I made one of my occasional forays into Facebook earlier today and was prompted with a memory of a post I shared 5 years ago. It was written by Scott Mednick , when a Facebook friend told him, "We suffered for the last 8 years. Now it’s your turn.” (This, of course, as a result of Donald Trump being sworn in as president of the United States.)
I was stuck in a rush hour traffic jam in Harare, Zimbabwe. The reason? The busy intersection of Samora Machel Avenue and Enterprise Road had traffic lights out of action. As a result, every motorist simply piled into the intersection hugging the bumper of the vehicle in front. Add to this two massive tractor trailers trying to turn across the intersection at the same time…
The logjam meant we sat there for 30 minutes until a single metro police officer pitched up, took charge of the situation, and traffic flowed again.
It's okay to not carry a gun but support gun rights.
It's okay to not be gay but support gay rights.
It's okay to be an atheist but support religious freedom.
It's okay to believe in charity but oppose a welfare state.
It's okay to be anti-abortion but support a woman's right to choose.
It's okay to support the right to kill in self-defence but oppose the death penalty.
It's okay to respect someone's decision to change their gender but know biology is real.
It's okay to know Covid kills but lockdowns don't work.
If your office has a shared kitchen, chances are that the microwave oven is in use for most of the day; warming up food, warming up coffee, making noodles…
I've noticed a pattern; most of the time when I get to the microwave, the timer shows 9 seconds left.
Why?
If you search for reviews of The Matrix Resurrections, here are some of the titles you will see:
I woke to the news that Sidney Poitier had passed away and had an immediate flashback to my pre-adolescence when I saw "In the Heat of the Night". It was a 16mm print projected onto a bedsheet in someone's house. (This was South Africa in the height of grand apartheid in the early 70s.)
I was in Beijing in 2017 and came close to being wiped out by a scooter. The previous time I visited China's capital, this would not have happened, because I would have heard it coming. This time, I did not, because the scooter was electric, and almost completely silent as a result.
I've been thinking about this a lot in the years since during my frequent visits to the bush (as we South Africans generally refer to our Big 5 game reserves).
Driving home this evening, I came across a sight which is not unfamiliar to my fellow South Africans: cars parked on the side of the road with "for sale" signs and numbers to call.
Neither of them had a price tag.
My fellow South Africans, help me understand, why do we do this?
If you’re visiting any of South Africa’s magnificent game reserves and look down, chances are you will see one these: Scarabaeus Zambesianus is the African Dung Beetle, and its lot in life is to find a mound of fæces, roll it a couple of hundred metres from where it was dumped, and bury it in an underground chamber. The beetle lays an egg in the ball which hatches into larva which feeds on the dung. The larva turns into a pupa, the pupa hatches into a new beetle which goes out into the world in search of more dung…
Have you ever heard someone says something that sounded completely outrageous, and you turned around to see a smile on their face and heaved a sigh of relief?
Humans rely on a wide range of signals to communicate with each other, and most of these are non-verbal: What we say is modified by pitch and loudness of voice, body language, hand gestures, and facial expression.
Written communication has none of those signals, so letter writing was very formal and structured to avoid miscommunication:
"Dear so and so...
Our correspondence of xx date refers.
