Posted inEqualityNews/Politics

Paris again: Has Huntington’s thesis been vindicated?

The recent events in Paris (not long after the Charlie Hebdo attacks), which have understandably shocked everyone who values peaceful interaction between people of different cultural orientations, will no doubt fuel renewed intercultural distrust instead. This is to be expected, particularly after reports that one of the attackers might have entered France a few weeks […]

Posted inEqualityNews/Politics

Let them eat cake

This morning I crawled off an overnight flight from Paris, gave thanks for unlimited bandwidth, and started scrolling through Twitter. There I found an opinion piece by Peter Delmar on the Times Live site. I paused to read it because he had obviously been to Paris for a family holiday, just as I had. I […]

Posted inLifestyle

A journey to France

In April 2012 I found out about the Campus France grant for study in France. By then I was an LL.M student at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. I didn’t speak a word of French but the opportunity to explore a new world and a new culture was irresistible. I applied and was […]

Posted inNews/Politics

Stealing rooibos

It has recently been reported that an unidentified French firm is attempting to register a number of trademarks including the terms “South African rooibos” and “rooibos”. It is not the first time a foreign company tried to trademark rooibos tea. I have two problems with the fact that the French want to trademark rooibos. Firstly, […]

Posted inBusinessGeneral

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 […]