If you are anything like me, you have a few debts. No, you are not like me. You cannot be like me. I am bonded and mortgaged to the bones and down to the core of my very being. Yet even for one as riddled with debt as I, not all debts are equal. Some […]
2011
Posted inLifestyle, Media
Oi! That’s my Marmite!
It’s an outrage. The Danes last caused this much English angst in the year 850. (We won’t talk about those cartoons.) They’ve banned Marmite. Seriously. And not because it tastes horrible, which it does, but because they’ve banned every foodstuff fortified with vitamins. Except milk, which is now fortified with Vitamin D. Yes, it’s confusing, […]
Posted inGeneral
Shame on US
It’s been weeks since Americans poured onto the streets, crowing and cheering. At last, their nemesis’s blood spilled, they exhale. A man in a blanket, huddled over flickering images of himself, is gone. The stuff of American nightmares sleeps with the fishes. The world is better off now that we have another porn-riddled hard drive […]
Posted inGeneral
Know your Africa, just watch Big Brother
Lusophones (Angolans and Mozambicans) are wild partiers, as can be the Tanzanians. Ugandan men are either lovers or fighters ie they have no problem ruffling up a woman when challenged. Nigerian men are calm and collected while their female counterparts are erratic. Ghanaians bear it “all”. Zambians interject religion into conversations yet are good dancers. […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Fracking and feminist concerns
We’ve all heard a lot over the past few weeks about the dangers of fracking for our pristine Karoo environment. Shell, the master of disaster when it comes to environmental damage, has requested the rights to explore the Karoo for natural gas. This is not the type of exploration where you shade your eyes with […]
Posted inLifestyle
Steve Jobs crashed my job interview
Not too long ago a job interview was still a meeting between two people; one looking for a job the other looking for an employee. A friendly receptionist would offer you a glass of water where you sat waiting in the foyer trying to look intelligent reading Time magazine. Moments later she would show you […]
Posted inGeneral
Outsurance, broken brand promises and the social media effect…
BROKEN BRAND PROMISE #1: With claims service so fast, it’ll be as if it never happened. BROKEN BRAND PROMISE #2: We care about you, and we protect you. I actually like Outsurance’s new set of TV campaigns (see below). They’re catchy, witty and speak to one of the critical parts of the insurance relationship — […]
Posted inLifestyle
How was the Rapture for you?
The Rapture is so last week I know, but there’s something mildly exhilarating about sipping Veuve Clicquot — someone else was paying — making origami cranes and watching two aggressively heterosexual men commiserate loudly over a woman called Margo in a restaurant in Illovo. (It’s a longish story. Don’t ask.) Naked people might not have […]
Posted inNews/Politics
On Cope and coalitions
The Congress of the People, perhaps surprisingly to many, has been placed in a rather awkward position as “kingmaker” in a number of municipalities, primarily in the Western and Northern Cape. The position is challenging primarily because Cope has to decide whether it wants to throw its lot in with the DA, or side with […]
Posted inGeneral
DA: The mouse that roared
Some years ago, former president Thabo Mbeki scornfully dismissed the DA as a “Mickey Mouse party”. Even party leader Tony Leon’s caustic rejoinder that Mbeki was heading up a “Goofy government” could not altogether remove the sting from that taunt. Things are looking quite a bit different now. Even Thabo would concede that the DA […]
Posted inGeneral
Finance v IT: How to make the relationship work
It shouldn’t be news to anybody when I say that the relationship between accountants and IT people is not always a happy one. Our priorities often conflict, each of us speaks a jargon that is impenetrable to the other and there’s a lingering suspicion on both sides that we’re being set up to take the […]
Posted inGeneral
Science v religion: Who cares?
By Ryan Peter Many Thought Leader and Mail & Guardian readers might recall an article last week on Stephen Hawking, the world-renowned physicist, remarking that there “is no heaven” and calling the idea a “fairy story”. Here’s a quick quote from Hawking: “I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its […]