Aaron Nicodemus Nostradamus, a French physician whose real name was Michel de Nostredame, was buried in a Parisian church in 1566. He wrote over 1 000 poetic prophecies for the future, and many believe half of them have come true. He allegedly predicted with nearly uncanny foresight the French Revolution, the rise and fall of […]

Marianne Merten The year started with a blast in Cape Town. On New Year’s Day 1999 a pipe bomb ripped apart a car in the V&A Waterfront parking, injuring two people, but resulting in no arrests. The year is ending with a bang – and confusion. Police and politicians sprang into action in November after […]

intelligence and depth Gavin Evans It’s in the nature of those who attract epthets like “great”, “the greatest”, and now, of course, “the greatest of the millennium”, that a large proportion of the population should at least have vivid recall of how, why, and where this exalted human being came to their vicarious attention. I […]

CONTROVERSIAL former Truth Commision investigator Dumisa Ntsebeza is one of seventeen black acting judges appointed on Tuesday by Justice Minister Dullah Omar, who said he aimed to widen the pool of potential candidates for full-time positions to “ensure that it will be possible to promote representivity at a much faster rate”. Omar’s most senior appointment […]

Robert Kirby remembers his childhood and the part three men society politely termed ‘mentally deficient’ played in it My first clear memories of the Durban where I was born and grew up were of the war years, the early Forties. A domestic world of absent fathers and uncles, mothers’ heads bent to static-filled wartime radio […]

“This man is the person who raped me, sir. It’s very difficult to forget his face.” – Journalist Charlene Smith, asked by rape accused Johannes Zinto’s lawyer how she can be sure Zinto was her alleged rapist “Although it is morally reprehensible to rape one’s own child, the man’s sexual deviancy was limited to his […]

Shaun de Waal This year saw the centenary of the birth of the man considered by many to be the United States’s foremost composer. Duke Ellington was born in 1899 and died in 1974: his lifespan covered three quarters of this century, and more than 50 of those years were spent making wonderful music. James […]

At the bloody dawn of a new millennium, Jonathan Steele foresees no escape for the world from warfare and suffering that branded the 20th century an Age of Barbarism This has been, as Eric Hobsbawm put it, ”without doubt the most murderous century of which we have record by the scale, frequency and length of […]

1 Babylon 2 The dragon (Satan) 3 One third 4 Twelve foundation stones and 12 gates representing ”the 12 apostles of the lamb” 5 One thousand years; after which he will be ”loosed a little season” 6 ”The first creature was like a lion, the second like an ox, the third had a human face, […]

An unknown genius on the Internet has written the definitive management guide to re-engineering the Santa operation The recent announcement that Donner and Blitzen have elected to take the early reindeer retirement package has triggered a good deal of concern about whether they will be replaced and about other restructuring decisions at the North Pole. […]