A bright new agency says the advertising industry is still on the old path, writes Ferial Haffajee ‘Hi, I’m calling from MDS.DD&M.” Say what? In an industry where acronyms abound, this one can get you more tongue-tied than most. The somewhat unwieldy name masks a new advertising agency with a very clear agenda. It wants […]
Suzy Bell: Durban nightlife The cool idea of a “recovery room” and cigar lounge at Bean Bag Bohemia, installation art at Crash, capuccino chairs at Jamb Lounge, breakbeat insanity at Bedlam, and the mellow mood at Dusk till Dawn constitute a fine, fat slobbery kiss for Durban’s nightlife, which has clawed its way from the […]
Mish Middelmann: REALITY BYTES So there are all these cool ways of creating digital content, from word processors through voice recognition to digital cameras. But what about the stuff you get on plain old paper? Scanners are the things that turn paper documents into digital form, and nowadays they go together with optical character recognition […]
Andrew Worsdale: Movie of the week If Barry Levinson had got hold of the script for Good Will Hunting he would have turned it into another Rain Man – mawkish, sentimental and filled with the kind of Hollywood gloss that makes a potentially touching story just seem unreal. So it’s a credit to producer Lawrence […]
The political mud-slinging that erupted this week between the Democratic Party and the African National Congress over the so-called “Aids treatment” Virodene has served to obscure the real issues, and significant dangers, associated with the Virodene project. Minister of Health Nkosazana Zuma’s fierce response seems to indicate that the tenacious minister has not yet given […]
Chris Hall This week’s accusation that the African National Congress has a 6% interest in Cyropreservation Technologies, the manufacturer of the industrial solvent and experimental Aids drug Virodene, sounds uncannily similar to a Kenyan Aids scandal. Kenyan officials were accused in 1990 of rushing an unproven, experimental Aids drug on to the market to profit […]
or new Randlords? Pallo Jordan: CROSSFIRE The commencement of the 20th century came at the height of what historians call the Age of Imperialism and in the midst of the Anglo-Boer War, a war between two colonising power structures to determine which of them would design modern South Africa. Sixteen years earlier, in 1884, Africa […]
Ann Eveleth Last year the National Land Committee fought tooth and nail to deepen the rights of rural dwellers enshrined in the Extension of Security of Tenure Act. This year it is poised to become a key implementer of the compromise legislation which came into effect on November 28. The committee, an umbrella of 10 […]
FRIDAY, 5.00PM: Cape Town housing chief Billy Cobbett has decided to stay on in his post in spite of death threats from Cape Flats gangsters. Cobbett returned Cape Town on Friday after spending two weeks in London with his wife and four children, visiting his ill mother-in-law. He fled there a fortnight ago after threats […]
Maria McCloy: CD of the week So you might be sick of the endless articles about spiritual, herbal tea-drinking and turbaned “Nu-Soul Queen” Erykah Badu. You might think that Baduizm Live (BMG), the live version of her beautiful 1997 album, Baduizm, is just the record company cashing in on her massive popularity. Maybe it is, […]