A recent video circulating on social media called “Chicky Lamba” has caught the attention of the Indian South African community, and despite the appalling violence displayed, has become somewhat of a joke. It was first published on mybroadband, GunSite South Africa and Carforums before local comedian Riaad Moosa posted it on his Facebook page last […]
Media
Posted inGeneral, Media
Joyce Vincent: The woman who lay dead in her flat for three years
It was the saddest story most people had ever heard of. In 2006, the skeletal remains of a London woman were found in a flat, where she had lived alone, and died three years earlier, unbeknownst to anyone. Due to the body’s advanced state of decomposition, the cause of death was unknown, as was the […]
Posted inEquality, Media
Real men do watch ‘Our Perfect Wedding’
By Walter Bhengu Every Sunday evening at 7pm as many people wrap up their weekend in anticipation for the week ahead, a show, which has taken the airwaves by storm, plays on Mzansi Magic. Our Perfect Wedding draws a large viewership judging by how it trends every Sunday on social media with the hash tag […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Brett Bailey must choose – respect Africa or be damned!
There is a lot of consternation in some quarters following the cancellation of Brett Bailey’s visual arts show, Exhibit B, which purports to give insight into the dehumanisation and violent brutality of Africans by colonialism. Many of the supporters are aggrieved that the work of this over-rated and provocative white African artist has allegedly being […]
Posted inEnvironment, Media
How the movie ‘Noah’ reflects our ecological failures
Most people who are familiar with the Old Testament of the Bible know the story of Noah, who was chosen by God, or “the Creator” as the deity is referred to in this remarkable film, to give humanity another chance. Except that, in Darren Aronofsky’s version of the story, Noah understands his task differently: not […]
Posted inBusiness, Media
Crunch time for educational publishers
It’s rare that a national industry is confronted with a single threat to its future. That just happened to South African publishing. A few days ago, the South African department of basic education (DBE) released a policy document, for public comment, that explains how the DBE would like to handle textbooks going forward. (If you’re […]
Posted inEquality, Media, News/Politics
Leave Judge Masipa alone
I have little interest in the Oscar Pistorius trial. I empathise with the loss of, and damage to, life as a result of Pistorius’s actions. This case has, unfortunately, been given more attention than it should. The fact that the victim, and the accused, are well-known, white, moneyed, and privileged, has resulted in this case […]
Posted inGeneral, Media
Is this what our future looks like?
There have been all kinds of signs that the future of our societies will probably entail much higher levels of control than is the case at present. The National Security Agency’s illegitimate surveillance, not merely of American citizens’, but of other peoples’ private communications as well, is but one premonition of the shape of things […]
Posted inEquality, Lifestyle, Media
Feminism isn’t for everybody, but it could be
This morning I read Danielle Bowler’s commentary on the good versus bad feminist debate in her column “We are all bad feminists, and that’s okay”. While I’m all for a nuanced and reflexive critique on feminisms and their limitations in order to better develop and strengthen the movement, I found myself puzzled by what read […]
Posted inEquality, Media
A big, fat, Mzansi advertising migraine
Advertising has a way of carrying our collective cultural fantasies in nifty little 30-second bites on television and single-page print adverts in newspaper or magazines, which seem, at first, harmless and fun until, of course, they begin to illuminate the forces that inform the images we see and the consequenses of those images to our […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Time for the media to catch a wake-up over the EFF
It’s easy to forget that 94 out of every 100 voters in the May general election did not choose the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). Were one dependent only on the South African media, one would easily come away with the impression of that statistical reality being reversed. For such is the media enchantment with the […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
When ‘Under the Dome’ turned into ‘7de Laan’
Seldom had I looked forward to a TV series with so much excitement as the sequel to Stephen King’s Under the Dome. Alas, the second series turned out to be a damp squid. In my mind, there are two Stephen Kings. There is the Stephen King who is a genius of horror fiction. But there […]