Some time ago, I wrote a post called “The changing face of identity”, where I pondered the relevance of Sherry Turkle’s work on the status of identity in the age of the internet for virtual social spaces like Facebook. At the time I surmised that such spaces would not leave human social identities untouched. Judging […]
2010
Posted inGeneral
Springboks: It’s been brutal
You have to feel for the Boks on tour. It has been brutal. They have been pounded in New Zealand over the past two weeks, by a fired up, never-say-die All Blacks side that was waiting to peak against the Springboks. Now they face a Robbie Deans-inspired Wallabies side in SunCorp stadium Brisbane — a […]
Posted inGeneral
Time to act against Israel’s apartheid tendencies
In 1975, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution which asserted that Zionism was racism. The resolution read: “The General Assembly … determines that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” This resolution was passed at a time when the state of Israel was in cahoots with apartheid South Africa, it covertly […]
Posted inGender violence
Do you have to say NO for it to be rape?
I was talking with some family members a while back about rape and something scary became apparent. Most people think that there is a grey area between yes and no, and that sometimes even when you say no, people are still sympathetic to the person who continues to have sex with you anyway. We were […]
Posted inGeneral
Boks leave NZ with more questions than answers
The Springbok performances over the last two weeks have left more questions than answers. Were the All Blacks better than the Bokke? Yes. How bad were the Boks? Not sure. How good were the All Blacks? Very good, but did they make the Boks play badly? The head-in-the-sand view is that South Africa were out-muscled, […]
Posted inLifestyle
Well, beings…
Sticky, bilious, yellow-green shame gushes from a hole in the ocean a mile down. Oh, Lord, don’t put it on the television. Better that we cannot see it. Our eyes decide what our outrage is based on, not the truth. We’ve made our systems more efficient — less effort, better feelings — we’ve “new and […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Warning: Too much openness can be hazardous to your health
By Sam Sole So. Thanks to the Financial Mail we now know that the outcry over the Protection of Information Bill is an “overreaction” from people “obsessed” with openness and the availability of information. Chillingly that is the view of the man tasked with ushering this dangerous piece of legislation through parliament, the honourable Cecil […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Resting before sunset on Mandela Day
This conversation from the movie Before Sunset provides a reason why the people who provide the little achievements of the day should be resting on Mandela Day. Céline: Yes, of course. (Hands him a cigarette.) Um, here. (He takes the cigarette and taps it three times on the table.) In my field, I see these […]
Posted inNews/Politics
When you’re rich, life is your bitch
To be rich would be a wonderful thing. Now, I don’t mean to have a nice car and a nice home, but really rich. Rich like a Kennedy or a Bush. Rich like the GDP of a small to medium country. Because when you are rich, when you are famous and absolutely fabulous, when you […]
Posted inGeneral
When you’re rich, life is your bitch
To be rich would be a wonderful thing. Now, I don’t mean to have a nice car and a nice home, but really rich. Rich like a Kennedy or a Bush. Rich like the GDP of a small to medium country. Because when you are rich, when you are famous and absolutely fabulous, when you […]
Posted inMedia
Who remembers Old Spice?
Once upon a time, Old Spice was the smell of your dad. It was Carmina Burana and crashing waves. It was the gift you bought for a man when you’d long since run out of time and imagination and the bottle gathering dust in the bathroom cabinet. It was the sickeningly schmaltzy ad with the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Letter to Madiba
I jumped up and down, vigorously waving my arms and flashing my biggest smile towards you when you appeared briefly at Soccer City with Mamana Graça at the final World Cup game between Spain and the Netherlands. Nearly a hundred thousand people at the stadium and millions of others all over the world were doing […]