“Free trade”. The term itself is a trap — a brilliant framing device that neatly neutralises opposition. If you take a stand against free trade you appear to be taking a stand against freedom itself, which is clearly not a tenable position. In fact, in recent decades the term “free trade” has become very closely […]
2013
Posted inNews/Politics
Rural Eastern Cape aka home of legends
I recently travelled through a stretch of the Eastern Cape that used to be officially known as the Transkei. One might refer to areas such as Ngcobo, Ngqamakwe, Ugie, Elliot, Maclear, Cala, Idutywa, Gcuwa as small towns but this is a very generous definition for places that resemble “out stations” to the surrounding villages. While […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The danger of making Mandela apolitical
By Nhlanhla Mtaka It is true, nature has the capacity to force us humans to act. This was evident the day former president Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela died. On that day the message from Mother Nature seems to be clear: stop individualising the multiple and avoid the trap of making Mandela apolitical. Mandela died on December […]
Posted inLifestyle
A Christmas of eat, pray, love (for beginners)
Here is my wish for women everywhere this Christmas. That by all means, they should have a lot of eat, a lot of pray and a lot of love. Because wow, they are mad. They are mad about a lot of things and I take nothing away from that. Social injustices, gender discrimination, patriarchy, being […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Nelson, nostalgia and the nation
By Nedine Moonsamy In South Africa, we’ve never had an easy time with nostalgia. For some citizens being nostalgic about the past is often tied to the guilt of a privileged, white childhood. For others it holds the concern about whether nostalgia glamorises the indignity of poverty under apartheid. In both cases we censor our […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mandela’s death exposes white opportunism
For the past two weeks, the nation has been mourning the death of its first democratically elected president and one of the most respected global icons, Nelson Mandela, a man fondly referred to as Tata, father of the nation. The grief that penetrates the atmosphere, like a coiling miasma, has suffocated the life out of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Booing deepens democracy
Booing is now part of our democracy, whether you like it or not. It is so mainstream; it cannot be taboo. It happened at the ANC’s Polokwane conference and it happened at Mangaung. It will happen at the next conference. Should it have happened at former president Nelson Mandela’s memorial is the question? Booing shows […]
Posted inLifestyle
Turning 50…and full of bubbles
It amazes me how we give meaning with structures that have no intrinsic meaning. Take the idea of reflecting on the significant events of a millennium or poignantly reflecting on your life around the time of a “fiftieth” birthday. One thousand or fifty … mere multiples of ten. Why not have similar reflections on 857 […]
Posted inGeneral
What the Samurai can teach the world about a truly human ethos
What does it mean for a people, or a nation (the two are not necessarily synonymous) to have a fulfilling ethos? By ethos (on which I’ve written here before) I mean broadly the distinctive cultural and social character of a group of people as manifested in their collective and individual activities, which are therefore expressive […]
Posted inEquality, Media
Beyoncé: A feminist in her own terms
Beyoncé is undoubtedly one of my generations’ most iconic and influential global figures and sheroes. Titans such as Oprah Winfrey, Barack and Michelle Obama, and our very own Nelson Mandela have hailed and expressed awe at her extraordinary talent, groundedness and the humble personality she oozes. At just 32 years she has a net worth […]
Posted inNews/Politics
A nation tires of e-toll whingers
Now that Nelson Mandela is gone, there will be no end of people claiming to know exactly what his opinion would have been on every conceivable issue. Invariably, it will coincide with the opinion that they, too, hold. But while I can’t honestly hazhard Madiba’s opinion on e-tolls, I do sense a growing irritation among […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The hunt for the Mandela gene
I arrived back from a holiday in India to tragic news. Nelson Mandela had died. The next few days at work were laced with jet lag, sleep deprivation and constant news updates. Many of them, no, most of them involving the verbose sentiments of the current government which spews forth the notion that everyone needs […]