This weekend I saw DJ Spooky take one for the team. It was an ugly but necessary procedure, and the kind of thing you never — but never — see happening to an artist at an exhibition opening. Especially an American one. We have a troubled relationship with all things international, we South Africans. On […]
Media
Posted inLifestyle, Media
Atonement and astonishment
I was in dire need of a leak the other day just after seeing Atonement at the Nu Metro at Canal Walk, the shopping centre near Cape Town which, in design, sits uncomfortably between Nataniël’s boeredoir and the visual riot going on in Sol Kerzner’s head at any one time. The gents’ loo at this […]
Posted inMedia
Superficially South African
Submitted by Matthew Beetar I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United Provinces of South Africa, and to the Republic for which it stands … Then again, maybe not. I have run into a fair amount of criticism for not being completely patriotic and enthusiastic about the construction of a compulsory South African identity. […]
Posted inMedia
Furore over FBJ and its coconut journalists
I have it on good authority that the biggest sellout and “father of African journalism” is planning a marathon party among the dead to congratulate white journalists and their coconut cohorts who have, so far, managed to suppress the relaunch of the Forum of Black Journalists. As I understand it, media-created coconut journalists will make […]
Posted inMedia
A new dawn
I suppose one could say notoriety has its own rewards or one media’s waste is another’s windfall, but that would be self-indulgent codswallop. The fact is I start off on a new road today — television journalism — as I join what looks like an outstanding team of journalists at e.tv in the sub-editing and […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Zuma FBJ briefing: The row should be about secrecy, not race
The Forum of Black Journalists is welcome to choose whoever it likes to attend its meetings. Black, white or blue. It’s a free country. But no journalists, of whatever hue, should be in the business of organising off-the-record briefings with political leaders. Wasn’t anything learnt from the infamous 2003 Bulelani Ngcuka briefing that caused enormous […]
Posted inMedia
Zuma and Forum of Black Journalists disgrace South Africa
There is no nice way of saying this, but those black journalists who chased away their white colleagues at a function attended by Jacob Zuma should not be allowed to continue in this profession. If they are to provide a safeguard against political abuse and report on the moral well-being of this country, then I […]
Posted inGeneral, Media, News/Politics
The pain of being right
The worst part about being a “pessimist” is you keep being proved right. I’m pretty sure that deep down inside this “pessimist” is an optimist crying to get out. He only needs a motive — not an alibi or an excuse or empty promises or false comparisons or even options. Just a valid motive. Like […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
Unexpected websites (with a splash of innovation)
I was lucky enough to find an über-cool website the other day, which in turn led me on to a whole discovery path of other unexpectedly cool websites. And all South African! Isn’t the internet funny that way? It’s almost like tapping into a vein — once you find one site that fascinates you, there’s […]
Posted inMedia
And they said it couldn’t get any worse
The plague of rancid undesirables unleashed by Zuma Simpson’s rise to power and now squirming out of the woodwork took another dangerous leap forward yesterday with the announcement by a shady clandestine black racist group calling itself the Forum of Black Journalists that it was to be addressed by old Showerhead himself. Joining the ranks […]
Posted inMedia
Fighting Nero in the newsrooms
I am a wimp, but I love being interrogated. Not the fingernail-ripping, electric-mattress kind of interrogation, nor am I into squash balls in the mouth, handcuffs and nurses with whips. I love having my views and opinions dissected, questioned, probed and looked at from different viewpoints. Somehow the process, which is actually quite taxing, helps […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle, Media, News/Politics
A tale of two singers, a child molester, the media and the law
Now here’s a story. A few years ago the high-jump star Hestrie Cloete left her husband for the Afrikaans singer Jurie Els. Last month, the newly married couple announced that they were emigrating to New Zealand. Els said they were fed-up with crime, lack of service delivery and bad management. “I am tired of driving […]