General

By Cat Pritchard Welcome to another episode of “Grab the Money and Go” where the viewer is the loser and SABC steals the show in this week’s ep, watch Zapiro’s doccie get the boot and see how the SABC claims M&G stole the loot last month, as we all remember, Isidingo wanted to dash claiming […]

I have been wanting to write another blog on the fascinating phenomenon of perception for some time. Khaya Dlanga’s recent blog on banning the old flag was a good way to ground it in a controversial, hotly debated example of perception. I sympathise with Khaya’s impassioned request for the banning of the old South African […]

By Paul McNally Jonathan Shapiro is a lovely man, soft-spoken, his cartoons are delightful, but is he all we get? During the audio commentary on The Times website — concerning the repeated axing of the Special Assignment documentary on political satire — he sounds weary. He dutifully explains his position for an umpteenth time on […]

I was deeply moved as much as the next animal lover by the recent whale beaching in Kommetjie. As a diver, general marine enthusiast and sort of person who frequently daydreams about swimming with dolphins, seeing those graceful giants of the ocean dying in agony in such large numbers is certainly not my idea of […]

“Oh wow,” said the Canadian classical guitarist, Norbert Kraft, to me, ” … you mean to say you watched me play through your binoculars for most of the show … must have been boring,” he chuckled self-deprecatingly while he signed my copy of his album after a live show in Montreal, Canada. I winced. What […]

An acquaintance recently indulged me in one of my favourite pastimes — arguing over inconsequential matters using our respective employers email facilities. Nought out of the ordinary there you may say. And you’d be right, I imagine at least 60% of time spent on work email is not in the furtherance of an employer’s “global […]

I’ve been victim (stupidity or entrapment, I’m not sure yet) to a couple of mobile subscription services recently. Browsing any old half-decent mobile site only to be hit with a 5 euro/month charge that apparently I opted into once downloading the content. And no. It wasn’t THAT kind of content. It brings to mind the […]

Even if I’m completely wrong. If there had been two ways that something could work out and I have chosen the incorrect one. If I had been smoking my socks and there is no validity in what I thought would happen. If it is now entirely clear that I have been unrealistic and out of […]

The good news is that the South African government and Eastern Cape government, along with the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality, have collectively spent R2 billion in developing a magnificent and spectacular multipurpose sports facility in the Eastern Cape for soccer and rugby. This excludes the billions going into support infrastructures to ensure the stadium becomes an […]

As I celebrated the emphatic victory of the Blue Bulls over the Chiefs on Saturday, a bad taste was left in my mouth when I saw an old South African flag waving in the stadium. That flag is right up there with the use of the word “kaffir” as far as I’m concerned. If you […]

This comment was shared with me last night: “With the ever-increasing amount of graduates coming out of university and the shortage of jobs to be filled, we are faced with many people with the same qualifications competing for very few positions.” So what will differentiate the candidates from each other in such a way that […]

With a month and a half to go before one of the top trail runs on the SA calendar kicks off in the snow fields of Rhodes, last years adventures are a reminder of how frosty it gets in sunny SA … It is the day before the Rhodes Trail Run and we are sitting […]