April 5 to 12 2007

Long live Madam & Eve

Madam & Eve has been successfully poking fun at us since the early days of our political transition and the strip has always been a good reason to buy the Mail & Guardian (along with your great arts magazine).

Granted, they’re not as punchy and hard-hitting as they used to be, but then who is? The M&G certainly isn’t. Times have changed. Exposing money-grubbing politicians doesn’t quite have the same zing as unmasking the Third Force.

My wife says that she doesn’t think Madam & Eve is political enough anymore, and you probably share this sentiment. But I disagree. There is more to being political than politics, and Francis and Rico have always had the knack of pointing to what that is.

There’s a culture forming in this country — and it has less to do with politics and politicians than with new kinds of relationships between ordinary people who were once defined, and set against each other, by race. In its quirky, offbeat way, Madam & Eve continues to bounce off and work around these relationship issues, and there certainly isn’t another South African strip that does it half as well.

Until there are no more white madams, uniformed maids or balaclava-clad muggers, Madam & Eve deserves a place in your excellent newspaper. — Andy Mason, The Bluff

Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, keep Madam & Eve!

It is the first page to which I turn each week, and brings joy — as well as insightful political commentary — amid all the necessary and excellent serious coverage. — Reverend Sarah Rowland Jones, Cape Town

Hmmm, what would the M&G be without Madam & Eve?

… Madam & Eve (when it’s good, it’s very good!) … Notes & Queries (agree with Hannah Lurie, Letters March 30). … Krisjan Lemmer (please tell him to return from holiday soonest!) — Elisabeth Lickindorf, Westdene, Johannesburg

Dropping a South African icon? Surely not. — Sandra Gordon, Iconic group

Please don’t cancel the cartoon strip. It’s one of the greatest pieces of cultural commentary we have. Don’t tell Stefaans Brümmer, Sam Sole or the other investigative reporters, but I often read Madam & Eve and Zapiro first, then get back to the news. How will Eve ever become a BEE baroness now? — Toby Shapshak, Maven Media

Please keep Madam & Eve. Its humour provides a brief relief to all sombre news found every week in the paper. I certainly won’t be going online to get my weekly dose of this wonderful cartoon strip. — Tanya Millward, Grahamstown

I was shocked to find out that you will be cancelling the Madam & Eve. It’s one of the main reasons why I love reading your paper. — Maja Sereda

It would diminish the edgy nature of your esteemed newspaper to cancel what has become an institution. Please keep them going. Just as this country keeps giving us twists and turns, so does Madam & Eve surprise us with keen observation and hilarious commentary. — Pieter de Wet , Spaghetti Media CC (creative studio)

Please don’t ditch Madam & Eve. — Mike Cadman

Madam & Eve is no great shakes and I won’t miss it. And don’t change your mind about canning Notes & Queries. It was much better when it served as light-hearted clever graffiti or literary repartee. It’s just a bore now. — TJ Ruthenberg

I would probably have to cancel my subscription if you drop Madam & Eve. Without it, the M&G would lose much of its appeal and much of its perspective. Zapiro and the occasional Dr Jack are excellent, but not nearly enough. Earnest politics has to have its light side. — Peta A Jones, MSc, PhD, Donkey Power CC

I don’t care too much what happens to Madam & Eve, but if it does move to your website, maybe you would consider putting a few CD reviews in instead. I simply don’t have the time at work to read your reviews online, or the inclination to sit in front of a computer screen on weekends. — Wendy Verwey

We all want Madam & Eve to stay. — Peter Hayes

Madam & Eve is a great cartoon, a wise and witty look at South African life — we enjoy it hugely. Please don’t let it go. — Beverley Roos Muller and Ampie Muller, Cape Town

I support the recent changes made to the M&G — but taking Madam & Eve away is taking change too far. Lay off Madam & Eve. — Mzwandile Guliwe

Please keep Madam & Eve and Notes & Queries. The M&G is so heavy-going, so depression-inducing with all the reports about negative happenings, that a little lightness to leaven the gloom is a necessity! — Mari Wessels, Ben Wessels

Keep Madam & Eve! — Babak Fakhamzadeh, Newlands

Don’t even think about getting rid of Madam & Eve and Notes & Queries. I choked and nearly spilled my Johnnie Walker Blue label down my Pierre Cardin chinos, my cravat pulled loose and my smoking jacket went up in flames when my Monte­cristo fell into the ensuing melee.

And you thought that readers bought your newspaper for the insightful comment and analysis of matters of national and international importance. You believed that your probes into corruption, Travelgate, shady nuclear court cases and battles of column inches for and against Israel and Palestine were your main attractions. We have news for you — fiddle with the regular features at your peril. — Norah Stoops, Cape Town

We want Madam & Eve and Notes & Queries. We buy your newspaper, give us the things we buy it for. If you’re trying to promote traffic to your site, it’ll backfire. If I have to go to the site, why buy the newspaper? — Trevor Waller

Of course I want Madam & Eve to stay. This cartoon is the best source of information there is on the most talked-about topics of the day. The only reason I read the newspaper is because of Madam & Eve, so please continue to publish those hilarious cartoons. — Muhammed Tayob

DAME = Don’t Abolish Madam & Eve. — TA Cropper

Of course Madam & Eve must stay! The M&G won’t be the M&G without it. Imagine the Christmas edition without the full-page cartoon! There will be nothing to look forward to. The M&G rightly covers a great deal of serious material. But it should never lose its sense of humour. — Trish Murphy

Who wants Madam & Eve to stay? Are you kidding? I’ve already had to deal with your getting rid of Doonesbury a couple of years back — now you want my favourite aunties to go? Madam & Eve have my vote. — Maurice Smithers, Yeoville

A life saved

I had a heart attack in February and was admitted to Johannesburg General hospital later that day because I cannot afford to be a member of a medical aid scheme.

After performing extensive tests, the cardiologists informed me that I had a huge aortic aneurysm as well as calcified arteries, and that surgery would have to be performed in an effort to correct these life-threatening conditions.

I would like to extend accolades to the cardiac surgical team at the hospital, who come from far and wide. All assured me that I would ”be in some of the best hands” in the country, and they were right.

Surgery was performed three weeks after my admittance and because I had a remarkable recovery I was discharged a week thereafter. I am now convalescing at home and am getting stronger daily.

This has been a very traumatic and humbling experience for me (and my family) and I herewith wish to thank the South African nation, which includes the government. Without you, the numerous tests and surgery I went through and subsequent medication I need to take would not have been possible. — Mandy Wainwright, Johannesburg

Irresponsible

Again, Belinda Beresford trumpets her naive enthusiasm about male circumcision (March 30). A typically exaggerated insert touts the benefits of this procedure. Her message is clear: socially sanctioned child abuse on an industrial scale — only of boys — must be promoted to curb the Aids pandemic.

This point of view would be laughable were it not so popular. It also says a lot about the M&G‘s bias that there has been no mention of two recent findings: one indicating that circumcision procedures themselves are causing many HIV infections, and the other showing that female partners of circumcised men appear twice as likely to be infected with HIV.

Beresford’s writing is irresponsible and could result in much suffering of children, whose minority makes them easy targets for this cruel and misguided campaign. — Alex Myers, Cape Town

I’ll take the job

Being of the illustrious De la Rey lineage, I humbly offer my services to lead the Afrikaners — or at least those with the right mindset — as called for in The Song. As such, I call on all willing to meet me on the banks of the mighty Gariep ”nee Verwoerd” Dam. Jacob Zuma and his supporters are welcome; after all, this is the new South Africa and liberal, open-minded leadership is needed.

To the beating of drums and the mighty song De la Rey, all of those present can ”lang-arm” into the ”khaki” waters of the mighty dam.

I, of course, will sadly remain behind, seated on my horse, waving from the bank and cheering on all the courageous supporters — there is always a need for sensible leadership in the aftermath of a great sacrifice. — Ed de la Rey, Grahamstown

‘Genocide’ the right word

Mahmood Mamdani’s article, ”Darfur: the politics of naming” (March 16), about the advocacy movement to end the humanitarian and security crisis in Darfur, misrepresents the motives and policies of this movement, and glosses over an essential feature of the crisis: the role of a sovereign government in sponsoring violence against its own citizens based on their ethnicity.

A significant portion of the article discusses the applicability of the term ”genocide” to characterise the atrocities in Sudan, with Mamdani siding with those who are hesitant to use that term. I join those who believe that genocide is the right description.

Mamdani argues further that the advocacy movement and the Save Darfur Coalition, which I direct, emphasise the racial identities of the victims and perpetrators — framing the conflict as ”Arabs versus Africans” — to generate domestic support for our campaign. To the contrary, the coalition avoids using the labels ”Arab” and ”African” and we have encouraged others to do likewise.

The coalition believes that progress in providing adequate civilian protection in Darfur should occur in parallel with progress in the negotiations between the government of Sudan and the various rebel movements — which is the only means to a sustainable peace for the people of Darfur. — David Rubenstein, executive director, Save Darfur Coalition

In brief

Psssst, Zuma …! Want to become the next president? Just state your unequivocal advocacy of capital punishment. I, for one, would support you. So would millions of other desperate-for-safety South Africans. — Jonathan Ossher, Uitenhage

There is no skills shortage in South Africa. I have two master’s degrees, one in metallurgy and the other in chemistry. In fact, I am the first indigenous metallurgist in South Africa (1979) and have been unable to find employment for the past 20 years in the private industry sector. This country is richly endowed with mineral wealth, and as an indigenous citizen with related degrees, I am unable to find work in the industry. Twelve years ago, I entreated the former president, Nelson Mandela, for help and he said he would look into it. Nothing came of it. Has the corporate world really transformed? The answer must be no! — Sydney du Plessis, Claremont

The SABC TV series Umthunzi Wentaba undermines the values of black people. The SABC says it wants to spark debate, but this should not mean rubbishing a sacred ritual of the people. The producer of the programme has not undergone circumcision, so what can she contribute? I congratulate the House of Traditional Leaders for being there for black people at this hour. — Bhelelika Langa, Azapo member, Mdantsane