By Lehlohonolo Mofokeng Here is a reality many of us do not want to talk about: our basic education encourages surface learning than deep learning. One of the reasons I encourage my learners to enter for Accounting Olympiads is to show them that our content is weak; by consequence, disadvantages them when they enrol at […]
parenting
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, Health, Lifestyle
‘Pay up!’ Unmarried fathers’ experiences of fatherhood
Dr. Elmien Lesch Research indicates that absent or uninvolved fathers have a negative impact on the psychosocial well-being of children. This is particularly important for South Africa as it has the second highest rate of father absence in Africa. It is important to keep in mind, however, that the presence of a father in itself […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, Lifestyle
Not all women want men to be fathers
Not all men are fathers. Some men will always be just males. Until you have been a “childless father” or watch the Mzansi Magic television series Utatakho you will never know what that means. You will never know the pain, the emptiness that echoes in the heart of a man who is deprived an opportunity […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle
Is trying good enough? A reflection on motherhood
By Hameeda Bassa-Suleman I have learnt a lot about mothers and mothering in the past seven years of studying, training and then practicing as a psychologist. For the most part, I knew what would theoretically make a “good enough mother”, according to Donald Winnicott, and what would make a “not-so-good” mother. When I began seeing […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
‘Get the f**k over here!’ Baltimore mom teaches respect
My ‘instinctive’ response Whammo! I loved it as this Baltimore mother gave her delinquent son a few snotklaps to teach him respect. Basic manners. Ja, bliksem him, the little bugger. He and his homies were stomping on and trashing them cars a few minutes ago, I betcha. I chortled as her tall, skinny son in […]
Posted inGender violence, News/Politics
Fire on the mountain
To shout fire is an act of alarm demanding that everything we are doing at this moment is dropped and postponed because there is a real emergency that overrides all other considerations. The fire threatening us all is the failure of our African masculinity to answer so many of the questions that are being asked […]
Posted inEquality
My daughter is black, I am white
By Janine Preesman My daughter is black, I am white. She currently speaks three languages, Dutch, which is her home language because it is mine, Afrikaans, because she started attending a pre-school that was predominantly Afrikaans and now, English, because since the beginning of this year she started attending a new pre-school, which is English […]
Posted inGeneral
World’s Worst Mom
Just when you thought that the US networks had hit an all-time low with Bridalplasty, the reality TV show where future brides earn more time under the surgeon’s knife by stabbing their rivals in the back, along comes a programme that is so dangerous that it actually beggars belief. World’s Worst Mom, another “reality” show, […]
Posted inEquality, Lifestyle
Why feminists (and all men and women) should care about paternity leave
When two people decide to have a child, is it fair that one of those people gets more paid time away from work to bond with that child? Is it also fair that this situates parental responsibility firmly in the hands of the parent with more leave? In South Africa, women are given up to […]