Month: February 2015

It can’t be business as usual

I have been referred to as being pessimistic and many other things that suggest I am incapable of seeing the positives in our country. I think the accusers have unfortunately not taken the time and the effort to appreciate the situation we are in as a country.
This time and effort refers to trying to understand really what we are headed for as a country. I can tell you now, that you only have to look to some countries on the continent and what you will find is that the script is the same, we are just a different cast. Not even the Generations and New Generations story.
Now, given all this, I really think we cannot just carry on as usual, we cannot carry on with the business of the day while our country is sinking. This is not a joke. It does not have to take guns and bombs for us to start realizing that we all have to fight, after all most of the fights we see everyday in other countries started this way.
I say we stand up and fight for our country, if not very soon we shall not have a country to call it OURS.

G

shut up and travel

I love Cape Town, that’s it, maybe it’s because I don’t let those that are referred to as racist to try it on me, I simply tell them to fuck off or rather I think I would do that.
Cape Town is seen by most South Africans from other parts of the country as a little country, far from the rest of South Africa. Many go there for a week or two and come back having formulated an idea about it, the dominant being that it is racist and expensive to live there. But my point is not about Cape Town per se.

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The Withdrawal

Well my daughters go to a private school (I am bragging). But I must also mention that every year there is this office that I visit at the school. The office is located behind the reception. I call it the promise office. This is where I go after I have received the letters from the school with the red stickers urging me to pay, this happens every year. I go in the office and look at the lady straight in her eyes and say, I will pay this amount by this date I promise you, and then I sign somewhere.

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On Deliberation: (epistemic)justice and (press)freedom in South Africa in word and deed

Not that i always enjoy reading anything written by Andre because unfortunately, or maybe it is fortunate I just end up having to look into all the references. You actually realize that you have not read much yourself.

Andre ZAAIMAN's avatarAndre ZAAIMAN

©Andre ZAAIMAN

The rancid and acrimonious public exchanges peppered with strong racial and gender undertones that mark what goes for public debate in South Africa, raises a question that may at first glance, seem preposterous: are we sliding into a form of “civil war by other means”?

Words, information and knowledge can easily become dangerous weapons of a different kind.

Although deliberation – a free and critical public dialogue – is an essential feature of a stable and robust democracy, it is by no means certain that its citizens will know how to engage in this civic art. Besides, freedom of speech and expression as civil liberties are necessary but not sufficient conditions for this (that is inclusive, deliberative and equitable democracy) to happen: amongst many other things the citizenry has to be capable and the body politic free too.

But what does this freedom mean?

Certainly…

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