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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Ronald Suresh Roberts SHTETL: A HISTORY OF A SMALL TOWN AND AN EXTINGUISHED WORLD by Eva Hoffman (Chatto &Windus, R135) ECHOES OF A NATIVE LAND by Serge Schmemann (Little, Brown, R160) In her poetic autobiography Lost in Translation: Life in a New Language (1989), Eva Hoffman tells of her Jewish familys flight from wartime Poland […]
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, […]
Charl Blignaut On show in Johannesburg Should you happen to walk all the way to the back of the large, depressingly cold main entrance level of the Civic Theatre in Johannesburg; and then should you stumble down a couple of stairs and take a turn to the right; there you will come upon a tiny […]
Lauren Shantall On show in Cape Town Absolut Vodka is conquering new territory, pith helmet firmly in place. The boozy struggle for Africa has begun, as the companys marketing machine seeks the next slick promo in its infinite series of witty takes on that bountiful bottle. Weve had Absolut Stockholm, Absolut Vienna, Absolut London, Absolut […]
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) […]
Bongani Siqoko About 130 homeless children, aged between five and 17, living at the Daily Bread Charitable Trust shelter in East London, were severely assaulted and 56 of them kidnapped last weekend. The children were attacked by men claiming to be African National Congress marshals, who accused them of illegal posession of firearms and stolen […]