totters The Asian Tiger’s once seemingly unstoppable roar is now a meow. The economic meltdown that started a year ago with the devaluation of the Indonesian baht has had a devastating effect on the economies caught in its wake. Stock markets in the region were decimated. The trouble was that few saw it coming. During […]
redistribution’ Derek Hanekom Ann Eveleth’s article “Land reform targets are far, far away” (Monitor, June 5 to 11) ignores the remarkable progress we have made in the past four years and the complexity of land-reform processes. The central argument is that we will never meet “the reconstruction and development programme promise to redistribute 30% of […]
Claudia H Deutsch from New York For years now, environmentalists have tried to persuade investors to eschew putting money into companies that pollute. Not surprisingly, Wall Street has sneered, insisting that a good way to maximise shareholder wealth is to minimise environmental costs. But now the do-gooders are confronting the money folk with evidence that […]
Robert Kirby: Loose Cannon It has taken France – at long last – to realise Oscar Wilde’s famous parody of a dreary Victorian homily. Wilde turned the phrase around and made it: “Work i s the curse of the drinking classes.” What French bureaucracy is now doing is realising controversial legislation that will reduce the […]
David Beresford It was j’accuse flavoured with a dash of mea culpa when Adriaan Vlok this week appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to explain how he contributed to “law and order” by blowing up office blocks and cinemas. Vlok, who was minister of law and order between 1986 and 1994 – the most […]
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 […]
Charl Blignaut On stage in Johannesburg In the year 2013 AD, planet earth will witness that old nuclear havoc: the final, inevitable, apocalyptic spectacle of destruction. A blinding flash, pandemonium, rancid corpses twisting with the hot breeze . But all will not be lost. No siree. Because way above the messy implosion there rests a […]
Anthea Garman experienced the !Xoe Site Specific exhibition around Nieu Bethesda in the Karoo `Do you have a believable sense of place?” is the simple, cheeky, and only bit of written information about the first installation we stop to see outside Nieu Bethesda. This is artwork number five by Marco Cianfanelli and we’ve chosen to […]
Mungo Soggot About a year ago at the Land Bank it took 13 signatures to authorise a cheque for R1 500. Non-menial staff at its Pretoria head office were all white, women had to wear uniforms and there were several married couples. The men in these couples were never managers, because of a rule which […]
charge Sechaba ka’Nkosi Inkatha Freedom Party moderates have bounced back to centre stage in championing the party’s election campaign for next year. As the IFP grapples with its image as a Zulu-based provincial outfit, its national council has carefully avoided choosing people associated with violence in KwaZulu- Natal and Gauteng in the 1990s to lead […]