From the makers of “Eskom power alerts: How can we help you“, “Eskom II : This time with solar water heaters” and “Oh Eskom! My Eskom!” comes a Malt Dizzy film, Broke Back Mounting Ladder. Barry Wrongun sent us this short review : Arnold Bagel is a typical Johannesburg northern-suburbs businessman (imports/exports … something like […]
Lifestyle
Posted inLifestyle
Security is comfort …
I have left behind me the security found in the comfort of friendships. When I reached Khartoum International Airport earlier this week, my friends Abdalla, Asma and Huda were waiting for me. They had been there at least an hour already. I had waited for two other friends, Muddather and Imam, to pick me up […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media, Tech
YouTube’s OK for scholars, non-profits and the queen
What do Marilyn Manson, the Testical Festival and Queen Elizabeth have in common? They’re all on YouTube. No longer only the domain of the cute, the weird and the insanely boring (think family holiday videos), YouTube is becoming a platform for information dissemination and community engagement for more serious content. Scholars, international organisations and the […]
Posted inLifestyle
I’m a little heartbroken about Heath Ledger’s death …
… I was mildly to moderately infatuated with him. So, in honour of my number-one teenage-boy crush, here are a few of my favourite movie stars (only men today, I’m afraid, but all you manly men out there — feel free to add in the female quotient): Jake Gyllenhaal. Yip, Heath’s lover from Brokeback Mountain. […]
Posted inLifestyle
Fan fiction: Improving youth literacy
For many fans of Harry Potter, the last book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, does not signify the end of the story. There are thousands of young people who write their own additions to, subplots within, and alternative endings or continuations to the world of sorcery and Hogwarts. At the time […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle
Madiba, the millionaire and the music man: Memories of Michelle
I never met Mandela, but Michelle did, twice. I asked her what she thought of him the first time because I placed huge value upon her judgement, and knew she’d soon be gone. A few months later she was dead, but she’d told us she liked the old man because he treated her like a […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
My one’s better than yours — on politicians and potholes
Durban, I think, leads the way with load-shedding, and I’m not speaking of the power failures foisted upon us by those corrupt, inept, travel-voucher peddlers who deign to rule us. I’m talking here about bakkies losing their cargoes and even passengers when they run into the thousands — literally — of enormous potholes littering the […]
Posted inLifestyle
Do you know what a nectacot is?
It’s a cross between an apricot and a nectarine. And it’s delicious. The texture of a nectarine, the size of an apricot, and the flavour of both at the same time. Now, I’m not the biggest fan of doctoring nature, but I can almost convince myself that the nectacot was the result of an illicit […]
Posted inLifestyle
On polygamy
It has only been two generations of Zulu men that have toiled with the idea of monogamy as the only marital-institution option. Before that, Zulu men were quite openly polygamous. This was the norm rather than the shunned upon exception that is the case in our anglicised society today. If you had not noticed, ladies […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Song for Ashley — Barack Obama shows us how it’s done
If Barack Obama can live up to the promise of this speech, then the United States has a great new president in the wings or, like Adlai Stevenson, a great potential leader that voters lack the wisdom to elevate. These words speak of the singular importance of working together. What divides us is about serving […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Another energy piece …
Over the past week I’ve wanted to add my two cents’ worth to the (whining) discussions on the power cuts — each time I thought about what I wanted to write, I’d get up in the morning, read the headlines and realise that what I have to say could lead to a cyber-stoning. Not because […]
Posted inLifestyle
Durban might be half-asleep, but …
… I love coming home, because: You can swim in the sea! It’s wild, and a little dirty, and you get tossed around a lot and end up with sand in your cozzie, but you can swim for ages and not freeze. Durban seems to stay the same. I was driving home from the beach […]