News/Politics

On October 2nd the Irish electorate will be pressed into voting again on a treaty that they rejected as long ago as last year. There have been no changes to the Lisbon Treaty itself as, indeed, there was little to distinguish it from the treaty establishing a constitution for Europe that Dutch and French voters […]

The historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus is credited with the quotation, “They make a wilderness, and call it peace”. Assuming that I’m not taking it out of context or using it incorrectly, that quotation often comes to mind when I think of US President Barack Obama’s foreign policy. I really like Obama. I don’t think he […]

Within the past two weeks we have witnessed the British government signalling a move towards recognising or perhaps even looking sideways in the cases of those who assist in other people’s suicide. In England this has culminated in prosecutors suggesting that in genuine cases those involved are unlikely to be charged. This week an Australian […]

No, I am not a zol monkey. This is not a throwdown from a bonghead. I am not tapping away on my keyboard in a cloud of purple haze. This will not be a THC-fueled rant about the wonders of pot, the miracle of ganja and the salvation you will find in the herb. I […]

With all the major parties gnashing their teeth and wailing on about how terrible the South African crime statistics are, you’d think the time had finally come to start making major inroads into crime. Unfortunately the talk and the walk are totally out of sync with one another. Just a few reminders: NPA withdraw charges […]

There is one thing that is really puzzling me in the case that has opened against ANCYL President Julius Malema. Why would he, a man permanently under the spotlight, get involved in physical contact? Firstly he has umpteen bodyguards because of the nature of his role within the volatile ANCYL. If he wanted someone sorted […]

If ever South Africa has embarrassed itself then it has to be on the Caster Semenya issue. Here I’m not referring to ASA boss Leonard Chuene, who has made a total idiot out of himself by carrying on a lie in the face of the terrible things we were saying about the international community and […]

Just as physicists, astronomers, molecular biologists, mathematicians and the greatest minds in the world discover more and more bizarre and jaw-dropping new things in the macroverse and microverse, they are realising that fundamental laws of science remain incontrovertible and more sound than ever. Of course, they still battle to reconcile things that are mathematically proven, […]

Jawellnofine. We South Africans are all too fond of thinking we’re unique, special, different. Uniquely scenic, uniquely crime-ridden, uniquely challenged, uniquely corrupt etc etc. The technical term for this is exceptionalism and it is a very bad habit, because it dupes us into thinking that we are more special than we really are. Think of […]

Hold the phone! Simmer down with all the talk about drunk judges, substandard matrics and presidential links to the Rhema Church. Something important is coming through on the wire. A South African is to play “Howling Mad” Murdock in the new A-Team! Sharlto Copley of District 9 fame has been given the nod. He will […]

I am a fan of Zapiro but he has taken it too far this time. He is way out of line. His latest cartoon shows Caster Semenya with the words “No ovaries” above her head. I find this visual and verbal depiction of Ms Semenya exceptionally abusive and degrading. It is not a joke; perhaps […]

Oh look, it’s protest season again. Wits students campaigning against a fee increase have participated in the time-honoured tradition of trashing the campus, invading lectures and intimidating non-protestors. I was in first year when all of this first started, back in 1993. Back then, dewy-eyed liberals like me were trying to get our heads around […]