Reading the daily reports on what has been happening at COP17 in Durban leaves one with a mixture of disappointment and hope — disappointment in Northern, developed countries like the US and Canada, for not showing greater commitment to doing what is necessary to (attempt to) secure the world’s future by lessening greenhouse gas emissions […]
2011
Posted inNews/Politics
Police Minister Mthethwa eyes the Rambo costume
Why is it that every civilian tasked with overseeing of the SA Police Service transmogrifies into Rambo? Successive national commissioners and ministers have within days of appointment perfected gunslinger swaggers and begun laconically promising that cops will ‘shoot first’ and ‘shoot to kill the bastards’. The exception, Nathi Mthethwa, undoubtedly the best police minister that […]
Posted inGeneral
Happy Black Tuesday
Dear State Happy Black Tuesday. I am writing this letter to you while I am still free to do so. I am also doing so against the advice of my agent, who is afraid that if I make you angry, you will punish me out of the blue and limit my potential, even though I […]
Posted inNews/Politics
If climate change didn’t exist, we’d invent it
Doesn’t it sometimes feel like we’re living a low-budget rerun of our parents’ era? They had the Beatles. We got Lady Gaga. They had Paris 1968. We got Occupy. They had Vietnam. We got Iraq. They had Marlon Brando. We got … George Clooney. But there is one thing we’re just as good at as […]
Posted inGeneral
Contract law, good faith and the Constitution
On November 17, the Constitutional Court delivered its judgment in the case of Everfresh Market Virginia v Shoprite Checkers. The case involved the validity of a clause in a lease agreement between the parties. The relevant clause provided that the lessee would have a “right to renew” the lease if it “faithfully and timeously” fulfilled […]
Posted inGeneral
To polder, or not to polder, dike is the question
By way of introduction, a polder is Dutch for land that has been reclaimed from the sea. As the saying goes, God created the world, but the Dutch created the Netherlands. So what do polders have to do with this blog? Post Second World War Dutch society was characterised by, what the British press derisively […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
‘Look, a Black Piet!’
By Marthe van der Wolf Being black and having an Afro most of my life, I heard this once too often. Probably every black person in the Netherlands has been called a “Black Piet” at least once in his or her life. Especially in the weeks prior to December 5. It hurts, it always has […]
Posted inGeneral
Southern Kings saga continues
It is with much amusement that I see the conundrum of the Southern Kings is yet to be solved. Slated to join Super Rugby in 2013, the SA Rugby Union (Saru) is no closer to figuring out a way to squeeze the Eastern Cape franchise into the competition without screwing one of the other five […]
Posted inNews/Politics
March like an Egyptian: Let’s create a culture of protest
By Mia Swart By appealing his suspension from the ANC, Julius Malema showed that he will not lie down. Like a phoenix he is bound to rise again. Malema’s reckless public statements have often done nothing but infuriate. But he has occasionally made constructive statements. A few years ago, he said that white South Africans […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Green Climate Fund at the COP17 negotiating table
By Alex Lenferna The largest ever financial vehicle for the distribution of climate justice is soon to be on the negotiating table at COP17. International delegates at COP17 are gearing up to discuss the Green Climate Fund, which requests of developed countries to provide developing countries with “scaled up, predictable, new and additional, and adequate […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Elections 2014 — last chance to save SA?
When the Zimbabwean parliament voted overwhelming in August 2005 to endorse constitutional amendments that would further restrict private property rights and allow the government to deny passports to its critics, exultant Zanu-PF MPs danced and cheered in the aisles. Several apparently even did cartwheels. Similar displays of vindictive glee had reportedly taken place previous, such […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
There’s a killer in my family
He’s doing 25 years. Then there’s another petty thief cousin who’s been “inside” for pilfering a bottle of Panache from Clicks — for his girlfriend, when he was down and out a few years ago. There’s also my mother’s cousin’s son, the career criminal and regular beater up of women — who spends his time […]