“Wanderer, your footsteps are the road, and nothing more; wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking.” Antonio Machado My dad, though still sceptical of social media, has increasingly warmed up to Facebook and recently left a comment on my timeline referencing Machado’s poem (above). He said: “It seems you and your […]
General
Posted inBusiness, Environment, General
Climate change activism DOES work, even against a colossus
Anyone who feels as strongly about some issues in the globalised world as I do, would feel buoyed by reading the article by Alex Altman, titled “The Thin Green Line”, in a recent edition of TIME magazine (February 15, 2016, p. 38-41). It is a tale of hard-won success on the part of tough environmental […]
Posted inGeneral, Tech
The genesis of ‘uncontrollable societies’
What could “uncontrollable societies” – a phrase that probably strikes fear into the hearts of every member of technocratic governments the world over – possibly mean? To explain it is no easy task, because it entails abstract thinking and conceptualisation not often required of individuals in our technologically oriented society today. The intertextual reference of […]
Posted inEquality, General
Fort Hare is not what it is used be
The celebration of University of Fort Hare’s 100th anniversary has, indeed, revealed historical revisionism to portray the university as a hot bed of revolutionaries. This is a predictable political revision as the desire is to create the profession that former students were trained and destined for revolutionary roles in society. But one ZK Matthews does […]
Posted inEquality, General
The question every white South African has to ask
“What if I were black?” I am beginning to understand as a white person why the fundamental causes of the inequality that persists in South African society have to be addressed, and the critical role that we whites have to play in bringing about changes towards removing inequality. Without white buy-in to the notion of […]
Posted inEnvironment, General
Going public in our homes
Many protest that public space is becoming privatised and, as put by Anne-Marie on her blog, some argue “big city public spaces turn out to be extended private spheres”. I would like to think it could actually be the other way around: our private space could be an extension of our public life. Our individual […]
Posted inEquality, General
Silence is golden, nobody likes an angry black
Six years ago I was awarded an Open Society Foundation media fellowship. My assignment was to spend three months in the old Transkei, interviewing the rural South Africans of Pondoland and Thembuland about what democracy had – and had not – brought to their lives. I set myself up as an objective reporter on an […]
Posted inBusiness, General, News/Politics
Two ways to curb South Africa’s jobs crisis
By Zukiswa Mqolomba South Africa is currently facing a job crisis of epic proportions. The change in unemployment numbers masks even sharper deterioration in the labour market. Firstly, it masks the increase in the number of “discouraged work seekers” as individuals have given up hope of finding work. Secondly it masks the exponential increase in […]
Posted inGeneral
A flexible model for research in the human sciences
It often happens that postgraduate students and I have conversations about the question, how to go about doing research in the humanities and social sciences (the “human sciences”). And I’m not only talking about methodology (which is not the same as method); methodology is closely intertwined with epistemological (knowledge-) and ontological (being-) questions, and cannot […]
Posted inGeneral
Making local knowledge matter in the classroom
Recently my grade 10 pupils had to present orals using quotes from African writers. While listening to their orals I was struck by the lacklustre nature of their speeches. When I introduced the assessment to the girls there was an understanding that the speeches should be interesting and that the opportunity to research African writers […]
Posted inGeneral
My first day at a Model C school
As some may recall, 1991 heralded the watershed year where the Model C schools were to open their doors of learning to the whole South Afrikan population. My first taste of the Model C school society came sometime that year. That day, I left Zwelitsha, just outside eQonce, and headed to eMonti. Together with Mama […]
Posted inEquality, General, Media, News/Politics
Whites only Oscars and black sour grapes
The recent announcement of an exclusive all-white list of actors who are the finalists for this year’s Oscars has provoked a lot of negative black reaction. Big names in the movie industry like Spike Lee, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, among others, have criticised and condemned the list of nominees. Many other black people […]