As Louis Gossett Jr advises in the Windhoek ads, “Keep it real”. When it comes to interest rates and alcohol, real is better. So forget about inflation-targeting. Let’s have a new target: a positive real interest rate of say 3%. What this simply means is that if inflation is 14% then the Reserve Bank’s influential […]
2009
Posted inGeneral
Rugby’s top 20 coaches of all time
Stephen Jones is a Welsh journalist who has been the rugby union correspondent for The Times and The Sunday Times for more than 20 years. He was twice named sports correspondent of the year by the Sports Journalists’ Association. He is noted for his controversial and often provocative views, in particular his anti-Irish and anti-New […]
Posted inMedia
These are a few of my favourite ads
Now that I am back in South Africa, I have had a chance to catch up on some of the ads that are being flighted right now. While most are unremarkable, and a couple are actively offensive, a few campaigns do stand out. 1. The ad everybody loves right now is the TV commercial for […]
Posted inGeneral
Missed moments of humour
The other morning I was sitting on the loo in our apartment on the 22nd floor in downtown Shanghai, cursing a decadent evening of German eisbein, sausages, sauerkraut and Long Island iced teas. I heard a shifting noise and looked at the window. A Chinese gentleman was peering at me through a crack in the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
ANCYL, DA much funnier than Tories and Labour
The thing I love most about British and South African politics is that no matter how serious an issue is, the politicians somehow manage to make such a matzoth pudding out of it that it becomes more rewarding to watch this lot unfolding on television or in the newspapers, than it is to visit any […]
Posted inGeneral
Is Helen Zille justified in appointing a pale male Western Cape cabinet?
This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: Is Helen Zille justified in appointing a pale male Western Cape cabinet?
Posted inLifestyle
Yes, I have crossed over to the dark side
This week, I went over to the dark side. Yes, technically it is a four-year-old car and technically, it cost less than a Mazda 2 1.5 despite being an auto and having only 27 600 km on the clock. But it bears the kidney-shaped grill, the badge divided into blue and white quarters (a spinning propeller […]
Posted inGeneral
King III should incorporate non-profits’ unique needs
The non-profit sector (NPO) in South Africa has a long and proud history of serving a disparate number of communities. These have ranged from traditionally charitable institutions, such as homes for children and the aged, to socio-political and economic non-governmental organisations (NGO). The wide array and large number of NPOs — estimates put the number […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zille’s decision contrary to research
Harvard Business Review have just emailed me the story that is being run by most major French publications about how women on management teams have fared better than men in the current financial crisis. Elle, Le Monde and many other publications have presented CERAM Professor Michel Ferrary’s research, which shows that companies with more women […]
Posted inGeneral
It may seem like gloating, but…
It has been four months since my last post. Having just closed out the past semester – by far the most difficult of my short academic career – I am slowly re-emerging and connecting with current affairs and the social world around me. My students, those I taught this past semester and over the past […]
Posted inGeneral
Male caregivers need support too
I thought I had made a good point. I was talking to the scriptwriter of a television series interviewing me on the topic of raising emotionally intelligent children. My point was that the by-line of each episode was (more or less) “remember, you are great mommies”. I think it’s great to support parents by taking […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Ungovern … what? Say that again, I double dare you!
The Liberal quota for gender parity and the empowerment of women in the public sector is constructed by averaging, in percentage terms, the number of women in the population, with the number of women in all parts of the economy, with the percentage of primary child caregivers (and in loco parentis) who are women. This […]