By Muhammad Choonara I was seven years old; I remember Clive Rice and his team being paraded around Kolkata with garlands around their necks. Millions of Indians took to the streets to welcome the South African cricket team. I had no idea what cricket was, we grew up in a soccer home, Chelsea, Man United […]
2011
Posted inBusiness, Environment, General, Lifestyle, News/Politics
Things aren’t alright
I’ve been writing for Thought Leader for roughly two years, and consistently on the same types of issues. I write about consumerism, “affluenza”, climate change, environmental degradation, oil and coal addiction, and the politics of eating meat — and after each piece, when I go through the comments, I’m left with the same overwhelming feeling: […]
Posted inGeneral
Manchester City need to beat United to prove title credentials
Barclays Premier League leaders Manchester City travel to Old Trafford on Sunday to face their bitter rivals Manchester United in one of the most keenly awaited derbies in many years. City, with two first-tier league titles to their credit, will want to prove that their assault on this year’s trophy is more than just verbiage […]
Posted inGeneral
Business communication goes social
Social media has already become widely used in business, but its impact will be felt even more pervasively in future, as unified communications and other applications find a natural home in a social setting. Currently, the main business applications of social media are marketing, networking and information gathering. A year ago, LinkedIn was thought of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Was Loyiso Gola the Zuma assassin?
Over the weekend South African President Jacob Zuma confirmed that, while he was still the deputy president, there had been a plot to have him assassinated, which was only thwarted because his loyal bodyguards refused to become involved. Along the lines of Valkyrie without the knobkerrie. Yet by mid-morning Monday only News24 and iAfrica have […]
Posted inGeneral
Can one be autonomous in Foucault’s ‘carceral’ society?
Is it possible for individuals to be autonomous today, when evidence suggests that the vast majority simply fall in step, like goose-stepping stormtroopers, with the latest techno-fashions which, in turn, function like sugar-coated pills to lull people into passive, Matrix-like, politically impotent behaviour in front of their PCs or with their iPhones in hand? But […]
Posted inGeneral
Final(ly)
I have held reservations in the last two weeks about the appropriateness of the Rugby World Cup but in looking at other sports it is the general trend that it is a “once-off” tournament which has no bearing on world rugby. It just means that for the four weeks of the tournament the winning team […]
Posted inGeneral
God wants your vote
Does God have a vote? That’s the provocatively flippant title to an analysis on the role of religion in a secular South Africa, published in the liberal Helen Suzman Foundation’s Focus magazine. To any South African the answer would seem blindingly obvious. Not only does the local version of the deity have a vote, but […]
Posted inGeneral
CSA is pulling a Safa
The cricket season hasn’t started as well as Gary Kirsten would have hoped. Rusty South Africa were outplayed by Australia at Newlands, and while I belong to the school of thought that doesn’t care about Twenty20, there are many others who do. The Proteas would have had another opportunity to put their first mark in […]
Posted inLifestyle
My year of panic
Yesterday I spotted Nianell, the singer, on the front page of a magazine with revelations of her panic attacks and depression. It’s interesting how many celebrity depression stories are running these days, usually in You and Huisgenoot. There once was a time when nobody would come out of the depression closet, but now it’s much […]
Posted inGeneral
We’re all mobile today
Before Voice over IP (VoIP), life was pretty black and white. You had your office jockeys and your road warriors. Office jockeys operated PCs, desk phones and faxes. Their jobs started and ended when they entered and left the premises. You could get them on their cell after hours, but it wasn’t really done. Road […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Blue-light buffoons: When frustrated drivers fight back
Google “blue light VIP” and click the “news” tab. Four stories top the list: 1. The DA’s Dianne Kohler Barnard’s parliamentary question regarding Malema’s alleged use of a VIP blue-light convoy; 2. The trial of VIP protection officer Hlanganani Nxumalo, accused of causing an accident by shooting a gun at a motorist; 3. Testimony by […]