I recently watched the movie Woman in Gold. It is based on a true story about Maria Altmann’s journey in getting the Austrian government to return to her a Klimt painting that was stolen from her family during the Nazi occupation of Austria during World War II. This women’s journey towards justice is a long […]
Equality
Posted inEquality, General, Sport
How to transform the Boks…
The first time I heard of the Springboks was in 1993. My earliest recollection of this national brand was the lost (0-1) home series against the French. The only thing I recall from this was the heavy scar on the face of the Les Blues’ captain, Jean-Francois Tordo, giving the thumbs up as he left […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Nuclear, single or same-sex family structure does not matter, healthy parenting does
This week Australia’s Victorian government introduced legislation granting same-sex couples equal adoption rights. The passing of this legislation has been duly celebrated across the world. In addition to this, the US Supreme Court’s legislation of same-sex marriage in June this year was lauded as a triumph of equality, and also saw an enormous celebratory response. […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence
Are we programmed for prejudice?
By Melanie Judge In offering a response to the question, “are we programmed for prejudice” I wish to make the case for why thinking about prejudice is incomplete without thinking about it alongside power. I will address this in two ways: Firstly, by problematizing dominant representations of the victims and perpetrators of prejudice, and how […]
Posted inEquality
#IAmStellenbosch: ‘I am colour-blind and I can see colour’
This is a partial response to a recent post in which the #IAmStellenbosch movement is evaluated quite negatively. Scope doesn’t permit me to deal with the issue exhaustively. I will be content to raise a few sceptical remarks about Michelle Avenant’s evaluation and, more generally, about social discourse. I don’t think our social discourse is […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
#IAmStellenbosch and the quiet violence of the ‘colour blind’
Hanging in an office at my old school is a yellowed newspaper article titled “School for the colour blind!” featuring photographs of children of different races laughing and playing cricket together. It was 1981 — three years after the small, independent school started admitting learners of all races despite apartheid norms — and to the […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, Health, Lifestyle, Media
The Khumbul’ekhaya phenomenon as symbolic suicide
By Thirusha Naidu and Andiswa Mankayi One day Mrs Lolo left. It was not a special or a different day. Now it became the day that Mrs Lolo left, perhaps forever. If you met Mrs Lolo on the path to the taxi stop that day you would not have guessed that it would be 30 […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence
Transforming higher education: UCT students’ visions for the future
By Josie Cornell Vicky* had not thought much about her blackness, or what it meant. This changed rapidly upon her arrival at the University of Cape Town (UCT) as a first-year student where, for the first time, Vicky felt black. This “feeling of blackness” for Vicky and for other black students like her, particularly those […]
Posted inEquality
Success of sustainable development goals depends on global partnership
World leaders have a historic opportunity to end extreme poverty, reduce inequality, promote peace and justice, and safeguard the environment through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Unprecedented in their scope and ambition, the SDGs will test the resolve of the international community over the next 15 years in the universal endeavour to create a better […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, News/Politics
Of black pain, animal rights and the politics of the belly
By Shose Kessi It is interesting how bodily and affective experiences are often weaved out of what is deemed “rational” theorising of current events and political talk. How can my mind operate separately from the rest of my being? Where does the separation occur? At the eyes? The nose? The mouth? The belly? The waist? […]
Posted inBusiness, Equality, Media, News/Politics
SA’s ‘trade union corset’: A response to William Saunderson-Meyer
By Darcy du Toit I read William Saunderson-Meyer’s blog “Time to ease the trade union corset that confines SA” with a jaundiced eye. I am quoted as “warning”, at the International Society for Labour and Social Security Law congress in Cape Town last week, “that while the basic principles of labour law remain unaltered, the […]
Posted inEnvironment, Equality, News/Politics
Our diverse cultural heritage defies the stereotype, let’s keep it that way
By Busani Ngcaweni It was January 2000. Heavy rains in the north-eastern parts of KwaZulu-Natal were causing mayhem for rural communities and across the border in neighbouring Mozambique where search-and-rescue teams from the South African National Defence Force were in full force. Apart from the environmental and livelihoods impact of these heavy rains in this […]