One day I will leave this country and I will never forget: In the humid summers I perspire a lot and whenever I walk into a shop an assistant offers me tissues. The other day the newspaper vendor lady insisted I take a whole packet, no charge. Sheez … I will never forget the little […]
2009
Posted inGeneral
Vote for free education
To my fellow students I am given once again to reflect on the pathetic leadership provided to the students of South Africa by the ANC government, and in this case by the SACP’s Minister Blade Nzimande, and the ANC’s Youth Militia of Cosas, Sasco, ANCYL, YCL and PYA. I recall that they all promised us […]
Posted inLifestyle
Men: Moving from power to purpose
By Suntosh Pillay Why is it that men mostly join organisations and committees where they have some position of power and rarely offer themselves simply as volunteers who want to make a positive difference? This was just one of the questions posed at the launch of the UKZN Men’s Forum (UMF) a few weeks ago. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The students are trashing the place, again
Oh look, it’s protest season again. Wits students campaigning against a fee increase have participated in the time-honoured tradition of trashing the campus, invading lectures and intimidating non-protestors. I was in first year when all of this first started, back in 1993. Back then, dewy-eyed liberals like me were trying to get our heads around […]
Posted inGeneral
Zapiro’s spot on
Today the M&G posted another excellent and “it says it all” cartoon by that master of public comment, Zapiro. In the picture, titled “Revealed in Oz … “, it shows Caster Semenya dressed up like Dorothy, flanked on her right by the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion. The Tin Man has “Aussie editors” scrawled on […]
Posted inGeneral
Maybe the Holocaust was not enough
I I jump off a packed train in Munich and walk from the platform towards the station when a plain clothes policeman stops me. He flashes his badge at me. He is not an immigration officer. He is an undercover cop. I give him my passport, simultaneously searching the crowds for the familiar face of […]
Posted inGeneral
Buenos Aires! Tony Leon and the new(ish) Evita
Next Wednesday, Tony Leon’s friends will be bid him and Michal a fond adios as they depart for wonderful Argentina. I am seething with envy. So is Richard Calland. His M&G column “Tony, I want your job in Buenos Aries” two weeks ago was so full of animus, it demands a response — albeit a […]
Posted inLifestyle
Hands off my beloved brown bottle
I reiterate — I love beer. The golden nectar is truly a gift from the Almighty. There is a quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin that goes “beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy” and I believe that this may not be far from the truth. My happiest moments have […]
Posted inGeneral
A white South African refugee headed home…
By Adam Currie Well, well, well … I do love to spark a debate and my last little ramble (A Canuck Kaapie) certainly got some individuals blood boiling. A good few old-school Johannes shook their heads, put there brandewyns aside, and decided to give me a good ol’ Groot Krokodil finger wag. I was thrown […]
Posted inLifestyle
If only time was more like plasticine
I am typing this as I sit in one of our boardrooms. I’m waiting for a meeting. I’m always waiting for meetings. Nobody ever shows up at the time at which Outlook says a meeting should start; sometimes it’s because I didn’t get the update, or there’s been a last-minute cancellation, or everybody else has […]
Posted inNews/Politics
It’s high time Mugabe was certified
By Sarah Logan It was with disbelief that I read Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s recent demands for an apology from the EU for the sanctions placed on him and his inner circle since Zimbabwe’s disputed 2002 presidential elections. The thought of him demanding such an apology is hilarious, apart from being downright outrageous. However, as […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Where is our Ann Coulter?
I have never met Ann Coulter. I doubt that I’m important enough to warrant an invitation to an event of the Young Republicans, and certainly I’m not conservative enough to be considered “one of them”. On the one occasion that I invited Ms Coulter to an online debate on “liberalism vs conservatism — finding the […]