We’ve all heard a lot over the past few weeks about the dangers of fracking for our pristine Karoo environment. Shell, the master of disaster when it comes to environmental damage, has requested the rights to explore the Karoo for natural gas. This is not the type of exploration where you shade your eyes with […]
Business
Posted inBusiness
Africa in the aftermath of the recession
Many African scholars and politicians have repeatedly made the point that Africa remains behind other regions or continents as a result of the historical injustices it endured for centuries. Disturbingly, though, the injustices have taken a different form over the years, particularly by the so-called developed world. This is not to say that part of […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
SA needs more entrepreneurs
In South Africa, the phrase “no quick fix” is often associated with the black box phenomena we accept when mulling unemployment — labour market inflexibility, competitiveness and regulatory reform are but a few. Small business development is another such a cure for unemployment for which there is — you guessed it — no quick fix. […]
Posted inBusiness
CPI being abused in price negotiations
By Kevin Phillips South Africans pay a lot of attention to the inflation rate: whether it’s up, down or stable, which direction it’s headed in and what it means for our wage and salary negotiations. But in some cases, the official inflation rate is being abused by large companies to squeeze their suppliers — putting […]
Posted inBusiness, Media
Why Jozi’s hipsters are good for the economy
This past weekend I took a rather cynical friend of mine to the Market on Main, luring him along with the promise of plenty of hipsters to serve as the objects of his withering scorn. In the end, while there were plenty of bourgeois bohemians or bobos around, I was somewhat disappointed by the absence […]
Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle, Media, News/Politics
Another day in the shattered dream that is SA
Driving back from an appointment at the state-run Helen Joseph Hospital — how she would cringe at the “place of weeping” that bears her name and which most people call the Hell & Joseph — I see the massive traffic jam snaking back a kilometre down Hendrik Potgieter Road in Roodepoort. The words of a […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Artists are entrepreneurs
There is great promise for the creative industries now that a platform has been created for the media, practitioners, public and government to discuss the role of the arts in the economy. Obviously, this is a long-overdue development but no one can deny that the national consultative conference on the role of the arts in […]
Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle
Vodacom is not red — Vodacom is dead
How dumb does Vodacom think we are? We know what Vodafone’s logo looks like. It’s a red pointy thing with a white circle around. I realise creative advertising sometimes leaves something to the imagination but slapping the word Vodacom on Vodafone branding and expecting us to imagine it’s still Vodacom is a bit much. The […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, Lifestyle
Powering madness
For a while now I’ve been trying to wrap my head around how recent events in Japan and the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are similar in some way; what’s the link between them? I’m not talking about some weird conspiracy theory, like the one linking the Japanese earthquake and subsequent tsunami […]
Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle, Media
An open letter to Kulula (Or is it Khulula?)
I didn’t know who to address this to so I decided to write an open letter. As you might have noticed, this has become a very popular method of addressing officials in high places. (Did you see that pun? “High places”. Hahaha! Funny huh! OK, maybe it’s just me.) I thought that I should probably […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, News/Politics
Boredom and the budget
A new pointer for Pravin: Keep it simple, keep it short. While I was preparing for a recent radio interview with Ashraf Garda on the Sunday SAfm media slot about jargon in the budget speech and journalists’ responsibility to simplify that, it occurred to me to look at budget speeches elsewhere. I looked at only […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Why a free news media is essential to economic prosperity
Musician Frank Zappa famously remarked that communism collapsed because people want stuff. That is an oversimplification, clearly, because a closer look at the history of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe shows that each country was different. Moreover, the desire for democracy rather than simply material well-being should also be considered. Yet there is […]