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Towards the end of the 19th century, a belief in the innate superiority of the Nordic, or “Aryan”, races — specifically of the Germanic and Anglo-Saxon variety, but by implication including others — started to become fashionable. This way of thinking would reach its gruesome culmination in the catastrophe of Nazism, with its cult of […]

So there were Frank and Danny, just moseying along on the front of their wagon, thinkin’ about nothin’ in per-tick-u-ler, their two hosses ridin’ up front, wagon clattering over the stones through the plains of Tennessee. It came to Danny’s attention there was a whole bunch of flies around Frank’s horse’s posterior. He realised another […]

“I don’t know why you should think I have a Chinese girlfriend,” seethed Malcolm, a young American teacher speaking to me in an office we once shared together in Shanghai. “She is a Canadian.” His beard bristled around his clenched teeth. “I think you should have just let that information come out naturally in conversation.” […]

The object of every anti-disestablishmentarian is to ensure that the state and the church remain enjoined and act as one. On the one side we have the all-seeing power of God, which gives credence to the other side where we have the all knowing power of the monarchy whose monopoly over the threat of violence […]

I am amazed to think I have been away from SA for more than five years and I have virtually forgotten how many South Africans behave. More than four years of that time has been spent in China and I am starting to acquire various habits, including standing up for the Chinese, some of whose […]

In Discipline and Punish (his genealogy of modern penal practices) Michel Foucault makes the following observation: “Is it surprising that the cellular prison, with its regular chronologies, forced labour, its authorities of surveillance and registration, its experts in normality, who continue and multiply the functions of the judge, should have become the modern instrument of […]

Today Google released enhancements of two of their products which seems pretty normal by the looks of it. However, these two updates were targeted primarily as a move to trounce Apple. These two applications are Picasa (a free photo managing and simple editing suite, for Windows and Mac) and Gmail Sync (Google’s free email service). […]

I’m an anthropologist and I study humans and in particular am fascinated by how they see themselves and create often strange and even contradictory things called “identity”. Most of us, and I would argue all of us, actually have multiple identities. And the answer is yes; this does create a rather schizophrenic species of great […]

Judging by the volume of responses to my last article, “Will the JSC debunk the myth of white judicial competence?” I surmise that South Africans are ready to confront the myths and deep-seated prejudices they have been harbouring for the past 15 years. The point missed by most morons is precisely this: judicial incompetence knows […]

I would like to offer my rule for good sex for life. But, first I would like to ask the hard question: why does sex play such a dominant role in South Africa — more than anywhere else I believe — and, more specifically, in our HIV/Aids discourse? (If you are not interested in this, […]