I am a science-fiction lover. If this statement does not interest you, read no further; this blog post will mean nothing to you. (It might mean nothing to you anyway, but we’ll get to that later.) Science fiction is a bit like quiche; people either love it or hate it. I happen to love it. […]
2010
Posted inLifestyle
What’s the deal with ‘howzit babe’?
I’m going to talk about “babe”. Not the movie or the attractive young woman, but the standard term of endearment amongst middle-class South Africans. It’s usually attached to greetings or questions. “Howzit babe” or “Babe, can you open this jar for me?” You hear it everywhere, usually in places like Montecasino or the Builders Warehouse […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Media tribunal just plain stupid
Why oh why does this happen? Why is it that as a people and a country we have such difficulties in dealing with dissent? You would swear that if someone disagreed with your ideas it could result in you losing a limb. I remember in the not-so-long past that the media could not report on […]
Posted inLifestyle, Sport
Getting over the ‘gees’
“Football teams are extraordinarily inventive in the ways they find to cause their supporters sorrow.” — Fever Pitch (Nick Hornby). This post is perhaps a month late but the truth is, this is not about the World Cup but what it has done to us as a society, a nation and individuals. I love football, […]
Posted inGeneral
Zim: A second liberation?
If you are in the 30-plus age bracket, chances are, you will not see Zimbabwe rise again in your lifetime. Now before you accuse me of being an unfeeling pessimist, I am not by any means suggesting that Zimbabwe will never recover. I am merely asserting that a return to the former glory days is […]
Posted inGeneral
Zim must regain sense of outrage
If you are in the 30-plus age bracket, chances are, you will not see Zimbabwe rise again in your lifetime. Now before you accuse me of being an unfeeling pessimist, I am not by any means suggesting that Zimbabwe will never recover. I am merely asserting that based on the multi-faceted dynamics which have shaped […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The press must be free, not dom
ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has appealed for calm when discussing the ANC’s proposed media tribunal and not go on the offensive. On the contrary we all should, whether we are in and of the news media or not, forcefully resist this attempt to curtail freedom of speech. Let’s be blunt. Whether it comes in the […]
Posted inGeneral
What you can’t see doesn’t mean that it does not exist
Once upon a time in a land at the southern tip of Africa, there lived a people so adept at making the rest of the world scratch their heads until their hair fell out that it became known as the Kingdom of Alopecia. Like most countries on the continent it had undergone a period of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Media tribunal: Why all the fuss?
Laugh out loud on Sunday Methinks the media tribunal is a good idea after all. For the first time after 16 years of democracy politicians will have a haven where they can run off to appeal against the media’s nosy ways. The public will also have a well deserved break from all the exposés on corruption […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Helen is now the only ‘poppie’ in the village
The only looming threat is how long an ANC that perceives itself to be the only legitimate political entity on these shores will tolerate the DA determinedly nibbling away at a vote that the ANC proclaims as its sole preserve.
Posted inLifestyle
The terminal failure of orthodox medicine
When my father died last year of cancer it took me some time to fully grasp the manner of his passing and to realise my own culpability in allowing the doctors to destroy whatever dignity death might have allowed him if I had had the courage and the knowledge to stop the torture. I allowed […]
Posted inGeneral
Jacob Zuma: A presidential white elephant
“To be or not to be, that is the question” that confronted Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy of the same name. Hamlet is confronted with two important considerations, which pose to him a predicament of sorts; whether to reprimand his mother or protect her; to love Ophelia or reject her; to kill Claudius or […]