General

A collection of 19 feature-length press articles was released in book-form last week in Argentina. One of the articles, El caso Poblete (The Poblete Case), tells the story of José Poblete, his wife Trudy Hlaczik and their daughter Claudia and specifically caught my eye because of the questions it sparks about a country’s need to […]

Look, I’m just going to be honest here. I don’t know anything about politics, I don’t care for sport, I have the merest fleeting interest in entertainment (and then only if the stars are wearing pretty dresses) and I’m completely out of the loop when it comes to the news. In short, I’m a newspaper’s […]

Angry groupings of Africans chanting struggle songs and shouting “Amandla!” have always invoked fear in the hearts and minds of the elite or cabals that defend unfair systems of government celebrating inequality as normalcy. Armed with heavy military artillery, young recruits in the South African Defence Force and the police trembled with fear as thousands […]

It’s almost been a year since The-Dwarf-Planet-Formerly-Known- As-Planet-Pluto was exposed as a fraud. On August 24 2006, 2 500 scientists congregated on a convention centre in Prague, the Czech Republic, and voted on Pluto’s planetary status. Yes, you read correct: THEY VOTED. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/5282440.stm And now it’s a done deal. Pluto is not a planet. And that’s […]

We’ve all heard, ad nauseum, the analysis of how terrible crime is, and how it’s wrecking South Africa, chasing away tourists and creating a general lawlessness in our society. But what benefit does crime bring to the South African economy? For a few years now, I’ve been tossing out this question as soon as I […]

You might not have noticed, but the Mail & Guardian is increasingly accused of abandoning its leftist leanings. Now, I am not one to pronounce on the ideological shifts of newspapers or whether they are correct. I do know, though, that there appears to be a romantic view about what it means to be a […]

“BEE company wins 10-year contract to feed Kruger visitors: “A black economic empowerment group has been given a multimillion-rand contract to run all restaurants in the Kruger National Park, in Mpumalanga. The group has signed a lucrative 10-year contract with the South African National Parks to operate the Kruger’s 12 restaurants.” — UPI The reporter […]

Anyone who has ever been privileged to witness an Afrikaans magistrate giving his judgement or, more importantly here, his sentence, in English will know why I consider this the eighth wonder of the world. You can forget about Jackie Mason, Billy Connelly and Barry Hilton; just pop along to any magistrate’s court near you. Just […]

It’s sad to see how little our public servants care about their jobs. And here I’m specifically referring to the little people, not the ministers or heads of department. These are the men and women who man counters, operate cash registers, print licences and take thumbprints. I recently had the misfortune of having to renew […]

A confidential source working in the IT department in Parliament sent me this screengrab from President Thabo Mbeki’s inbox. Thought you might like to see it [click picture below to enlarge].

If I hosted a dinner party for my 10 closest friends, the topics of conversations would undoubtedly include the expected ones: crime, the three Ms (Mbeki, Manto, Mugabe), the dollar, need for holidays and our kids’ lives. But here is what we would not be talking about: Facebook, Twitter, blogs or Web 2.0. And believe […]