A significant component of the national outcry following the horrific gang rape and murder of 17-year-old Anene Booysen highlighted the extent to which South Africans shift blame and culpability on the raped, and not the rapist. This manifests itself through the lazy recourse in our national dialogue to primitive and antiquated explanations for rape: broken […]
General
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How would we know?
The recent spate of violent strikes and protests has most South Africans wondering how best to differentiate between what Cosatu and others are claiming and what is the day-to-day reality. Try these examples : Media release Embittered Tshwala, spokesperson for the South African Minibus Taxi Association, today confirmed that drivers, incensed by the treatment they […]
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New Age harkens back to a previous age
Thanks to City Press, we now have an idea of how the New Age, a newspaper without audited circulation figures and little advertising, survives in the competitive daily newspaper market. The Gupta family, who are said to be close to President Jacob Zuma, created the New Age as a deliberate counter to the mainstream commercial […]
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What politicians could learn from Plato
I am willing to bet that the vast majority of politicians in the world today do not give much thought to the relationship between governance and the “nature” of human beings. That is, how should one govern, given specific abilities, inclinations and dispositions on the part of the governed and the governing? Plato considered this […]
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Dear SuperSport, Afcon doesn’t stand for xenophobia
The most depressing feature of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) has been the mean-spirited attack of so-called ”white, foreign coaches” by leading soccer figures, commentators, players and fans. This reveals an outdated ethnic, tribal essentialism or nationalist view and the inability of some leading soccer figures to articulate and promote non-racism and international brotherhood […]
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The neoliberal plague: Aids and capitalism
Another World Aids Day is behind us and the usual spatter of annual reports and politicians’ eager promises continue to reverberate through the media. If you’re like me, you’re probably tired of the whole show at this point. After all, it’s 2012, we were supposed to have this epidemic licked by now. Why, despite billions […]
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Yet again Palestinian leaders miss an opportunity
Immediately after being asked by President Shimon Peres to form a new coalition Benjamin Netanyahu stated that renewing talks with Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority would be a top priority for his new government. “The next government that I will form will be committed to peace. I call on Abu Mazen (Abbas) to return […]
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Playing the politics of exclusion means everyone loses
By Sharon Ekambaram Elbow tests and “amakwerekwere” — these are some of the new markers of difference in South Africa, but playing the politics of exclusion in public health gives new meaning to the slogan “an injury to one is an injury to all”. Although estimates vary, as many as 3.3 million migrants from neighbouring countries […]
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Lacan and Fowles on human knowledge
When I first read John Fowles’ wonderful counter-Bildung novel, The Magus, years ago, I had not read Jacques Lacan. When I finally did try to make sense of Lacan, after reading Freud, something Lacan says made me think back to The Magus. In The Other side of Psychoanalysis (2007: 23), Lacan makes this observation: “The […]
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Black man, weep
Yesterday (Friday) I decided to simmer down after a busy week so I got two movies. The one was titled Mama Flora’ Family (1997) and the other The Help (2011). Both movies are about the American south and the plight of the ”Negros”. They trace the personal trials of the protagonists within the larger suppressive […]
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The DA is just as guilty of patronage politics as the ANC
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is just as guilty of patronage politics as the African National Congress (ANC). Although this statement may come across as a clear logical fallacy, namely the Tu quoque fallacy, colloquially referred to as “two wrongs do not make a right”, it remains important to note that in this instance the appeal […]
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Raped, again
By Fezisa Mdibi Walking out of the filthy house I realised my eyes were swelling when the tears started stinging. My lip was bleeding and ribs were on fire. I was angry. I stopped crying. I had been raped for the second time in my life before my 16th birthday. At 15 I was raped […]