Blog
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Donald Trump is ’misinformed‘
19 May 2025 — Cyril Ramaphosa meets with Donald Trump this week. As far as I can gather, the key message my country's president wants to put across is that the US leader is 'misinformed' about South Africa.
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Rita…
27 February 2025 — Rita was one of a handful of people in my life whom I loved deeply, completely, effortlessly.
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A hug dislodges a wedge
28 May 2024 — Chinese people do not hug. Well, they do, but not with strangers. Hugs are a privilege reserved for the inner circle and almost never done in public.
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’No flags were harmed in the making of this ad‘
10 May 2024 — I have pictures of family members in my home; among these, many who annoy me intensely a lot of the time, and others who do seriously embarrassing things at other times.
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Thoughts on the Ukraine and Israel conflicts
16 October 2023 — Most of us react emotionally to war. We want to discuss it in terms of good and evil. We want to declare who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. And we want referees to enforce rules.
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The back story to the Russian 'coup'
25 June 2023 — In Frank Herbert's "Dune" series of novels, Salusa Secundus was the ancestral homeworld of House Corrino, the ruling family of the Padishah Empire.
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The Saudi-Iran deal — 10 things you need to know
10 March 2023 — Yesterday, an overwhelming majority of Democrats and Republicans in the US House of Representatives joined forces to call
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A 10 point history of nuclear arms treaties between the US and Russia
1 March 2023 — Russia’s president Vladimir Putin announced last week that Moscow was suspending participation in the New Strategic Arms Red
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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:
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Monetising the blue ticks on Twitter
1 November 2022 — Self-proclaimed “serial entrepreneur and angel investor”, Jason Calacanis, is running a poll on Twitter.
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Time to buy oil from Russia?
10 August 2022 — Over the past week, Trade and Industry minister Ebrahim Patel dropped “dumping” duties on imported chicken.
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Today is a good day to talk about nuclear war
6 August 2022 — Today is 6 August. On this day in 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima in Japan.
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Remembering Dr Aadil Moerat
2 August 2022 — R60 was worth around $12 US in early 1998.
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Measuring the cost of justice
1 July 2022 — I’ve had a basic internal rule in place over the years whenever I began a new position — I would make sure that I paid back the cost of my salary to my employer in the shortest possible tim
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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 ra
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I’m calling BS on this ‘loadshedding’
16 May 2022 — We can all understand “loss of generating capacity’. Units go out of service, the grid gets overloaded, etc. etc.
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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).
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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.
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Finland and Russia... "It's complicated"
21 April 2022 — Finland’s government is toying with the idea of joining NATO.
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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.
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Full cream versus low fat: the winner is...
19 April 2022 — Is low fat milk is healthier than full cream milk? If you’re fanatical about this because you think one is healthier than the other, let me set you straight:
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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. Let me quote:
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For womb the belles toil…
17 April 2022 — The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function, F Scott Fitzgerald said.
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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.
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KZN Floods: A tale of four bridges
15 April 2022 — Durban, like many great cities around the world, is built on a river.
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KZN Floods: The cure for high prices
14 April 2022 — There’s a quote from
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KZN floods: The world is melting!
13 April 2022 — The world is melting! The planet is breaking down!
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So, who is your favourite diplomat?
12 April 2022 — When I was a kid, someone told me that “a diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a tactful way in such a way that that you’ll look forward with pleasure to making the trip.”
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What about whataboutism though?
11 April 2022 — There are a number of ways we shut down conversations as human beings. In recent years, we created a term for one of those. We call it whatboutism or whataboutery (or variations on that theme).
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No, I don't work there anymore...
10 April 2022 — Five years ago today, I stepped down as MD of the Yired group of companies and Chief Executive of YFM. It was a symbolic departure date exactly 10 years to the day I had started, 10 April 2007.
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In this era of book banning, a ray of light...
9 April 2022 — I have a particular point of personal pain in this sixth decade of my life — the number of books that are being pulled from libraries.
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The green energy way to save the bald eagle...
8 April 2022 — The Seal of the President of the United States came about after an executive order issued by then US president Dwight D. Eisenhower becoming effective 4 July 1960 which reads:
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Punch-drunk idiots
7 April 2022 — I’ve never been a fan of boxing, mainly because I think brain damage is not the way I want to shuffle off this mortal coil.
