On Monday night I watched the trial of Dr Conrad Murray, who is charged with the involuntary manslaughter of pop icon Michael Jackson, and the decision on the appeals of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito against their 2009 convictions for the murder of British university exchange student Meredith Kercher. In the case of the former, […]
2011
Posted inNews/Politics, Sport
What on earth could be more important than football?
I am in a hotel room with no en-suite shower or toilet. Did I say room? There isn’t enough space for my brightly coloured Shangaan bag between the single bed, three walls and door. So overnight I share my bed with my Shangaan bag. Try substituting a large bag for your teddy bear (or its […]
Posted inGeneral
Road to Purdah-tion
A news dramatisation by Alex Searle Although you are a fully qualified doctor, sharia law dictates that a woman’s place is at home. Your children are waiting to be picked up from school but you are not allowed to drive. The rancid sweat beneath your abaya (women’s covering) offends your husband’s friends. They don’t care […]
Posted inNews/Politics
What makes you a bad black?
Once upon a time, not so long ago, a bright-eyed bushy-tailed little black Sipho was born with a defect, which doctors would later recognise to be a dictionary, in his mouth. Little Sipho was a curious little boy, reading anything he could get his tiny Zulu hands on (of course, relative to other kids his […]
Posted inGeneral
True marketing mavens
The year is 2011, advertising, marketing and communications agencies are beside themselves with the array of channels from which to promote and publicise their clients’ products and services. TV, radio, print, Twitter, Facebook, mobile and the list goes on. Armed with a new brief, the client calls up the agency and gets them to craft […]
Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle
76 airbags and 11 885 words…
So what do you think about Top Gear — the BBC’s motoring show featuring the irrepressible Jeremy Clarkson and his two much-abused sidekicks? The programme is irreverent and boorish, it’s offensive, it’s insensitive to the feelings of minorities and, ultimately, it has little to do with mainstream motoring journalism because Clarkson and company never let […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Can a feminist talk about bitches and bunnyboilers?
I’m terrible. I make blonde jokes. I pass bitchy remarks about other women behind their backs. I make fun of myself and my female failings. I refer to “chickies” and “bokkies” and bunnyboilers are one of my favourite topics of discussion. Technically, I can be a terrible misogynist, though my baleful attitude applies equally to […]
Posted inGeneral
Titanic battle ahead for Boks and Wallabies
I’m currently in Cape Town, and after getting through the frequent stop and goes along the N1, the town of Colesburg (home of an awesome Wimpy breakfast and many a speed camera) was where I and a friend spent the night. Whenever travelling through the Free State, the sheer expanse and flatness of the Highveld […]
Posted inNews/Politics
SA’s (infuriating) corruption deficit
My friend Boris was distraught. He was clutching R2000’s worth of crumpled banknotes and muttering to himself. The money, it turns out, was a rejected bribe. He had never heard of anything like it: a driving test inspector — a police official! — refusing to sell a licence for cash! “R2000 is a month’s wages!” […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Special Assignment drops journalistic integrity, embraces Pagad
On Wednesday September 28 the SABC’s Special Assignment programme aired a documentary on the re-emergence of the organisation People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad). South Africans will remember Pagad as a Cape Town-based vigilante movement established in the mid-1990s that, after a seemingly peaceful start to its activities, turned to violence against drug dealers, gang […]
Posted inNews/Politics
SlutWalk: When feminists turn territorial
In 2008, Talk Radio 702 host Redi Direko (as she was then known) made news headlines for leading a Miniskirt March from the Joburg Art Gallery to the Noord Street taxi rank in town. Accompanied by about 300 men and women, most of them dressed exuberantly in miniskirts and high heels, Redi was protesting against […]
Posted inGeneral
Telephone management systems: A policing, cost-cutter or business enabler?
Telephone management systems (TMSs) have been largely under-utilised by many companies. These applications are often procured, sometimes at considerable cost, with only one objective in mind — to identify and cut unnecessary costs, while ignoring the invaluable business intelligence they can deliver. TMS systems as cost cutters TMS systems are most often used to identify […]