By Suntosh Pillay A short little booklet caught my attention recently. On its red cover, the bold title “Blacks can’t be racist” appeared. Curious by such an absurd claim, I parted with R20. Indeed, it was a 23-page explication on why black people cannot be racist. CANNOT. This argument, written in July 2009, was put […]
2010
Posted inGeneral
Old boxers never die
I heard with satirical dismay last week that Evander Holyfield, the former world heavyweight boxing champion, and Francois Botha, the South African journeyman, had postponed their scheduled fight in Uganda once more with a new date still up in the air. Botha (41) would never have been fit to face Holyfield (47) even 10 years […]
Posted inMedia
Never run out of petrol in Libode
We’re in Libode and it doesn’t look good. There isn’t enough in the tank to get us to Mthatha, which is worrying because we’ve been driving up and down pretty much every muddy, rutted track that passes for a road here and there’s no sign of a petrol station. There’s an Absa, a Pep, even […]
Posted inLifestyle
Enough of this ‘parenting’ nonsense — raise your kids on lies!
If it were up to me, every single book ever written about “parenting” would be burnt and its author shot. I brought my kids up by following three basic maxims: never make a threat you can’t keep, always treat children like ordinary little people, and lie to them as much as you can — that’s […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Is Malema just a pinker Floyd?
Zimbabwean journalists, now illegal workers living in Jozi’s mines, have discovered a secret dossier that showcases one Julius Malema suffering from clinical depression. The dossier, found in the abandoned mines of Diepklip bordering the dry Mid-rand suburb of Kraakfontein (opposite the KFC) is a collection of transcribed counselling sessions between Malema, an unnamed psychiatrist, only […]
Posted inGeneral
Channelling Holden Caulfield
I had quite the Holden Caulfield experience at a popular restaurant recently. Is it just me or are we fast becoming a race of phonies? This group of young people sitting at the table right next to us, phony girls with their hair all straightened and all, looking like bloody clones of each other. Sitting […]
Posted inGeneral
SA needs to get its act together
In what is recorded as his last speech, the extraordinary Anton Muziwakhe Lembede told the gathering, at Leake Hall in Soweto, June 1947, that “the history of mankind is the history of the liberation of the mankind”. Fast-forward to 1961, Frantz Fanon forcefully argued that “what matters today is the need for redistribution of wealth”. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Opposition alliance much better fit than ANC’s tripartite one
When Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille confirmed to the special unity conference of the Independent Democrats that the difference between themselves — including Cope — related to style rather than substance, it was to all intents and purposes an accurate assessment of the leading opposition parties. Theirs is a natural fit where even differences over […]
Posted inGeneral
‘Generation next’
Some people believe that things never really change in society — there are several proverbs which attest to this deep-seated belief, such as: “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” This is not true, of course — there was a fundamental change in the transition from the ancient Greek and Roman world […]
Posted inGeneral
Fuck the police
Recent run-ins with the men and women in blue makes me sympathetic to those who defiantly proclaim “fuck the police”. On the eve of Human Rights Day the Community of Mandela Rhodes Scholars in Gauteng was given an insider’s perspective of the “beacon of light” in a history of oppression and disregard for basic human […]
Posted inGeneral
And in other news … ANCYL overthrows SA defence force
In a surprise, swift coup, the freshly appointed Brigadier General Julius Malema and his senior cohorts replaced all the military generals in Pretoria and elsewhere and are now offering a “final solution” to the predicament South Africa is in. A junior spokesman for the old ANCYL said the coup de’tat was “so easy”, because “our […]
Posted inGeneral
Let’s assume there’s no global warming
If there is no global warming then it is business as usual, right? We should remove any barriers to economic growth and dismiss the consequences. What I hear in the constant refrain from those that either dismiss or downplay global warming is that we should not worry about environmental issues at all. It seems that […]