I’m sorry. This is not about the fractious Malema, Zuma’s ever-growing brood or Eugene Terre’Blanche’s horse. My bone picking is of a different nature, and not as busy as JZ’s. My face-off is at odds with issues of corruption, feminism and accounting. My general apathy towards things that don’t have a direct influence on my […]
2010
Posted inGeneral
How many more games will referees be allowed to ruin?
Poor refereeing decisions have been part of the game for a very long time but recently the man in the middle have been becoming more and more influential in matches, more match winners than match officials, stealing the thunder from the players. We can say that of course they are human beings and therefore can […]
Posted inGeneral
The elderly and decrepit — a sign of our culture?
Are there no black people in old-age homes? I’m just checking, because many a response to a blog about culture by a white writer receives a response about how culturally unacceptable putting old people into homes is. This idea has appeared as a response to many of the blogs I’ve written in critique of Zulu […]
Posted inLifestyle
Dear white liberalist person,
I get it. I totally understand. The whole “white in a post-colonial, post-apartheid South Africa” thing. The terribleness of carrying the burden of your racist ancestors, for no other reason than being the wrong colour in the wrong place. The irony of having to prove your non-racist views at every turn thanks to things that […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Waiting upon drinkies with the prez
President Robert Mugabe would cheer the zeal of Zuma’s protectors, while chuckling at their lack of legislative foresight. The Mugger of the Nation has long since made it a serious offence in Zimbabwe for anyone to demean his exalted status with zap signs, back-of-the-hand sniggers, lewd sucking noises, eye-rolling, nose-picking, earhole excavation or scrotum scratching. Arse-licking by his subjects remains tolerated, even encouraged.
Posted inLifestyle
Gender-bending and other titbits on holiday in China
In the railway station Marion goes off for a smoke and I cover her seat with her jacket and mine to book her spot. A Chinese woman promptly comes over and sits on the jackets, clearly relieved to find a seat. “Zheli you ren, xiaojie“. This seat is taken, ma’am, I say. She stares at […]
Posted inLifestyle
To the cat-basket born
Let me tell you of two cats that I have come to know quite well over the last year or so. Doctor Poo and Mister Hanky of Oud Zuid, Amsterdam. Doctor Poo is an academic. A feline entomologist. Softly spoken and reserved, he shies from the public eye and spends most days working on his […]
Posted inGeneral
SA Rugby’s precedent — pride or prejudice?
é On March 5, SA Rugby nominations for President, Deputy President and Vice President, must be received in writing, from both the nominees accepting the nomination, as well as those doing the nomination, for the SA Rugby elections that will take place on the March 26. It is really quite simple. SA Rugby’s 14 unions […]
Posted inNews/Politics
ANC, ANCYL vs Cosatu on lifestyle audit
While the ANC and ANCYL were issuing a statement condemning “with contempt” the Star newspaper for its article entitled “Malema’s millions”, Cosatu were calling for a lifestyle audit of political leaders. The trade union federation were subsequently joined by Sadtu, whose general secretary, Mugwena Maluleke, issued a statement after the union’s national executive council’s two-day […]
Posted inGeneral
Academia 2.0
The eventual chaos of an overflowing desk and the lugging around of a ton of books and papers in the library is the bane of every student doing a research article, dissertation or thesis. Cue Mendeley.com. Mendeley.com is a research tool which every researcher of any kind can not do without in the Web 2.0 […]
Posted inGeneral
Dare to be wise, Mr President
By Suntosh Pillay “Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.” This is Immanuel Kant’s short but potent definition, offered in 1748. About 260 years later, his paper on the question of Enlightenment remains powerfully persuasive and prophetically relevant. It may even help us expose immature public office bearers. Is Julius Malema immature (let alone […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Render unto Malema
When ANC Youth League President Julius Malema addressed the National Press Club in Pretoria, following the heckling and booing of SACP delegates at Polokwane, he confirmed that this conduct was an invitation to war which the ANCYL was accepting. Fair enough. Those who had confused Malema’s reception by the SACP with that of a politician […]