By Alex Searle It’s all about the talent, as they say, and it’s out there. Somewhere in the dark cobwebs of the American landscape, the next big thing is waiting to emerge from the abyss. It won’t take long to find a plump, bleary-eyed, straw-eating teenage mother with crocodile skin and reedy hair to be […]
Lifestyle
Posted inLifestyle
Are horoscopes harmless nonsense?
“You’re in your element, especially as it seems things are coming together in your career,” intones the Your Stars section in my mother’s copy of You magazine. I like that. That makes sense, especially as I have just made some major changes at work. Pity then that this is for Capricorn, so doesn’t apply to […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, General, Lifestyle, News/Politics
Things aren’t alright
I’ve been writing for Thought Leader for roughly two years, and consistently on the same types of issues. I write about consumerism, “affluenza”, climate change, environmental degradation, oil and coal addiction, and the politics of eating meat — and after each piece, when I go through the comments, I’m left with the same overwhelming feeling: […]
Posted inLifestyle
My year of panic
Yesterday I spotted Nianell, the singer, on the front page of a magazine with revelations of her panic attacks and depression. It’s interesting how many celebrity depression stories are running these days, usually in You and Huisgenoot. There once was a time when nobody would come out of the depression closet, but now it’s much […]
Posted inLifestyle
Has ‘friend’ become meaningless?
“Blah blah fishpaste,” a friend said to me the other day. It’s the sort of thing I write in this blog all the time, but it’s starting to worry me. Who gets to be a friend these days? Does saying that you are “friends” with somebody have any meaning now that you can have 5 000 […]
Posted inLifestyle, Tech
Do you let your children talk to strangers online?
Sometime around the age of six (or even earlier, if there are older siblings involved) children stop nagging for Hot Wheels and Bratz Dolls and start nagging for a Club Penguin or Moshi Monsters account. The reasons they give for this are as follows: 1) EVERYONE else at school has a Moshi Monsters / Club […]
Posted inLifestyle
Biological clocks and shifting demographics
So here I am, tugging the price stickers off the baby clothes I’ve bought for my sister. She’s due to give birth to a little girl within the next month. The child will be the first grandchild for my parents, who’ve had to wait a long time for this. It’s lucky that my mother is […]
Posted inLifestyle
Rich, white and crazy
The suburban landscape of Pretoria East is dotted with a spattering of rugged, rocky hills that overlook the city bowl, rising up from a plain crisscrossed with strip malls and chain franchises. During a recent trip to the area to visit some friends, I noticed that these little hills have become the sites of affluent […]
Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle
76 airbags and 11 885 words…
So what do you think about Top Gear — the BBC’s motoring show featuring the irrepressible Jeremy Clarkson and his two much-abused sidekicks? The programme is irreverent and boorish, it’s offensive, it’s insensitive to the feelings of minorities and, ultimately, it has little to do with mainstream motoring journalism because Clarkson and company never let […]
Posted inLifestyle
My unfortunate weakness for Interesting Men
I have a weakness for interesting men. Sadly, 90% of the people I meet — male and female — are horrifically boring. I’d imagine they’d say the same of me; one person’s fascinatingly entertaining friend is another’s eye-stabbingly dull social chore. But the problem remains that I find it very hard to find men who […]
Posted inLifestyle
Sticks and stones: I’m learning from personal discrimination
“So nigga-boy, what you doing in China?” said the taxi driver to me, a smile on his face. “I am teaching,” I muttered. “What do you teach, nigga-boy?” “English.” “English??” His smile turned into a big grin. “You mean you can speak English – nigga-boy?” “Yes I can,” I retorted, fixing a smile on my […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
An open letter to MTN
Dear MTN, Recently I trudged through the plains of Mordor, chucked the Ring into the Mount Doom and emerged in one piece on the other side. Which is to say that I’ve just crossed my self-payment gap and Discovery will actually start to pay for things again. This is just as well for you, because […]