The news from Southern Africa is certainly depressing. The region is experiencing a major backslide in democratic freedoms further damaging the reputation of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and its ability to bind its members to common values. Recent restrictions on civil society in the region whether through regressive laws, policies or vigorous persecution […]
General
Posted inGeneral
Time to banish Old South Africans
One of the parts of South African life that I hate more than everything else is going to a braai. Not the act of getting together with friends and family to break bread and burn dead cow over an open flame, but having to deal with the white South African male. Not just any old […]
Posted inGeneral
Letter to South Africa from Auschwitz-Birkenau
It has been pointed out by others that within living memory, Europe was the heart of darkness. So-called civilised Europeans, who read Goethe and listened to Beethoven, set about exterminating millions of their fellow human beings. These commentators also point out that in Africa no gas chambers and ovens were ever built, and some go […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Is Motlanthe in the Eighteen Area?
If recent media speculations are anything to go by, it could be time to bring up to date a line in the song titled Shibobo by “celebrated South African musician” (read soccer player) Benedict McCarthy — a song co-produced with South African kwaito music group TKZee: “Kgalema in the 18 areaaa!” Eighteen yards from the […]
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A revolution of restitution
By Sharlene Swartz In President Zuma’s February State of the Nation address, he mentioned nine programmes dealing with restitution and redress that were to receive attention in the coming two to three years. Among these were (1) housing subsidies for those earning under R13000pa; (2) a retooling of the land reform process; (3) a new […]
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A sausage machine called education
The red ball bounces across the classroom while about fifty pairs of kiddies’ eyes stare enthralled, counting the number of bounces, seven, eight, nine… The ball starts to roll and team three in the class roars out, “ELEVEN!” They had guessed eleven bounces and therefore their team gets points. I am teaching them numbers, and […]
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Copper is in a fix
The three biggest current trends in telephony are all related. Along with the rise of mobile phones and mobile Voice over IP (VoIP), there is a related demise of landlines, with big implications for telephony (as well as broadband internet). This is true around the world. Global In developed countries, landlines have decreased by almost […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Trayvon Martin: It’s about race and a lousy law
Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African-American teenager, was shot dead in Florida a month ago because of how he looked. Before being killed by a Hispanic self-appointed crime watch volunteer, Martin was described as “suspicious”. George Zimmerman was suspicious due to Martin’s skin colour, his wearing of a hoodie with the hood up (it was raining), […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Senegal’s democratic leap forward
“Democracy is constructed like an edifice, freedom by freedom, right by right, until it reaches its snapping point.” When Senegal’s former president Abdoulaye Wade prophetically coined this saying years ago, he definitely didn’t have the 25th of March 2012 in his mind as the day when he would unceremoniously “snap”. The 85-year-old was trounced by […]
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Kiwis holding Super Rugby cards
Round six of Super 15 2012 is coming up, and the picture has been mostly drawn by hands from the Land of the Long White Cloud, with the odd surprise. The most enterprising rugby is being played by the New Zealand teams, with the Highlanders (bar their surprising loss to the Brumbies) and the Chiefs […]
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Applify yourself: Why all industries should embrace the iPad
The growth of tablets continues to surpass all expectations, throwing the PC industry into disarray and turning the heads of everyone from your three year-old to educationists to corporate buyers across the board. The iPad is so popular that publishers and other content-rich industries are forced to reposition their wares for it or risk failure. […]
Posted inGeneral, Media
Simplification and child soldiers: Turning victims into victims
By Kelly-Jo Bluen Watching violence on TV screens does not sensitise viewers to the reality of the conflict. Rather, it serves to numb viewers, to instill within them a sense of fatigue and, most pertinently, from the vantage point of passive observer, to allow for oversimplified ethical polarisations of good vs. evil. These are the […]