Rod MacKenzie

I have been wanting to write another blog on the fascinating phenomenon of perception for some time. Khaya Dlanga’s recent blog on banning the old flag was a good way to ground it in a controversial, hotly debated example of perception. I sympathise with Khaya’s impassioned request for the banning of the old South African […]

“Oh wow,” said the Canadian classical guitarist, Norbert Kraft, to me, ” … you mean to say you watched me play through your binoculars for most of the show … must have been boring,” he chuckled self-deprecatingly while he signed my copy of his album after a live show in Montreal, Canada. I winced. What […]

Early summer is starting to brew up a green foliage broth in Shanghai. I often stop and gape at the sea-storm green hues in the plane and bamboo trees now soaring up like Moses’ parted sea on the street-sides. Soon, many streets in Shanghai will be luminous, green tunnels. In a wet wind licking at […]

Well, according to some, if I still have to ask the question of myself in an uncertain manner, then I am a racist. Or rather (notice how he hastily adds) I have racist tendencies I need to deal with. I could have just said I am not a racist as I abhor that character trait […]

Question time before the blog: have you commuted in an SA “township taxi”? Would you/do you consider it to be your normal transport to and from work? Good grief, no fricken waaayy, I thought to myself after reading Sarah Britten’s article on buying a BMWobble your cash flow (as in wobble your cash flow) now […]

The other morning I was sitting on the loo in our apartment on the 22nd floor in downtown Shanghai, cursing a decadent evening of German eisbein, sausages, sauerkraut and Long Island iced teas. I heard a shifting noise and looked at the window. A Chinese gentleman was peering at me through a crack in the […]

1. He remembers drowsing on a large woman’s back in a blanket as she walked. She was talking very loudly to other women. He was often on her back, warm, safe, but not his mother’s back. 2. Drinking Coke on a beach in Durban, often hearing the words Umhlanga Rocks, Amanzimtoti like the tree-sounds outside […]

My oral Mandarin is at the lower intermediate level. In my school office which I share with eight Chinese ladies, mostly English teachers, I often hear them talking about me, the only foreigner (not untypical) at their school. This is even though I introduced myself in Chinese when I first started at this school on […]

“Morality does not resonate well if your stomach is empty” — Thought Leader commentator, Ian Shaw on my blog, “On the idea of evil and Zuma” “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” famously says the Roman poet Juvenal, “who will guard the guards?” more commonly rendered as who will watch the watchers? South Africa and the world […]