General

Twitter, Plurk and Kwippy are the micro-blogging platforms gaining the most traction among micro-blogging enthusiasts at the moment. Twitter is leading the pack with Plurk following closely behind. Kwippy is the new kid on the block, being an Indian start-up which is, at the moment, invite-only but is looking at spreading its API out to […]

In no other time during humanity’s recorded history is the savagery of market relations so paradoxically defined as in this age of plenty. We are able to transform deserts into oases, carve a path through hitherto impenetrable mountain ranges, successfully land an explorative mission to Mars. Human beings are manufactured in laboratories, the parched and […]

I know I promised I would let you know about the South African Rugby Legends Association’s Legacy Parks, which I will in my next posting, but I felt it necessary to obtain a platform for the players as a priority. Without dealing with anything political, the current Springbok captain is afforded the opportunity of speaking […]

All thanks to one David Beckham, now we can’t even tell the difference between a soccer pitch and a fashion runway. Nowadays, talent and skill are no longer a prerequisite for stardom. All you need is a good hair stylist, and you are sure to grace the back pages (and the gossip pages). It is […]

A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others […]

I’m in the middle of a book called Freakonomics and, as usual, when reading something that interests me, I tend to apply what the author is discussing to what’s relevant in my everyday life. One of the key points in the book refers to asking the right questions. Someone who can ask really good questions […]

Lewis Hamilton, currently driving for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 Team, confirmed that his Canadian GP crash was down to the aggressive driving techniques he had learned racing down Louis Botha Avenue, Johannesburg, South Africa. Midway through the race Hamilton slammed into the back of Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari when he failed to spot a […]

Slightly nervous is how I would describe myself as I make my first post on a South African website. Not as nervous as when I used to be there, mind, but that’s not hard. I hope that over the coming months, if I last that long, it will become fairly obvious that I am not […]

Submitted by Lawrence Mashimbye “No food”, “expensive food”, “unaffordable food”. Our future is jeopardised by the current food crisis. Famine seems more of a reality than ever, and if we are not prepared to change our ignorant approach toward population growth, things might even get worse. The recent food summit in Rome was full of […]

There’s a philosophical argument that’s been proposed throughout the ages that sport is a peacetime proxy for war. Certainly the parallels are too striking to ignore (the blind “us and them mentality”, ordinary men striving together for untold glory, a glorious, but ultimately in the bigger scheme of things, futile triumphs, huge amounts of emotional […]

It all started when I shot down Playboy X on the roof his upper Algonquin apartment. Dwayne asked me to do it, and right now I am a gun for hire. I’m in it for the money. And I’m looking for someone. But I feel like making that choice robbed me of something, some part […]

I’m your basic garden-variety married heterosexual woman with children, living in Africa. And living with the fear and panic that too many governments on this continent are putting me — and many women like me, and our children — at risk. My print colleague Ruth Pollard, whom I met in Sydney last year at the […]