Even before the Lewinsky affair made him a by-word for sexual incontinence, the libidinous Bill Clinton had been embroiled in a sex scandal that nearly toppled his presidency almost from the outset. In 1994, a certain Paula Jones sued him for sexual harassment, claiming he had propositioned her three years earlier, exposing himself in the […]
2009
Posted inGeneral
On being a recovering racist
I have had a few cathartic experiences living in this beautiful country of ours. One of them was in 1989 sitting in a room full of fellow students debating issues which to us at the time were very important for our organization, AIESEC. We were gathered from twenty or so campuses around the country in a meeting room at Wits. At a point I looked around the room and realized that everything I had learned about race until that point was a lie.
Posted inNews/Politics
Hammering out the finer details of an enlarged cabinet
ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe has confirmed that the ruling party is discussing moving the skills directorate from the labour department to the newly formed department of higher education and training. Speculation about moving the skills development initiatives that are run by the department of labour to the education department has been simmering for many years. […]
Posted inMedia
Fumbling with broadcasting’s future in a socially-networked world
The crisis of the US newspaper industry is what broadcasters are going to experience. Plunging audiences and collapsing advertising revenues. And it’s also coming to South Africa. That’s the prognosis of Wits digital arts professor Christo Doherty speaking as chair of a conference on digital media for broadcasters, organised by Classic Events at Wanderers this […]
Posted inMedia
Zuma has no need for a media out of touch with his people
If one had to choose between a Zuma presidency without a media-relations unit or a media without Zuma, I would settle for the former. Whatever one may wish for, the media without Zuma is impossible. In the last seven or eight years, the media have made their profit by waging an incessant assault on Zuma’s […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zuma appointing Mulder should be warmly welcomed
There are two compelling reasons why I was thrilled to see President Jacob Zuma confirming that Dr Pieter Mulder, leader of the Freedom Front Plus, was being given the post of deputy minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries. First and foremost is that it tells us that the president — and by extension the government […]
Posted inNews/Politics
To shower or not to shower, that is our Zapiro
I think it is most appropriate that Zaps is removing the shower head from the president’s cranium, with the caveat that the removal may only be temporary, depending on performance. And as Zapiro (bless his satirical name) avows, it is not due to political pressure on the cartoonist. If people are going to continually ridicule […]
Posted inGeneral
Notes for an autobiography: Living in South Africa
1. He remembers drowsing on a large woman’s back in a blanket as she walked. She was talking very loudly to other women. He was often on her back, warm, safe, but not his mother’s back. 2. Drinking Coke on a beach in Durban, often hearing the words Umhlanga Rocks, Amanzimtoti like the tree-sounds outside […]
Posted inGeneral
Three philosophical accounts of love
In my last post I wrote about Plato’s account of love in his Symposium. But different thinkers have had very diverse conceptions of this phenomenon — and I deliberately do not say “feeling”, because, although love is usually accompanied by certain, fairly intense feelings that people generally locate in their chest or breast area (hence […]
Posted inGeneral
Why I am an ex-expat, for now
Right, confession time. I haven’t blogged for a while because I have been too busy. Moving countries and starting a new job tends to have that effect. Yes, I am back in Joburg and yes, I am one of the returning expats the Sunday Times wrote about with such undisguised schadenfreude earlier this year. Don’t […]
Posted inGeneral
Fifa volunteer experience — part 5
Very often, in my experience, it is quite difficult to comment on sports and race issues without appearing to be offensive or over-generalising. It is indeed disheartening when one gets the impression that the black and white people of this country seem to “prefer” to live in different sporting worlds, with a few liberals sprinkled […]
Posted inGeneral
Fifa volunteer experience — part 4
A grouped of 800+ volunteers cheered as the passionate expression behind the words sunk in. “Of all the host cities for the Fifa 2009 Confederations Cup and 2010 World Cup, Rustenburg is the only one with its stadium located right at the heart of a typical SA semi-rural settlement, in Phokeng village,” said Nketu Matima, […]