Douglas Rushkoff Online So far, only my Melbourne sponsors have let me keep the original title of the talk I’ve been giving around the world this month: Why Futurists Suck. I shouldn’t have been so surprised that 500 concerned Australians would fill the cavernous Malthouse Theatre to participate in a free exchange about our collective […]
Wetsho-Otsile Seremane Personal History The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s decision not to hold public hearings on human rights violations by some African National Congress members in Quatro and other camps (“TRC ducks Quatro”, June 26 to July 2) is shocking, to say the the least. It is a slap in the face for those families […]
Andrew Worsdale Russell Thompson says he’s not a shy person. “Hell, I’ve been known to take off my clothes and scream loudly from the tops of tall buildings,” he tells me over a demure coffee in Melville. It was a pleasure meeting the man – should I say director – who at 39 has the […]
Tangeni Amupadhi Armed robbers have gone cerebral. Second-hand bookshops are the latest targets for an enterprising criminal duo who have hit at least six outlets in the past six weeks. The smartly dressed men, armed with their own “closed for business” sign, have made off with an undisclosed amount of money and left behind few […]
Mariam Mayet The draft Environmental Management Bill (“Putting the people in charge”, Monitor, July 17 to 23) marks an extremely important departure from previous environmental policy and legislation. Unlike most current environmental legislation, which has been criticised for being a paper tiger, this Bill contains provisions that empower citizens to take up the cudgels for […]
Phillip Kakaza and Alex Dodd preview the Gift to the Nation Concert celebrating Nelson Mandela’s 80th birthday Gift to the nation indeed! And the nation is duly looking forward to tonight -Friday July 24 -at Kingsmead Stadium in Durban and Saturday night at the Johannesburg Stadium, like good children look forward to Christmas. Set to […]
Iain Banks writes books about sex and drugs. Iain M Banks is a sci-fi nerd. Are they related? Phil Daoust investigates on the eve of the author’s visit to South Africa What the hell are you doing in a place like this? It’s a question you have to wrestle back down your throat when you […]
Neil Manthorp in Nottingham Cricket Napoleon may have been a great general but it doesn’t mean to say he would have been as successful today as he was then. Nonetheless, the study of Napoleon remains as intrinsic to the modern soldier as it is to the student of European history. The same applies in sport […]
Coenraad Visser Escapism, or realism. Pretty girls in pretty dresses singing pretty, or the glamourless homeless, evicted from land and love. These are the opera choices in Gauteng this week. The Three Sopranos is, above all, a feast of glitz. Producer Tibor Rudas, the man behind the ageing three tenors extorting vast sums of money […]
showing Brenda Atkinson wonders why ads in trade magazines are so bad – and who creates these sub-standard promotions I was paging through a copy of Engineering News recently. I know less about engineering, but I maintain a healthy interest in a wide variety of topics, and have been known to frequent garages and hardware […]