I am not frightened of the prospect of a Jacob Zuma presidency. Well, I wasn’t. But something he said this week speaks to the frightened child in me. The child who was the biggest truant in the history of Sea Point High. And Zuma has lost my potential vote. Let me explain it this way. […]
Lifestyle
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
The poo in the icecream
No, this is not one of those stories, the sort you expect to find in an Arthur Goldstuck. In fact, it’s not an urban legend at all – at least, that’s how events are panning out. So far. The story of how four scoops of gelato were served on a bed of faeces to a […]
Posted inLifestyle
Pigs’ brains in a skottel: interviews with the Chinese (Ray)
I despaired as I looked at the editing job in front of me. This being Ray’s response to my interview questions for Chinese people. His English bore some resemblance to a child’s bowl of alphabet soup in which he is thwacking his spoon about among the noodle letters. I did not want to wade through […]
Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle, Media
Black buying power, white business and the politics of Nelson Mandela Square
In 1988 South Africa saw the launch of one of its fashion boutiques — a man’s shop called Aca Joe. I started buying from it and was one of its countless African male customers. I don’t exactly know why. Maybe I was hungry for something indigenous, street wise, which was also classy and stylish. Not […]
Posted inLifestyle
Road Rage in SA blogs
We’ve all been hooted at by cars and motorbikes. Sometimes this happens when you are only a lowly pedestrian. All the commuting equipment I have in the world is my legs and shoes. But it’s a unique experience – the first hundred or so times in China – when you are walking on a sidewalk […]
Posted inLifestyle
Sosaties and roosters: dipping a big toe into Potch
It is either slightly disconcerting or enormously flattering when you arrive at a hotel for the first time and the receptionist greets you by name. In the case of my arrival at the Rapid Waters Hotel (and I use all three of those words advisedly) 29km outside of Potchefstroom, it could only be the former. […]
Posted inLifestyle
Ching chong Chinaman & the MRI brain scan
I see the dreaded abbreviation MRI on the medical form. The Shanghaiese lady doctor gives me a worried look after examining me. I couldn’t stand on one leg, kept falling. And my ears ringing all the time, the whine of electronic gnats. People swim in and out of focus. The doctor patters off something to […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
From socialists to socialites
It has been interesting to note the personal attacks from ANC alliance leaders to the potential breakaway party to be launched by Mosiuoa Lekota and Mbhazima Shilowa. Several ANC leaders, including spokesperson Jessie Duarte, Women’s League President Angie Motshekga, and Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, have taken swipes at Lekota and Shilowa’s personalities and their […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Alien nation: middle class linguistic migration
A small group of Bushmen sell their wares at the junction of the main road to Rietfontein, close to the Namibian border and Tweerivieren in the Kalahari Gemsbok Park. The two women huddle in the shade of a makeshift ‘skerm’, their fingers busy with ostrich-shell beads and threads. The two men are dressed in skin […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Why didn’t we think of that?
Next Friday is Halloween. In many parts of the world All Hallows Eve, end of the harvest and the onset of advent in the build-up to Christmas, is celebrated. Steeped in pagan traditions centuries old and heavily seasoned with ancient superstition and autumnal fear, it is a time to marvel at the irony and paradox […]
Posted inLifestyle
Getting around: Sydney vs Joburg
One of the best things about Sydney is the fact that I get to ride to work in a boat. No traffic circles, no minibus taxis or BMW drivers (at least, not in their BMWs), twenty minutes chugging across one of the world’s most beautiful harbours: it’s hard to imagine a more pleasant commute. The […]
Posted inLifestyle
I don’t like bitching but …
I don’t like bitching, but (so sure, here’s the but) if Bruce Cohen in his blog, A nightmare called Nedbank, thinks his banking issues were hell — and they were — try China. We’re in the Stone Age here. Might as well stick your precious shells under a rock in your cave. Huh? Readers might […]