Grand Slam. These two words are the most important a professional tennis player will hear in his or her respective career. It is the height of achievement in the tennis world where being a Grand Slam champion means your name is written into the folklore of the sport (and big endorsement deals perhaps). Four are […]
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Posted inBusiness
American corporations set Tunisia and Egypt free
If the digital punters out there are to be believed, it is the power of some corporates in California that is setting the Arab world free. It is the venture capitalists, the CEOs, the boardroom visionaries of Palo Alto that are to be thanked for the groundswell we are seeing in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Egypt: Just about time for a revolution?
In a recent BBC interview, the famed author and polemicist Christopher Hitchens stated that despite his past disillusionment with some within the British left, he still closely identified with left-wing humanist values. In particular a belief or advocacy of the Marxian “dialectic” and the universal notions of freedom and autonomy upon which it is predicated. […]
Posted inGeneral
Unbecoming conduct and the ANCYL’s attacks on the media
By Nelly Shamase In the midst of Oprah discovering she had a sibling, the re-instatement of culpable homicide charges against former Bafana Bafana player Bryce Moon and the unveiling of Zanele Magwaza-Msibi’s new breakaway party; one story has managed to captivate me more than any other this week. And the winner is: the ANC Youth […]
Posted inNews/Politics
A lament for radio in Africa
People who complain about the lack of available news about Africa usually don’t try very hard to find it. Sure, if you use South African daily newspapers or South African radio and television as your sources, you’re likely to be disappointed. One of the best sources of news from and about Africa, a source updated […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Forget Osama, America, the threat is in Congress and the media
US President Barack Obama delivered his most important State of the Nation address this week. The man who seemed to respond to so many dreams is, as president, as emotionally stiff as the way he carries his body. And to be in the US is to realise that one is in a nation that has […]
Posted inGeneral
International cooperation: World remains a mess but there’s hope
Africa is, arguably, still the richest continent but her people are the poorest in the world — the world remains a mess! But there are some encouraging signs: Africa appears to be well-poised to lead the world into a better future. This view is supported by others. Michael Pilkington, for instance, believes that 2011 will […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The (mis)education of the black child
It seems the current generation of black youth will be the first to turn its back on the liberation movement and the little gains of its struggle. This is likely to happen anytime between the forthcoming local government elections in 2011 and 2020. There is reason to believe that we will see an increasing number […]
Posted inLifestyle
Faith won’t shape our future, facts will
By Roger Diamond Fashion and faith — more on the differences later — MAY have a role in shaping our destiny as a civilisation, species or society, but then again, they may not. Facts, however, will. First a bit on fashion. Fashion includes not only the mainstream idea around clothing and other relatively superficial aspects […]
Posted inGeneral
UK commission mulls assisted dying
The Commission on Assisted Dying, being conducted by Lord Falconer in the United Kingdom, is focusing upon a highly controversial issue which will become more and more contentious as the 21st century unfolds. It’s aim is to consider what system, if any, should exist to allow people to be helped to die and whether changes […]
Posted inNews/Politics
How the IFP’s VZ tried to do a JZ
The court ruling was brief and brutal — dismissal with costs and the judge didn’t even bother to supply the reasons in the verbal version of the judgement as delivered in court on January 17 2011. Thus failed the national chairperson of the Inkatha Freedom Party, Victoria Zanele KaMagwaza-Msibi, in her bid to prevent South […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Pandora’s box
Tick the appropriate box. White or black or other? Xhosa or Tswana or other? Jewish or Hindu or other? African, European or other? Male, Female or other? In Nepal they recently added a third box for you to tick in the area of gender on their voting registration forms and it’s time to start wondering […]