The windows shattered a few feet away from me and the stranger, a blonde, petite young lass dressed stylishly for revolution in South Africa, 1990. A horde of people charged towards us amid the thud of rubber bullets and teargas smeared our faces. It was the day of Mandela’s release and first appearance in the […]
2011
Posted inLifestyle
Cape Epic Day 4: Not real mountain biking
“Today I give a gold medal for the most stupid stage I ever done :( that’s not real mountain biking! Good luck to all the amateurs on the course.” This was a tweet from four-time Cape Epic winner Karl Platt after finishing a gruelling day 4 (Stage 3) this afternoon. Starting on Saronsberg wine farm […]
Posted inGeneral
Captain oh captain
Today Ricky Ponting resigned as the captain of the Australian cricket teams, ODI and Test cricket. Now as Saffers we are known to have a love-hate relationship with the Aussies, that’s probably because they’re what we want to be. They are what we know we can be if certain crucial quarters pull the right finger […]
Posted inNews/Politics
What the frack?
The word gives me the creeps. Starting with its eerie “fr” alliteration (like the hiss of a dangerous beast), leading through to its flat “a”, which sounds like something is stuck in your throat, ending in a hideous “ck” sound as if trying to spit out, but something is in the way, blocking the deposit […]
Posted inGeneral
SABC drops the ball on TV coverage
Today is the second semi-final of the Cricket World Cup and the national broadcaster, the one which is in such managerial disarray, is not broadcasting the match. Probably the bigger of the two semi-finals to cover, although they would not know that at the time of contract negotiation. What would have happened if the Proteas […]
Posted inLifestyle
Cape Epic Day 3: Wow this is hard
The Voortrekkers who built the wagon track we rode up and down today were hardcore, and clearly they were desperate to reach the orchards of the Witzenberg Valley. The trail, and I use that term loosely, winds 1000m into the sky over about 10km. At times it looks no more than two and half metres […]
Posted inGeneral
The do-not-contact register
There is no denying that the launch of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) “do-not-contact registry” to allow South African customers to permanently opt out of all unsolicited marketing communications will be a massive step forward for consumer rights. But customers need to understand the limitations of the mechanism and companies need to be ready to […]
Posted inNews/Politics
‘What does success in Libya look like?’
Analysts and a good number of US politicians are singularly unconvinced by the casus belli presented by President Barack Obama for intervening in Libya. Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Republican John Boehner, said : “The speech failed to provide Americans much clarity to our involvement in Libya. Nine days into this military […]
Posted inLifestyle
Absa Cape Epic: Update from a steep, filthy gulley
“When in doubt, go up” is useful dictum to use when one is unsure of which route to take in the mountains. Securing the high ground and keeping it keeps you from plunging down the wrong gulley and having to climb back out of it later. In theory. I think the chap who plotted the […]
Posted inGeneral
Rally round the Proteas, don’t abandon them
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the 19th century American philosopher, lecturer and essayist, once said, “go often to the house of thy friend, for weeds choke the unused path”. That statement says a lot about how cricket fans in South Africa are or not feeling about the Proteas at the moment. First, let’s get the definitive out […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Making female circumcision, history
By Bernadette Sesay* At age 18 I was told the time had come for me to go through female genital mutilation (FGM). I didn’t want to. It was my mother and maternal grandmother’s idea: they’d also been responsible for the initiation of all of my female siblings. My mother cried and pleaded with me, begging […]
Posted inGeneral
Airway obstruction alert
Stranded in an empty stadium at Edgbaston on June 17 1999 and agonising over the tied cricket match that ended SA’s championship hopes, someone had a vision of the future: it’s World Cup 2011 and Alan Donald’s punching the air and high-fiving with ecstatic colleagues. There’s light at the end of the tunnel! But wait. […]