Lifestyle

The irrepressible Winston Churchill once quipped: “India is no more a country than the equator is.” To try and define it, to try and understand it and to try and explain it as one homogeneous entity is impossible. This country’s unique diversity, rich heritage and cross-cultural mosaic have been well chronicled but the many layers […]

I didn’t know much before I got here, to be honest. We’ve been in South-East Asia for six weeks now — a month in Thailand, and just two weeks in Cambodia, and the country has me totally flummoxed. We started off in Siem Reap, the town famous for the extraordinary temple ruins of Angkor Wat, […]

The news came unexpectedly in a text message this morning (Tuesday 13 October 2009): “Bro Winston Mankunku Ngozi has passed on. Our deepest condolences to the bereaved family and friends. May he find peace.” Just two Sundays ago, we were paying tribute to Mankunku and his music at the inappropriately named Swingers jazz club. At […]

In a world buckling under economic recession, in a country of violence and crime and poverty, how can anyone find the time to care about the treatment of animals? The simple answer is: we have no choice. The very fabric of our humanity is being torn apart by the brutality and horrors being perpetrated, and […]

Lo, I stand before you and say without shame: I am rather fond of dikkops. In fact, I think they’re underrated, and we should feel privileged to have them in our midst. The dikkop to which I refer is not, as an English friend of mine assumed, a dickhead, but rather the nocturnal, ground-nesting cousin […]

People studying and working in the social sciences or arts are often called upon to justify the importance of their field in the world of academia. Which is quite normal — if anybody is going to devote huge amounts of time and brainpower to any pursuit it makes sense that others will question the usefulness […]

When it comes to the writing of novels, women have from the outset been able to go toe to toe with their male counterparts, producing from their ranks genuine literary heavyweights whose work is deservedly held in the highest regard. At least, this is true of those writing in English — my own knowledge does […]

What is it about human nature that when people treat us bad we like them more? That when we get abused, we go back slavishly looking for seconds? It seems we have been hardwired to like the hand that beats us. To run after the thing that rejects us. It’s like that old Groucho Marx […]

By Roger Diamond If I tell you there is a storm predicted for tomorrow night that is going to blow your roof off, you’ll listen. If I pass on a rumour your boss will fire you next month, you’ll also listen. But if I tell you your pension fund will collapse in twenty years time […]

“Serve you right to suffer, serve you right to be alone, because you’re still livin’ in days done past and gone … ” jangles that marvellous blues number played by one of the most awesome duets known in blues history, Van “the Man” Morrison and John Lee Hooker. The latter dude went through such rough […]

I think the Gummi Bears rocked. Sure, technically, they bounced, here and there and everywhere — at least when they’d ingested gummi berry juice — but I still think they rocked. They’re one of my fondest memories of the 80s. (What else does the 8-s have to offer? PW and his Rubicon speech? Big hair? […]

Patrick Swayze died and took the early girlhoods of the Western world with him. When his name is mentioned, hetero men still roll their eyes and swear they’ll never watch the film; hetero women roll their eyes, but for a different reason. Some of it is about the obvious: tight black trousers go a long […]