Rob Nixon’s new book is a memoir with a soft spot for the ostriches of Oudtshoorn – and Arizona. He spoke to Jane Rosenthal `Hope is the thing with wings .” This quote from Emily Dickinson is how Rob Nixon begins his book, Dreambirds (Doubleday). It encapsulates perfectly the lightness, quirky humour and heart-stopping gravity […]
There are an astonishing number of satellite networks in existence. The following table focuses on most of the major networks offering or planning voice services in the next year. Global Star: n Operational October 1999 n 52 LEO Satellites (1 400km altitude), in eight planes. n 60 Ground stations planned. One at Hartbeesthoek in North-West. […]
Loose cannon Robert Kirby And so, he slowly ponces off into the sunset, his great mane of carefully sculptured hair bouncing to his wearied gait, his spicy ManTang bodyspray wafting around him, his cute little beard still flippantly jutting in defeat. These last few days I have been sorely tempted to write a column entitled […]
Peter Dickson Magistrates ignorant of the law are sending hundreds of farm worker families out into the cold and back to the darkest days of apartheid in the Eastern Cape. And officials of the provincial Department of Land Affairs have told land reform lobbyists that the hard-won Extension of Security of Tenure Act (Esta) is […]
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni `That’s where my father’s house used to be,” says Michael Ngeno, pointing to a pile of rocks in the middle of an open field in Ventersdorp. “My parents built it in 1955, and it was a comfortable home for us. We had a school nearby, and a clinic. The soil was […]
Andy Capostagno Rugby Well, well, well. Win a Test 74-3, make seven changes and appoint a new captain. There are those who criticised Springbok coach Nick Mallet for being too conservative during his team’s assault on the record for successive Test wins. The same people may now be wondering whether an alien life form has […]
In his open letter to SAfm talk-show host Tim Modise (Mail & Guardian, May 28 to June 2) about the controversial issue of HIV and Aids, Donald G McNeil seems to be saying, “Don’t you worry your woolly little head, I’ll do the thinking. I’ve looked at this issue and it’s not worth debating.” McNeil’s […]
In some areas of Ethiopia, abducting and raping a woman is accepted as the customary way to find a wife, writes Nerma Jelacic Aberash Bekele was 14 when she was abducted by seven men in southern Ethiopia, taken to a remote hut and repeatedly beaten and raped by the gang’s leader. In rural Ethiopia this […]
At the end of 1994, I took a film crew to nine countries on the African continent to make a documentary called Africa Salutes Mandela.
David le Page Lately, cellular phone users have discovered that the identities of not only cell users, but also Telkom users, are popping up automatically when they receive calls. This development follows the introduction by Telkom earlier this year of its Identicall system – where a special plug-in unit can be rented for a nominal […]