As `sell-thru’ video takes off in South Africa, the complete Tintin series has been released on video. Charl Blignaut spent 20 hours in front of his TV Everyone has their favourite Tintin moment. Permanently etched in my memory are those huge red and white mushrooms in The Shooting Star exploding into life on a small […]
Robert Kirby: Loose cannon I find myself quite amazed at the runaway spending of people who suddenly acquire a great deal of money. It’s quite baffling that someone who wins six or seven million tax-free quid on a lottery, can squander the entire bundle inside a couple of years. Sure, a fancy new car and […]
Asian turmoil is hitting luxury goods in the wallet … and the handbag and the shoes, writes Sarah Ryle Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous might have said: “You can never have too many accessories.” If only it were true. The sad reality, from the viewpoint of fashion’s most prestigious houses, is that when the economic climate […]
Karlin Lillington California may this week give Internet service providers (ISPs) the strongest legal weapon yet in the battle against “spam” – the unsolicited mass e-mail advertisements detested by Internet users – allowing them to sue for $25 000 in damages a day. But in an odd political twist, the United States federal government is […]
Alex Sudheim On show in Durban Around 10 years ago in Pretoria, architect William Raats was looking at an Australian magazine which featured modern buildings decorated with beautiful Aboriginal art works. He thought to himself: “If only we had something like that here,” upon which he promptly realised that of course we do – and […]
Iden Wetherell He is being compared to Britain’s combative wartime leader Winston Churchill in local media tributes which border on the hagiographical. But whether this proves to be President Robert Mugabe’s finest hour ultimately depends on the outcome of the war he is busy directing in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In a decision that […]
Wonder Hlongwa The absence of street names and house numbers in some townships and informal settlements is a permanent inconvenience for both residents and service providers. Companies like Telkom and ambulance services rely on locals for directions to their destinies. It can be a dangerous dependency in criminal- infested townships. For residents, the inconvenience is […]
Matthew Krouse Johannesburg’s Newtown cultural precinct’s rather tarnished image as the social hub of the great African city has been amply lambasted. Suburbanites now bypass the city centre, believing it has fallen apart – especially Newtown, with its derelict buildings crowded with squatters, revelling township drunkards and stoned teenage ravers. So a visionary new scheme, […]
Economists may need a crash rethink of the basic tenets of economic orthodoxy, writes Larry Elliot Another normal week for the global economy. Russia’s on the point of financial meltdown, the Chinese government is battling to stave off devaluation, bankruptcies are up 35% in Japan, stock markets are down almost everywhere, the biggest industrial merger […]
off air Ferial Haffajee Just as viewers were starting to get used to presenter S’bu Khumalo doing his cool and chatty thing on Sunday nights, the long-awaited television arts programme, aRt, has been taken off air. aRt played out for the last time on Sunday night and will be replaced in October by a new […]