Although it’s a movie about boxing and contains any number of neatly staged fight scenes,it is about fathers and daughters, real or ersatz, and about emotional remoteness and proximity, and doing one last good-bad thing before you die.Black boxers took on the world and knocked it flying, but Hollywood is more concerned with white ones, writes John Patterson.
"The way in for me was to ask questions like, when is the birth of conscience? Not just for a character in a novel, but also for the writer writing the novel." Andie Miller spoke to exiled Nigerian novelist Chris Abani.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is to forge links with left-wing social movements in a move to reverse its waning influence in the tripartite alliance and to revitalise South Africa’s left. At a recent conference, the federation adopted an unprecedented resolution to work with the country’s burgeoning social movements to rescue the "fragmentation and attrition" of the left.
Microsoft on Thursday announced a deal to buy a company run by the creator of IBM’s Lotus Notes, Ray Ozzie, at the same time hiring him to be one of the software firm’s most senior technical executives. Ozzie will join Microsoft in the role of chief technical officer and will report directly to chairperson and chief software architect Bill Gates.
A suicide bomb tore through a packed funeral ceremony at a Shia mosque in Mosul on Thursday, killing at least 46 people and wounding up to 100 others. The attack appeared to be the latest outrage by Sunni militants intent on fomenting sectarian strife and destabilising attempts to form an elected Iraqi government.
The Michael Jackson trial descended further into farce on Thursday as the judge ordered the singer’s arrest when he failed to appear at court. Told that he was at a nearby hospital ”with a serious back problem” the judge was unmoved, and gave the singer 60 minutes to appear or face jail and the loss of his -million bail bond.
The neon sign outside describes the club as a ”show venue”, but the only people taking to the stage are crooning customers and their scantily-clad escorts. A report last year by the United States State Department placed Japan on a par with Mexico and Laos for its failure to stem the trade in sex workers.
It is best known for the audacity of its campaigns: protest messages stamped on condom packets and bank notes, and pithy postcards to President Robert Mugabe — but who it is, is less apparent. An underground group of anti-government activists, Zvankwana-Sokwanele — "Enough!" in Zimbabwe’s two main languages, Shona and Ndebele — do not operate out of offices with a nameplate on the door.
Zimbawe’s parliamentary elections have not been short on political drama. Former Zanu-PF spin doctor and propaganda chief Jonathan Moyo has now been linked to an initiative of setting up a "third political force". According to media reports, Moyo is the perceived leader of a coalition of about 16 independent candidates who will contest the forthcoming elections.
I wrote to the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> two weeks ago to respond to numerous articles that Mike van Graan had written against the Department of Arts and Culture. My article appeared as an edited letter to the editor. The self-appointed "god" of the arts, Van Graan, then had the unfair advantage of responding to my whole article. I find this unethical, writes Director General of the Department of Arts and Culture Itumeleng Mosala.