General

It’s early and the sky is downcast, reflecting the early morning kinks that leak from the displaced and sleep-deficient. Irritable at the early instant coffee, just enough to block a nap as we taxi, not enough to keep the words of the book before me in order — we nod and mumble, not looking. The […]

South Africa begin their Test series against the West Indies, starting at Port-of-Spain, on a high after white washing the West Indians 5-0 in the ODI series. Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers both had very good series’, and Morne Morkel was the leading wicket taker with 11 victims at a touch over 15 per […]

Easily the longest queue of my life was getting that new driver’s licence card in 2003 in Randburg (how may SA readers out there have stories about that long drama?). I was a mere nine hours in that queue, nothing compared to some. Yet all us South Africans endlessly joked, made friendships, exchanged phone numbers […]

There are a lot of players who are ideal for the Soccer World Cup but won’t be participating this year. Instead they will be joining the ranks of the magnitude of other footballers who didn’t make it to South Africa and they will even be harbouring grievances as they watch their fellow countrymen and club […]

The rugby universe, using the words of Alternative Rugby Commentary’s Jed Thian (search it on YouTube … a very funny series of cartoons from a New Zealand perspective on rugby), is set to go to war once more with the best of the north heading south to face the Tri-Nations teams. Scotland also head to […]

The topic of traditional versus digital marketing continues to be a talking point especially among digital marketers. The ongoing debate of effectively planning and buying media online and the problems encountered with traditional media agencies isn’t something that’s going to go away anytime soon. Though many media agencies are making a considerable effort to ensure […]

The World Cup has arrived and though many journalists have suggested who might win or who could win, damnit, someone has to take that first step. So, the time has come to gaze into the crystal ball and predict who is going to win the first ever World Cup on African soil. For those who […]

When I was reading some of the responses to my previous post, I had the distinct impression that people who regularly refer to capitalism’s ostensibly inevitable capacity to enrich everyone, without exception, have in mind a formula which seems to operate in a vacuum, where the generation of income by one automatically leads to the […]

I have just spent my 50th birthday with a group of strangers in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Well, most of them were strangers until two days ago, but by the time of my birthday on Saturday/Sunday (depending on which time zone you followed), most of them had become close friends. The occasion was an “International Dialogue for […]

The recent assault by Israeli commandos on a civilian flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza raised protests globally, not least here in South Africa where we have always had a substantial pro-Palestinian movement. I attended a discussion on the Goldstone Report on the 2008/9 Gaza conflict, hosted by Open Shuhada Street this week, […]

Beer (Ciders and Wine are for sissies and anti-football) One sip A sip everytime somebody makes a cringeworthy joke about the “calabash” Carlos Alberto Parreira calls the vuvuzela “our 12th player” Somebody at FIFA/SAPS/Supersport denounces a bomb threat Camera spends 80% of Brazil game picking out generously bosomed female fans in the stands. Camera spends […]

All of South Africa is now just days away from the party of a lifetime. The signs are there for all to see — the millions of flags, the enormous Word Cup-themed murals draped around buildings, the clatter of helicopters, the droning of vuvuzelas, the scramble for tickets, round-the-clock roadworks and the orderly chaos as […]