Comments on: Clinton’s cigar, Zuma’s loins and the curse of petty politics

By: the heart of darkness

the heart of darkness — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:36:26 +0000

panchetta, i wonder what you base your “active” opinion on. These “lazy” people do not debate you simply because your issues are not their issues.
Yours is a conceptual approach to the realities of everyday life in SA, theirs is a coalface approach. So i guess im accusing you of intellectual laziness: stating an opinion as though it were fact

By: Arie

Arie — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:34:24 +0000

I like the idea as written “If you want respect, ignore the peanut gallery and tell people how you plan to sort out their problems”.
The problem starts when it stays with planning only -ie no actual work being done to effect the planning.
This is a serious shortcoming in the ANC and can be seen to happen all over the country.

By: Dave Harris

Dave Harris — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 07:47:04 +0000

@Robard
Good catch, I misspoke by saying “totally ignored by the media”
Sorry, I actually meant to say “totally hyped by the media”.
Anyway, by now you should know what I mean!

By: Panchetta

Panchetta — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:42:18 +0000

Makes no difference to the fact that, in politics, Zuma has injured himself and his ANC in a massive way that could never have been engineered by an opposition party.

Zuma has awakened the electorate who have previosly been intellectually lazy about politics, by giving them something to debate that they understand. All people in all walks of life are talking about the president and cementing their opinions. These opinions will survive the next twelve months until the 2011 provincial elections. The ANC has lost 50% of its traditional support base. If elections were held right now, the ANC would be slaughtered at the polls.

By: Robard

Robard — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:09:19 +0000

“The striking thing about the expense claims scandal in the UK is that it was totally ignored by the media”

How do we know about it then?

By: Graham Johnson

Graham Johnson — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:35:46 +0000

Well said, but FAR too politically correct. Re-write but go the attack that lurks between every line.

By: Mungiki

Mungiki — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:01:45 +0000

Spot on

By: Dave Harris

Dave Harris — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:11:02 +0000

Another entertaining read, and I wholeheartedly concur!

The striking thing about the expense claims scandal in the UK is that it was totally ignored by the media, and while the public was preoccupied and outraged by the media blitz against the “evil” politicians, the bankers were quietly rewarding themselves with hefty bonuses while their stocks tanked in response to the backlash against Wall Street bankers in the US. What are the chances of these two events occurring simultaneously? The moral of the story is that human greed is insatiable!

Here in SA, the ones that engage in gutter politics have a lot to hide and even more to answer for!

By: Mark Robertson

Mark Robertson — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:22:31 +0000

And the Clinton stories were equally puerile. ‘I smoked marijuana but didn’t inhale’. What next? ‘I inserted the cigar but didn’t rotate it?’

By: Mark Robertson

Mark Robertson — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:19:40 +0000

I agree 100%. Zuma’s private life is just that – private. It is his presidential life that interests me.