The producing/directing team of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory has been mocked for being exponents of "the Laura Ashley school of film-making", which is apt in some ways but also rather unfair. They have a meticulous eye for period detail and a beautifully understated way with a story, though there is the danger of blandless in that very reticence.
Thebe Mabanga in your ear Radio has a long way to go before it can lead the South African media in news coverage and analysis. Although newspapers rely somewhat on radio to give publicity to stories covered on a specific day, radio still depends on print media to amplify a story it might have broken. […]
It’s been a time of guts baring for Afrikaans theatre, but though Breyten Breytenbach has failed, Pieter Fourie has triumphed Guy Willoughby Behold the guilt-tinged, rudderless state of the Afrikaner psyche at the beginning of the 21st century. This month it has come under scrutiny in two oddly undramatic new plays by venerable Afrikaans playwrights. […]
whipping boy This year’s Durban July could be substantially affected by a high court ruling long before the gates swing open at Greyville on July 7. Top trainer Mike de Kock has threatened to seek relief from the court, contending that the David Ferraris-trained Celtic Grove has been set to carry too light a weight […]
Tim Wood american notes AMail & Guardian letter-page critic believes that electricity deregulation caused California’s energy crisis and is an example of why it should be avoided when it comes to Eskom. It’s a poor deduction that relies on less than half the facts. California is in a mess because of the confluence of dozens […]
CHRIS MCGREAL, Johannesburg | Friday HENRIETTA Mqokomiso knew what was coming. Alexandra township council served the demolition order a week ago and branded her house with three yellow crosses. On Monday, while the domestic worker was working, an official banged on the door and told her children that a crew would be around the next […]
DOZENS of Islamic art experts are urging Cairo to wake up to the “alarming” threat that shoddy restoration work is posing to numerous buildings dating back to the days of the Thousand and One Nights. In a letter to Egyptian First Lady Suzanne Mubarak last month, the experts highlighted monuments under renovation by nine local […]
LAWMAKERS on Wednesday voted to oust the speaker of the state parliament in Kano, Nigeria, for an alleged “dictatorial” manner, poor time-keeping, and lightening his skin. The Kano State house of assembly unanimously voted to impeach Ibrahim Abdullahi Gwarmai after weeks of complaints over his attitude and behaviour, said an aggrieved lawmaker, Hamisu Ibrahim. Gwarmai, […]
FORTY police and thirty demonstrators were slightly hurt on Wednesday night in clashes during a protest by young members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority outside the Coptic cathedral in Cairo, police said. Coptic youth have been protesting since Sunday over the newspaper publication of a graphic story about a defrocked monk’s alleged sexual affairs in […]
ANTONY BARNETT and STEFAANS BRMMER, Johannesburg | Friday FOR thousands of years, members of Southern Africa’s Kung tribe have eaten the Hoodia cactus to stave off hunger and thirst on long hunting trips. The Kung people – a subdivision of the San – used to cut off a stem of the cactus about the size […]