Blessed are the poor, in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Jesus. (Commas restored) . Jesus was as usual talking about solidarity: about how we join with others and, in spirit, feel the world, and suffering, the same as them. This is the kingdom of owning the other as self, the self as […]
News/Politics
Posted inEquality, Lifestyle, Media, News/Politics
Turning human suffering into refugee chic
There are currently more than 65-million refugees and displaced persons in the world. It is one of the biggest human rights crises of our time, and deserves as much media attention as possible. But what refugees don’t need is to have their plight reduced to a fashion statement. “Refugee chic.” On Friday, there was a […]
Posted inGeneral, Health, Lifestyle, Media, News/Politics
Perhaps we all just need to log off and have a good nap
I have news fatigue. That’s not a terribly bad place to be in, because it’s evidence of actually taking notice of the world around us, but it’s similarly distressing all at the same time. Glancing over the major news stories that have soaked up my eyeball attention in just the last month or two, I […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mugabe’s only path to true statesmanship is his death
Robert Mugabe came to power as president of Zimbabwe in 1987. Next year, if Southern Africa’s Methuselah lives until then, will mark his thirtieth year in office and what has become a pathetic downward spiral into the abuse of state power and the obliteration of his nation’s fortunes. President Mugabe is famed as having said […]
Posted inGeneral, Media, News/Politics
We all need the SABC
When you watch what is happening at the SABC you get a feeling that it’s more like Days of our Lives, today Marlena and John are married and Kate is in love with Victor and tomorrow Marlena is possessed, John is arrested and Kate is mentally ill. Things move from the good, to the bad […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
#AndreOlivier: A world where white people took nothing from black people is not a real world, it’s an imagined one
By Sheena Jonker A South Africa where white people gained the position in society that they occupy and the place in the economy that they enjoy through sheer hard work, is an imagined South Africa. It’s not real. When Pastor Andre Olivier says “We (white people) took nothing from black people” he was accessing this […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Open letter to a black South African, release the chains of an enslaved mind #AndreOlivier
By Lesego Setou Dear Black South African, I write to you from one soul to the next. I would like to know at what point did we forget our divinity that we seek affirmation of our worth from pastors? Could it be that we have things we need to heal within our self? That we […]
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The Tshwane protests, Freud and how to control a crowd
It is regrettable that so many thinking people today – even those in the discipline of psychology – regard the work of the founder of psychoanalysis (which is by no means synonymous with psychology) as being of no more than historical importance, and Sigmund Freud himself as a historical curiosity. And yet, Freud is more […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
Racism, an idea whose time has come, again
As Britain votes to leave the EU, Polish immigrants have come under fire with xenophobic and racist attacks in the bastion of parliamentary democracy. This is no coincidence, as millions of migrants from north Africa, eastern Europe and the Middle East pressurises the once hospitable European community on issues of immigration and race relations, there […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Whiteness – it must be possible to transcend black and white divisions (Part 2)
In many ways, this is a time of awakening. I should say “rude awakening”, because the awakening I am speaking of holds many unpleasant surprises. With “awakening”, I mean the sensation of seeing something for what it is for the first time. Waking up from false preconceived notions. A flash of recognition after which nothing […]
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Didiza of Tshwane: The face that launched a riot
#TshwaneUnrest. That’s the hashtag that South African twitter chose to bookmark the biggest, most sustained public violence in the 22 years since the advent of democracy. Unrest? It seems that there’s nothing like a well-worn euphemism to make one feel snug and safe in suburbia, while in Pretoria’s townships rioters loot and burn. Two dozen […]
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Tshwane violence was predicted, now how to fix it
In 2013 we wrote that by 2016 there would be “pockets of political violence”, accompanied by “economic gangsterism … looting and vandalism of private property” in South Africa. We argued that “foreign direct investment will stall”, inflation will rise sharply, the “EFF thrive” and that xenophobia, racism and tribalism would surface. Sound familiar? We arrived […]