The Economist was founded on principles of free markets and free trade. It has lost its way.
News/Politics
Posted inNews/Politics, Tech
The Red Plug-In City
Plug-in City seems the right way to imagine how a large number of optional connections can be organised, randomised, mixed or matched. So says the Communist University (CU) in its launch of its Plug-In City. The CU is a blog, training workshop and more broadly an attempt by the “left” to use the internet to […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Lives less valued
About a week ago, a baby with two heads was born in Maputo. Its parents are young, in their early 20s, poor and little educated. After the birth, mother and baby were placed into separate wards in Maputo’s central hospital — a public hospital with few facilities and even fewer experts. While the mother was […]
Posted inNews/Politics
So much for freedom of the media and freedom of religion
Like Deon Maas, I am not a fan of satanism (or Christianity, for that matter). I would not mind the post-midnight gatherings, the listening to Cora Marie or Bles Bridges backward to hear messages of support, the incense and the candles, or the fetching young men in black looking morose and comically trying to feign […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Garbage
In blocking the path of two major gay rights organisations from being accredited at the United Nations and a resolution condemning rape as a weapon of war, South Africa has demonstrated not only that it has chosen petulance and expedience over decency, but also that it has forgotten what it was like to endure persecution […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, News/Politics
Reckon ye the number of the Beast
At the Grand Scaly Whale (RDM) in the old SAAN building, resplendent with Benjy’s Bungle jutting like a defiant middle finger into the Jo’burg skyline, we used the Atex electronic editing system. As with today’s zooty jobs, each of us had a password or login code to access the system. One of our cadets — […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, News/Politics
The devil made Tim do it
Rapport editor Tim du Plessis has given us a new version of Voltaire’s famous defence of free speech: “I don’t agree with what you say, but I’ll defend your right to say it, unless it harms my employer’s commercial interests, in which case I’ll shut you up quicker than you can say ‘editorial independence’.” Du […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
So much wealth in so few hands
Statistics on world distribution of wealth make for interesting reading. Two percent of adults in the world own more than half of global household wealth. Ten percent of adults account for 85% of the world total and the bottom half of the world adult population owns barely 1% of global wealth. This study, by the […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
The media’s ridiculous coverage of Cyril Ramaphosa
I took some time today to look back over the past 18 months or so at the endless confirm/deny loops that the media are in around a possible run for president by businessman Cyril Ramaphosa. There are two obvious conclusions: 1. No one has any idea whether this man is in line to run for […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Numbers, numbers everywhere and not a truth in sight?
If you really want to confuse people about where the country is headed, say it with numbers. There is a certain magic about numbers and the spells they weave in many heads. Go to most conferences, for example. Even the most brilliant presentation in words may provoke only glassy stares — a PowerPoint slide with […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Politics in fiction: Yes or no?
It’s the eternal argument, isn’t it? Do South Africans have a responsibility to write political fiction? Or at least infuse their fiction with a political flavour, a current-affairs edge or some hint of HIV/Aids? I think not. But I just read an interesting review of my novel, Strange Nervous Laughter, that brought up this conundrum, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Time for kings and queens to put on the gloves
International political summits, those huge events where heads of state gather to debate things such as international affairs and social integration, tend to have one common denominator everywhere in the world: most taxpayers have no interest in them. It’s not that taxpaying citizens are not concerned with those important issues their leaders discuss; it’s simply […]