“Should we buy a generator?” This question is being posed, of all surprising places, in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. The pattern of losing electricity for days at a time a few times a year is creating a surge in generator purchases. This was the case even before Hurricane Sandy knocked out […]
News/Politics
Posted inNews/Politics
Zumaville: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil
It’s with utter disgust and disbelief to think that “sane” people could take such acts or decisions. This by itself is not the decisive factor, it’s the fact that you have individuals and organisations that see absolutely nothing wrong with this. How is it that this clique — bound by corruption, incompetency, greed, looting, lack […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Voter docility, racial resentment strangling SA democracy
With less than a week to go, the result of the US presidential election is too close to call. In the case of South Africa, you would have to go back all the way to the early 1950s to say the same thing. Ever since then, the results of elections in this country have been […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Robbing miners to pay robber barons
In untransformed economic structures — as they exist in the mines — apartheid is alive and kicking. For all the reasons we can give about the “illegal” strikes and the lawful correctness of the mining houses to fire the workers, this is part of an injustice that reigns supreme in our beautiful land. We all […]
Posted inNews/Politics
10 African leaders turning to twitter
By David Smith Nana Akufo-Addo (@nadaa2012) Leader of the New Patriotic party and presidential candidate in Ghana. 1 640 tweets 35 following 6 132 followers The opposition leader is hoping social media can propel him to victory in forthcoming elections. One of numerous recent tweets declared: “In #48days, we will go to the polls to decide between […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media, News/Politics
Don’t touch me on my Facebook!
It seems the revolution comes in many packages, as seen on Facebook in the form of scantily clad sexy babes who sell radical black revolutionary speak, along with perfectly trimmed stomachs, silicone breasts, voluptuous derrieres and overtly sexual profile pictures. Now I know anything to do with black radicalism is dangerous territory for a whitie […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics, Tech
The importance of technology in economic and social development
Technological innovation and Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) represent a way for developing world nations to foster economic development, improve levels of education and training as well as address gender issues within society. Entrepreneurship is crucial for economic development around the world. In countries such as Nigeria, Egypt and Indonesia, micro-entrepreneurs generate 38% of the gross […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zuma wallowing in the shallows
Politicians, business and the media have been squabbling among themselves the whole of the past week. Yes it’s right, no it’s wrong. It’s so unfair, no it’s not. All this fretful introspection was triggered by the cover story in the Economist, headed “Cry The Beloved Country: South Africa’s sad decline”. It argued that South Africa, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
‘They shipped you there, so come back to us’
By Afua Hirsch From an African perspective, going to the Caribbean can be a disarming experience. On many of the islands, the people look distinctively west African, their national dishes are barely changed versions of African food (compare Nevis’s “cook-up” to Ghana’s “waakye” and I challenge you to spot the difference), and their Creole dialects […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Let the miners eat cake, too
Ask any person if they’d like to see an end to rampant corruption and inequality and I bet that if they’re sane and moral they’d answer a resounding “yes!” Corruption has been rated as the biggest scourge afflicting our fledgling democracy. What I don’t understand is why economic inequality is not treated with the same […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Marikana: Political or economic unrest?
No one can argue that South Africa will never be the same again after the Marikana massacre. What remains arguable, however, is how the country moves forward in the aftermath of the incident. For business, the sooner everything dies down and workers go back to work the better. For workers, in sharp contrast, this is […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
The Economist gets it wrong — again
It’s easy to satirise the kind of journalism that led to the now famous October 20 “Cry, the beloved country” cover story of the Economist magazine. There are two stories in the edition, a short “leader” article and the main story. This is the intro of the main story in the magazine: “It has made […]