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/ 12 November 2007
As a woman, something very strange happens as you approach 30 — friends who seemed quite sensible either start shelling out incredible wads of cash for their weddings, or whipping themselves into frenzies because they’re still single. Faced with this recently, I found myself questioning why marriage retains such a hold over us, writes Nicky Falkof.
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/ 12 November 2007
A new generation of super-size wind farms could be on its way to a field near you. General Electric (GE) is developing wind turbines with blades longer than the tip-to-tip wingspan of a jumbo jet. In a move likely to dismay activists who view wind farms as a blot on the landscape, the American company has taken the wraps off a project to develop power-generating windmills with blades of 70 metres.
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/ 12 November 2007
Henry Williams (born February 11 1782, died July 16 1867) is as good a place to start as any. A doubtless well-intentioned former navy man, Reverend Williams was a missionary who had been busy winning antipodean souls for Jesus since 1822. By February 1840, when the first lieutenant governor of what would become Britain’s newest colony landed in New Zealand, Williams was leader of the Church of England’s mission there.
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/ 12 November 2007
A few weeks ago, the woman who had falsely accused my father, Mavuso Msimang, of sexually harassing her almost two years ago withdrew her case against him. It was a hollow victory. The withdrawal per se was an anticlimax. As a family, we were hoping the case would go to court, so that we could get justice, in addition to peace.
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/ 12 November 2007
Erecting 200 houses in a week might sound improbable. Erecting 200 houses, a community centre and creating a communal garden in just seven days sounds downright impossible. But 1 380 international volunteers from the Niall Mellon Township Trust aim to do just that. The ”building blitz”, taking place in Mitchells Plain in the Western Cape this week, follows three similar campaigns the charity has undertaken.
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/ 12 November 2007
The European and American tradition of the political novel is deeply entrenched. From Emile Zola to Gore Vidal, the perceptions and attitudes of citizens in these smug old democracies have long been shaped. South Africa too has a rich history of political fiction, from Alan Paton to Nadine Gordimer, André Brink, Njabulo Ndebele and Lewis Nkosi. But there is, of course, a vast difference between the literary political novel and the ”novel of politics”, writes Marianne Thamm.
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/ 12 November 2007
When Hugo Chávez is in full flow, politicians and diplomats know better than to try and cut him dead. But not kings. As the Venezuelan president was in mid-harangue, excoriating his ”fascist” foes at a summit of leaders from the Latin world, Juan Carlos, the Spanish monarch, could take no more.
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/ 12 November 2007
Eve Hall, who died aged 70 at her home near Nelspruit on October 23, was one of the first women activists to be imprisoned for defying apartheid. Through nearly 50 years, Eve’s life exemplified what it was to be an anti-apartheid activist and to live, as she did with her husband, Tony, and three sons, in energetic exile.
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/ 12 November 2007
Margaret Legum, who died unexpectedly in Cape Town last week as a result of complications following an operation, was a woman of many accomplishments. She was best known in South Africa for her columns on economics. Born Margaret Roberts in Pretoria 74 years ago to a well-to-do family, she first came to prominence as a student at Rhodes University in the 1950s.
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/ 12 November 2007
Viva amaBokoboko. Fantastic! That image of the Springboks carrying our president shoulder high; wasn’t that just something? What makes it even more powerful is that it was spontaneous and unrehearsed. That spoke volumes about our beautiful land, our rainbow nation and its potential, writes Archbishop Desmond Tutu.