Technological innovation and information communication technologies (ICTs) represent a way for developing world nations to foster economic growth and development, improve levels of education and training, as well as address gender issues within society. Put simply, ICTs help reinforce, converge and integrate all three key pillars of sustainable development, and also support and facilitate the […]
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Posted inGender violence
This is ‘corrective rape’. These are its rules
Early last week, the newspapers reported the discovery of another dead and mutilated lesbian body. Yet another poor, black, landless, queer body with a vagina has been killed and the story, we’re told, is because she was gay. As the routine letters of condemnation from state, public and political officials came in their multitudes, and […]
Posted inHealth, Lifestyle
Life support
The doctor turns to me and says you need to think about what you are going to do if he needs to go on a respirator. I do not understand. I ask. He says if he turns for the worse and needs to go on a respirator what will you do? I say why are […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Egypt: How not to do a political transition
You’ve been elected in your country’s first democratic election. Well done. That’s the easy bit done. Now you need to actually start governing. That, as Morsi found out in Egypt, is the difficult bit. Reasons abound for the overthrow of the Morsi government in Egypt. I want to focus on two issues: inclusive leadership and […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zuma and Obama tango to the Death March
The timing of United States President Barack Obama’s two-day state visit to South Africa was less than ideal. Overshadowing the political arena was a looming, distracting historical backdrop: former president Nelson Mandela’s faltering but determined struggle to live. Both leaders were acutely aware that they had to avoid any perception of insensitivity to the prevailing […]
Posted inEnvironment
Fracking and Utopia
An engineer recently said to me that there’s no such thing as a perfect system. He was referring to software development, but the concept was not unfamiliar to me, as Utopia is something that political theorists have been discussing for centuries. It is always there, whether referred to implicitly or explicitly in the academic literature. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Iranian elections hail new era of dialogue
The ushering to power of a “reformist” in Iran’s recent elections happened not because of the government influence, but in spite of it. Having the stigma of a doubtful presidential election result from 2010 many experts and Iran watchers expected similar problems with last week’s election. But with an estimated 50% of Iran’s 50 million registered […]
Posted inNews/Politics
For the love of Mandela
By Derek Hook How should one approach the obsessive media speculation concerning Nelson Mandela’s declining health and approaching death? Such commentary as a rule wavers between requests that we respect Mandela’s privacy, honour the appropriate cultural customs and an unrelenting — and at times prurient — hunger for ever more details pertaining to Mandela and […]
Posted inEnvironment
The white-throated needletail and passing of precious things
I recently travelled to the picturesque town of Hamilton, New Zealand, through which the ethereally beautiful Waikato River courses, a body of water deemed sacred to the Maori people who refer to it as a tupuna (ancestor), a taonga (treasure), and a mauri (life force). Featuring in the headlines of this far-off place were regular […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Letting go of Madiba requires getting him in the first place
It’s become ubiquitous over the last three weeks, but the Zapiro cartoon of a sad South Africa sitting at the bedside of an ailing Nelson Mandela still touches. “I know it’s hard, but we have to start letting go”, it says in the speech bubble above his head. Madiba still lives, but his nearing end […]
Posted inMedia
Everyone has a story…so write a book
Not too long ago I attended the first Jozi Book Fair held at MuseuMAfrica in Newtown. It was the initiative of Khanya College to create a space for small independent publishing houses to display their books, newspapers, highlight opportunities, share resources, reconnect and, hopefully, create an information-exchange forum and networking platform. I was impressed by […]
Posted inEnvironment, Equality, News/Politics
The Marikana Files II
Presented by Sipho Singiswa this episode looks at the impact the mining companies have on the environment and people living around the Lonmin mining operations — with a particular emphasis on children. Community leader and activist Chris Molebatsi says that what the people want is respect from mine owners. If there was respect for the […]