Tuesday 4am, I’m on the road to the Happy Valley[1] community in deep rural KZN. For tomorrow evening Happy Valley Private School has planned a certificate ceremony where I must present some course certificates. This is the final stage of a teacher training course we did during the June 2009 school holidays. This afternoon I […]
2009
Posted inBusiness
Oh…and one last question
I haven’t had the luck or CV excellence to go to many interviews since I moved up to Cape Town. Truth be told, things are a bit laid back here and so in the absence of a job I’ve had to make ends meat by pursuing other inane part time work like data capturing, promoting, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Wanted: Lessons in what’s possible — contact Luthuli House
Just as physicists, astronomers, molecular biologists, mathematicians and the greatest minds in the world discover more and more bizarre and jaw-dropping new things in the macroverse and microverse, they are realising that fundamental laws of science remain incontrovertible and more sound than ever. Of course, they still battle to reconcile things that are mathematically proven, […]
Posted inGeneral
Will the JSC debunk the myth of white judicial competence?
The stakes in the forthcoming Constitutional Court succession race are phenomenally high. In this atmosphere, lies paraded by white advocates and retired judges are accepted at face value without the benefit of scholarly refutation. Judges Carole Lewis and Kriegler have made despicable statements in which black judges were maligned under the guise of critiquing the […]
Posted inMedia
District 9 proves there’s more to SA film than Schuster comedies
By Adam Wakefield The spaceship hovers over Johannesburg as the restlessness that lies below grows to a point that will engulf the whole city. People are complaining that the uitlanders, the prawns, are a societal nuisance and that they should “go back to where they came from”. The above is a very, very condensed and […]
Posted inGeneral
How should the Caster Semenya matter have been handled?
This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: How should the Caster Semenya matter have been handled?
Posted inGeneral
Brazilian dream team could save Bafana
National coach Joel Santana found himself on the ropes this week when he was reportedly summoned to Safa headquarters to account for his team’s poor run of results. For the record, Bafana Bafana have now recorded six losses in a row — their worst run ever. Earlier this month, the team was beaten 2-0 by […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Spit for money: Only in South Africa
Jawellnofine. We South Africans are all too fond of thinking we’re unique, special, different. Uniquely scenic, uniquely crime-ridden, uniquely challenged, uniquely corrupt etc etc. The technical term for this is exceptionalism and it is a very bad habit, because it dupes us into thinking that we are more special than we really are. Think of […]
Posted inLifestyle
Nobody puts Baby in a corner
Patrick Swayze died and took the early girlhoods of the Western world with him. When his name is mentioned, hetero men still roll their eyes and swear they’ll never watch the film; hetero women roll their eyes, but for a different reason. Some of it is about the obvious: tight black trousers go a long […]
Posted inNews/Politics
We need the A-Team!
Hold the phone! Simmer down with all the talk about drunk judges, substandard matrics and presidential links to the Rhema Church. Something important is coming through on the wire. A South African is to play “Howling Mad” Murdock in the new A-Team! Sharlto Copley of District 9 fame has been given the nod. He will […]
Posted inGender violence
What the Fritzl is going on?
The past two years have seen an abundance of scary child captivity cases come to light. These cases are really scary and difficult to understand. They bother me not only because they are so completely horrific, but also because I have no way of understanding the actions that these men and women have taken to […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The art of demeaning: Zapiro’s cartoon of Semenya
I am a fan of Zapiro but he has taken it too far this time. He is way out of line. His latest cartoon shows Caster Semenya with the words “No ovaries” above her head. I find this visual and verbal depiction of Ms Semenya exceptionally abusive and degrading. It is not a joke; perhaps […]