The good news is that energy department officials have been facing pressure from MPs to cut South Africa’s dependence on coal. The bad news is that a few MPs seem to think that nuclear energy can help achieve this. Following some time with French nuclear company Areva, DA MP David Ross recently told the portfolio […]
2011
Posted inLifestyle, Media, News/Politics
Time for a gay revolution
Gays and lesbians unite. It is time to rise up. Homosexuals, transsexuals, intersexuals, transgendered, everyone queer, gather your friends and allies, open your Twitter accounts, prepare your placards, and take a note from our friends in North Africa: it is time for a gay revolution. We have been nice for too long, we have been […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Fighting sin with sin
By Steven Hussey When an Ugandan tabloid sparked international outrage last year for publishing the names of alleged homosexuals under the banner “Hang them!” in The Rolling Stone, editor Giles Muhame thought he was fulfilling a moral duty. He was stopping homosexuals from “ravaging the moral fabric of [Uganda]” and “recruiting children to homosexuality”, whatever […]
Posted inLifestyle
How to act foreign at a local backpackers
I recently slipped up at a backpackers in Cape Town and greeted the guy behind reception with a friendly “howzit”. He gave me one look and asked me to leave. It’s no secret SA backpackers have a dirty habit of turning away locals. As a local I can’t afford mistakes like that. I’m living in […]
Posted inGeneral
Federer vs Nadal: So who’s the best ever?
By Warren Glam I do love a good story. I’m especially fond of the ones which touch on what you might call heroic motifs — like the errant knight wandering through all manner of realms intent on making his mark in the world. Strong stuff, to be sure. And maybe I’m wrong in this, but […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Breaking bread with the Egyptians
In the provincial town of Sidi Bouzid, in Tunisia, Mohamed Bouazizi was 10 years old when he became his family’s bread winner, selling fresh produce in the local market. While he attended a local high school, he did not graduate and his attempts at finding work in the public sector were futile. His day would […]
Posted inLifestyle
Do you give to beggars?
To give or not to give. That is the question that many of us are confronted with every single day, though we usually avoid it by pretending that the man standing at the robots — nine times out of ten it’s a man — staring at you with a bin bag in his hands and […]
Posted inLifestyle
The day I fell off the top of a mountain
Plunging down the side of a mountain today, incapacitating both my right leg and my bike as I did so, my mind was driven back to what might have been my first lie. In the years before I became a teenager, I would have a recurring dream. It was both bland and vivid, and it […]
Posted inGeneral
Let them eat sushi
The current brouhaha about Kenny Kunene and his (probable) preference for hot women and sushi is another example of the narrow and sensationalist reporting and debate that plagues so much of our discourse. I personally do not give a rat’s ass where and how Kunene likes his raw fish and seaweed served. If he is […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Who should empower women?
By Athambile Masola “Wathinta umfazi wathinta imbokodo!” are the famous words that are often bandied about in South Africa’s media during Women’s Month every August without fail. The fuss around Women’s Day leaves me and many other women wondering what every other day is for, celebrating men? Given a past that has been dominated by […]
Posted inGender violence, News/Politics
Nothing to correct
When children are born, parents and those around them begin the work of “correcting” them. They correct their poor eyesight with glasses, their spelling and grammar with extra lessons, and perhaps their posture with etiquette classes. There is a common feeling in today’s world that everything is possible, and there is no reason not to […]
Posted inGeneral
Poverty, corruption pushes Egyptians to breaking point
Three years ago, when I travelled through Egypt, I had an enlightening conversation with an Egyptian. He was working as a guide, although he had a master’s degree in Egyptology, and judging by his articulateness (and I am talking about his English), could easily have held a university post. Because he came across as a […]