Enough silence. The last time I blogged on this site it was about #SpeakZA, an initiative started by Sipho Hlongwane and amplified by the online community as a protest against Malema and his cronies trying to gag the media. Well it looks like the war has stepped up a few levels. And I have to […]
2010
Posted inGeneral
Selecting a team based on symmetry
Picking a sports side is always an interesting venture. Apart from it being an exercise of tactics and planning, there is also the toughest facet of all when it comes to forming a competitive outfit: the human dynamic. History tells us a group of people that have spent a certain period of time around one […]
Posted inLifestyle
Why the hell are you single?
If you’re young, independent, bright and single you’ve probably been asked the question: “why the hell are you single?” For the unattached average 20-something this is a question that plagues your existence. For some it is a constant reminder that you are indeed without a significant other, for others who consciously chose the single life […]
Posted inGeneral
If you know, should you tell?
A lot of the law around children requires ordinary citizens who know about child abuse or molestation to report it. It is in fact illegal to know about this stuff and not report it — if you don’t report, you are complicit. This makes sense in some respects, and some respects it doesn’t. Obviously it […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Open letter to Jeremy Cronin
Dear Jeremy, I am deeply disappointed in the South African Communist Party and in you personally for supporting censorship in the form of a media tribunal. You have lost my respect as an intellectual and as a democrat. The occasion for my letter is your article in Umsebenzi Online. I would respond directly online, but […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Taking the ANC media tribunal at face value
Most media responses to the ANC’s recently released discussion document have come out fighting. The particular target is the proposed media appeals tribunal, a body that would give ruling party the final say over what the press can publish. A few media responses, however, have been mea culpa. But where problems have been acknowledged and […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, General, Lifestyle
Weigh-Less for carbon addicts
If you are fat, most people would say you should probably go on diet. Cut down on what’s causing your love handles and that bloated beer belly. The same thinking, it seems, applies to climate change: having gorged ourselves on the bad stuff — fossils fuels and carbon emissions — while skimping on the greens, […]
Posted inGeneral
Telkom Charity Cup time again
It’s Telkom Charity Cup time again where Absa Premiership teams, as voted for by their supporters, will take part in a four-team, one-day tournament in the name of charity. But don’t be fooled by the word charity, when the teams take the field they are not charitable at all. It becomes an all-out battle for […]
Posted inLifestyle
The Springboks, Weet-Bix, Airwolf and Nurse Busty
Occasionally — very occasionally — I am gripped by a completely alien urge to tidy up; to clear out the clutter, let go of what I don’t need, and find a place for the things I do. So, today, I tackled the unholy mess that has haunted me for months. Acres of books and bags […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Selebi: A triumph of justice?
As the National Prosecuting Authority bask in the afterglow of having obtained a conviction against former top cop Jackie Selebi in Johannesburg on Wednesday, the time has come to put into perspective the price that was paid by South Africans in order to obtain it. As things stand the former police commissioner is facing 15 […]
Posted inGender violence, Lifestyle
The noises next door
Every year 1 400 women are killed by their partners, and maybe we were listening. If your neighbour plays music really loud on a week night, do you go over and ask them to keep it down? If they start banging their drums at 9pm in a residential area, do you think you should ask them […]
Posted inLifestyle
Ladies, you are leaving us less and less choice
This has been a long time in the making and I apologise to my detractors and supporters alike for it taking this long to pen the follow-up to “I blame your mother for your laziness” which came in for much debate, as anticipated, and I hope that it opened people’s minds to how most men […]