General

I was feeling really down last night. Da blues had got me good ‘n strong. I was lonely, confused and deeply depressed. I decided this was it. Time to take the plunge … time to end it all. But in one last gasp, one penultimate snatch at a straw, I phoned Lifeline. I was put […]

I worry about the proliferation of multiple universes in South Africa. There, I said it. Now I must write very quickly before those nice men in their white coats come to take me away. Parallel Universe #1 exists between city dwellers and rural folk. Move away from the large metropolitan areas and it is as […]

What if we could represent South African politics visually? What if we could take a snapshot of M&G investigative reporter Stefaans Brümmer’s brain? Would it look like a plate of multicoloured spaghetti? A box of rubber bands? Or would it look like this …

Thought Leader is doing collective introspection on its race and gender representation, and in some cases in denial about the problem. I hope that this blog adds a little to the debate. It’s a little bit theoretical at first, but it gets practical — with a couple of digressions on the way. Edward Said in […]

For Jazz-Anne, The moonlight was comming through the curtains as bright as it ever could. She regularly tossed her body from one side to the other. The bed was sickeningly warm, and so she also continuousely swept her legs and toes under the sheet, from the one side to the other, to find the cold […]

My relationship with Bob Mugabe has been trundling along for quite a while now — I send him emails, and he never replies. I even invited him to go on holiday with me, and he ignored me. But it all started much earlier, with a couple of brandies one night, when I stumbled across the […]

Do you like being put into a box? Is the complexity of your character clearly classified? Are the intricacies of your integrity irreversibly ingrained? Or should not, rather, the mettle of your manner be made malleable? I think so. I have always tried to think so, at least. Some would stand by their “fixed” identity. […]

I interrupt my daily list of favourite things for an unfortunate announcement: someone stole my scooter. I got a phone call at 4.15am this morning from a constable asking if I own a black Vuka. He then told me they had found it lying on the road after someone stole it from outside my house! […]

The presidential elections in the United States have, so far, presented us with several fascinating matters for discussion, not least of all the fact that for the first time in this country’s history there are a female and a black candidate — both of whom stand a very real chance of actually winning the presidency. […]

Ever used Google? How about the Firefox browser? Or maybe you are Facebook fan? Enjoy reading Thought Leader? Or maybe you have something against using free stuff? Chances are, you love free stuff. And that is a good thing. But it is a problem for all the business suits peering over the shoulders of all […]

One thing that I find pathetic is the whole notion of a black thought leader. Such a thing does not exist. It’s rather striking that in the new South Africa you don’t find anyone making a big deal about “white economic domination” or a “white thought leader”, for instance. Not that this particular breed does […]

I’m still relatively new to the blog scene. My first posting on ubuntu leadership had quite a number of spicy responses. I wasn’t sure what to do with them. I decided to let the comments be. Although I was itching to write back, I decided to stick to the fact that the purpose of the […]