Good day! [Director’s note: friendly smile] Welcome to Insignificant News International, where all the news that should make news, becomes the other news (unlike the furor news of the other woman would make (*wink wink* nudge nudge*) Yes, we know we’ve been away and you’ve missed us, but we’re confident that you’d understand that ever […]
Media
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Eight bells toll for Dali — Snuki to follow?
The SABC Board has decided to part ways with its suspended group chief executive officer Advocate Dali Mpofu who has vowed to fight the decision. The purported grounds for Mpofu’s dismissal being his failure to implement decisions taken by the board. The question that immediately springs to mind then is how soon will Snuki Zikalala […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
“Obama” prank call to Malema shows South Africa missing a great diplomat
Highveld Stereo’s Darren “Wackhead” Simpson’s prank call to ANCYL president Julius Malema is all the proof that we will ever need that the Youth League leader has clearly been wasted on local politics. The time has surely come for him to be sent to Paris or Rome … or anywhere. Not since Grace “Raging Bull” […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
The paralyzing pessimism of the Market Theater
Considering that this is the beginning of a new year, I thought it would be important to critically examine the role of artists in our society. Now the other day I went to the Market Theater to watch what was in their first offering. It turned out to be a multi award-winning play that reveals […]
Posted inMedia
Nando’s, I finally understand
Dame Evita Bezuidenhout, in her boudoir, hangs up the phone with someone named, “Barack” (Obama not Ehud presumably) and says, “blah blah blah, option A, blah blah blah, option C, blah blah blah, what about option B? … blah blah blah … now you can’t just have A ‘n C …” Now everyone has been […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Noseweek: essential reading for the cynical
I’ve been a fan of Noseweek for years. It has consistently picked up stories others wouldn’t touch and followed them with dogged persistence. Occasionally, as in the case of Brett Kebble, a Noseweek story will eventually enlarge into a national saga that runs and runs. But for the most part, you’ll find things in here […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, News/Politics, Tech
Corruption-free politics — the blueprint
Over the last 18 months we have brought this innovation to the attention of all of the represented political parties. Now for the first time, we share this hitherto confidential “inside information” with you. Assuming that all politicians got into politics to help people and that, if given the opportunity, both politicians and political party […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Get some perspective, people! Perspective!
I know the New Testament passage singles out “rich men”, but the condemnation is levelled in the context of hypocrites. Jesus scandalises a gathering by saying: “It will be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a (hypocrite) to enter the kingdom of God”. Irrespective of whether he […]
Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle, Media, News/Politics
Buyology — how we’re brainwashed into buying stuff
We’ve always suspected those tawdry health warnings on a packet of fags were rather dumb, but never knew why. Well, it seems that, contrary to discouraging smoking, they actually encourage lighting up by stimulating the nucleus accumbens — the craving spot — in the brain. This recent research finding in what’s called “buy*ology” is a […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
A Digital Concert Hall
It’s been a really long time since I’ve been bowled over by technology. And I must say that this time around it’s not really the tech stuff that floored me and got me doing the OMG thing. It’s the use of existing technology that got me jumping up and down. It’s not actually even innovative […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
What if Helen Suzman was an underground ANC member of the Mandela Detachment?
A lot has been written about the passing away of South Africa greatest liberal hero, Helen Suzman. I guess the reasons for this are obvious: she held center stage in national politics when Nelson Mandela was in jail, Oliver Tambo in exile, Steve Biko murdered and Robert Sobukwe restricted. But I must say that I […]
Posted inBusiness, General, Media, News/Politics
More than freedom of expression is under threat in South Africa
Thought Leader blogger Anja Merret recently mused about whether we were being brainwashed into panic. She asked, with considerable justification, whether our media and their international news networks were pumping so much doom and gloom into the already murky and polluted waters of South Africa’s national psyche that we were becoming the proudly SA Borg […]