Advertisements proudly carrying the “Product of the Year 2010” logo are beginning to pop up with annoying frequency. I chanced on one such product which, according to the proud winner, was voted product of the year in the supplements category. The Product of the Year website has not listed the 2010 winners — but it […]
2010
Posted inGeneral
Right-wing extremists are terrorists, not freedom fighters
Upon the murder of their leader Eugene Terre’Blanche, the AWB confirmed they would be meeting with government on a new Volkstaat where they could be the authors of their own destiny. While there was anger and emotion in the days following the brutal killing, the movement displayed a maturity that somehow seemed to have eluded […]
Posted inGeneral
Who would you write or gossip about when they die?
We have had the Terre’Blanche and Lolly Jackson deaths so far this year. The press that followed proved that more is said about the person or personage after his death. Well I remember the “truths” about incest that emerged after novelist and poet Lawrence Durrell’s death (brother to the perhaps more famous Gerald Durrell). It […]
Posted inGeneral
Has big industry become public enemy number one all over again?
Industrial companies have never had an easy relationship with the public. Ever since the Industrial Revolution, when these behemoths were first born, they have been blamed for all manner of things, ranging from child labour to global warming. But it wasn’t till about 30 years ago that industrial companies were viewed not only as exploiters, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Brit electorate awaits international seal of approval
‘What a mess the ‘mother of all parliaments’ finds herself in. The old dear must be dithering on the wrong side of senility to cause one of Her Majesty’s top diplomats to note scornfully that ‘British democracy is no better than Uzbekistan’s.’
Posted inNews/Politics
Our government idolises crime
By Jackie Mapiloko Just over a week ago I woke up to the news that my brother and his wife were shot in their home. Three bullets went through his spine and his wife was hit in the neck and stomach. He will never walk again. She is still in intensive care and can’t remember […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The Greek crisis from a Greek perspective
By George Karasaridis In Greek mythology, Icarus burnt his wings because he flew too close to the sun. This is exactly what Greeks feel has happened to them in the last few months. Once the easy money dried up thanks to the global credit crisis, countries that where living way beyond their means suddenly found […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The quotable Lolly Jackson
Say what you like about South Africa’s leading purveyor of punani — and there’ve been people who’ve said he was an arsehole and they’re glad he’s dead — but Lolly Jackson was good for a soundbite. I quoted him in all three of my collections of South African insults and the man who started his […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Cosatu should know better than Terre’Blanche bail demand
Trade union federation Cosatu is demanding that the two men accused of the murder of AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche be given bail. In a statement, issued by the Congress of SA Trade Unions in the North West, the union says that the suspects must be given bail like those racist farmers who killed farm workers […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Juju was right, Zuma and Mbeki are two sides of same coin
I am battling to understand why the ANC top brass was “particularly offended” by ANC Youth League president Julius Malema’s comparison of President Jacob Zuma to his predecessor Thabo Mbeki. For months now I have been making the same comparison myself and have come to the same conclusion that Zuma is indeed not different from […]
Posted inGeneral
Did Cape Argus reviewer Bianca Capazorio actually read Cracking China?
It is said that it is “not the done thing” for an author to engage with a reviewer of his book. Notice the passive structure of the previous sentence. There is no agency. Nobody knows who came up with that tradition. Anyway, my criticism of Capazorio’s review is mostly with a glaring factual error, not […]
Posted inLifestyle
is you a grammar nazi?
There are a bunch of folks out there who like to get up in our shit. Nitpicking word puritans who like to get all righteous about how we use the English language. You’ll find them in every office, on every forum, blog, twitter feed, and comment section. Verbholes who spend their lives looking for deviances […]