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Ploughshares for mines

It looks like a contraption out of a science fiction movie, with its heavy-duty hammer and chains, and it is used for destruction -- of the best kind.

Greener and leaner

The world food crisis is a tragedy frequently and passionately foretold. For years food experts warned that chronic under-investment in agriculture in developing countries, by governments and donors alike, would one day spell disaster.

Food Summit: mere sticking plasters?

Thomas Malthus, the 18th-century cleric, must be chuckling in his grave. His grim prediction that humanity faced a future of rising food prices and mounting malnutrition has finally arrived.

Questioning Idasa

A more nuanced picture of inequalities in school financing is needed, write Doron Isaacs and Yoliswa Dwane.

One home, many hopes

A former journalist and human rights activist is giving some of Kenya's abandoned girls a second chance at childhood, writes Judy Bryant.

Kortbroek's revenge

The visdorpie awoke to the thundering sound of tons of prime bull on the hoof on Tuesday, as dozens of NNP politicians stampeded across the floor to join the ANC. The massive defections tilted the balance of power away from the DA and left Tony Leon as a notch in Marthinus van Schalkwyk's bedpost.

A future beyond Survival?

Diamond giant De Beers had joined hands with the upmarket retailer Louis Vuitton to open a chain of exclusive jewellery shops operating under the De Beers-LV brand, but celebrities and socialites were jeered by protesters as they arrived to celebrate the opening of the flagship shop in London.

Safe behind the bars

Standing in prison among 80 convicts while a 130kg, 2m-tall convicted murderer carefully rolls a condom on to a massive brown penis should have been a nightmare for a middle-aged white South African male. But I was not too worried.

An old-fashioned form of charity

The highlight of the past year for those involved in corporate social investment must have been a business-sponsored project making it on to the front page of a major financial magazine.

Fully aware under the knife

The neurologist cursed and threw something into the rubbish bin. "What's gone wrong?" I asked nobody in particular. Her face popped up. "Nothing is wrong," she said happily. "Why did you think something was wrong?" We smiled at each other, me and the angel.