General

One of the best things that happened when I found out my novel (Strange Nervous Laughter) was going to be published was that people started giving me respect. Or, rather, respek. Respect denotes having done something worthy, being an upstanding citizen and leading a measured, well-thought-out life. Respek is more of a grudging admiration for […]

Human beings are a funny lot. Because I’ve written a few satirical opinion pieces that were published (plus I’m a Thought Leader, tee hee hee) I have had the “social commentator” tag attached to me a few times. That means that, all of a sudden, people want me to “comment” on things. This past Saturday […]

Much has been said in the media, blogosphere and the world in general about the case of the disappearance of little Madeleine McCann. What has been the most interesting of the entire case has been the part the media and the public have played in the entire saga. When the initial story hit the news […]

I’ve been following the Madeleine disappearance from the start, and have been deeply touched by the story of the little girl. The latest events haven’t made me feel much better. Madeleine’s parents are now named as suspects in the case. Tony Lankaster has a good theory about this, but my concern is more with the […]

Any parent of a young child would have gone cold when the news of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann hit the world’s media in May this year. Since then there has been some criticism of the extent of the media attention. It’s a fair point –given the hundreds of thousands of children who go missing […]

Ever not put an emoticon into a quick SMS, Twitter, IM or email? Ever gotten one that confused the punctuation out of you? The first two emoticons were proposed by Dr Fahlman. He suggested using :-) to indicate jokes, and :-( to indicate serious matters. Of course, we didn’t listen, and we use the latter […]

Over the past few months I have found myself being pursued by one or two gay guys who, for some obscure reason, can’t figure out that this is not my preference. Like in any other office, I’ve also had to put up with enormous mickey taking, as you do, whenever “romance” is in the air. […]

This is an open letter to Riaan Wolmarans, editor of the M&G Online. Dear Riaan, A street war has been raging in the public domain for a while now. The main protagonists have been the cream of intelligentsia in our land. On one side you have All the President’s Men, led by none other the […]

Here are some interview questions asked at Google and Microsoft. Some of these are supposed to generate a specific answer, some are asked to gauge how you estimate, analyse and approach the seemingly impossible problems. Post some of your answers in the comments, but no cheating. I’ve figured out number 10, but would be interested […]

I wonder if George Santayana really examined the concept of “history” before arriving at this conclusion. Did he factor in the tendency to award the job of writing it to the victors, the revision that would take place as the needs of expedience overtook actual recounts or even the way in which modern man perceives […]

While the many derisory and manifestly xenophobic descriptions that saddle Zimbabweans include “cowardly”, “itinerant”, “corrupt” and “criminal”, they will be galled to know that almost half of the population is insane. The other descriptions were not based on empirical data, but the latest designation comes from no less an authority than the World Health Organisation […]

Okay, so I know I only planned on writing twice a week, but Monday’s didn’t really count, being an introduction and all. And besides, there’s a little something that’s been niggling at the back of my mind, and I’d like to get some perspective on it. So I went away for the weekend, on a […]