In a recent article (sent to me by an astute and observant friend) on “Totalitarian paranoia in the post-Orwellian Surveillance State”, the renowned “critical pedagogics” intellectual, Henry Giroux, dwells at length on the implications of state surveillance on the part of agencies such as the American NSA. Giroux provides a thorough analysis of the relation […]
General
Posted inGeneral
Focus attention where it matters in education
There are three critical stakeholder components that must be managed optimally in order to deliver the best education outcomes. The state has a constitutional responsibility and mandate to provide quality school infrastructure and teaching resources. The School Governing Bodies and state must ensure that quality teachers are employed to impart knowledge to learners and manage […]
Posted inGeneral
The refusal of Michel Houellebecq
The title of this post is ambiguous. For instance, is Michel Houellebecq refusing someone or something, or is he the one who is being refused by someone or something? Those readers who are familiar with what the French referred to as “L’affaire Houellebecq”, after the publication of and controversy that ensued from the publication of […]
Posted inBusiness, Equality, General
The real problem with incompetent black graduates
For many, the mercurial politics of corporate South Africa are punctuated by awkwardly silent, contrived spaces of uncomfortable reflection – spaces known as office elevators. Every so often the silence is broken by wide-eyed faces brimming with the heat of new degrees. Ha! It must be February and the new crop for the graduate programme […]
Posted inGeneral, Tech
Information overload and OCD
I guess I’m VERY lucky, having been earning a living for over 40 years doing one of the things I love: philosophy. Actually, it is not “one” thing in the sense of focusing on one “field” to the exclusion of others; rather, it is “one” thing because the activity of doing philosophy involves something distinctive, […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
DA election candidates: Not business as usual
Modern politics is often an exercise in disenchantment. Never mind the politics of austerity; politics in general can be rather austere. In 2014, politics amounts to the realisation that Barack Obama’s “yes, we can” is impossible in the face of American partisan bickering. It is the understanding that there will always be Nkandlas and arms […]
Posted inGeneral
Leviticus explained, and why sceptics should leave it alone
If I had to comment loudly and publicly about the play of a rugby match using the rules of golf, I would rightly deserve to be considered an idiot. Similarly anyone who uses the content of Leviticus as an argument against Christianity could with good reason be called the same. Yet I see this done […]
Posted inGeneral
The church encourages good
A response to Kagure Mugo’s “The church has more money than God”. By Philip Burnett I was going to call this piece “In defence of the church”, but then changed my mind as I don’t feel like entering into partisan discussions. My basic contention is that the good done by religion and “the church” far […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle
The church has more money than God
In a world where many are continuing to tighten their belts and complain of the “financial pinch” there are some entities that seem to remain on the gravy train. Among the usual culprits one entity stands tall, a constant that no one questions or suspects. The church. It’s easy to speak of how big business […]
Posted inGeneral
Short story of the electrician and his apprentice
Sometimes, in this fractured and fractious society of ours, things actually work. When they do, I often pause to think: Why? How? What is it that makes some things work, all too infrequently, it should be said? Why can’t we make more things work, and other things work better? For now, I have no conclusions, […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle
Digging through hair and dysfunction
Since crèche started, bath time has been a nightmare. Every evening while I struggle through my daughter’s coarse hair with feeble attempts to get the sand and tiny stones out and off of her scalp I imagine what being a sandstone miner might be like. It was a long time coming, but after three days […]
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Don’t like the ANC, vote for someone else. But who?
By Sydney Ainsworth Majoko The advent of democracy in South Africa should have brought with it a level of freedom not experienced before. One of the most difficult things one can face in a liberal democracy is having the right to vote but also a feeling of “damned if I vote this way and damned […]