Journalism is usually, and I believe accurately, associated with the uncovering and reporting of "facts". Investigative journalism, especially, involves the (sometimes difficult, even dangerous) ferreting out of "facts" that are not generally known, ...
We give too much power to our leaders in Africa. We invest them with god-like status and then feel disappointed when they deliberately disregard the public good, or stray from the path we hoped we'd be on. Worse though is the fact that we influence w...
The return of a top-of-the-range Mercedes-Benz by a senior cabinet minister marks an important turning point in the culture of entitlement and kickbacks in government circles.
Transport Minister S'bu Ndebele's decision will, inevitably, restore fa...
Like a charismatic church revival, hands were flung above heads and song rang out among the pews as the fourth democratic parliament chose Jacob Zuma president, declaring "we have arrived" in an atmosphere not unlike a giant painful breath being rele...
A dictionary defines "ethos" as: "Shared fundamental traits -- the fundamental and distinctive character of a group, social context, or period of time, typically expressed in attitudes, habits and beliefs." The original ancient Greek meaning of the w...
Many thinkers, ranging from as far back as Plato and Aristotle to as recent as Hannah Arendt, spent inordinate amounts of time trying to make sense of the world we live in. With similar intensity and dedication, pioneering psychologists such as Sigmu...
I spoke to our vet and he seems quite happy to have Nicola Patten, mother of 13-year-old Alfie who has just fathered a child, spayed and if that doesn't work, put down. His diagnosis was that this wenner "probably has mad cow disease or, at a push, a...
There's a question that has been bothering me for as long as I can remember. I can't quite tell it straight. It has to do with the causes with which we associate ourselves, and the extent to which we will go to justify the means employed to achieve t...
“Between me and the other world there is ever an unasked question: unasked by some through feelings of delicacy; by others through the difficulty of rightly framing it. All, nevertheless, flutter round it … How does it feel to be a problem?”
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The second in a series
The woman with whom I am sharing the lift as we descend to the ground floor of our apartment building is a complete stranger.
I reach across and touch her clothing: gently pull at the blouse on her waist area. She keeps s...
