General

Yo! Mr Shaik I read in the papers that you were spotted in your BMW trying to buy a balloon. I have to say I am disappointed. Not because you broke parole or anything like that. But getting caught over a balloon is kinda lame. You’re losing your touch. You used to be a stand-up […]

Recently, just before a small performance at the fringe of the fringe of the Grahamstown festival, I wondered past two very happy looking teenagers, their eyes curled heavenwards to the sunset in a state of marijuana-induced peacefulness, their tie-dyed fairy shirts flapping in the breeze. “Oh dude, check out the sky” remarked one to the […]

What does it mean to be “autonomous” (from the ancient Greek words for “self” and “law”) — that is, to be able to be one’s own “law-giver”? I put the word in scare quotes because, strictly speaking, there is no such thing as “complete” autonomy on the part of a person or an institution. At […]

The BCCI’s recent refusal to become a signatory of the Wada (World Anti-Doping Agency) code opened a proverbial can of worms in relation to the invasive nature of testing. More specifically, athletes are aggrieved that they have to notify Wada, or the body that represents them that signed the Wada code, of their whereabouts for […]

This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: Zuma’s first 100 days in office: Good, bad or ugly?

Zuma is a beautiful boy. His big doleful eyes and playful face have been a hit with the press. Every photographer making funny gobbledygook sounds to try and get his attention. Moving the camera about until the light catches that soft wisp of hair on his shining dome. Much to everyone’s delight, he has now […]

I don’t know about you, but if I bought my kids motorcycles or quads I’d be very, very surprised, not to mention annoyed, if the little bastards ate them. I owned about three bicycles before I saved enough dosh to buy my own 50cc buzz-bike when I was 16, yet I and millions of other […]

KwaZulu-Natal always leads the pack. With the economic recession, the province has the dubious distinction of playing host to not only the most job losses in the country, the most non-functioning traffic lights, the most street name changes and in a bid to not to be outdone, we also applied to play host to the […]

You know that numinous, uncomfortable feeling you get when you sense that something is very wrong? It kind of ties a knot in your belly just below your breastbone and sometimes even hurts at your temples and between your shoulder blades. Your brows involuntarily furrow and your eyes widen as your pulse quickens. And what’s […]

Champions — Chelsea The master plan of Roman Abramovich has been threatening for three seasons now and with the Blues under the management of Carlo Ancelotti, they might just have the bottle to take the Premier League title away from United, who in turn will have to cope without the magic of Cristiano Ronaldo. There […]

Had it not been for the 13-or-so million lives involved, one could almost feel sorry for Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe. It seems the old man has had it with foreign donors only getting off their wallets for NGOs active in his country, rather than having the cash mainlined fresh into Zimbabwe’s porous state coffers. Lest […]

It may be somewhat surprising when you think about how, in over 13 decades of cricket’s well-documented existence, we only have one known way to judge cricketers — batting and bowling averages. The void that this leaves is quite huge. Measuring cricketers only through their averages is liable to give skewed and unreliable results. Averages […]