What SA needs is new breed of ethical entrepreneurs that will help rebuild our country. It’s a sad day when former struggle stalwarts say the new enemy is greed and corruption. Speaking at a recent memorial service for fallen Umkhonto weSizwe members, Desmond Tutu lambasted the ANC for their conspicuous consumption and spoke out against […]
2009
Posted inGeneral
Social and economic exclusion: A ticking time bomb
One of the most powerful texts ever written, The Communist Manifesto, opens with a very instructive statement: “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles”. This statement still holds and will probably hold for another century or so. Almost all the nations in the world have to contend with this […]
Posted inGeneral
Philadelphia’s ‘ethical’ architecture
Looking down from the monument of George Washington towards the Benjamin Franklin Parkway (Philadelphia’s very own Champs Elysees) I always — in the course of one of my frequent visits — know that I am back in one of my favourite American cities. Before going down to this specific area, with the Philadelphia Museum of […]
Posted inGeneral
Finding success from within
Some clubs believe that having lots of money and buying players leads to success, this is the school of thought held by the likes of Manchester City, Real Madrid and Chelsea (before Roman Abramovich closed his cheque book). But then if you look closely at the most successful teams around the world, their best players […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Cele, Hlophe and the age-old question
Yesterday we saw confirmation that Judge John Hlophe’s preliminary inquiry could be covered by the media as well as the appointment of Bheki Cele as the chief of police. Both issues forming the subject matter of much heated debate and no-little gnashing of teeth. This suggests that we revisit the age-old question of whether certain […]
Posted inLifestyle
Tracking down the ancestors — fun but a little pointless
WS Gilbert pokes fun at ancestral one-upmanship in The Mikado, with the absurd Pooh Bah boasting how he could trace his ancestry “back to a protoplasmal, primordial atomic globule”. How ultimately meaningless it is to brag about one’s ancestors becomes even more apparent, moreover, when one realises that, according to modern-day research, everyone is practically […]
Posted inBusiness
Africa still perfectly poised for a golden age
By Sanjeev Gupta UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently stated: “It is not just Wall Street or Main Street that is hurting; people with no streets are suffering too.” And amid all the turbulence that has engulfed the world of high commerce and haunted the major global economies, one can be forgiven for asking whether the […]
Posted inGeneral
Sonke vs Malema
When ANC Youth League president (ANCYL) Julius Malema declared that charges of hate speech and discrimination brought against him by South African NGO Sonke Gender Justice were motivated by a racist and imperialist desire to embarrass black leadership, I was more than a little surprised. Where the heck was this cheap accusation coming from I […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The politics of imagination
The depressing state of international and domestic affairs has seen a rise in optimistic thinking, specifically exploring alternative economic paradigms, modes for environmentally sustainable and eco-aware living and more holistic models for civic engagement and citizen participation. However, despite this renewed enthusiasm to revisit social and economic orthodoxy, very little has been championed with regards […]
Posted inLifestyle
Why is it not prostitution?
Disclaimer: This piece has nothing to do with any engagement I may have had or will have in the near future with any female imagined or otherwise. This is merely for me to pose a question that has bugged me forever. We all know what prostitution is; let us first accept that it is the […]
Posted inGeneral
Back in the spotlight (for all the wrong reasons)
South Africa is back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Just two weeks after the National Union of Mineworkers ended a national strike, which threatened to seriously disrupt several key 2010 construction projects, workers are at it again. Tens of thousands of SA Municipal Workers’ Union workers have taken to the streets to […]
Posted inGeneral
Bokke’s embarrassment of riches
The Bokke boast players who are the undisputed world’s best in the following positions: wings (both), inside centre, scrummie, blindside (in our sense), lock (both — with emphasis). In the following positions we have players who on their day need stand back to no-one and in some cases are on their way to being the […]