Congratulations to the Teacher on walking for 10 years now — this is a baby that grew up fast! We need papers like yours if education is to play the central role that it should in South Africa’s growth and development. You not only cast a critical eye on the shortcomings and problems in our schools and other institutions, but you stimulate a debate about what should be done.
Germany is honouring Bertolt Brecht with fanfare on the 50th anniversary of his death, hinting that the country is ready at last to embrace the playwright and poet as a national hero and forgive him for going to his grave a communist. There is no ignoring Brecht as theatres from Berlin to Bonn to Hanover dust off his plays.
Government didn’t need to look very far to appoint a new chief executive for the National Credit Regulator (NCR). As head of the former Microfinance Regulatory Council, now the NCR, Gabriel Davel has been regulating credit providers since 2000, and is a chartered accountant who chose to specialise in financial regulation and development finance.
South African broadband consumer activist website MyADSL pays more than R10 000 a month to host its website locally when it could host it overseas for a mere R700. These exorbitant local hosting costs are causing South Africa’s ICT sector to fall behind international standards as content developers are prevented from using multimedia delivery.
The exploitation and damage done to human beings by apartheid is clearly documented, but the long-term damage wrought on the environment is not as readily recognised. For over 40 years the Orange river estuary, home to a unique wetlands system, was degraded by the effects of upstream farming and a road built by mining companies.
During the past 15 years of war and civil conflict in Somalia, most observers — Somalis and foreigners alike — have understood that a resolution to the country’s problems could only come from agreement among Somalis themselves. This has now changed in a way that carries potential dangers.
The Grahamstown National Arts Festival earlier this month celebrated South Africa’s wealth of artistic talent. As part of our 10th birthday, we name the choreographers who have set the arts alive.
If the Daily Observer sells out today, it will have its centrefold to thank. One hundred and five mugshots line the daily paper. These men and women are the first class of recruits for the Armed Forces of Liberia. ”The New Armed Forces of Liberia Welcomes Recruits … If you know that any of these people were involved in human rights violations or criminal activity, call the Investigation Hotline,” reads the banner.
Every summer holiday hordes of South Africans descend on our beaches. Fienie Grobler asks whether radio advertisers are cashing in on this phenomenon.
The Humvee hits an Iraqi woman crossing a busy road at night. The driver pulls over and turret gunner Specialist Mike Moriarty watches helplessly as supply trucks run over her, spreading her body parts across the road — and we watch with him. That is the power of The War Tapes, a documentary shot by several members of the New Hampshire National Guard in Iraq’s deadly Sunni Triangle.