Cities, at least in the global South, seem to share something with adolescents; the potential for transformation is real and it drives a profound sense of power and ownership. However, very much like in our teenage years, change is only long-lasting if enough discipline and commitment are in place over the years. I am currently […]
General
Posted inBusiness, Equality, General, News/Politics
It’s a simple choice: Are we going to make South Africa great?
Last week I wrote about racism in our public discourse and I was accused of merely describing the problem and negating the role of politics in fixing our economy. Well, here is a stab at a solution: – Every South African corporation with a national footprint should employ one intern aged 20-29 for every 10 […]
Posted inBusiness, General
Why American market capitalism is broken
Yes, you’ve read correctly. You may not know who Rana Foroohar is, so let me inform you that she is a highly respected business and economic journalist working for TIME magazine, who has just published a book called Makers and Takers, published in May (Crown publishers), in which she makes this (to some startling) announcement. […]
Posted inGender violence, General, News/Politics
From Columbine to Orlando: Why bother having children?
The most harrowing book I have read is the one I have just finished, the recently published memoir-journal, A Mother’s Reckoning, by Sue Klebold, parent of Dylan Klebold, one of the two teenage murder-suicide shooters of the Columbine school massacre in 1999. Though tragic, it is unfortunately not that uncommon for parents to deal with […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle
Slowly, slowly I merge into Germany’s ‘right’ stream…
One never really contemplates how traffic is routed in various countries, until one starts to travel. I am therefore rather blasé when it comes to crossing the road, assuming that I will be fine. Surely sticking to the right hand side of the road is or will be easy? I don’t intend driving in Münster […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
Decolonising course content. Whatever does that mean?
Discussions around “curricula decolonisation” are notoriously unfruitful and unstructured. There are two principal reasons for this. The first is that these discussions occur in a jargon which is vague and imprecise. The second, leading on from the first, is that the subject matter under discussion inherits this vagueness and imprecision. One is tempted, then, to […]
Posted inGeneral
Hlaudi weather ahead – (a satire)
In news just in, SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng has announced that the SABC will be abandoning weather “forecasts”, reverting instead to more reliable weather “backcasts”. “We have found weather backcasts to be more accurate,” said Motsoeneng, “removing frivolous speculation and uncertainty. We know the DA wants to bring bad weather back into the country, and […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Why cartoons are linked to human freedom
There is a very obvious reason why cartoons are inseparably linked to human freedom. And here I don’t mean the Walt Disney variety, or indeed any cartoon film, although they are clearly connected to “artistic freedom” insofar as one’s creativity sets the bounds for the imagination as source of the construction of such films. What […]
Posted inEquality, General
What to do when everything’s always urgent
If I had $1 for every time a client – new or regular – called or emailed and said, “Ha ha [sheepish laugh], unfortunately this little job is quite urgent, ha ha, but it won’t take you long, ha ha … ” I’d retire. But, as a freelancer, no-one gives me money for jam. Which […]
Posted inEquality, General
How transgressive ‘minor’ discourses can subvert hegemonic neoliberalism
We are in Madrid for a conference on “the posthuman”, and taking in the wonderful art and architecture in this capital city of Spain, including the treasures of the Prado, such as their Goya, Velazquez and Bosch collections. Several papers at this thought-and-action-provoking gathering of scholars committed to change in a world being suffocating by […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Democratic agitation needs a different protest language
The report by Municipal IQ (May 11, 2016) on the trends in service-delivery protests in the country is indeed very disturbing. A worrying component of these protests is the increasing level of violence that is associated with these protests. What is even more worrying is the fact that the violence is mostly perpetrated by the […]
Posted inGeneral, Health
The vegans and Mount Everest
Sad news came over the weekend, as it was announced that South African born research scientist Dr Maria Strydom had died on the slopes of Mount Everest, just another in the more than 250 who have given their lives to achieve a dream. What caught my attention more than the all-too-often repeated sadness of yet […]