Every now and again, as a columnist for the SA Jewish Report, I drop a proverbial brick in a hornet’s nest and end up diving for cover. Thus it was a couple of weeks ago, when a column I wrote poking fun at a newly established Jewish women’s lobby group generated far less amusement and […]
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Posted inGeneral
Tackling President Zuma
Not for the first time, the country was brought almost to a standstill by its president’s membrum virile. Only this time it wasn’t because the polygamous president had unsafe intercourse with the HIV positive daughter of a close friend; nor was he caught in adultery with another comrade’s daughter. It was not the revelation of […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Realising the potential of electricity
As the latest climate change conference in Bonn draws to a close today, the full implications of commitments made at COP17 are beginning to sink in. The nations of the world find themselves united by a challenge that is both eye-watering and conceptually simple: hold the global average temperature increase below 2°C versus the long-term […]
Posted inBusiness, General
The economic week in review: More troubling signs
Europe’s woes continued to weigh heavily on global markets this week. A summit of European leaders on Wednesday failed to reassure economists and investors that politicians can contain the growing risks of Greek exit from the euro and continental banking crisis. Here at home, data showed that the rate of price rises facing consumers rose […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zuma painting: Spearing the psyche and esteem of a nation
Private parts are just that. They are private. And even though the president is not exactly a private citizen, his privates have no place in the public arena. Not everyone agrees of course. It is, after all, the way of democracy but it seems even democracy has a nasty divisive side to it. The Spear […]
Posted inNews/Politics
#Zumaspear and the politics of the cock
When I first saw the painting of the The Spear I instinctively felt that it was wrong for one reason: if it had been a painting of a female politician with her genitalia (however small) displayed at a public art gallery, I would not have supported it. I would have felt that it was an insult to […]
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Zuma’s privates and the black male sexual potency myth
Tom Sharpe’s comic novel Indecent Exposure mercilessly lampooning white racism in South Africa was predictably banned under the apartheid government. I managed to get my copy during a visit to Sun City, where such contraband was legally obtainable (since it fell within the boundaries of the ‘independent’ homeland of Bophuthatswana). In one scene, a distraught […]
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9/11 – When will the ‘truth’ finally emerge?
In the aftermath of 9/11 signs soon started appearing, first sporadically and later in a more concerted fashion, that all was not what it seemed, and not even what the official commission of inquiry into the circumstances and ‘causes’ of the event said in its report was able to put an end to the questions […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Cosatu tries to give marching orders to the DA
The opposition was looking for trouble, so there should be no surprise that stones flew and heads were cracked. Any moron should realise that a march on union headquarters by a despised rival would spark violence. That’s the response of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Rebuilding the Eurozone brick by Bric(s)
Europe is in crisis. After a reasonably calm last few months, massaged by a trillion-euro stimulus from the European Central Bank, it seems as if the dark clouds are once again forming over the continent. This comes after the news that Spain’s bond yields have skyrocketed based on concern that the country (which is the […]
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Palestinian solidarity and the responsibility of South African intellectuals
By Nina Butler “I wish you empowerment to resist; to fight for social and economic justice; to win your real freedom and equal rights.” These are the stirring words of Omar Barghouti in his open letter to “people of conscience in the West”. The prominent Palestinian human rights activist gave an indication of the poetic […]
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You used to be cool
By Mark John Burke Owen is a good friend from my childhood, school and, even later, university years. We had very much the same interest when it came to girls, subjects choices, future dreams and, most importantly, American comedy. At a certain stage this fondness of cheap entertainment included a sitcom of the animated yellow-coloured […]