Tim Wood american notes When fauna and flora take precedence over humans, there is a serious problem that has nothing to do with the ugly face of capitalism. The United States is frothing about its energy vulnerability. California is suffering rolling blackouts that threaten its neighbours and petrol prices are higher than they have been […]
Kathryn Smith Fauna seems to be the order of the day at this year’s Standard Bank National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. Two of the featured exhibitions on this year’s main programme revolve around the semantics of the animal world, whether it’s Walter Oltmann’s monumental insects fashioned from woven wire and tubing, or Willie Bester’s take […]
Classical and contemporary music is hoisting the flag high at this year’s impressive New Music Indaba. Music critic Paul Boekkooi looks at the sounds on offer Festivals are there to allow experimentation, or as Charles Ives would have it, “some serious stretching of the ears”. They are showcases for new and unusual talent, and a […]
Stewart Bailey Lonmin, the world’s number three platinum producer, is feverishly researching alternatives to the labour-intensive mining methodologies used in its South African operations before the HIV/Aids scourge rips deep into its productivity. Most mining groups in South Africa long dependent on the country’s cheap and abundant labour force are starting to feel the pinch […]
Stephen Bierley tennis Should Pete Sampras reach his eighth Wimbledon final next month, he would do well to make sure Bill Clinton is nowhere in the vicinity of SW19. When his country’s former president took his seat at Roland Garros on Wednesday Andre Agassi had just won the opening set of his quarterfinal against France’s […]
The new MINI is destined to take its place in the pantheon of the greats James Siddall In the months and years to come I may well God willing get to indulge in all manner of motoring clichs, like booming from Los Angeles to New York in a porno-red Corvette with Springsteen’s Born To Run […]
Tim Wood in New York Hedge funds run the world. They command mighty balance sheets that can ruin a currency in hours or shape investment fashions for months. They also unwind spectacularly when things go wrong, but generally they are an investor’s dream with a safety net for the down times. The problem is that […]
Thebe Mabanga The legacy of South Africa’s literary icon Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda, known internationally as Zakes, is about to be further entrenched when his first adult novel Ways of Dying takes to the stage as a musical called Love and Green Onions. The novel has already been successfully dramatised by Lara Foot Newton in […]
ZIMBABWEAN Finance Minister Simba Makoni has pledged that his country would repay its international debt, but said it could not happen without the help of the international community. “We are seeking to normalise our relationships with the international community, and one aspect will be to fulfil our obligation to our international creditors,” Makoni told a […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo soccer Four of Africa’s greatest soccer teams were hit by tragedy earlier this year when fans were killed in two crowd stampedes barely a month apart. At this year’s Vodacom Challenge the ancestors and spirits of those who died at the Ellis Park stampede and in Accra will finally be laid to rest. […]