Well lads, you seem to be in a fine mess, and we’re all right behind you. As South Africans, we love to polarise. As you know, we come from a place of black and white and, as much as we say we want to, we’re just not ready for the mental exercise required to build […]
2011
Posted inMedia
The most engaging raconteur I have ever met
I first met Deon du Plessis at the Sunday Tribune offices in Field Street during the early 1980s where he was deputy editor. He was a giant of a man – I stand close to 6 feet tall, but he towered over me and was almost twice as broad as I am. By the time […]
Posted inGeneral
How do we heal Earth?
Is there a connection between the exploitation of Earth – in the guise of her so-called “resources” – and capitalism? And, given the age-old conception of Earth as female, or the “Great Mother” (associated with the Goddess of hunter-gatherer times), is there a link between the rise and dominance of patriarchy and this veritable “assault” […]
Posted inGeneral
Ignore the URL at your peril
In the online world, the URL is ever-present. It is the digital home of businesses large and small, the currency of social exchange, and the thread on which the hyperlinked web exists. There can be few more important building blocks to the Internet as we know it, but all too often the humble URL has […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Do you trust the media?
By Sipho McDermott It’s a scary moment when you cross the barbed wire. You leave the relative safety of armoured vehicles and police protection for an angry, swirling crowd. Anyone in their right mind wouldn’t do it. But you are a journalist, and this kind of situation comes with the territory. You have to report […]
Posted inGeneral
Steve Biko is dead?
Someone recently said that when Steve Biko died 34 years ago, his philosophy of Black Consciousness died with him. They went on to charge that his inspiring and life-affirming psycho-political programme had been badly mangled by the Azanian People’s Organisation, which could not comprehend its essence beyond their obsession with the politics of skin colour. […]
Posted inGeneral
Cricket South Africa’s summer of farcical cover-ups
The Proteas are gearing up for a busy summer with Australia and Sri Lanka visiting these shores. Gary Kirsten and his new coaching staff have kept a low profile as they settle into their new positions, which is in far contrast to the suits who live in the realm of corporate governance on Corlett Drive […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The cutting edge of our collective madness
Why is it that I always seem to confront the nakedness of my own soul in airports? It happened again a few nights ago. On September 11, no less. I must have been crazy to brave the terrors of high-altitude traveling on a date so loaded with ominous precedents, but there I was, dead on […]
Posted inGeneral
Who’s it gonna be?
Unlike the Fifa World Cup where even a favourite team can be eliminated in the pool stages, the outcome of rugby’s premier tournament is far more predictable. The winner must be one of New Zealand, Australia or South Africa, with England and France in with an outside chance. Odds on the sixth favourite team, Ireland, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Reaction to Lamont shows South Africans have lost the plot
The decision handed down by Judge Colin Lamont in the Equality Court in Johannesburg, regarding the matter of AfriForum versus Julius Sello Malema et al, should have been well received yet it is coming under fire from the African National Congress, the African National Congress Youth League and even Professor Pierre de Vos. Judge Lamont’s […]
Posted inGeneral
Brics, emerging markets, journalism and dying newspapers
Every now and again, I pick up some object and find that, to my astonishment, it is not made in China. It seems that so much is, from cheap clothing to iPhones. So it’s not surprising that China is now South Africa’s biggest trading partner. Perhaps the big increase in trade is behind an assumption […]
Posted inGeneral
Boks didn’t deserve to beat Wales
Don’t let the Springbok spin-machine or scribes who don’t have the option to piss in the pot tell you otherwise: the Springboks didn’t deserve to beat Wales as the Welsh outplayed South Africa. They dominated every facet of the game, except on the scoreboard, and were it not for a missed drop goal and penalty, […]