General

Professional rugby has seen players represent teams from all over the world, with the number of South Africans plying their trade in Europe a well-known phenomenon. One man who already knows more about travel than most is 19-year-old JP du Plessis. Du Plessis represented Western Province at the 2009 Craven Week in East London, and […]

By Greg Hurvitz Undoubtedly the purist cricket enthusiast is in cricket heaven over this festive season and rightly so, with the Proteas dismissing the Indians for another surprisingly low first innings total, this time 205 all out. These are the “ranked” number one and two teams playing against each other. Way down under we have […]

Cricket, as a sport, has a habit of indulging itself in its own legend. Players are elevated above mere mortal status to something divine, something Bradmanesque as it were, where their influence on the game goes way beyond the boundary ropes of their personal selves. Sachin Tendulkar is the best example of a man who […]

It is often difficult for human beings to readily discard particular views and prejudices that had long been imprinted in their minds through socialisation and experience. Often our worldview is informed by these particular conceptions, however preposterous they may be. People interpret facts before them according to their well-ingrained conceptions of what reality is and […]

As the after-effects of the global recession continue to suppress demand, many businesses are discovering the benefits of an online strategy. A great example is British retailer Marks & Spencer. Hard hit throughout the recession, M&S reported mildly resurgent figures for the first quarter of 2011 in July 2010, mainly on the back of a […]

2011 is the year South African consumers become amongst the best protected in the world thanks to two important new laws. Far from seeing this as a threat, businesses should see this as a huge opportunity for improved customer communications, especially if they have SMS included in the mix. This is one of the main […]

In previous posts, I have argued that, at this stage, the subtle and not-so-subtle ways in which Facebook has succeeded in exposing users to more (potential, if not probable) attention from companies marketing commodities or services than they probably anticipated, have no more than financial or economic objectives, but that the potential for extensive social […]

Issues of human origins and ancestry have more often than not been coupled with, and clouded by, a battle of identity. The history of our species is littered with examples and madmen who have attempted to carve out a distinct identity for a people, and usually for nefarious reasons. The notion of a separate, “chosen […]

Well, Christmas has come and gone. I did not get what I really wanted. What I really wanted was a good bottle of castor oil! You see, my late mother used castor oil for pretty much everything that ailed the children in the house. You had a cold, castor oil would fix it. There was […]

So in 2011 you cannot beat your kid, cannot speak frankly to another adult, even if they consent to it, cannot compliment a female colleague, or even solicit sartorial advice from a gay colleague. Why? Because why (as they say in the die Oss Rand) we have allowed the PC brigade to dictate our lives, […]

Like all oxymorons, the oxymoron (literally:”sharp-blunt”), “liberal communist”, seems to combine the impossible. And yet, as every lover knows, Shakespeare’s “sweet sorrow” of Romeo and Juliet’s parting is all too real. So, too, the fact that liberal communists, who ironically call themselves by that phrase, are an all too tangible part of our world. As […]

I found myself writing a very serious and cliché ridden New year’s message. Yammering on about crime, violence, optimism, the World Cup, etc. Instead I will cut myself short and say just this — have fun, work hard, do unto others. Most importantly be an active, vigilant citizen. The politicians will not sort this country […]