The appointment of a new chief justice, the ongoing Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe saga and a number of high-profile court cases may have dominated the legal headlines in recent weeks, but a dispute over a key-ring has served notice of things to come in the build-up to the 2010 World Cup. Fifa is […]
2009
Posted inGeneral
No mouse, remote or keyboard required
This has got to be the next best thing. Not so much because of what it can do to a computer, although many will welcome an occasional reprieve from mouse-clutching. It is the anticipation of the things to come that makes the gesture recognition so exciting. Just remember how many minutes — nay, even hours […]
Posted inLifestyle
Don’t worry about the zombies
In a time of crisis scientists will rise to the occasion. They will solve our problems. Rescue us from our ills. Whatever the global disaster, the men in white will save us. My faith in geekdom is unquestionable. And when I checked the BBC this morning, it was once again affirmed. Scientists have now come […]
Posted inGeneral
The forbidden trek
In blatant defiance of Siener van Rensburg, I have made the trek from the balmy sunshine of Durban to the nippy chill of Johannesburg and don’t I wonder why. Having discovered that my comrades in the taxi industry are about to get shafted by the Rea Vaya (Rapid Bus thingamajig), and that it takes 1 […]
Posted inGeneral
New media…same old bias
Samuel Johnson argued that “he who voluntarily continues ignorant is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces”. As someone who hungers for as much information about as many things possible, I have a particular disgust for ignorance, particularly wilful ignorance. Like Vittorio, I too fear ignorance more than I fear death. However, even more […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Join the PARTY, Helen et al …
So Helen Zille feels that President Zuma did a good job, except for the fact that he is not acting like an executive president, but more like a deployee of Luthuli House. Well, duh, what else is he supposed to be? For the Helen-ites out there, let me explain carefully how South Africa’s electoral system […]
Posted inNews/Politics
I voted for Mbeki
“This is quite interesting … we think of white people who ‘never supported apartheid’. You find in the ANC that no one supported Mbeki.” (Columnist and academic Jacob Dlamini.) Dlamini was addressing an audience at the annual Ruth First lecture in Johannesburg alongside Frene Ginwala, the ANC veteran and former speaker of Parliament. Although the […]
Posted inGeneral
Please Fergie, one more shock signing
Can Sir Alex Ferguson resist the urge to dip back into the transfer market? Every night I go to bed hoping to discover in the morning that Fergie had tricked us when he announced a while back that he had completed his transfer dealings. That I’ll wake up to sports headlines similar to those trumpeted […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Time to talk substance
Two decades have passed and the peace process in the Middle East is still used by the Israelis as a cover to consolidate their presence in the West Bank and Gaza. The peace process came to life after the 1991 Gulf War, but the Israelis developed the strategy to draw out the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in […]
Posted inLifestyle
How I discovered the world’s greatest pick-up line
I can safely say I have discovered the greatest pick-up line in the world. Ok, maybe it’s not a pick-up line; it’s more like a pick-up paragraph. Unfortunately it won’t work in South Africa. Which kinda sucks. One place it’s sure not to work is the Eastern Cape. I will share my secret though because […]
Posted inGeneral
I’m all for leaders that deliver
In politics, as in development, it is not always true that whoever pays the piper chooses the tune. In case some of our Thought Leader bloggers have not noticed, there is fresh impetus in South Africa right now towards a new leadership culture of accountability and visible service to people in need. Ministers spending nights […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The first 100 days of what?
Who needs PR agencies or spin doctors? Certainly not Jacob Zuma, judging by the breathless adulation of the media yesterday. Even the opposition parties went a little gaga over the guy. You would have sworn Zuma had actually done something praiseworthy in the past three-and-a-half months. He has talked a lot, but he has done […]