium: “Of all the stadiums we saw, that one is special – it […]
Posted inSport
Fun and games for charity
Spain recently played host to a most wonderful charity sporting initiative: two teams consisting of Spanish sport heroes and captained by Iker Casillas, the national football team goalie, and Rafa Nadal, tennis hero and kryptonite to Roger Federer’s Superman. The teams participated in a number of different events including karting, indoor football and the like […]
Posted inNews/Politics
What are the implications for the elections now that Jacob Zuma could be recharged?
This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: What are the implications for the elections now that Zuma could be recharged?
Posted inNews/Politics
Two-year-old released after three-month imprisonment
Yesterday morning I wrote about the imprisonment and torture of Nigel Mutemagau. There is an update to this story: he has been released! According to today’s main story posted on The Zimbabwe Times, the two-year-old toddler incarcerated and tortured at the notorious Chikurubi Prison was released on Tuesday afternoon. He has spent three months imprisoned; […]
Posted inLifestyle
Under which flag will we die?
I get off at the Lu Jia Zui subway stop to go to one of my favourite Western coffee shops, Blue Frog. I have a two-hour break before my next teaching class. At Lu Jia Zui is the pride of the Bund, the Pearl Tower. It comprises two huge purple spheres, one on top of […]
Posted inMedia
Nando’s, I finally understand
Dame Evita Bezuidenhout, in her boudoir, hangs up the phone with someone named, “Barack” (Obama not Ehud presumably) and says, “blah blah blah, option A, blah blah blah, option C, blah blah blah, what about option B? … blah blah blah … now you can’t just have A ‘n C …” Now everyone has been […]