As I write this, Zimbabwe is on the verge of a political miracle. All signs are that Mugabe will be democraticaly ousted as president after 28 years in power. Thabo Mbeki, as a neighbouring president who could actually do somehting about the regime, has recieved much criticism for his "quiet" approach to Mugabe. I now wonder if Mbeki may actually have been right?  read more »

Helen Zille's faction/embittered approach to politics normally grinds my turkey, but a paragraph in her most recent weekly newsletter stood out as being congruent with my stance on Zuma's ascension to power:  read more »

I couldn't give a stuff who John McCain is nor what he stands for in redeeming the USA ... I'm just punting for the potential 1st woman or 1st black man ever to take office in the White House.

I have a growing sense that as a nation, South Africa is heading towards a knife edge. In just a few months Zuma goes to trail (in which the prosecutors are calling over 200 witnesses). A few months thereafter, we go to the polls to vote for a new president (during which the president-elect will still be standing trial for corruption). As recipes go, this does not bode well for a peaceful transition between power regimes.  read more »

While I've never really taken an active interest in politics I have nevertheless been keenly aware of the shifts in the political landscape of South Africa and how they affect the narrative pulse of our nation. I've gathered this information and formed the perspectives I have based on some fairly superficial gleanings from the media reporting on political events.

In particular, I've had some strong emotional responses of late as I've been considering the shifts leading up to this weekends ANC National Conference and the recent branch nominations for the party's president. Unsurprisingly, Jacob Zuma has wrapped up the nominations process, and I've begun to wonder to myself how he has gathered so much support when one considers the saga's he's been invovled in (generally corrupt relationship with Schabir Shaik and a pragmatic approach to preventing the contraction of HIV)? Surely, rational people would not nominate a fellow with such a cloud hanging over his head?  read more »

I'm not one for sad or painful books. I'll happily go to a movie that I know will pull the emotional heart-strings, but I'm definitely not one for investing time and effort in traversing through hundreds of pages of something that will induce sensations of pain, guilt, remorse or some of those other wonderfully melancholic emotions.

Thanks to some fairly unrelated events I have found myself remembering one such book that I read a few years back. I seem to have relegated it to the deepest, darkest parts of my memory reserves in trying to forget that I ever read it. The aforementioned culprit is Antjie Krog's acclaimed work, Country of My Skull. The book is an in-depth, personal narrative "with the goal of capturing the overwhelming moral, emotional, and historical complexity of the Truth and Reconciliation process in South Africa."

I almost didn't have a choice in reading the book ...  read more »

Three of my most respected South African performers are men who wear dresses ... and one of them could be our first female president! Nope, I'm not claiming that Phumzile is a melodramatic transvestite performer (who knows?). I do however refer to the outrageous campaign being embarked on by one of my favourite "ladies". A little about them:  read more »

One of the premises I held as I grew up was to believe that history, as reported to me in my History classes, was factual and accurate. It was an important premise, I believe, that helped me formulate my view of reality and aided me in making sense of what was happening in the world around me.

I happened to grow up in a time when the history of my country was being manipulated by the government. As a privileged white kid, my parents had to by history text books that told me endless stories of how the white people "discovered" South Africa, fought the dangerous, barbarian native black people and subsequently settled in "their" country.  read more »