Today I had the privilege of listening to two of the best conference keynote addresses I have heard at an international conference for a long time. They formed part of the same plenary session, here at Dublin City University in Ireland, where members are gathered for the annual conference of the International Association for Media […]
Business
Posted inBusiness, General, Lifestyle
Why we choose materialism – part 1
Some of us choose materialism. The decision to put all our hopes and dreams into a basket weaved out of the material of economic consumerism is one we make almost every day. We do so because it is more simple to write down a list of objects we want to own than it is to […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
It’s time for a global minimum wage
Last April, 1 127 workers were killed when Rana Plaza, a garment factory in Savar, Bangladesh, collapsed. To put this in perspective, that’s more than twice the number of Americans that have been killed in mass shootings since 1983. This unfathomable tragedy reached us around the world in the form of images troubling enough to make […]
Posted inBusiness
Preparing a generation to manage Liberia’s oil sector
By Urias Goll Liberia’s quest to explore for hydrocarbon (petroleum) offshore its territorial waters dates back to the late sixties. Some believe the government’s decision for exploration activities was made in 1940s. Creating a long-term approach for capacity development has been on the fringe of decision-making. As usual, the government and decision-makers wanted to prove […]
Posted inBusiness
Disco brings the rand back
I’m not a huge fan of ATM fees. My feeling is if banks insist on charging cover for access to money that was mine to begin with the least they can do is roll out the red carpet. Offer me the financial equivalent of getting kissed before I get screwed. It’s only appropriate considering the […]
Posted inBusiness, Equality, Gender violence, General
‘Unwanted, dirty’ – reading a Chinese woman’s memoir (I)
— Written while recuperating from a broken hand and wrist How everything is already memory. His broken hand cradled, cupped and listened to as its slow bones knit back. The wonder of watching his fingers and palm go through their re-blooming: the fingers learning again to outstretch, then bunch up like an evening blossom that […]
Posted inBusiness
Africa, time to get back to basics
As a point of departure, it is important to acknowledge that we know a lot about the challenges confronting the African continent today. Equally, we know more about the world today. It is in this context that a call for rethinking Africa’s political economy is made. Such a rethink is timely because the world economy […]
Posted inBusiness
Pravin needs to chide government
Pravin Gordhan’s call on South Africa to resolve its “labour-relations challenges” is timely, if not overdue. His appeal for “concerted action by organised labour, business, civic leaders and the government” although inclusive, is however, unlikely to yield any fruits. In the 19 years of transformation, the spirit of entrepreneurship that is needed to create the […]
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 inBusiness, News/Politics
Chester Missing’s more real than the NYDA
By Willie Tafadzwa Chinyamurindi Dear Yershen Pillay, the chairperson of the National Youth Development Agency Yershen, youths like kids often say the darndest things. I challenged my students during a class to think radically concerning issues on employability and the insurmountable challenges facing youths in our country. The usual answers ensued, “government must provide a […]
Posted inBusiness, Equality, News/Politics
Economic growth set to reduce poverty in Africa
Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa is likely to reach more than 5% on average between 2013 and 2015 as a result of high commodity prices worldwide and strong consumer spending on the continent, ensuring that the region remains among the fastest growing in the world. In 2012, about 25% of countries on the African continent […]
Posted inBusiness, Equality
The age of the indebted, mediatised, securitised and depoliticised
In Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s latest book Declaration (Argo Navis, 2012) — although, probably given its brevity (just over a hundred pages) compared to the books comprising their trilogy (Empire, Multitude and Commonwealth), they refer to it as a “pamphlet” — they articulate the global crisis of the present era in terms of four […]