In January 1984, a 12-year-old was shipped off to Catholic boarding school by his parents to begin his secondary education in Vryheid, northern KwaZulu-Natal. That young man was yours truly. Innocent and idealistic, I joined 200-odd other young people aged between 10 and about 20 years old at Inkamana High School. One of my mentors […]
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Posted inNews/Politics
The trouble with Hillary Clinton
Before I begin this item, I’ve made a mental note to get myself a pair of flip-flops for our December holiday. Where were we? Oh, yes, Hillary “I voted for invading Iraq” Clinton. The trouble with Hillary is that she causes confusion in respect of two well-established political terms. She doesn’t “flip-flop” as much as […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Dear Helen Zille …
An open letter to the Mayor of Cape Town Dear Mayor Zille It is completely unacceptable that you were treated in such an unbecoming way by police on Sunday when you participated in the anti-drug march in Cape Town, the city where you are mayor. While I don’t necessarily agree with the ANC’s Smuts Ngonyama […]
Posted inSport
FIA open letter to McLaren drivers
The president of the FIA, Max Mosley, made public a letter he sent to the three McLaren drivers who may be caught up in the Stepneygate scandal. Ferrari recently announced that they have discovered new evidence believed to be emails between McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa and reigning world champion Fernando Alonso. The […]
Posted inMedia
Careful how you play the media
Much has been said in the media, blogosphere and the world in general about the case of the disappearance of little Madeleine McCann. What has been the most interesting of the entire case has been the part the media and the public have played in the entire saga. When the initial story hit the news […]
Posted inGeneral
Careful how you play the media
Much has been said in the media, blogosphere and the world in general about the case of the disappearance of little Madeleine McCann. What has been the most interesting of the entire case has been the part the media and the public have played in the entire saga. When the initial story hit the news […]
Posted inMedia, Tech
Technology qualifications not meeting needs of SA web
My colleague and fellow Thought Leader contributor Vinny Lingham and I recently spent some time together discussing what we believe is the next wave of innovation on the web, post the social-networking drivers of Web 2.0. We believe that the world is poised for a dramatic increase in demand for niche, concise, on-demand skills training. […]
Posted inGeneral
Madeleine, her mom and the media
I’ve been following the Madeleine disappearance from the start, and have been deeply touched by the story of the little girl. The latest events haven’t made me feel much better. Madeleine’s parents are now named as suspects in the case. Tony Lankaster has a good theory about this, but my concern is more with the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Who will deliver us from delivery?
A colleague who lectures in politics at Rhodes University has banned his students from using the word “globalisation” in class. Someone should follow his excellent lead by preventing all commentators who want to be taken seriously from using the word “delivery”. The reason he insists that people who use the word “globalisation” are not to […]
Posted inGeneral
Get ready to rumble
This is an open letter to Riaan Wolmarans, editor of the M&G Online. Dear Riaan, A street war has been raging in the public domain for a while now. The main protagonists have been the cream of intelligentsia in our land. On one side you have All the President’s Men, led by none other the […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Let’s dump our ‘foreign, frigid and feelingless’ Bill of Rights
Dali Mpofu, the CEO and “editor-in-chief” of the SABC, has lashed out at members of the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) for “pretending to be converted to foreign, frigid and feelingless freedoms”. The issue that provoked Mpofu’s outrage was the Sunday Times‘s reliance on the right to freedom of expression in defence of its […]
Posted inTech
Why corporates should force Facebook usage
Many positive and negative things have been said about the banning of Facebook access at corporate workspaces. But corporates seriously need to wake up to the fact that they are doing themselves an injustice by trying to control their employees’ online behaviour — even if it is during office hours — and would be far […]