David Coldwell Have you ever wondered if the labourer mowing your lawn or the cleaner of your office might have been an engineer, a scientist or a successful business person had they had access to a good education? The question may be a little cliched and the same could certainly be asked in New York […]
Elisa Segrave: PERSONAL HISTORY I found my brother’s things in a box in my mother’s attic. She must have put them there after he drowned in our grandmother’s pond on my seventh birthday in November 1956. He was five. I found the box recently while sorting out my mother’s house. She has Alzheimer’s and has […]
Anthony Egan MY WINDS OF CHANGE by Wilhelm Verwoerd (Ravan, R59,95) If ever a country deserved a “paradox” theory of history, it is South Africa. Where else would one find a situation where today the grandson of HF Verwoerd, the grand architect of modern apartheid, is a member of the African National Congress, the movement […]
Swapna Prabhakaran: Movie of the week In Shooting Fish, a cheeky British version of the American Dream, Dylan (Dan Futterman) and Jez (Stuart Townsend) are down-but-not-out unemployed twentysomethings who dream of owning a mansion and a million pounds each. In the meanwhile, they live in squalor inside a huge old gas tank, furnished with various […]
James Garner South African rock bands may come and go at a rate that makes the turnover of Bafana Bafana managers look comparatively pedestrian, but Cape Town four-piece Lithium are one group that has managed to keep things together and develop their sound over a period of time. Many people felt that the band’s days […]
Fred Pearce takes a visit to a Kenyan valley where environmental theory has been turned on its head Jane Ngei, a 30-year-old Kenyan mother and farmer, built her own dam with an ox-plough, spade and wheelbarrow. It’s not a big dam; less than 15m across. “It collects the water running down the road after it […]
Shaun de Waal: CD of the week ‘I was born with the gift of a golden voice,” sings Leonard Cohen in a sepulchral rasp on Tower of Song. He clearly isn’t talking about vocal prowess of Pavarotti proportions, but we know what he means (and we cherish his sense of humour). He is one of […]
John Updike’s new novel is dividing the critics. He spoke to Joanna Coles Waiting for the lift with John Updike at his Park Avenue hotel, he catches sight of himself in the chrome doors, his face a beige pancake from an earlier television appearance. “Oh dear,” he giggles brightly, his jaunty green eyes staring back […]
Victoria Brittain The fourth anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda will be marked this week at Bisesero, where new evidence shows Tutsi survivors fought hand-to-hand battles against Hutu extremists led by local officials and businesspeople for 10 weeks. The survivors’ testimony also reveals how French soldiers drove away, leaving wounded and starving Tutsis at the […]
Bill Buford: GRAFFITI I am privileged to be among the first to address a concern that has been neglected for too long: toenail fungus. Later tonight, when you get home or as you get ready for bed, take a look at what you’ve got down there, discoloured, at the end of your toes. A little […]