Blog

Rita…

27 February 2025 — Rita was one of a handful of people in my life whom I loved deeply, completely, effortlessly. Perhaps what she meant to me is best expressed in her own words which she wrote in 2003, which I now share here:23 January 2003To: The Nieman Selection CommitteeThis letter is in reference to Kanthan Pillay, Executive Producer at etv, South Africa’s first independent free-to-air television channel where he also serves as deputy editor-in-chief of news, and runs the channel’s journalism learnership program. Kanthan has applied for a Nieman Fellowship.

A hug dislodges a wedge

28 May 2024 — "The Chinese dislike being touched by strangers. Do not touch, hug, lock arms, back slap or make any body contact.”

’No flags were harmed in the making of this ad‘

10 May 2024 — Let's move on. We have a country to fix.

Thoughts on the Ukraine and Israel conflicts

16 October 2023 — War is not a football match. War is a very rational act. The object of war is to win.

The back story to the Russian 'coup'

25 June 2023 — …it ended with a whimper rather than a bang. Wagner fighters agreed to halt their advance and return to their base in exchange for a guarantee of their safety.

The Saudi-Iran deal — 10 things you need to know

10 March 2023 — China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran issued a joint communique announcing normalising of diplomatic relations between the Saudis and the Iranians. This is huge.

A 10 point history of nuclear arms treaties between the US and Russia

1 March 2023 — Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow was suspending participation in a treaty with the United States limits their numbers of strategic nuclear warheads.

Ten things you need to know about Nigeria's upcoming elections

23 February 2023 — Nigeria goes to the polls this weekend. Here are ten things you need to know about the issues facing Africa’s most populous country:

Monetising the blue ticks on Twitter

1 November 2022 — How much would you pay to be verified and get a blue check mark on Twitter?

Time to buy oil from Russia?

10 August 2022 — The biggest threat to our economic growth is our skyrocketing energy costs. Buying oil from Russia could lower that cost by 20 percent.

Today is a good day to talk about nuclear war

6 August 2022 — On this day in 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima in Japan. Between 70,000–80,000 people were killed by the blast and resultant firestorm.

Remembering Dr Aadil Moerat

2 August 2022 — ...on the evening of 21 January 1998 at around 6 pm, three armed men walked into the packed waiting room of Dr Aadil Moerat’s surgery in the township of Gugulethu, Cape Town. Minutes later, Dr Moerat was dead.

Measuring the cost of justice

1 July 2022 — Laura Kövesi is the European Union’s head of Public Prosecution.

How can 190 000 Russians win against 700 000 Ukrainians?

25 June 2022 — Established military wisdom has it that an invading army needs to outnumber defenders by a 3:1 ratio.

Happy birthday President Mbeki. Now get your A into G…

18 June 2022 — I have said it before and I will say it again – Thabo Mbeki was the best president in the world at the time of his sacking.

Be careful what you wish for

3 June 2022 — One of the questions we should always ask ourselves is "what if we get what we want?" Let me give you some examples. Many people wanted Donald Trump impeached as US president.

Raising interest rates — bad idea

20 May 2022 — Yesterday, in response to rising inflation, the South African Reserve Bank raised interest rates by 50 basis points. Once cannot really blame the team at the SARB who voted unanimouslyThey differed only in the quantum — one wanted a 25 basis points increase. in favour of raising interest rates — “The primary object of the South African Reserve Bank is to protect the value of the currency in the interest of balanced and sustainable economic growth in the Republic," says South Africa’s Constitution.

I’m calling BS on this ‘loadshedding’

16 May 2022 — ...why would “loss of generating capacity” kick in only between 17h00-22h00 every day and be perfectly functioning for the other 19 hours? Especially as by 17h00, most businesses are shutting shop for the day, turning off their heaters / air conditioners / heavy machinery?

Explainer: Why does Russia now want payment in rubles?

23 April 2022 — For decades, Russia has been selling natural gas to countries in Europe. Initially, those countries would pay Russia in their own currencies (Example: Germany using Deutschmarks). In the modern era, those payments have been made in Euros. This year, after Russia began its “special military operation” inside Ukraine, member countries of the European Union imposed economic sanctions against most Russian products, but left the door open for members to continue buying natural gas from Russia.

When incompetent journalism has financial consequences…

22 April 2022 — Two days ago, Netflix posted its first quarter results for this financial year. The share price plunged 31,5% — the biggest one day fall in over a decade. If you want to know why, consider these headlines:

Finland and Russia... "It's complicated"

21 April 2022 — Finland’s government is toying with the idea of joining NATO. And the decision will be made in weeks, not months, according to Prime Minister Sanna Marin.

Is the Shanghai lockdown really about COVID?

20 April 2022 — There are some interesting words in the English language. Take the case of the verb “shanghai”. The word is derived from the name of the city on the east coast of China. In the late 19th century, there was frequent shortages of sailors willing to crew ships to far off destinations, so ship owners would drug sailors and haul them on board. By the time they became woke, they were already en route to China and could not get off, hence the phrase “I was shanghaied”.

Full cream versus low fat: the winner is...

19 April 2022 — Is low fat milk is healthier than full cream milk? If you think one is healthier than the other, let me set you straight:

IMF World Economic Outlook, Summary: 'We're Screwed'

18 April 2022 — The International Monetary Fund has released the April 2022 World Economic Outlook. Unsurprisingly, the ongoing Ukraine conflict is front and centre.

For womb the belles toil…

17 April 2022 — Commercial surrogacy is illegal in most of the world. One country has turned this into a major industry.

department of transport map of south africa 1959

A brief history of our national roads

16 April 2022 — Many people will be travelling back home this Easter weekend and that sparked a thought rabbit hole about how our national roads have changed over my lifetime. So I went looking and found a Department of Transport map of our national road network from 1959 which confirmed a lot of my childhood memories. Let me go through some of them: