“Racism is a subject that people often seek to avoid, it being deemed too politically embarrassing, any suggestion of its existence often eliciting a response of outraged indignation and immediate denial. Yet it is central to the discourse of most, if not all, societies.” So writes Martin Jacques in his recent book When China Rules […]
2009
Posted inNews/Politics
And if Ms Semenya were not black?
Yep, I am afraid that is the question that has been going through my mind for the last week or so. Would there be such a furore if she had been white? I think not. That is to say, there would not have been such sputterings from the sports minister and Reverend Stofile has threatened […]
Posted inGeneral
Tainted blood, machine guns and metaphor
Earlier this afternoon, (it’s a Sunday, and I last watched a Formula 1 Grand Prix when I was nine years old and Nelson Piquet was still around), I found myself, as usual, collating material for my chapter on Jacob Zuma, Helen Zille and the Wild Whore Libido, when I happened across this quote from fellow […]
Posted inNews/Politics
If we dumb down matric, would Malema’s G be a distinction for woodwork?
The Times on their fabulous new site had an item about the “Plan to dumb down matric” for South African pupils which automatically got me thinking that the geniuses who had come up with this idea had probably achieved a dumbed-down matric themselves. It entails a distinction in any subject, if this proposal goes ahead, […]
Posted inGeneral
Leadership laboratory
Lionel Faull They came to Grahamstown from all over Africa — from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Gabon, Zambia, Zim — and from all over South Africa, too. Thirty-seven bright young things — all alumni of the coveted Mandela Rhodes Scholarship, Madiba’s intervention to create exceptional leadership capacity in Africa. They brought some pretty amazing speakers with […]
Posted inGeneral
SA Rugby has messed up
Well well well. As much as we wanted to believe SA Rugby about the Southern Kings’ chances of making it into the expanded Super 15, there was always a little voice in the back of our minds, referred to as Cynical Sam (as mentioned to me by a friend), who knew otherwise. The Southern Kings […]
Posted inMedia
Why aren’t we alive with probability?
South Africa — Alive with Possibility. So trumpets SA Info, self-proclaimed “gateway to the nation”, and echoed by Brand South Africa, “custodian” of SA’s image. SA Tourism opts for the slightly less in-your-face “It’s Possible”, but the theme remains common. It’s an alluring slogan. It speaks of vibrancy and vitality. It resonates with promise and […]
Posted inGeneral
The Silicon Cape
By Guy Taylor The emotions that drive us are strange things, anger over the dehumanisation of Caster Semenya, fear of an unknown East taking over an unfit West, and hope for a better day, and a better land that we love. Yes I’m an ardent patriot, doing what I feel is necessary to change the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Don’t judge Blade by the type of car he drives
I think we have to admit that to some extent the Convention for a Democratic South Africa in the early 1990s set us up for failure. This is so because the social, political and economic landscapes of this beautiful country are potholed with contradictions. Many of the injustices and inequalities are structural. Some prefer to […]
Posted inMedia
Having sex with Hitler
Hitler’s unmistakable moustache leers up to camera as he gyrates away at a beautiful woman at the climax of a new Aids awareness advert in Germany. The payoff is: “Aids is a mass murderer”. There’s 44 seconds of face-obscured graphic nudity before you get to see she’s brought Adolf home at 2.33am, a man […]
Posted inGeneral
It’s all about the balls
I have many male friends who really enjoy presenting me with suspicious sexist articles to see how I feel. Normally I take the bait and can’t resist seeing what has been cooked up by some male wally with the aim of discrediting women. But I must say that I got a real giggle out of […]