I have always been the foremost advocate of academic freedom among my peers, most of whom during their early undergraduate days did not see the relevance of academic freedom in their lives, which were seemingly interminable cycles of rote learning and repetition. Though they might have resented the absence of free thinking from their first-year […]
Avishkar Govender
Avishkar Govender is the Chief Political Officer of MicroGene.
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Free trade not always free
Firstly the idea of a free market stems from the idea of personal freedom. That no-one should be able to decide for you what you do, how you make a living and to demand that you pay them any part of your income. Obviously this is qualified by the facts that the rights of other […]
Posted inNews/Politics
A political party is not a business
I have watched with mirth these last ten years as all of the political parties in South Africa have become more corporatised. Naturally they have retained their reliance on donor funding and political donations, and have not found a way to become self sufficient, either financially or organisationally. However, in a business the entrepreneurs provide […]
Posted inMedia
Nando’s, I finally understand
Dame Evita Bezuidenhout, in her boudoir, hangs up the phone with someone named, “Barack” (Obama not Ehud presumably) and says, “blah blah blah, option A, blah blah blah, option C, blah blah blah, what about option B? … blah blah blah … now you can’t just have A ‘n C …” Now everyone has been […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, News/Politics, Tech
Corruption-free politics — the blueprint
Over the last 18 months we have brought this innovation to the attention of all of the represented political parties. Now for the first time, we share this hitherto confidential “inside information” with you. Assuming that all politicians got into politics to help people and that, if given the opportunity, both politicians and political party […]
Posted inNews/Politics
As Thamizh Eezham burns, it is now time for peace
Put down your weapons, turn in your uniforms and jackboots, beat your swords and guns into ploughshares and let us begin the process of building a new integrated, non-racial multicultural society, nation and country. For some strange reason, whenever I read words like these, I think of the post office. Well actually, I think of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
If Suzman had been a cadre
If the late Helen Suzman DBE had been a cadre of the Congress or of the National Democratic Revolution, she would have no doubt received a state funeral. There would have been speech after speech made by Congress leaders remembering Suzman, against the backdrop of a state funeral bedecked in the colours of the Congress. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
How democratic is your congress?
By its very nature a congress is intended to be a democratic gathering of people, who come together to make mutual decisions and to take mutual positions. So when you hear that a congress, which is intended to bring together and represent the aspirations of the people, is in fact not doing things democratically, you […]