FINE ART: Chris Roper THE Absolut Secret exhibition at the Association for Visual Arts in Cape Town is about using the Absolut advertising gimmick to raise money for charity: the proceeds will be used to promote needy and deserving artists. It’s commerce putting the absolution into Absolut, if you will. It’s not only about that, […]

A London nightclub is launching a campaign to jolt the young into political awareness, writes Stephen Armstrong THE first ad is probably the most shocking. A huge, muscle-bound Eastender is shouting at the camera. ”This country isn’t ours any more!” he bellows, launching into a tirade that ends with ”I want this country run by […]

Following an anti-smoking editorial in The Star, R&R Tobacco have withdrawn their advertising, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy THE Rembrandt International group’s tobacco arm, R&R Tobacco has decided to pull more than one-million-rand’s worth of advertising from The Star newspaper following an editorial written by editor Peter Sullivan. Gauteng Newspapers managing director Deon du Plessis said one […]

Progress has been made in developing drugs to treat Aids. But much less attention has been given to developing a vaccine, writes Lesley Cowling TWO protease inhibitors – the “dramatically effective” Aids drugs – were registered in South Africa last week and a third is in the pipeline. Indinavir and ritonavir will soon be marketed […]

government’s heels Gaye Davis THE Democratic Party’s decision to reposition itself does not mean the terrier will stop snapping at the heels of government. But instead of just levelling criticism, it will also be offering solutions to problems facing the country, DP leader Tony Leon said this week. Its first offering – a strategy to […]

Reserve Bank Governor Chris Stals talks to Max Gebhardt about the challenges he faces amid continued currency turmoil COMPARED to last week’s freefall, the rand enjoyed something approaching a settled week. The currency’s downfall, while uppermost in the minds of the public, is one of several fundamental concerns over the economy. Reserve Bank governor Chris […]

Gaye Davis THE South African-born British Labour Party MP Peter Hain is to ask the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate whether South African security police framed him on bank theft charges in London in 1975. Hain, who was a driving force behind the sports boycott of South Africa during the apartheid era, is in […]

The notion of a global phone company is fast becoming a reality as deregulation spreads, writes Mark Tran THE race to become the first global phone company has taken a dramatic twist with British Telecom’s (BT) planned acquisition of MCI, the United States’s second-biggest long-distance company. Now, only AT&T and the BT-MCI alliance have the […]

ONE of the curious aspects of the African National Congress in government is its paradoxical insistence on exercising its authority when it is not needed and failure to do so when it is. The paradox was on display again this week, with regard to Zaire and the leadership struggle in the Free State. When Nelson […]

OPERA: Andrew Clements in Amsterdam WITH David Pountney’s staging of Shostakovich’s The Nose for The Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam, his already fertile imagination as well as his budget ran riot. There can’t be many opera houses in the world that could have bankrolled something as extravagant as this. Lasting under 100 minutes, it’s a virtuoso […]