So the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa is demanding that Zapiro apologise for drawing what so many are talking about in private: the utter abuse of state institutions, office and the Constitution. This assault on and degrading of constitutional order was highlighted by the call for a political solution to President Jacob Zuma’s […]
2010
Posted inGeneral
Should we blame the sun for global warming?
Climate change has been a topical issue over the last few years. It has enjoyed overwhelming prominence not because it is an uncommon occurrence but because of its potential adverse consequences. Though humanity acknowledges the reality of climate change, there are those who have attempted to solely attribute this phenomenon to what we do here […]
Posted inGeneral
Why wait for the maggots?
My eyesight is terrible. I really can not see well out my left eye, a congenital problem I am told. One that was not identified by the conglomeration of nurses who descended upon my primary school with their wooden spatulas and needle-and-syringe kits. But that’s another story for another time. Seriously though, I am not […]
Posted inGeneral
Keeping it real in 2010
Ke nako! It is time! That’s right soccer fans, 2010 has arrived and the country is being revved up for the biggest month long party we have seen since the 2003 cricket and 1995 rugby World Cups. Much has been made of SA’s ability (with many of those doubters basing their convictions on stereotypes about […]
Posted inLifestyle
Divided we stand
By Michael Baillie The idea of individualism is not new. What is new, however, is the importance and prestige attached to one’s individuality. We are constantly told to embrace it and to relish in our uniqueness. It’s a message pumped out by the mass media that is both insidious and ubiquitous: you are your own […]
Posted inNews/Politics
We can’t eat rights!
By Jason Hickel “But we can’t eat rights, hawu!” Those five words of protest that usher from the lips of South Africa’s underclass sting like a slap in the face. Good liberals will always take offence. We find ourselves scrambling desperately to battle the mad claim that “things were better under apartheid”. “But of what […]
Posted inGeneral
We have to stop blaming others
It has been reported that 1.1 million little boys and girls enrolled for Grade 1 throughout the country this year. These beautiful ones who were born into a free and democratic society may be likened to a garden of what South Africa will look like in 2022. These are the little boys and girls who will […]
Posted inGeneral
Diplomacy is changing
Once the preserve of dilettantes exchanging formal communiqués in cloistered offices, today’s diplomacy — call it Diplomacy 2.0 — should be a wide-ranging discussion that involves individuals at all levels from the echoing marble halls of government buildings in the world’s most powerful countries to the 16-year-old with a mobile-enabled cellphone texting with a US […]
Posted inSport
Henry 1-0* Neville
Thierry Henry’s efforts to become the first soccer player in history to lift rugby’s William Webb Ellis Trophy, while playing in the football World Cup, were bound to leave a bitter taste in the mouths of most Irish fans and neutrals who witnessed it. It truly was a disgusting episode. Fifa, however, have taken this […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mob justice reaches new low
Disturbing news from IOL this morning. A woman in rural Mpumalanga was forced by residents to join in the mob stoning of her own son after he was implicated in a fatal mugging in the area. Now mob violence as a retaliation to criminal activity is nothing new to SA. If anything the fact that […]
Posted inGeneral
Twitter gets me dinner with Ambassador Gips
It’s not every day that one has dinner with an ambassador. It’s certainly not every day that a digital degenerate such as myself has dinner and sits right next to the ambassador of the United States. I can also say this with absolute confidence; it’s not every day that people from any other country get […]
Posted inGeneral
An open letter to Zuma
Mr President, sir. The country is in panic mode as speculation grows that you are about to invoke the prerogative powers and responsibilities vested in you by the Constitution (84,2J) by virtue of you being head of state — your power to pardon. At the root of the rumours is the recent meeting you had […]