Dan Glaister Three yars ago it seemed that British pop music was back to its best. Oasis and Blur were fighting it out for the number one spot, Pulp and Suede were in the wings, and the Britpop sound was set to conquer America. But today it is a different picture. Record sales are in […]
Saliem Fakir The United States government recently granted a patent to a company called Delta and Pine Land, giving it the rights to test and market new cotton seeds dubbed the “terminator seeds”. These are seeds that can genetically switch off plants’ ability to reproduce, by rendering subsequent seeds sterile. While the technology may be […]
The government’s reluctance to hold Cabinet ministers accountable for their performance in office has reached ridiculous levels in the saga of Penuell Maduna, the minister of minerals and energy. This newspaper long ago pointed to Maduna’s recklessness and lack of judgment, suggesting he had neither the ability nor the temperament to head up such a […]
Neil Manthorp in Cambridge Cricket The arrangement of storms and lulls, peaks and troughs has been clever so far on tour, by and large. Cambridge is a lovely city and the combined universities provide talented but not fierce opposition. Most importantly, Cambridge provides the perfect opportunity to allow the ripples and tremors from the Lords […]
Benny Malatji: RIGHT TO REPLY I find it annoying to read every week about your paper’s distortions of the situation on the campus of the University of the North, Turfloop. I refer here to a string of Andy Duffy’s articles (“Student council turns Turfloop turmoil into profit”, May 29 to June 4; “SRC blows R1,3m […]
You can negotiate with your bank to get the best deal on your bond or car financing, writes Belinda Beresford Waking up after the night before, that faint hint of an ache in your forehead is a disagreeable reminder of the pain to come as the hangover hits with full force. Its the same wincing […]
Ian Jack BEYOND BELIEF by VS Naipaul (Little, Brown R89,95) In 1979 and 1980, VS Naipaul made a tour of Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia and reached the conclusion, in Among the Believers, that Islam was a poor receptacle for political needs; it couldnt teach people how to run a modern state. Fifteen years later, […]
Much like the most recent X-Files movie, Windows 98 is depending on word-of-mouth for its success, writes Douglas Rushkoff The modestly trumpeted launch of Windows 98 seems, on the surface, out of character for Microsoft – especially when compared with the global promotional blitz that accompanied the roll-out of Win95, for which Bill Gates spared […]
Angella Johnson: VIEW FROM A BROAD `You’re going to train with the Springboks? Lucky cow!” was the general outcry when I told a group of female friends over lunch that I was spending a day with the national rugby team. Some of them (the white ones, that is) wiggled pleasurably in their seats. “Oooh, that […]
Mail & Guardian reporters One of South Africa’s top nuclear scientists has been given two weeks to leave the country after the Department of Home Affairs accused him of fraudulently obtaining citizenship. Marcel Dube, who has lived for many years in Zimbabwe, was appointed executive general manager (technical services) at the Atomic Energy Corporation (AEC) […]