(This guy is a hero in my opinion. We could all learn from him.) The phone conversation, as my dad, in the bed next door, recalls it, went something like this. “Hello?” “Hi, is this Jim? Where are you?” “No, it’s not Jim. I’m John, and I’m in hospital.” “Oh sorry, John, I […]
2013
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Competition Tribunal fails to deliver on mandate
The recent and widely publicised dramatic “unequivocal apology” by the chief executive Murray & Roberts, Henry Laas, for “collusive conduct” during the period leading up to the Soccer World Cup, while well-intentioned, should be viewed in the context that he assumed his position in July, 2011, well after all these “crimes” were committed. The chief […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Close encounters with UFO airheads
This is a big month for UFO fans. No, not the metalhead followers of the English hard rock group of the same acronym. One’s talking here about the airheads who believe in Unidentified Flying Objects. First, July 2 was International UFO day. Then Google released a doodle to mark the 66th anniversary of the Roswell […]
Posted inGeneral
A journey of a 1000 miles starts with peanut butter cookies
It all started with some peanut butter cookies. A couple of years ago, with nothing else planned one Saturday morning, my husband Julian suggested we make some peanut butter cookies and visit Leah our cleaning lady at her shack in Mamelodi. With a 2-year-old helping make the cookies, we set off into the unknown. Leah […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
To fix a broken working class
Some say that 20 years is not a long time to sink teeth into a fully-fledged new democracy. There have been many challenges to ignite economic growth while providing essential services to the South African nation. But the major gripe that seems to resonate in today’s times is that the powerful voice of the working […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
FHM: When a rape joke trumps the news
By Vincent Clery For a long time I have been sitting on the sidelines of an issue that has really irked me. Like most people I am a poor conscientious objector, I keep my opinions to myself, I cowardly express my grievances in safe, dim-lit places. Bars and dinner parties, the occasional early morning coffee […]
Posted inGeneral
The network: Towards a new way of life
In his insightful study of ancient philosophy, Philosophy as a Way of Life (Blackwell, 1995), Pierre Hadot disabuses one of the notion that philosophy was for the ancients what it has become in modernity (and postmodernity) since Kant, namely a specialised theoretical practice. Rather, he argues — citing many passages from ancient philosophers during the […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Busker by-law? There is no busker by-law
This started out as an admonishment of Cape Town residents for our tardy outrage and showboat sense of civic responsibility. We turned up in huge numbers, I was going to say, when city law-enforcement officers publicly assaulted and arrested Lunga Goodman Nono, but where were we when the laws and regulations he supposedly fell foul […]
Posted inMedia, Tech
Nailing colours to the mast – you’re either a journalist or a PR
There is an ongoing debate in science journalism — the question of whether you can write science PR for corporates or government and also write science journalism for media houses. If you want some background, here’s an interesting piece in Nature and another blog post. While the IT industry learned about these blurred lines a […]
Posted inGeneral
You don’t build a family with a stick
By Lorenzo Wakefield The title of this column is taken from a Zulu saying that contradicts Khaya Dlanga’s defence of the manner in which black parents discipline their children. Corporal punishment is a concept that was brought to Africa and South Africa by the British colonialist in the form of a common law defence of […]
Posted inEquality, Media
FHM to blame for corrective rape ‘joke’
Here are some simple rules, people of the world who have jobs. If you work for a food manufacturer, don’t post something about food hygiene. If you work for a media organisation, don’t post something prejudicial. If you work for a woman’s magazine, don’t post something sexist. It’s not brain surgery. Yet, for some people […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Is #whitegenocide funny if corrective rape isn’t?
Brace yourself. Some of you are not going to like this piece. Possibly quite a few of you. That’s the only predictable thing when it comes to jokes: somebody, somewhere is going to be offended. For years I’ve studied comedy from various angles: academically, from the trenches in the ad industry and as an occasional […]