If you could, would you choose the sex of your unborn child? I was browsing my Blackberry App world on Sunday and found a scary little app. Some might think it’s cute, or useful or even a great thing to pass on. The app in question is called “Gender Predictor” and its message says: “This […]
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Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle, Media, News/Politics
Another day in the shattered dream that is SA
Driving back from an appointment at the state-run Helen Joseph Hospital — how she would cringe at the “place of weeping” that bears her name and which most people call the Hell & Joseph — I see the massive traffic jam snaking back a kilometre down Hendrik Potgieter Road in Roodepoort. The words of a […]
Posted inNews/Politics
McBride’s drunk-driving conviction is the least of his problems
The Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Friday convicted Robert McBride on charges of drunk driving and defeating the ends of justice while acquitting him of fraud. This however was the least of his problems — as well as others granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) — after the Constitutional Court upheld the Citizen […]
Posted inGender violence, Media, News/Politics, Tech
#itisrapeif
I feel the need to repost this statement here. I hope that all of the survivors of rape who read it feel supported. 8 April 2011 Rape Crisis Statement on the #itsnotrapeif Twitter phenomenon We heard via the online grapevine about a revolting Twitter hashtag topic — #itsnotrapeif — and due to some masochistic compulsion […]
Posted inGeneral
ICC gives minnows the finger
The 2011 World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh could be seen as a success and that is because the tournament had it all. From some tense finishes such as India versus England and South Africa versus India, there were also some fine performances from both bat and ball. Ricky Ponting’s 104 was a […]
Posted inNews/Politics
White South Africans aren’t free
This month South Africa celebrates the 17th anniversary of its freedom but many white people will always struggle to appreciate what that means. People who go to the mall on Freedom Day really do not know what they are missing. The thing is, whites as a group have never been really free on African soil, […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Forgiveness in Afghanistan
Kabul airport was a run-down, high-security version of “Bloemfontein international”. It was dotted with military freight planes and helicopters, hidden behind concrete walls and sandbags. One’s baggage is scanned on the way into the country, the officials behind the counter eagerly confiscating the bottles of duty-free booze from Dubai. In the arrivals hall outside I […]
Posted inNews/Politics
‘Let the poor cover their own asses’
By Zukiswa Mqolomba Our inability to reach national consensus on questions pertaining the dignity of the poor raises very serious questions about the trajectory of South Africa’s moral economy. One wonders about the fleeting pipedream of “non-racism … and prosperity for all”, whether it even constitutes what I once believed to be the South African […]
Posted inGeneral
The duplicity of the West in Libya
As the tidal wave of popular uprisings swept across the Arab world, the February 17 movement in Libya appeared to be on the same trajectory as other movements that led to the downfall of dictators in neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia. What was crystal clear from the onset was the open wish of the international community, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
I just love the spirit of Jimmy Manyi
I do not imagine that a courageous and outspoken African man of the calibre of government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi would ever be left alone in this country. He will always be put under scrutiny and hounded until his handlers or managers drop him like a hot potato, that is, if they are not guided by […]
Posted inNews/Politics
An open letter to open letters
Dear Letters You might not be aware of this but you are making one helluva comeback here in the Republic of South Africa. In this age of emails, SMSs and tweets our country is knuckling down getting back to basics sorting things out with good old fashioned letters. Fake, red, legal, formal – we do […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The flesh is weak and the spirit flagging
Not a week passes without some ANC luminary, of manifestly pure heart and clear conscience, promising in soulful soliloquy to the news cameras that the government will not tolerate malfeasance an instant longer. This week it was the turn of the Minister in the Presidency, Collins Chabane, who railed against the “scourge of corruption”, in […]