By Julie Reid My mother was a remarkably intelligent, though unashamedly outspoken and un-politically correct woman. One of the things which irritated her most about the public rhetoric of the post-1994 “halo period” was the politically-correct tone of discussions; in the media, between politicians, among public figures and so on. Remember those days? When we […]
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Posted inNews/Politics
‘Not enough evidence to secure a conviction against Agliotti’
Advocate Laurence Hodes SC, at the close of the state’s case in the Brett Kebble murder trial in the High Court in Johannesburg, applied for the discharge of his client — murder accused Glenn Agliotti — on all four charges. Agliotti is accused of two counts of conspiracy to commit murder, one count of attempted […]
Posted inNews/Politics
‘Ag, there are no roadblocks so I can drink’
There she was. A pretty blond mommy of two darling children, cruising to where ever she was going in her shiny red Ford Fiesta. Whilst she was busy smsing on her cellphone, she forgot to use her indicator. Instead of going straight ahead she turned left. Next to her, her daughter – a pretty little angle in a white dress with pink flowers – was sitting on her knees, leaning on the dashboard. She smiled, mommy smiled, baby brother smiled. A happy little family. Bliss. What is wrong with this picture? Well, as far as I know EVERYTHING!
Posted inLifestyle, Media
The digital hall of mirrors
The other morning I discovered that I no longer had 590 Facebook friends. I had 589. As you can imagine, I was devastated. Who had unfriended me? And why? What dreadful thing had I done to prompt such a drastic move? My thoughts circled through a range of possible explanations. Had somebody deleted their profile? […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The Conspiracy of the People
Democracy is not just about elections, and yet there is a vocal minority guilty of this reductionism, complicit in conspiring to commit political infanticide. The first inclusive, multiracial democratic elections in 1994 merely marked the culmination of a long, arduous negotiation process that sought to lay the foundation of a new democratic and constitutional order. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Is Zuma using Gareth Cliff meeting as a PR exercise?
5FM jock Gareth Cliff recently penned, or rather, let his fingers dance on a keyboard and published a letter to the government on his website. The letter, Dear Government was a sensational hit. It was forwarded to me several times by people who to a large extent share the same views as Gareth. Since Gareth […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, Lifestyle, News/Politics
Is your lifestyle really worth it?
Last week I watched a documentary type film called Oceans. The whole film was spectacular, but for me one piece was particularly striking. Shot underwater, looking up towards the surface, we slowly panned over what looked like a bright red satin sari. It was gliding through the water, soft yellow lines rippling across the red […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Once upon a time there was a gay American soldier…
The United States of America is one helluva weird country. On the one hand, the land of the free and home of the brave claims to be the world’s biggest, bestest democracy. Indeed, it has a crispy clean Bill of Rights and on paper everyone is equal. In practice, however, things are a wee different. […]
Posted inGeneral
The algebra has a devil for a sidekick
By Gary Mathews When I finished primary school, I was sent to boarding school in the hope I might complete my education. It’s possible the primary reason I was shipped out was that my mother tired of my shenanigans and wanted to get rid of me. Either way, I ended up in the last year […]
Posted inGeneral
‘We don’t hate Jews, we hate Zionists’
As always I’ve been reading columnists from around the world and came across two lads bitching about pretty much the same thing. Firstly our own Dave Bullard who calls political correctness the curse of the chattering classes while Mark Steyn — who writes for far too many publications to mention here — was going on […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The silence of the religious in the face of growing injustice
“What we need is a bill of rights that will protect us against predatory governments now and for the next 200 years while we try to adjust ourselves to what freedom means and to resist all attempts to take it away again — which is the nature of all governments however democratically elected they may […]
Posted inGeneral
Get up, stand up
By Nomfundo Walaza I first questioned the notion of “keeping the peace” several years ago while I was still practising as a psychologist. A refugee girl, who was sexually abused by her adoptive parent, was referred to me for counselling. She believed that her adoptive “mother” knew, about the abuse, but did not want to […]