Seeing as there’s so much hellfire, damnation and slimy things with slimy legs crawling upon a slimy sea, I thought I’d really wind my neck in and talk music. Or rather the music you just gotta get, ’cause in the magical list below exist the latest, finest and most versatile stuff today. Seek you the […]
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Posted inGeneral
The Suresh-Ferial Fisticuff damp squib
So, Riaan Wolmarans, the M&G Online and Thought Leader editor, has finally come up with the goods and managed to get the effervescent human magnet, Ronald Suresh Roberts, to join Thought Leader. What a scoop! And to get Ferial Haffajee to join the fray … well, sheer genius. Who can argue that for the past […]
Posted inMedia, Tech
Are the media colonising the blogosphere?
I have been asked by this newspaper to be a contributor to its blogospherical initiative Thought Leader. This is my maiden input. At first, I was sceptical of the newspaper’s invitation. Well, I still am. I thought to myself: whatever it is we call the “blogosphere” is meant to be deinstitutionalised, far removed from the […]
Posted inMedia, Tech
Interview with danah boyd, social networking expert
danah boyd (she insists on the lower case) is one of the world’s leading experts on social networking sites (SNSs) such as MySpace and Facebook. She is a PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Fellow at the Harvard Berkman Centre for Internet and Society. I interviewed her to try to understand […]
Posted inLifestyle, Tech
‘To twitter’ gets a new meaning that has nothing to do with birds
There are more than 540 000 words in the English language. This is apparently about five times more than during Shakespeare’s time. Among the many new words or meanings fighting to get accepted on to the hallowed pages of the Oxford English Dictionary would be “twittering”, and that would not involve birds. It was early February […]
Posted inGeneral
‘To twitter’ gets a new meaning that has nothing to do with birds
There are more than 540 000 words in the English language. This is apparently about five times more than during Shakespeare’s time. Among the many new words or meanings fighting to get accepted on to the hallowed pages of the Oxford English Dictionary would be “twittering”, and that would not involve birds. It was early February […]
Posted inGeneral
And in the latest news from Sweden…
(A couple of years back I wrote (sporadically) a column for the Mail & Guardian Online. I don’t think anyone actually read it – it was usually buried several mouse clicks away from the real writers like Tom Eaton, Richard Calland and Ferial Haffajee. So, because I’m feeling guilty at not having posted anything on […]
Posted inGeneral
Is Roberts an intellectual prostitute?
There can be little or no doubt that Ronald Suresh Roberts represents the kind of public intellectual this country does not only not need but must reject. And in this regard I put aside the many seemingly credible accusations against him of plagiarism presently. Some of Robert’s critics may have made the error — admittedly […]
Posted inBusiness
Dropping import tariffs to raise exports: How mumbo-jumbo conquered the policy ‘debate’
The heated discussion over the past few weeks about whether South Africa should unilaterally lower its import tariffs reminds me of Francis Wheen’s excellent book How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions. In it, Wheen documents a range of modern delusions where truths are assumed to be so obvious that there […]
Posted inLifestyle
They really are watching you
You are right, they are watching you. I’m somewhat paranoid — who isn’t? But here’s a chilling little tale. You are on your way into the UK from Europe. You go through immigration. You get pulled aside. The official has a simple question: Why did you go to a particular Palestinian restaurant in London two […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Numbers, numbers everywhere and not a truth in sight?
If you really want to confuse people about where the country is headed, say it with numbers. There is a certain magic about numbers and the spells they weave in many heads. Go to most conferences, for example. Even the most brilliant presentation in words may provoke only glassy stares — a PowerPoint slide with […]
Posted inLifestyle
Sumophilia
A New Phenomenon: The winter of 2007 shall go down in the Sumo’s history as a time of boundless indulgence of the female kind. Allow me to elaborate, and in all that will follow, keep in mind that the Sumo is a bachelor. In the time leading to the winter of 2007, as the season […]