A big congratulations to All Black captain Richie McCaw on reaching 100 caps for the All Blacks. I was really taken aback at the lack of pomp and ceremony around this milestone and was filled with questions as to why the captain was not showered with more on the night. In the week leading up […]
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Posted inNews/Politics
Dear ‘K-word’ and ‘K-the-boer song’
I know not everybody likes a letter, and when I think about it, you two surely don’t spend a lot of time reading either — but I love a letter, so here goes: Nobody can say that you two haven’t had your fun. You’ve shown your faces at some of the greatest and lowest moments […]
Posted inGeneral
Ubuntu — beyond the (ism)
By Nondumiso Hlophe When was the last time you really thought about how you choose your words? The words that you choose to use — or not to use — are often indicative of what you know and what you value. When I was younger, my mom told me never to use a word, unless […]
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Data gaga
By Bright Simons A cynic with an attitude called Aldous Huxley once made some remarks to the effect that experts go on meandering excursions in search of understanding only to discover at the destination that non-experts had been at the same spot all along. One matter that unites development experts and non-experts alike is the […]
Posted inMedia
The most engaging raconteur I have ever met
I first met Deon du Plessis at the Sunday Tribune offices in Field Street during the early 1980s where he was deputy editor. He was a giant of a man – I stand close to 6 feet tall, but he towered over me and was almost twice as broad as I am. By the time […]
Posted inGeneral
Ignore the URL at your peril
In the online world, the URL is ever-present. It is the digital home of businesses large and small, the currency of social exchange, and the thread on which the hyperlinked web exists. There can be few more important building blocks to the Internet as we know it, but all too often the humble URL has […]
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Steve Biko is dead?
Someone recently said that when Steve Biko died 34 years ago, his philosophy of Black Consciousness died with him. They went on to charge that his inspiring and life-affirming psycho-political programme had been badly mangled by the Azanian People’s Organisation, which could not comprehend its essence beyond their obsession with the politics of skin colour. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Reaction to Lamont shows South Africans have lost the plot
The decision handed down by Judge Colin Lamont in the Equality Court in Johannesburg, regarding the matter of AfriForum versus Julius Sello Malema et al, should have been well received yet it is coming under fire from the African National Congress, the African National Congress Youth League and even Professor Pierre de Vos. Judge Lamont’s […]
Posted inMedia
‘Good’ girls, sex and Gareth Cliff
The Independent Online reported today that Gareth Cliff has been reported to the BCCSA for sexist comments while interviewing Angela Larkan, a young female philanthropist. To begin the interview, Cliff praised her for starting her work at 22, saying it was unusual because most 22-year-olds “do nothing but lie on their backs with their legs […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Steve Biko, and how torture remains a problem in SA
By Clare Ballard Many South Africans remember well the story of Steve Biko’s death on this day in 1977. He died from massive head injuries, which, it was ultimately revealed, had been sustained during his 22-hour interrogation. The death of this extraordinary man exposed the brutality of the apartheid regime, particularly the ruthless and violent […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The brigade for boiling and burning blacks
Just north of here, the tree of liberty is being liberally watered — not with the blood of patriots, but with the blood of blacks. And also unlike Jefferson’s dictum, it isn’t just occasionally, but has been going on for months. The vigilantes have even given themselves a name “The Brigade for Purging Slaves and […]
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What goes wrong when a proprietary company buys an open source one?
The past few years have seen many open source companies being bought by proprietary ones. Back in 2003 Novell bought German Linux maker SuSE. A few years ago Sun Microsystems bought database maker MySQL in a landmark $1 billion deal, and then last year Sun Microsystems was itself snapped up by Oracle. One of the more […]