The axe finally fell at 12:15pm yesterday (Friday) when the publisher and CEO of the Sowetan, Bongani Keswa upheld my dismissal as ruled by the earlier internal disciplinary hearing. To recap: I had been working as senior revise sub-editor (a kind of final quality checkpoint) for 18 months on the Sowetan. During that time I […]
Media
Posted inLifestyle, Media, News/Politics
Obsessed with teen sex
An alarmist report on e-tv about teenage abortions is sending the wrong message to our adults.
Posted inLifestyle, Media
I think you might like this book …
Title: Beautiful Ugly (African and Diaspora Aesthetics) Edited by Sarah Nuttall Published by Kwela Books It’s difficult to be emotionally complacent when examining what beauty means in Africa, juggling between its oppressive misrepresentation during the colonial period and its redefinition during post-colonial restructuring. Yet, with this book, it’s also easy to comprehend the complexities of […]
Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle, Media, Tech
Unpredictions for the SA web in 2008
It’s quite possible that I’m no good at short-term industry predictions and that this post is a ruse to avoid them, but my built-in BS filter (at least partially informed by a healthy serving of Nassim Taleb and Phil Rozenzweig) tells me that if you took a big enough sample of the informed and considered […]
Posted inMedia
Dishing up the sloppy seconds
Everybody makes mistakes. I know that only too well. How the hell I am alive today I have no idea. I am a Monarch of Mistakes, Emperor of Errors, Pharaoh of Fuck-Ups. Some I have walked away from unscathed. Some I barely stood up from. Others I have survived by nothing short of God’s interference. […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, Tech
Two emerging trends we need to foster
I’ve done my fair share of predicting trends and telling people which trends to watch for their business and marketing goals. However, these trends are all for the benefit of certain individuals or companies. What about the average man? I feel we need to foster “trends” that are really important to the sustainability and growth […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
For heaven’s sake, it’s a blog
Like Ebrahim Harvey, who could not be further removed from me on the ideological scale, I too “feel compelled” to take a broader view on the Vincent Maher/Dominic Tweedie; black/white; male/female; Thought Leader/Mail & Guardian; Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young/Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich brouhaha. Ebrahim argues a good case, until his bias […]
Posted inMedia, Tech
Beware — the sneaky bots are everywhere
Every time I write about privacy and security on the internet I get a whole bunch of people who accuse me of paranoia. They maintain I am looking for conspiracy theories — if you have nothing to hide, then why worry who is following you on the internet? Besides which, I’ve been told, as consumers […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
Writers and the fallacy of fame
Margaret Atwood wrote: “Wanting to meet an author because you like his work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like paté.” She continued by saying “that’s a light enough comment upon the disappointments of encountering the famous, or even the moderately well known — they are always shorter and older and more […]
Posted inBusiness, General, Lifestyle, Media, News/Politics
Hope returns: Obama’s victory and global politics
Damn, I love Americans. Just when you’ve written them off as hopeless, as a nation in decline, they turn around and do something extraordinary, which tells you why the United States of America is still the greatest nation on earth. But too, what is happening in America and Kenya holds lessons for politicians everywhere, and […]
Posted inGeneral, Media, News/Politics
Bring on the building blogs
If taken in earnest, blogging provides a generous platform for research. Generous because responses are free, and, while the “research” can hardly be called scientific, it is a toe-tip test of the pool’s swimmability. In my relatively short (though, may I say, rather spectacular) adventure in the blogosphere, I have gained insights I would have […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media, News/Politics
Alive with possibility?
Recently my cellphone rang. I couldn’t recognise the number. It was very long, but I answered apprehensively anyway. “Hey, Dad!” a familiar voice boomed, “I am standing here in First Street, United States, with my arm around my gorgeous wife and looking down at Cinderella’s Castle.