General

My understanding is that this new online blogging site is not an elitist project but instead aims to engage with and draw into its conversations all readers of the paper and in fact more and more citizens of this country. This country urgently needs to develop many more strong, independent and critical thinkers, not only […]

Bob Mugabe had a farm, then anudder and anudder, his fleece was white as snow — then he didn’t have an agricultural sector. So he called all his wise men together and requesteth (request — past tense, which is appropriate on account of Zimbabwe being very tense) how they could feed the population while keeping […]

Bern Goosen is a South African quadriplegic, and tomorrow he will begin his third attempt to mount Kilimanjaro. In a wheelchair. He won’t be pushed. He won’t be carried. He will use his brute strength to get there, and you can watch it all on your computer. Thanks to the collaboration of local technology companies, […]

The “developmental state” is one of the most under-theorised aspects of national discourse. In fact we live in a country of mutating political mythologies we tend to be uncritically attracted to. For example, the “battle for the soul of the ANC” has been bandied about in the media for years when in reality the ANC’s […]

On Monday Radiohead sent shockwaves through the music industry and paroxysms of fear through the major record labels when they announced that their new album In Rainbows would go on sale on the 10th October as a direct digital rights management (DRM) free download from their website. The price: whatever you feel like paying for […]

These are the blogs that make it into the top 100 000 ranking on Technorati. They are competing with about 70-million other blogs, so being popular or widely read only in South Africa is not likely to get them this ranking. In other words, these are more than likely blogs that have a worldwide readership. If […]

Randy Pausch is dying of pancreatic cancer. In fact, he only has about two to four months of healthy life left. He is a professor at Carnegie Mellon, and recently participated in the Last Lecture series. The Last Lecture series is an US initiative, run by various universities who invite their best professors to give […]

There may be few greater contributions we can make to democracy in this country right now than to explain the difference between a democratic government and a business. Comparing government to a business has become popular among supporters of President Thabo Mbeki. They repeatedly dismiss criticism of both the firing of deputy health minister Nozizwe […]

I bet you are wondering if our country’s First Citizen has ventured into the world of Web 2.0 during his late-night browsings. Well, I can confirm that he has. After tracking him down on Facebook, I asked him if he would be my friend. Wouldn’t you just know it, but he agreed. So I grabbed […]

The biggest political question hanging over all our heads at this critical moment in our history is that of Jacob Zuma. What will he do — or not — if and when he becomes the president; not so much of the ANC, but of the country? Cosatu and the SACP’s frenetic support for Zuma is […]

Wizard magazine in the United States, which focuses on comic books, anime, gaming and such, last year compiled a list of the 100 greatest villains of all time from movies, comics, television, video games and so forth. Though many of the villains on the list will be known only to those with a fair interest […]

I was driving along the freeway the other day (never quite sure which one, but one of those that take you out of the city) when I saw a homeless man, living under a bridge right next to the road. He had the obligatory shopping trolley, filled with tins and bottles and random bits of […]