Apology: This is quite a long blog. Please bear with me. There are seven facets to each person’s being for the duration he or she is on this planet and in this common dimension. These facets are in a constant state of flux and change; something like a lava lamp, except they’re all connected — […]
Llewellyn Kriel
Posted inGeneral
Brief: Feeling suicidal?
I was feeling really down last night. Da blues had got me good ‘n strong. I was lonely, confused and deeply depressed. I decided this was it. Time to take the plunge … time to end it all. But in one last gasp, one penultimate snatch at a straw, I phoned Lifeline. I was put […]
Posted inGeneral
Bizarro world and the problem of the parallel universes
I worry about the proliferation of multiple universes in South Africa. There, I said it. Now I must write very quickly before those nice men in their white coats come to take me away. Parallel Universe #1 exists between city dwellers and rural folk. Move away from the large metropolitan areas and it is as […]
Posted inGeneral
Dear Chris, I am here — God
Dear Chris, It was so good to hear from you again, although it would be nice to hear from you when things are going well — not just a prayer when you have gone and made a mess of things. Again. Yes, I’ve been watching developments in South Africa for the past several years. I’ve […]
Posted inLifestyle
Viva, Darwin Awards, viva!
Aside from the internet’s usefulness in being able to complete every quiz crossword ever, being home to the blogosphere and providing P2P connectivity and downloadable music and movies, the Darwin Awards are the greatest social contribution it has made. Without the Darwin Awards, which far outshine trinkets such as the Oscars, Olympics and Nobels, how […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Round one to the Sowetan
The axe finally fell at 12:15pm yesterday (Friday) when the publisher and CEO of the Sowetan, Bongani Keswa upheld my dismissal as ruled by the earlier internal disciplinary hearing. To recap: I had been working as senior revise sub-editor (a kind of final quality checkpoint) for 18 months on the Sowetan. During that time I […]
Posted inMedia
Dishing up the sloppy seconds
Everybody makes mistakes. I know that only too well. How the hell I am alive today I have no idea. I am a Monarch of Mistakes, Emperor of Errors, Pharaoh of Fuck-Ups. Some I have walked away from unscathed. Some I barely stood up from. Others I have survived by nothing short of God’s interference. […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
For heaven’s sake, it’s a blog
Like Ebrahim Harvey, who could not be further removed from me on the ideological scale, I too “feel compelled” to take a broader view on the Vincent Maher/Dominic Tweedie; black/white; male/female; Thought Leader/Mail & Guardian; Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young/Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich brouhaha. Ebrahim argues a good case, until his bias […]
Posted inGeneral
Alive with possibility — Version 2.0.0.8
Having just been kakked out by Chris Marais, one of the greatest writers/photographers South Africa has ever produced, for being a depressing scaremonger, the time is ripe to blog things right. But lest julle almal think Mr Hyde has just turned into Dr Jekyll, or the lion has found his courage, or the tin man […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
‘The roots of fear’ and the leaftips of hope
Sharon Begley, an outstanding reporter/writer for Newsweek, wrote an exceptional piece on the roles and rules of fear and hope in American presidential politics (“The roots of fear”, December 24 2007). Against the backdrop of South Africa’s mostly superficial Bakelite* political analysis in which the same tawdry arguments about personalities and so-called “policy planning” (an […]
Posted inGeneral, Media, News/Politics
Bring on the building blogs
If taken in earnest, blogging provides a generous platform for research. Generous because responses are free, and, while the “research” can hardly be called scientific, it is a toe-tip test of the pool’s swimmability. In my relatively short (though, may I say, rather spectacular) adventure in the blogosphere, I have gained insights I would have […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media, News/Politics
Alive with possibility?
Recently my cellphone rang. I couldn’t recognise the number. It was very long, but I answered apprehensively anyway. “Hey, Dad!” a familiar voice boomed, “I am standing here in First Street, United States, with my arm around my gorgeous wife and looking down at Cinderella’s Castle.