‘‘Kenopsia n. the eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that’s usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet—a school hallway in the evening, an unlit office on a weekend, vacant fairgrounds—an emotional afterimage that makes it seem not just empty but hyper-empty, with a total population in the negative, who are so conspicuously […]
General
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Youth empowerment can help – Victoria Ward and Columba
Two years ago Victoria Ward, principle of Merchants’ (a Dimension Data company) CSI programme, saw an opportunity to take the company’s CSI initiatives to a new level. Instead of simply sponsoring a charity or initiative she got their hands dirty with an NGO called Columba Leadership. Together they have helped shaped the future of over […]
Posted inEquality, General, Lifestyle
Frogs and queens: Crossdressing and déjà vu (I)
Most of us have split up with a member of the opposite sex. I love the unintended pun: splitting genes, separating the masculine from the feminine. My favourite was Frances. She betrayed me while we were still “an item” for a friend, Angus, who turned out to be a cross-dresser. To everyone’s surprise. Imagine being […]
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It’s my hair…I bought it – part 1
Khanyi has reached a crossroad and does not know what to do with her hair. She decides to write about her dilemma and creates a character, Bongi, who takes us on a journey through various elements of the hair story. A documentary that explores attitudes of black women towards their hair as well as explores […]
Posted inBusiness, General, Lifestyle
Why we choose materialism – part 1
Some of us choose materialism. The decision to put all our hopes and dreams into a basket weaved out of the material of economic consumerism is one we make almost every day. We do so because it is more simple to write down a list of objects we want to own than it is to […]
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Getting to know an underdog can help
Being a business woman, Jenna da Silva Pinto saw a unique opportunity. She made a connection which now seems so obvious. But this would not be a lucrative business, delivering large returns on investment. “I’ve always marveled at the therapeutic power of animals and I decided to start a project that could bring together troubled […]
Posted inGeneral, Health
Pins and needles – a lesson on communication
A welcome break from medical politics – I wrote this a long time ago … it still applies just as much now as it did then. All a doctor’s knowledge, skill, patience and dedication are valueless without intuition. When all else lets us down, all the tests and special investigations, it is often the small […]
Posted inEquality, General
Are non-Afrikans inherently bad?
On June 8 2013 fellow Thought Leader blogger Malaika wa Azania shared a short opinion piece on her FB wall. In it she raised debate around the apparent Ubuntu in African people, and how the white man has “made of us animals with their capitalism and individualistic ideologies”. She argued that Africans have been taken […]
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Giving meaning to the youth voice
I was planning to ignore Youth Day until I accepted an invitation to the Youth Radio Awards on Sunday evening, June 16. Instead of a march or yet another speech-making event, I found myself in a hall buzzing with youth exuberance as the work of young reporters was celebrated with a programme filled with music […]
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The wonder and mystery of doors
My first remembered door was a toilet, me traumatised on the wrong side, trapped, wailing. Dad slid under the door a mysterious bit of serrated metal, introduced with the newly minted word, key, key … pick up the bloody key! Then, as I triumphed over the white oblong of wood and its forbidding creaks, three […]
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Black mouths, white voices
“You can teach a dog how to walk on its hind legs and put a diamond collar around its neck, but it’s still a dog.” No such saying exists in Zulu, or any other Bantu language for that matter. And yet the writers of Intersexions expected us to believe that. This quote featured on the […]
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I sometimes confuse the history of others for my own
In one form or another, I’ve had America beamed into my living room nearly every day since I was a small child. I know their history, their politics, their pop culture and their legal system (perhaps somewhat exaggerated in cheesy television dramas) better than any other country besides my own. Last year I followed the […]