I have resisted writing something about the Spear saga for two weeks. This was because for me the portrait was offensive but not as offensive as the portrait about Solomon Mahlangu’s last words. The words on that portrait cut very deeply into the pain hidden deep in every black person’s heart. It made a mockery […]
News/Politics
Posted inGeneral, Media, News/Politics
Some sympathy for the editor, please
I too dislike the painting. It offends me for reasons I can’t quite fathom. I do know as satire it resembles the blow of a club more than the rapier thrust. Yet I am appalled by the Taliban-like reaction to it. Brett Murray must have an inkling of how Salman Rushdie felt. The spotlight, however, […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Global youth unemployment trends
Around the world, many youth are increasingly trapped in low-productivity, temporary or other types of work that fall short of their aspirations and that often do not open opportunities to move to more permanent, higher-productivity and better-paid positions. In developed world economies, youth are increasingly employed in non-standard jobs and the transition to decent work […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
The ANC’s bullying will fail to quash freedom
There has been much gnashing of teeth at the decision made by the editor of City Press, Ferial Haffajee, to remove a photo of Bretty Murray’s The Spear from the newspaper’s website. When it comes to the media, the ANC has brought all its indignant rage down on one publication – it has been useful […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Chinese and Russian co-operation now crucial in ending the violence in Syria
When the UN Security Council voted last month to authorise a monitoring mission in Syria, it was a rare moment of unity and solidarity for the 15-member council. The outcome of the vote led to the deployment of approximately 300 UN monitors across five Syrian cities, their sole mandate being to apply all possible efforts […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Prim Lizzy could teach thin-skinned Zuma a thing or two
It defies comprehension. This is a man televised prancing around in loinskin and incongruous white takkies, his man-breasts roiling and thunderous thighs wobbling, to celebrate the acquisition of yet another wife. This is a man with a harem but who is caught diddling with women a third of his age. At least two were the […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Realising the potential of electricity
As the latest climate change conference in Bonn draws to a close today, the full implications of commitments made at COP17 are beginning to sink in. The nations of the world find themselves united by a challenge that is both eye-watering and conceptually simple: hold the global average temperature increase below 2°C versus the long-term […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Dear Africa
I love you. Not the kind of love that Cardies sells on Valentine’s Day, but in that fraught and knotted way that grips my gut and won’t let go, that tangled mess of love and fear, guilt and longing that characterises all those relationships that mark us most deeply, the ones that truly shape who […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zuma painting: Spearing the psyche and esteem of a nation
Private parts are just that. They are private. And even though the president is not exactly a private citizen, his privates have no place in the public arena. Not everyone agrees of course. It is, after all, the way of democracy but it seems even democracy has a nasty divisive side to it. The Spear […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
“A better life for all”: The case for a youth wage subsidy
By Matthew de la Hey The South African unemployment rate is currently 25.2%. This means that 4.5-million people who had sought employment within the four weeks preceding the reference week were unable to find a job. This figure rises to 38% if those who have given up hope and have stopped looking — the “discouraged […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
The state of democracy
There is no consensus on how to measure democracy. Definitions are contested and there is an ongoing debate on the subject. Although the terms “freedom” and “democracy” are often used interchangeably, the two are not synonymous. Democracy can be seen as a set of practices and principles that institutionalise and thus ultimately protect freedom. Even […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle, News/Politics
Murray’s painting mirrors Zuma’s life
I had already started writing my angry views about my president unzipped and exposed. When I started, I wrote it as a man, a black man, Saartjie Baartman’s brother, as someone raised by my grandmother with a moral stick. And I had joined in solidarity with those who are angry about the way President Jacob […]