By Sharon Ekambaram Recently, Mumbai Aids activists took to the streets protesting the Indian government’s failure to protect people living with HIV from discrimination. More than 20 years after South African activists took up the same fight at home, the protests are a stark reminder that the battle for equality, dignity and access to life-saving […]
General
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
Femen: From enthusiasm to disenchantment
A wave of popular interest and sympathetic media coverage helped the “radical” Ukrainian feminist movement Femen, known for their topless “attacks” on symbols of the “patriarchy” (religion, “dictators” and pornography) to expand rapidly into Western Europe, the Americas and several Islamic countries. Recently Femen announced triumphantly that “Femen” has topped “feminism” in the Google rankings. […]
Posted inGeneral, Health
The healing power of ice cream
(This guy is a hero in my opinion. We could all learn from him.) The phone conversation, as my dad, in the bed next door, recalls it, went something like this. “Hello?” “Hi, is this Jim? Where are you?” “No, it’s not Jim. I’m John, and I’m in hospital.” “Oh sorry, John, I […]
Posted inGeneral
A journey of a 1000 miles starts with peanut butter cookies
It all started with some peanut butter cookies. A couple of years ago, with nothing else planned one Saturday morning, my husband Julian suggested we make some peanut butter cookies and visit Leah our cleaning lady at her shack in Mamelodi. With a 2-year-old helping make the cookies, we set off into the unknown. Leah […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
To fix a broken working class
Some say that 20 years is not a long time to sink teeth into a fully-fledged new democracy. There have been many challenges to ignite economic growth while providing essential services to the South African nation. But the major gripe that seems to resonate in today’s times is that the powerful voice of the working […]
Posted inGeneral
The network: Towards a new way of life
In his insightful study of ancient philosophy, Philosophy as a Way of Life (Blackwell, 1995), Pierre Hadot disabuses one of the notion that philosophy was for the ancients what it has become in modernity (and postmodernity) since Kant, namely a specialised theoretical practice. Rather, he argues — citing many passages from ancient philosophers during the […]
Posted inGeneral
You don’t build a family with a stick
By Lorenzo Wakefield The title of this column is taken from a Zulu saying that contradicts Khaya Dlanga’s defence of the manner in which black parents discipline their children. Corporal punishment is a concept that was brought to Africa and South Africa by the British colonialist in the form of a common law defence of […]
Posted inGeneral
Exposure to music can help
In 2007 Philip de Villiers started his own music school, Born to be Famous. The school aimed to foster the talent of young South African musicians and help them achieve greatness. As part of their goodwill the school also awarded scholarships to talented students from disadvantaged backgrounds. “I felt a strong sense of duty and […]
Posted inGeneral
Bloody hear me! Tantrums and novels’ striking openings
“It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my teenage gay lover when Ali announced the archbishop had come to see me.” So snorts the opening sentence to Anthony Burgess’s Earthly Powers – almost. Instead of “teenage gay lover” St Anthony uses the word catamite. The sentence […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Love in the time of corruption
It was an epic duel. At stake was a fantastically rich slab of game pate, but the fresh prune slices and some subtly dressed peppery leaves that accompanied it was in more immediate danger of having to be surrendered. Much worse: so was a glass of finely moussed Moravian brut. Yes, Moravian, for I was […]
Posted inGeneral
A feeding programme can help
Odette and Ebrahim Hossen are two remarkable people. Since February 2009 they have been running a community outreach and feeding programme in aid of those less fortunate in their community. They ensure that the Pietermaritzburg communities of Cinderella Park, Madiba, Tembalihle and Eastwood get a warm meal every Monday and Thursday. Their feeding programme ensures […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, General
The sacred art of listening
To spend time in silence deep in nature far from other people is to know that everything is listening. There is the profound sense that the world around you is deeply attentive, and by listening to that, you honour the presence of everything. The bruises in bark, stone, leaves, dust, the flicker of a tiny […]