General

When I was a young lad (leave it) one of the highlights of my week was popping down to the CNA for a copy of Shoot magazine, the weekly football publication from England. That, along with my copy of Tiger and Roy of the Rovers were things that I ensured were never to be missed. […]

Submitted by Aalia Ismail Fourteen years on and what we have seen are distorted, dark-continent hypotheses-like attempts by the media to explain South Africa’s current state. This is a direct reflection of the destruction of our identity by colonial monsters further bludgeoned by our peripheral position in the skewed international political economy, as a result […]

It’s really hard to summarise the experience of a first visit to San Francisco, assuming you’re at least somewhat a technology geek. San Francisco (and by that, one generally means the San Francisco Bay Area) is modern technology’s birthplace and still its hometown. Xerox PARC (as in Palo Alto Research Centre) either created or popularised […]

Township amateur soccer would have been so much poorer without “Prezza”. To the uninitiated, “Prezza” is a colloquial for Club President. Hierarchically, a Club President slots (in) high up in an administrative model found in Europe, mainly Spain. This model was copied and pasted locally. But unlike his counterparts at teams like Real Madrid and […]

I wanted to bemoan Bafana Bafana’s beating this past weekend, worst of all to a small fish like Sierra Leone. But I couldn’t! In fact, I found myself calmly and rationally appreciating the reality of our current situation. Incidentally, the sentiment I’m about to share was echoed by non other than our state president, His […]

So what did we all make from the ‘Clash of Champions?’ Personally it only re-enforced views that I held already about both teams, and there was nothing new that struck me. As far as South Africa go, big strong pack of forwards, with possibly the best backrow potential in the world. I do think this […]

So Marco van Basten’s imperious Oranje Army find themselves atop their Euro group with every team’s fate in their hands. Good times for the dyke-builders. No-one can deny them their position after two absolutely magnificent victories, I daresay their third goal against France and their second against the Azzuri were the best examples of counterattacking […]

I won’t go to church here. I’ve tried, and I just can’t. The lowest point in my sojourn in Sydney thus far came one Sunday morning as I sat on the cold wooden pew of St Clement’s listening to the priest — sorry, minister — rushing through the third Eucharistic Prayer after a communion consisting […]

I am in total disagreement with the New Zealand press who were going on and on about how crap England were at Eden Park on Saturday. They were not crap! If they train much harder this week, get their tactics right and get Rob Andrew to stop whingeing we can upgrade that performance to crap. […]

One of the aspects of moving to a new country that excited me most was the prospect of doing away with stuff. All of the accretions that build up through daily living, the trinkets and knick knacks and goeters that clog one up, hold one down. No more house or furniture or books. No more […]

On Saturday I shot a 62 at Glendower, playing immaculate golf, until those Nazi bastards told me it was getting too late, and I could only play the second hole on Sunday. I mean, what is the point of trying to finetune your game if the dogs only let you play the first hole? You […]

The Italy rugby squad arrived in Cape Town this morning for their one-off Test against South Africa at Newlands on Saturday. The 24-man playing squad has been selected with a view to the future, so says head coach Nick Mallett some weeks ago. Mallett, a former Ikey, Western Province, Springbok and Springbok coach, has included […]