Spare a thought for the humble tyre. Its entire working life is spent exposed to the elements, it gets dragged along the roughest of road surfaces with scant regard for its well-being, and it receives little, if any, tender loving care. Yet these rubber hoops are what keep our cars and our families safe on the road.
I wish it were possible to storm the gates of neo-liberal state power in this country, dominated by the ruling African National Congress, and declare a workers’ socialist republic. But I know with certainty that at least for the next decade there will be no such prospect. The ANC is still deeply rooted among the majority black working class and it will take a long time to uproot this support.
There is a global consensus on the importance of developing trade and the fact that only the World Trade Organisation (WTO), by realising the November 2001 Doha Development Agenda, can push through the development-friendly reforms that are urgently needed. World Trade Organisation secretary general Supachai Panitchpakdi argues that only the WTO can facilitate fair trade.
A friend from abroad was recently stopped by the police on what was supposed to be a routine check on whether drivers have legitimate licences, carry contraband and so on. Having been satisfied with her licence, the officer suddenly shifted his interest to her complexion. The way South Africans treat Africans from other parts of the continent suggests a deep psychological impairment on a massive scale.
Mining is never a pretty sight. It has a deserved reputation for defacing nature and putting profit before everything, including the environment. By their very essence, mining and conservation seem to be antithetical concepts. Many old, abandoned mines are unrehabilitated and environmental hazards. <i>Earthyear</i> finds out what’s being done to clean them up.
When I was 14 and still had the emotional capacity to become prostrate with rage at injustices, both real and imagined, I swore I would always be a Ms. I made my sister swear, too. The logic of the feminist argument was unassailable: all men were Mr, regardless of their marital status — why should women not be accorded the same privacy? But we didn’t know then what a freighted monosyllable Ms would become.
When I first heard the word makwerekwere, I thought I was mistaken for somebody whose name was Makwerekwere. I was having a breakfast on the sunny terrace of Time Square café, a microcosm of the Makwerekwereland that Yeoville, Berea and Hillbrow have become. A man sitting at the next table looked at me and said: ”Good morning Makwerekwere.” He was smiling broadly.
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The South African government is to review finance allocations to public tertiary institutions across the country, with specific attention to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, according to the state news agency BuaNews. It said this is to provide opportunities for higher learning for poor young people.
Israel insisted on Monday that Syria is to blame for a Tel Aviv suicide attack as a car packed with explosives was discovered in the West Bank, casting a shadow over efforts to forge peace in the Middle East. Israeli intelligence briefed European Union ambassadors on its alleged involvement in Friday’s bombing.