“I think I speak on behalf of all whites when I say we are just totally sick of all the race-baiting going on in South Africa.” So says Dan Roodt, who read my last Thought Leader post and was most unimpressed by this “latest sigh of white guilt”. So I thought I’d write about guilt. […]
Sarah Britten
During the day Sarah Britten is a communication strategist; by night she writes books and blog entries. And sometimes paints. With lipstick. It helps to have insomnia.
Posted inGeneral
Why white South Africans should learn the grammar of blackness
Twitter does funny things to former cabinet ministers. Just before midnight on Sunday, Tito Mboweni started a discussion about hair extensions. Why, he wanted to know, did black women not want their natural hair? So there we had it: our former reserve bank governor talking about weaves. Imagine Tony Leon talking about fake tan. That’s […]
Posted inNews/Politics
President Obama, the Apple of politics
President Obama has a lot in common with Apple. Both started off as challengers to mainstream hegemony. Both appealed to individuals who fancied themselves as iconoclasts, rather than corporate overlords. Both inspired idealism and both ensure adherents the kind of tribal affiliation most of us crave in same form. Both, too, have seriously flawed records. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Why the rhino poaching issue matters
I’ll bet my Friday was more interesting than your Friday. If you want proof, here’s a photo: That’s me in the screaming pink Hello Kitty cap. Next to me is my friend Mbekezeli Khumalo. The guy in the shorts at the end is Mark Boucher. The story about how the two of us came to […]
Posted inBusiness
Into the aerotropolis
The best place to spot planes in Johannesburg is on Jan Smuts Road off Yaldwyn in Boksburg. You park right next to the runway, just beyond the razor wire, and wait. On Saturday my brother and I achieved a haul of a Kulula 737, three SA Express Embraers and an SAA Star Alliance Airbus. I […]
Posted inLifestyle
Freedom to be our own worst enemies
It’s Freedom Day. Nineteen years ago today, I was in Hoedspruit, listening to reports of the queues on the radio and reflecting on stories about the AWB telling farmers about MK flying into the airforce base, warning them to hide in the shower with their guns. If South Africa were a person, it would be […]
Posted inGeneral, Media, News/Politics
Alcohol in Australia: Some observations
So we’re facing the prospect of something that the advertising industry has been fighting for years: the banning of alcohol advertising. Having just visited one of the great nanny states, Australia, I thought it would be interesting to share some observations of how alcohol issues are handled there. The fact that I was able to […]
Posted inLifestyle
Back to Australia
I’m typing this as I sit in the airport. I’ve been bawling ever since I said goodbye to my parents at the Gautrain and the waterworks have been going like a burst mains on and off ever since. Some of the strangers passing me might have noticed the tears streaming down my face and assumed […]
Posted inNews/Politics
South Africa and that Time cover
Alex Perry’s story about Oscar Pistorius and South Africa’s culture of violence has inevitably attracted a great deal of attention from the Twittering classes. The general consensus is that the piece, which draws a link between Pistorius’s shooting of Reeva Steenkamp and the endemic violence that characterises our national culture, is poor journalism and full […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Would stricter gun control have saved Reeva?
So Lulu Xingwana thinks we need better gun control. “Domestic violence is exacerbated by easy access to guns. We are making a call for stricter gun control,” she said at a media briefing last week. “As a country we need to wage a sustained and effective campaign against the availability of guns in our homes […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Where were you when you heard the news?
I was somewhere outside Frankfort on my way to the Clarens Craft Beer Festival when I heard the ruling. I can’t be sure exactly, but I know I was on the R26 and there were potholes, and SAFM was the only station I could pick up. 702 had kept me company from Johannesburg, onto the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Why are we obsessed with the Oscar case?
A week is a very long time these days. In our addiction to new news, we’ve become a society with ADD, The half-life of any given story is a day, if that. Since the story that Oscar Pistorius shot and killed Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine’s Day, we have spoken and tweeted […]