How many people still know that song, I wonder. Or the one where Dean Martin sings “Oh, what I’d give for a moment or two, under the bridges of Paris with you … ” The point is that Paris is, and has been for a long time, one of — if not THE — most […]
General
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, General, Lifestyle
The powerful politics of love
South Africans have woken up each morning for the past month to the intimate politics of love (and loss) on their television screens and newspapers pages. The death of Reeva Steenkamp and the ongoing trial has placed questions of love and how we love at the centre of the social consciousness. Although unrelated from the […]
Posted inEquality, General
Biology is not destiny
South African men’s lives have changed remarkably little over the last few centuries — according to the bulk of my undergraduate students. Such an understanding seems common knowledge in the communities from which most of my students are drawn. Since time immemorial, the dominant narrative goes, South African men have “always” been breadwinning heads of […]
Posted inGeneral
We are not all intellectuals
South African artists seem to be outraged by anyone who questions or challenges intellectual capabilities in the sector. I allegedly made a provocative comment about the distinction between an artist and an intellectual. I argued that, generally, local artists are good in what they do and have won awards all over the world. I suggested […]
Posted inGeneral
The ‘single story’ about Africa’s education
The danger in writing about the African continent is that one can end up falling into the trap of perpetuating what Chimamanda Adichie refers to as the “single story”; that is, writing about one idea where Africa is a country; a deep, dark and poor country. A place out there the natives are starving and […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
We need more gun owners in South Africa, not less
By Gideon Daniel Joubert Gun ownership in South Africa has again been thrust into the spotlight, in no small part thanks to the high-profile criminal case against Oscar Pistorius gracing our television screens and the front pages of almost every newspaper. It is mindboggling that the allegedly negligent actions of but one famous public figure […]
Posted inGeneral
Why people are such inherently conflicted beings
While preparing for a seminar on the roots of contemporary theory among the ancient Greeks, the Hellenistic Romans and early Christian thinkers, I was struck by the way that the different, and divergent, strands of the cultural legacy of the West (as well as of other cultures globally which share some of these roots) explain […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
Let Zille wear her doek in peace
Twitter and Facebook have given armchair activists access to audiences previously only reachable from standing on crates at political rallies. The newest cause for outrage has been Helen Zille wearing a doek and posing with drie-voet pots. Her pose is reminiscent of black women cooking at a wedding or funeral. The outrage is much a […]
Posted inGeneral
Heidegger and today’s ‘everydayness’
“Everydayness” (“Alltäglichkeit” in German) is a concept associated with the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century. In the English-speaking world, many “academic philosophers” (or what Arthur Schopenhauer dubbed “bread-thinkers” and Robert Pirsig called “philosophologists” in Lila, the marvellous sequel to his earlier masterpiece Zen and the Art […]
Posted inGeneral, Media
Accusation and failure: The JM Coetzee – Paul Auster correspondence
In the correspondence between the writers JM Coetzee and Paul Auster in Here and Now (Letters: 2008-2011) we encounter a Coetzee largely unfamiliar to readers. Coetzee converses, even chats, in letters with another writer arguably of the same stature (certainly in Europe) in a manner sometimes bordering on the confessional. Coetzee is famous for his […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
An apology to my fellow countrymen
To: Dr Piet Mulder The Freedom Front Plus The FW de Klerk Foundation And everyone who was offended My recent article on the Mail & Guardian’s Thought Leader website on Tuesday, March 4 2014 has hurt, embarrassed and insulted fellow countrymen. In the article, I questioned whether Oscar Pistorius would be on trial if he […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle
Thank God for Dunning Kruger
There’s not a word written in any of my posts on belief and spirituality that is not heavily weighed nor seriously considered. What will my post say, what effect will this have, what answers does this post potentially offer to those having difficulties with the topic I’ve chosen, and, last of all, what does this […]