Britain’s tough new Consumer Protection Regulations have been particularly hard on fortune tellers, astrologers and other mediums who are now required by law, to tell customers that their work is “entertainment” and not “experimentally proven”. Surely this system should be introduced into Africa where it is desperately needed. Let’s start with everyone’s favourite, Uncle Bob. […]
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Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Just how safe is Australia anyway?
Bad things can happen anywhere. And they do happen in Australia. Take the case of 54 year old Brian Gilsenan, a Scottish emigrant who was attacked in an apparently motiveless crime in the Sydney CBD four months ago. He died on Saturday. The police never did track down his assailants; now they are hunting for […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle
The wisdom of whores
Elizabeth Pisani is unlikely to make many friends in SA — especially among those in the Aids establishment. This former journalist-turned-Aids-epidemiologist has just written a book with a catchy title of The Wisdom of Whores that deals head-on with the Aids crisis and pulls no punches; she is on a warpath against the Aids industry, […]
Posted inGeneral
Because you’re all criminals
Criminal attorneys will confirm that the question that they are most asked by the general public is: “How can you defend criminals?” It’s not that hard to answer because all of you are criminals. Yes, even you. A criminal, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is “A person who has committed a crime”. In other words […]
Posted inGeneral
Xenophobia symbolic of disparities between rich and poor
Submitted by Obert Mathivha As we are still nursing the pain of Africans beating and killing each other in Kenya and Zimbabwe, the same Africans are now attacking each other in the southern part of Africa. This is a result of the state of service delivery in our country, which is below average. We are […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Us versus them
Submitted by David Drew The xenophobic racism spreading like a disease across South Africa may have myriad causes, but at its core, the ugly truth is that it exposes a predisposition to bigotry that we all potentially share. It is the same “button” that has been pushed by despots, dictators, religious leaders, politicians and criminals […]
Posted inGeneral
A (spazza) theory of isolated incidents
I started out writing this regular contribution at the start of 2008, at the tail end of finalising my doctoral dissertation. It was, therefore, a rather difficult period. Following the successful defence, and now being unemployed with time on my hands, I am more readily available to make a more consistent contribution to ThoughtLeader. That […]
Posted inGeneral
All too expected things of the day
It was one of those brilliantly clear days in early summer. I came within sight of the aloes of Jansenville. This dusty town lies about fifty odd kilometres from Graaff Reinet, near Kalkkop. I went there to inspect the crater left by a meteorite quarter of a million years ago. This day, no crater interested […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Roll up the sleeves, a new war is coming!
There’s a new twist to the geo-political battle in Iraq, unforseen by even the most farsighted of Amireca’s free marketeers. When Ahmadinejad paid a state visit on the 2nd and 3rd of March to US occupied Iraq, condemned American presence and outlined a programme to foster economic ties between Tehran and Bagdad, he caught both […]
Posted inGeneral
Information superhighway robbery
Few things infuriate me. In fact, very few things make me use the word infuriate. But today, as a survivor of rampant, blatant bandwidth theft, I have no alternative but to put this polite description to work. The others that rush to mind are reserved for the invisible culprit who should only hope that we […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Power lodged in narrow hearts: the Zuma phenomenon
There is a strange, paradoxical blending of disillusionment and hope in the minds of millions of Zimbabweans. Like that mediocrity strutting about in the White House, Mugabe is hell bent in stealing an election he never won. Let there be no doubt, Tsvangirai has no exploitation-free route once he assumes that tragic country’s reigns; masculated […]
Posted inGeneral
The abused becomes the abuser
Immigration is as old as human society itself. It’s in our nature to move forward, whether to seek out better opportunities or to leave behind persecution. After all South Africa has been through, particularly over the last 60 years, one would think that we’d have a little bit more compassion than most for those trying […]