General

1   Book sales on my recently launched memoir, Cracking China are going well, and my publicist is doing a superb job. Most magazine and newspaper reviewers and radio stations are keen to do interviews with me, which is wonderful and a privilege. I look forward to the next radio interview, with Karen Key on […]

TO: Federation Internationale de Football Association Fifa-Strasse 20, PO BOX 8044 Zurich, Switzerland Att: Mr Sepp Blatter FROM: Gavin Foster 25 March 2010 Good morning Mr Blatter I know you’re a very busy man, what with checking that nobody makes any money from the World Cup without giving your organisation a fat chunk of it, […]

By Duncan Keal The news that Mathew Hayden will be wielding a new weapon in this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) came as little surprise. While the shape of cricket bats has remained constant over hundreds of years, technology has seen the modern bat have greater hitting power, a bigger sweet spot and a lighter […]

I was struck by the use of thematic uniforms and pictures in an upmarket Chinese restaurant, Red Guard Cafe, off Queen Street in Auckland here in Kiwi-Land. The waitresses and waiters were all in green, Maoist, military-style uniforms, complete with soldier caps displaying the red star. On the walls were a few pictures of the […]

by Roger Diamond. “The world is coming to a catastrophic end!” How does that statement make you feel?! Let’s try “Certain elements of our society are likely to be placed under major stress and perhaps stop functioning optimally.” Feel different about that prediction? Two totally different sentences that could have the same meaning, but certainly […]

Everyone knows the saying about “sticks and stones” but I’m beginning to become disillusioned with the ending. South Africa is a place where freedom of speech is highly valued among all people and the right to tell your story is something empowering and powerful. But how do we then stop people when they’ve said too […]

Dear Mr Ebrahim Patel, I heard that you and some of your colleagues are planning a major rethink of our economical system. This is great news! I would like to take part in the Big Economic Debate! Even though I know very little about economics (ignorance about this topic has not prevented Mr Malema from […]

By Danielle Nierenberg and Jim Devries From public-service announcements on television to billboards — it’s the motto for a place that just 15 years ago was torn apart by genocide. More than one million people were murdered in 1994 as ethnic strife turned neighbour against neighbour in one of the bloodiest civil wars in African […]

By Sphiwe Hlongwane It has already been dubbed as the final before the final, so we can expect fireworks when Mamelodi Sundowns host Kaizer chiefs in the Telkom Knockout challenge quarterfinal at the Super Stadium on Sunday. Both teams were disappointed after failing to win the league title, so this tournament is an opportunity for […]

I despise bullies. Inevitably, my first experience of that was at school. Well I remember being lifted up by my shirt and banged against a school wall while the big, grinning bully and his cronies laughed at me hanging against the wall, shoes dangling in the air. I had done nothing to deserve this. If […]

We all love our game of rugby with varying degrees of passion, from the Taliban-like fundamentalism of the painted Bulls bone heads, to the plasma screen couch fans popping salted peanuts in their mouth at home or at bars around the world. The game either ranges from a spectacle with a clash of the titan […]

I heard with satirical dismay last week that Evander Holyfield, the former world heavyweight boxing champion, and Francois Botha, the South African journeyman, had postponed their scheduled fight in Uganda once more with a new date still up in the air. Botha (41) would never have been fit to face Holyfield (47) even 10 years […]