There are a lot of ways to respond to something like Annelie Botes’ stated aversion to black people. My initial one didn’t rise to anything worthy of reproduction. However, the reality is that her views are shared by a significant portion of the population. Except in the case that those people’s fears are realised, and […]
2010
Posted inNews/Politics
SA Human Rights Commission plays it sorry but very safe
The belief that black South Africans are incapable of anything but fraternal goodwill towards other black Africans is an article of political faith for many in government.
Posted inGeneral
Richie McCaw, the best flanker of the professional era
The crowd seethes in one congruous mass, willing the home side to victory. Against them is an enemy akin to the Vikings, raiders of the north. Recognised as barbarians by their victims and heroes by those who support them, they are the furthest thing from an unorganised rabble. A man of tremendous size, playing for […]
Posted inGeneral
Fear and loathing: On the campaign trail, Fifa style
The Hunter S Thompson title for his 1972 collection of articles, “Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail”, told of a US presidential election which came at a time of change in western popular culture. Vietnam was still raging, the Cold War was still very alive and Richard Nixon was president, a figure Thompson despised. […]
Posted inGeneral
Animal Farm revisited at Boulders taxi rank
I saw something very shameful today. Plainclothes police officers from the JMPD, well they were in JMPD vehicles while all clad in suspiciously fake-looking football shirts, rained down on a group of mostly foreign men who offer cheap haircuts on the pavement outside the taxi rank at Boulders, Midrand. Tents and tarps were torn down […]
Posted inGeneral
In defence of conspicuous consumption
A debate has been raging recently, led by self-appointed economic moralists and social activists, who have been on a war-path against conspicuous consumption; something they perceive as unethical consumerism and an affront on the moral principles of society. Anyone with a shade of active grey-matter would realise that such moral arguments are absolute nonsense. This […]
Posted inMedia
When tweets get up an editor’s nose, he shouldn’t become a twitter-troll
I don’t think any editor would want to be known as a species of Twitter-troll.
Posted inNews/Politics
New Zealand betrays the human race, SA doesn’t
Oh New Zealand … would something please HAPPEN?!? We humans are Happening People, and “happening” stuff collocates with happy. I see from the etymology that “hap” has a common root in both words: “fortuitous circumstances”, from which we get other terms like mishap. The guys in SA just don’t know how lucky they are with […]
Posted inGeneral
Chiefs have the edge over Bucs
Orlando Pirates must be having nightmares ahead of their Telkom Knockout cup final game against arch-rivals Kaizer Chiefs. Flashes of the 3 – 1 beating they received the last time these two giants played must still be playing with their heads. The Bucs still need to figure out how to stop the “smiling assassin” who […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The medical mutilation of women’s rights
When a woman goes into a hospital to have a baby, and is told that unless she agrees to being sterilised the doctors will not assist her, what should she do? Or when she goes in and is asked to sign a form for a Caesarean and comes out womb-less and confused what recourse does […]
Posted inLifestyle
Thoughts on (not) wearing a bra
This afternoon I did something quite radical. It’s not the sort of thing I would usually do, not at all, but for some reason I flung caution to the light north-easterly breeze and went ahead anyway. This afternoon, I walked around outside, in daylight hours, without wearing a bra. It felt … wrong. Not only […]
Posted inGeneral
Living reconciliation II
In the latter half of 2006 former chief justice Pius Langa delivered an address titled “Transformative Constitutionalism” at the University of Stellenbosch law faculty. In this address he described a link between transformation and reconciliation, stating: “Transformation is not something that occurs only in courtrooms, parliaments and governmental departments. Social transformation is indispensable to our […]