Last year I spent a few hours in prison. Not as a guest of the state, I should add, but to accompany students on a study tour. Contrary to popular belief, a prison is not a great place to spend one’s life. It’s cramped and dark, the food is foul, one has no privacy and […]
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Posted inBusiness, Media
Starbucks, immigration and national identity
The news last week that Starbucks was to close 61 of its Australian stores with immediate effect — leaving just 23 stores in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane — was greeted with considerable interest beyond the business pages. The American interloper taught a lesson about what it takes to succeed in the land down under: this […]
Posted inNews/Politics
ANC passes sell-by date — what will voters do?
The flip side of the adage that new brooms sweep clean is that old ones just can’t do the job right any more. The same is true of governments; they have a shelf life. There comes a time when an administration simply runs out of ideas and no longer has the will or cohesion to […]
Posted inGeneral
Unite the party, bury the hatchet
The Umkhonto we Sizwe Veterans’ Association and the African National Congress Youth League have warned South Africans of the consequences of the continued “persecution” — as opposed to prosecution — of ANC president Jacob Zuma in terms of what they deem to be a political conspiracy. ANCYL president Julius Malema and MKVA chairperson Kebby Maphatsoe […]
Posted inNews/Politics
White is the new black; free the new black oppressed. Viva!
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m starting to like Allan Boesak again. I went off him around about the time that Elna went on him. Thing is, people like me need somebody to stand up for us, just as some of us (yes, whites!) spoke up for the oppressed back in the darkest […]
Posted inLifestyle
Three beauty-full sites
So I’ve been doing some online exploration over the past little while, and happened to stumble across three artists’ websites that I think are just lovely. Care for some relaxing Friday web surfing? Yeondoo Jung (www.yeondoojung.com) is a Korean artist who did an amazing project in 2005, where he took children’s drawings and made them […]
Posted inGeneral
One step backwards, two steps forward.
Not for the first time government, the 2010 Local Organising Committee and other key 2010 role players have undertaken a damage-control exercise following FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s recent admission that there is a “Plan B” if South Africa is unable to host the 2010 World Cup. But it has taken the comments of two prominent […]
Posted inLifestyle
On discovering Mongolian pop music
It is seldom that Mongolia makes the news headlines but it did at the beginning of July. A rare republic in their part of the woods with Russia and China as neighbours, Mongolia’s people protested against alleged vote rigging forcing the President to declare a state of emergency. I knew so little about Mongolia, I […]
Posted inGeneral
Is South Africa destined to blow it after all?
South Africa’s plummeting image internationally must surely be a cause of concern today. This year things have significantly worsened with such new crises as the xenophobia outbreak, power cuts and continuing leadership vacuum in the ruling party being added to the usual concerns about out-of-control crime, HIV/Aids denialism and failures to confront the Zimbabwe fiasco. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Refugees must not hold the government to ransom!
During the oppressive stations of life, it was not uncommon to hear demeaning utterances about the nature of black people in general; utterances that suggested that black people are inherently brutal, criminal and represent the savagery that mankind never witnessed; that they are incapable of adopting a certain moral code or assimilating certain moral sentiments. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Is the ANC two parties in one?
Yesterday in response to my call for amnesty for both the president and the ANC president, upon the basis set out therein, I received a couple of responses from readers suggesting that it might be of benefit to the country if the ANC centre and the ANC left formed two separate parties. While I don’t […]
Posted inGeneral
Zimbabwe negotiations are bound to fail
There has been a lot of jubilation and misguided excitement about the recent Zimbabwean negotiations, what with the European Union praising Mbeki’s mediation effort and the brokering of a memorandum of understanding. Surprisingly this song and dance has not been witnessed by the protagonists (Zanu-PF and MDC) themselves. Clearly this should be a sign that […]