Lifting your gaze from the gritty business of fighting for information and press rights, it’s pretty interesting to consider South Africa in wider international context. How does the country’s media system stack up in comparison to the US, Italy, Russia and China? What’s common, what’s changing, what’s relevant? Here are the highlights of a conference […]
2010
Posted inLifestyle, Media
The digital hall of mirrors
The other morning I discovered that I no longer had 590 Facebook friends. I had 589. As you can imagine, I was devastated. Who had unfriended me? And why? What dreadful thing had I done to prompt such a drastic move? My thoughts circled through a range of possible explanations. Had somebody deleted their profile? […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The Conspiracy of the People
Democracy is not just about elections, and yet there is a vocal minority guilty of this reductionism, complicit in conspiring to commit political infanticide. The first inclusive, multiracial democratic elections in 1994 merely marked the culmination of a long, arduous negotiation process that sought to lay the foundation of a new democratic and constitutional order. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
ANC’s internal machinations trump Zuma’s leadership
This is a president who does not do much good, but thus far hasn’t done too much harm either.
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle
To find life, experience death
This year three friends have died and one was murdered. The day after Keith died this week, a friend told me of a member of his congregation who had given up his battle at the same time as Keith, except that he had shot himself after shooting his wife, leaving their two sons. Thank God […]
Posted inTech
Africa’s technology blockers
By Cano Ssemakulu It will always boil down to the money — the one commodity Africa has always lacked, and will always lack. Scientific research within the African context has not yielded results despite the presence of centres of scientific excellence across the African continent. Up till now Africa continues to suffer from solvable problems […]
Posted inNews/Politics
R54.5bn has gone AWOL: Why no outrage?
Please do me a favour and jump back in time – say 12 to 16 months back. You are driving home from work and the radio is on. All of a sudden the news presenter announces how the RXXXX billion for Cape Town’s / Joburg’s / Rustenburg’s / Durban’s stadium has vanished without a trace. […]
Posted inGeneral
What’s up with Bucs?
When the Absa Premiership season started I predicted that Orlando Pirates would be a hot contender for the league title. I had no doubt about that, based on the quality of their team and many other factors. They didn’t start their season well, but there was a ray of hope that things would improve and […]
Posted inGeneral
The Banana Republic — coming soon to a home near you
Remember how we used to joke about corruption in “some countries” with the condescending tone of those who consider themselves above such? We’d laugh, half in wonder, half in condescension at talk that police could stop citizens randomly with no apparent offence being committed and search and interrogate them until a bribe was put forward […]
Posted inGeneral
Art: Elaborating on history or erasing it?
This essay (longer than my usual post length) first appeared in the catalogue for the Re-Sponse “retrospective” art exhibition that recently opened at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum (NMMAM) in Port Elizabeth, as a joint project between the Art Museum and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s School of Music, Art and Design. I have […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Is Zuma using Gareth Cliff meeting as a PR exercise?
5FM jock Gareth Cliff recently penned, or rather, let his fingers dance on a keyboard and published a letter to the government on his website. The letter, Dear Government was a sensational hit. It was forwarded to me several times by people who to a large extent share the same views as Gareth. Since Gareth […]
Posted inEquality, Lifestyle
If you don’t know what it means to be a feminist, don’t say you’re not one
Oh my days. It is entirely frustrating when you represent a cause, only to hear someone say that your cause is irrelevant because they don’t understand what it is. Bev Merriman, you just made me feel very, very ill. It’s like someone saying they’re going to speed, because so far, speeding hasn’t been bad for […]