Lifestyle

There have been a number of blogs on Thought Leader about sexual violence and rape. One of the things that leap out at me is the number of comments by self-proclaimed Africans (haiwa tigere for one) that echo the comments by a Zambian conference delegate as relayed in Jennifer Thorpe’s blog. The notion that women […]

The most important point I need to make is that understanding something is very different from condoning it. Attempting to explain why men rape, and understanding their motivations for raping, is fundamentally different to condoning the act, or trying to ‘explain it away’. Condoning rape would be to play it down, or even to endorse it. Seeking to understand rape on the other hand, is about investigating why it happens. Understanding is not the same as excusing rape or rapists.

To all of you who go on about women having equal rights, this is for you. To all of you who condemn feminism and liken it to an impediment, this is for you. To all of you who think your children will be fine growing up in a society that espouses violence against women, and […]

Discussions about rape and rapists often seem to end up in the declaration that rapists are monsters. They are evil beasts who prey on women and children. Often they are spoken about as sub-human, or not human at all, they are animals. I disagree. For starters the discourse of rapists as monsters has the effect […]

By Hansie Smit Heritage Day is around the corner and it’s time again to braai like our lives depend on it. That means buying wood, buying dop — some meat if you want — and making a fire convicted arsonists would envy. I bet some pyro-crazy angel in heaven lights a match every time a […]

Something struck me the other day. I almost never talk to children. In fact, the last conversation I had with a child was when I was alone in Sydney, and but for what I read on other people’s blogs and in the status updates of Facebook friends, their lives are mysterious to me. I have […]

It was many years ago now that one of the most bizarre and upsetting experiences of my life took place, so bizarre, in fact, that with the passage of time it is hard to imagine how it could have happened at all. It began with a phone call from a police investigator, “requesting” me to […]

If you live in the 702 reception area and were listening to the John Robbie Show on Monday, you might have been as irritated as I was when the topic of organic foods came up for discussion. People keep digging up nonsense research to make the absurd claim that organic food is no healthier than […]

I have returned to South Africa (again). She tends to get under one’s skin in strange ways that make her unforgettable, loveable and detestable in so many contradictory ways. I do have a viscous love-hate relationship with this strange land. I came back after eight months absence and was feeling all enthralled and loving despite […]