Lizeka Mda: CITY LIMITS In Diagonal Street shopkeepers give a good impression of being eager for your custom. None of the sulky reception here, nor the grudging service that one often gets in the fancier stores. “Come in and see,” touts urge from surprisingly – for Johannesburg – uncluttered pavements. And if you should be […]

Neve Gordon in Indiana We had just left the headquarters of Arthur Andersen, a consulting and accounting firm that employs more than 50 000 people, as I said to my friend: “The proof is in the cubicle.” In 1996, short of space, Arthur Andersen had relocated to a nicer building in downtown Chicago. Many of […]

debate Comment The recent media hype around human cloning illustrates, starkly, why South Africa needs a year of science and technology to promote public understanding of the subject. The human cloning reports rival the Virodene “miracle cure” debacle – once again we have a media that fundamentally misunderstands the subject it is reporting on, but, […]

Cecil Abrahams: A Second Look Predictably, South African universities have once again been embroiled in the annual nauseating spectacle of disadvantaged students trying to register at cash-strapped universities where the management must refuse admission. And, as usual, the “culprits” for this stand-off are the same. Intransigent students believe the managements of the various historically disadvantaged […]

Robert Kirby LOOSE CANNON If, like so many of us, you are a wide-eyed apprentice democrat, you will have been following the fascinating television edutainment series, presently being mounted “collectively” by the Department of Labour, the SABC and Wits University’s Centre for Applied Legal Studies – or Cals. The series is called Buang: Let’s Talk. […]

Multinationals will be able to take governments to court under a new agreement to be finalised this week. David Rowan asks what has happened to democracy You may not have heard of a new international accord called the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI). There’s no reason why you should have: the MAI has been debated […]

images Henri Cartier-Bresson’s quick eye has made him the photographer of the century, writes Liz Jobey The slender figure loping between the shadows of the trees in the Tuileries Gardens is moving so rapidly – despite the stick – that he passes through them almost invisibly, just one more vertical black line flickering among the […]

Plans for development and foreign investment may be at the expense of the rural poor, writes Craig Bishop ‘The Eastern Cape development train is in motion – don’t be left behind” was President Nelson Mandela’s rallying cry at the International Investors Conference in East London late last year. It was designed to build confidence in […]

Sunday morning is hell in the Groot Marico; the residents are not just recovering from the after-effects of the night before in the Dorsbult Bar, but coping with the Sunday rags. “This lady is going to be so disappointed,” keens Dr Mohamed Cassim in The Sunday Independent. “We have 10 beautiful eggs and the sperm […]

Arguing about the rights and wrongs of cloning humans ignores the fact that it’s not technically possible at present, writes David Shapshak Sensationalising human cloning ignores the simple fact that, at the moment, it cannot be done. Claims last weekend that South Africa was ready to start cloning humans have not only been met with […]