I was offered a job in Afghanistan. Exactly what kind of work is not at issue. It was everyday stuff, though the context was unusual. Unsurprisingly the family was not impressed and I had to decide whether the job would be too dangerous or not. From the word go I struggled to get a straight […]
2011
Posted inLifestyle
Don’t leave voicemail. Just don’t
I have a confession to make. I don’t listen to voicemail. Ever. No, wait: that’s an exaggeration, I do listen to it from time to time, usually weeks later, when I’ve long since communicated with you anyway or you’ve given up trying to get hold of me. I decided to come clean after reading this […]
Posted inGeneral
Free beer and free insults on Paddy’s Day in China
In one of my current teaching jobs here in Suzhou I teach primary school children. The text books have improved over the years during my stay in China but still have some quirky English. One is teaching learners how to describe other people. But the cultural appropriateness is shatteringly absent in the text books and […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Feminism, man hating and power
Last week after a talk at Idasa on feminism, one of the audience members asked me “how do you reconcile the idea that feminism should engage with men, with your belief that they are still after us?” The reason she had got the idea that I believe that “they are still after us” was from […]
Posted inGeneral
Us
Somebody who was not us asked me what it means to be South African: We are a motley crew – not the girly glam sham metal band, but a family of incongruity. We were knotted from many threads in all kinds of tension. Our forefathers were variously: heroes and villains — settlers, locals, warriors, runaways, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
I just love the spirit of Jimmy Manyi
I do not imagine that a courageous and outspoken African man of the calibre of government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi would ever be left alone in this country. He will always be put under scrutiny and hounded until his handlers or managers drop him like a hot potato, that is, if they are not guided by […]
Posted inNews/Politics
What Zuma did not say on Human Rights Day
Rather than regurgitate what his Excellency said at Athlone Stadium on occasion of the celebration of Human Rights Day on March 21, I would rather focus on what he did not say. What attracts me is the eloquence with which he did not say what he did not say. I stand in awe at the […]
Posted inGeneral
A step in the right direction for mobile payments
Mobile payments for mobile subscription services are receiving much news of late due to negative consumer sentiment over unsolicited billings. An imminent change in the way that Vodacom customers sign up for third-party mobile subscription services is good news for consumers and paves the way towards building increased confidence in mobile payments. Another important development […]
Posted inNews/Politics
An open letter to open letters
Dear Letters You might not be aware of this but you are making one helluva comeback here in the Republic of South Africa. In this age of emails, SMSs and tweets our country is knuckling down getting back to basics sorting things out with good old fashioned letters. Fake, red, legal, formal – we do […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The crisis in African, Indian and coloured unity
The realisation of a non-racial society as enshrined in the Constitution depends on blacks, that is, Africans, Indians and coloureds, first, facing certain truths about themselves. The struggle for freedom and democracy has always been premised on principled unity among these groups, including white progressives, to give a “human face” to the African first, if […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, Lifestyle
Powering madness
For a while now I’ve been trying to wrap my head around how recent events in Japan and the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are similar in some way; what’s the link between them? I’m not talking about some weird conspiracy theory, like the one linking the Japanese earthquake and subsequent tsunami […]
Posted inGeneral
Benefits of quality links
Trying to get your website to perform well? It’s not easy to grab the traffic you need in order to turn a profit but it’s not impossible either, provided you are using a sound strategy to help you out. What it’s going to take is making sure you have solid link building, which is not […]