International experience has shown former model offenders to be high-performing and effective if they are employed in prison
China
Posted inEquality, General
O, Canada! Art bears witness to ‘dark secrets’ of colonised places
An installation and a documentary about the notorious residential school system amplify calls to define such deaths worldwide as genocide
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
China’s long, unfinished 20th century and its global implications
By 2050, China is predicted to have an economy twice the size of the US economy. What will this shift in power mean for trade and international relations?
Posted inNews/Politics
If the government is really pursuing this, South Africa is toast
The ANC’s stubborn commitment to an incremental transformation into a communist state will lead to national suicide
Posted inGeneral
A doctor who thinks holistically about Covid-19
We humans are all too inclined to think of effects as being the result of simple, linear causal chains
Posted inBusiness, General
A brief history of the coronavirus pandemics
It’s creeping up on me and my people with devastation in mind slowlyThis lockdown, shutdown, breakdown, keep your head down, that’s controlling meNow into the third month of socio-economic life’s very own disruptionWith curfew and military policing on the streets as the new civic constructionIt’s playing with me and rolling my mind up like a […]
Posted inEnvironment, General
A Very Independently Serious Hongkong Kowloon Association Report
It is not in the best interests of Hongkong for the People’s Republic of China to exert influence over the livelihoods of the people of Hongkong. It is definitely not part of the make-up of the history and culture of Hongkong for there to be an exogenous force that interferes in the running of Hongkong […]
Posted inBusiness, Equality, General, News/Politics
Does the ANC realise that their expropriation drive will make of South Africa an economic ‘basket case’?
By the day I am more and more astonished that the ANC — with a leader whom I used to regard as an intelligent man — is forging ahead with an expropriation policy that can have only one result: lowering the economic status of South Africa to rock bottom, where it can rub shoulders with […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
Marx at 200: As relevant as ever
Today (5 May 2018) is the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth in the German city of Trier, and all over the world people are celebrating his contribution to our self-understanding through the political, economic and social theories he (sometimes with his friend and colleague, Friedrich Engels) penned during his lifetime. The anniversary celebrations are […]
Posted inEnvironment, Health
Stop killing our wild animals!
In 2005 I spent three weeks in China, attending conferences in Nanjing and Beijing, and travelling to several other cities. At one point I participated in a hike about 90 kilometres outside Beijing, in an area where the great wall of China is quite dilapidated, unlike in the more touristy areas. It was an enjoyable […]
Posted inEnvironment, Equality, General, Lifestyle
Lessons on language while in Beijing
By Curwyn Mapaling Naturally, when you attend a symposium or a conference in another country, you expect to learn, to share, to travel, and to explore. There’s so much to learn when entering a foreign country for the first time – everything is new, everything is interesting. I was recently selected to attend the Yenching […]
Posted inBusiness, General, News/Politics
Are Africa-China relations really a win-win situation?
By Zukiswa Mqolomba China’s Africa interface has received much public spotlight over the years. Public debate has been critical of whether China’s engagement translates into win-win benefits for Africa. South Africa’s left movement has gone as far as cautioning against “a new form of colonialism or imperialism”. As the world commemorates the 50th anniversary of […]