Digby Ricci THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION by Gore Vidal (Knopf) One hates to bow to conventional wisdom, but Gore Vidal really is a far better essayist than he is a novelist. In his essays, the erudition is elegantly startling, but never obtrusive, and the much-vaunted “mordant wit” is a rapier, not a bludgeon. Thus, Susan Sontag’s […]
Robert Kirby: Loose cannon I have it on the best authority that Monica Lewinsky is actually what is known in the espionage business as a “high-grade deep mole”. In truth Monica works for Saddam Hussein who personally coached her in the finer points of presidential seduction. The entire oval office sexual farrago is a brilliantly […]
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s President, Laurent Kabila, is pondering a future as obscure as his past not because of his evident lack of administrative talent, his taste for the good life or the minimal support of his fellow citizens. Instead, consider a broadcast on Congolese state radio last week: “People must bring a machete, […]
William Boot A secret commission of inquiry into the collapse of Namibia’s copper mining industry wrapped up its proceedings in Windhoek this week and is expected to move on to Johannesburg. It was established to investigate the role of Goldfields SA, owner of the Tsumeb Corporation Limited (TCL), in the closure of all four of […]
stars – the friends and enemies Colette The woman who owns the theatre [where Sartre’s play, Dirty Hands, was being staged], an ex-beautiful woman, a dreadful whore, having slept with thousands of men, took us to her home for dinner. The dinner was strange and wonderful: Arabian dishes, because she was once the mistress of […]
Mail & Guardian correspondents A last-ditch attempt by a coalition of states to rescue the ailing regime of Congolese President Laurent Kabila may have come too late as anti-government rebels continued their inexorable march to the capital Kinshasa this week. Despite reports of a ceasefire offer from the rebels and desperate attempts by South Africa […]
Mail & Guardian reporters The Natal High Court handed down a landmark judgment in favour of press freedom last week when it denied an application by the Inkatha Freedom Party to gag the Mail & Guardian. The IFP launched a two-pronged attack on the newspaper last week, applying to the court to stop the M&G […]
Gill Moodie A giant iceberg that has been lurking in the southern ocean for 12 years is making its way north from Antarctica, firing scientists’ dreams of mining icebergs for freshwater. Bigger than the Cape Peninsula, the iceberg known as Atlantic 22B, was formed in September 1986 when a massive piece of ice broke off […]
Ferial Haffajee Consumer organisations this week labelled the government’s proposal to increase the lending limits of loan sharks eightfold as “unconscionable”. Draft amendments to the usury Act recommend that all loans under R50 000 be excluded from its ambit. The existing limit is R6 000. Consumer organisations and economists have warned that this could lead […]
wife on Women’s Day’ Tangeni Amupadhi A well-known Johannesburg psychiatrist is to appear in court next week on charges of battering his wife on National Women’s Day. According to Yeoville police, where the woman laid charges of common assault, the psychiatrist – who cannot be named for professional reasons – attacked his wife twice on […]