0
POPSChurches suffering from "spiritual Alzheimers" Is it just the interesting expression that makes me want to blog about this? It's certainly not the first time the phrase "spiritual Alzheimer's" has been used, but it remains a vivid expression nonetheless.
0
POPSReckless rhetoric or freedom of speech? South Africa has a democratic constitution that protects freedom of speech. In saying things like this is Bishop Tutu trying to place an unconstitutional limitation on freedom of speech?
2
POPSBrits suffer from metal theft For a long time South Africans have suffered from metal theives. A few months ago we were without electricity for two days, not because of Eskom load shedding, but because of cable theft. Twenty years ago the aluminium railings were nicked from a railway bridge down the road, over four separate nights, and no one heard a thing. Cell phones have mitigated the inconvenience of telephone cable theft, but it can still disrupt Internet access. And many have been late for work because of the theft of railway signal cables. Now, it seems, the Brits are suffering from the same problem. Will it rile up even the phlegmatic Brits so much that they'll start burning railway carriages and stations when the trains are late?
0
POPSUnemployment and xenophobia A clear and concise account of the root causes of the recent outbreaks of xenophobic violence in many parts of the country. Hat-tip to Dion Forster.
4
POPSOh well, so much for peace If anyone thought the next US President might offer change you can believe in, they were obviously sucked in by a lot of empty rhetoric.
0
POPSThe "third force" behind xenophobic violence? Could the ugly face of capitalism be behind the violence against foreigners that we have seen over the last couple of months? There have been taxi wars in the past, now it seems to have spread to other businesses.
2
POPSNine milliion South Africans want to emigrate According to a recent survey, some nine million South Africans want to emigrate. And 2430000 believe they have the funds and qualifications to do it. Something tells me that this survey is deeply flawed.
0
POPSLanguage culture and education I can't help thinking that there is more to this story than meets the eye. Even when one reads the full version, rather than the bits I've cited in the clip, itg seems that there is more in the subtext than in the text itself, one needs to read between the lines to find the iddues that everyone seems to be trying to avoid.
0
POPSSouth Africans pay more for electricity As shortages of things like electricity, oil and even food grow, so will conflicts of interest. Ideally, southern Africa should try to produce its own electricity for the whole subcontinent. As supplies of coal and other fossil fuels dwindle, there will be increasing reliance on hydroelectricity from the Zambezi and the Congo -- but countries along those rivers will want to serve themselves first, and sell the surplus to others -- while there is a surplus. So which rout to go -- cooperation in the subcontinent, or autarky?
3
POPSKill the bastards! After urging the police to shoot to kill, Deputy Minister of Safety and Security has now advised ordinary citizens to do the same if they are threatened by criminals pointing guns or other lethal weapons at them.
0
POPSNo more child witches in DRC? Whether the law can be enforced in such a fractured country is indeed a moot point, but so is the idea of these "deeply-held" beliefs. These beliefs, to all accounts, appeared quite suddenly in recent history. Perhaps they could disappear just as suddenly. What we need to find is what it takes to make them disappear, and perhaps it could help to find what caused them to appear in the first place. The DRC, like other African countries, has long had many people who believe that misfortunes are caused by witchcraft and sorcery. What appears to be new is the belief that these witches are young children, and that it is occurring on such a scale. Perhaps it is the very fractured nature of the society that is causing these beliefs to spread and be deeply held.
0
POPSMoral regeneraltion, degeneration, confustion There is talk of the need for moral regeneration in our society, and perhaps they are right. It seems that nobody taught this boy "Thou shalt not steal." And nobody taught the driver of the car, "Thou shalt not kill." Or perhaps someone taught them that, but they didn't learn it. As they say in edu-jargon, the learning outcomes were not achieved.
3
POPSExraordinary Rendition With shrinking space for burials, and cremations being environmentally unfriendly, theres a new proposal for getting rid of corpses by rendering. In ordinary rendering a body is boiled until the various parts separate, but in a new process, which could be described as "extraordinary rendition", chemicals are added to speed up the process. It's not clear whether it uses less energy than cremation.
3
POPSDorothy Day's diaries published Dorothy Day's diaries are to be published. They were sealed for 25 years after her death in 1980, and should provide an interesting insight into her life and ministry. Dorothy Day was a Catholic anarcho-pacifist, and is a good illustration of the principle that theological conservatism leads to political liberalism, and vice versa.
0
POPSStorm in an aluminium smelter Valli Moosa, the chairman of the Eskom board, and former Minister of Environmental Affairs, said at a meeting last night that South Africa would not have a power crisis if there were no big aluminium smelters, but said that this as a sensitive matter, as the row between Standard Bank and BHP Billiton shows.
0
POPSSchadenfreude? For the last three months South Africans have been complaining about Eskom's failures in planning and bad management, as if it is the only organisation to suffer from such incompetence, and as if South Africa is the only country to suffer from such misfortunes. So perhaps there was a certain sense of relief, not to mention malicious glee, to see that British Airways seems to be unable to organise a piss up in a brewery. And there was the gent of Sky News muttering at 20 minute intervals about the damage it was doing to "brand UK". At least we're not alone.
2
POPSThe Archbishop and the Beast There's been a sudden increase of blogging about liberation theology since Barack Obama's pastor hit the headlines. It has brought forth some very strange comments and perceptions, such as that those, who like Archbishop Romero were crushed by the power of the state for opposing the abuse of power actually supported what they opposed.
3
POPSWitchcraft-related crimes
The recent arrest and appearance in court of three men accused of ritual killings in the Eastern Cape has highlighted the problem of so-called muti murders, one of which is that they are rarely highlighted. In another country one or two murders would be sensational. Eighteen murders in a small town within a few months should rival the Virginia Tech killings in the USA for newsworthiness -- at least in South Africa. But no, things like the Virginia Tech killings got more coverage in the South African media than serial killings in our own back yard. Why is this? Is it because many of the Virginia Tech victims were white, and the Mzamba victims were black? Are deaths of white people more newsworthy than the deaths of black people? And what happens to these case? So often it is reported that someone has been murdered, and that muti killing is suspected, and then no more is heard. If someone charged, that may be reported, and no more is heard. Is anyone ever convicted?
3
POPSLiberation theology I never thought I'd ever see eye-to-eye with a US Southern Baptist. This one's rhetoric almost convinces me, but not quite.
1
POPSPeace symbol - 50 years on Jerry Horton's now-famous peace symbol is 50 years old. It's first public appearance was at the Aldermaston March in 1958, organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament to protest against nuclear weapons. Later it was widened to a general peace symbol, and not simply against nuclear weapons, and has been used by people protesting against wars in general, such as the Vietnam War and the current Iraqi-American War.
3
POPSThe martyrdom of the Iraqi Church Let this be a kind of postscript to the Blogswarm post of the 5th anniversary of the beginning of the Iraqui-American War, to which there is no end in sight. Did the neocons think about this when they unleashed the dogs of war in Iraq? Do they care?
1
POPSMikhail Gorbachev as a Christian Several newspapers have reported that Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the USSR, is a Christian. What is surprising, however, is not so much the reports themselves as the source: the reports have come from Italy. It will be interesting to see if there are any follow-ups in the media, saying something about how Gorbachev practises his Christian faith back home in Russia. Does he have a parish and a parish priest? Where are they, and what do they have to say?
1
POPSRacial integration through social engineering? Fifteen years after the end of apartheid, South Africa's urban residential areas remain almost as segregated as before. Now the eThekwini Municipality plans to change that -- by allocating housing on racial lines.
1
POPSSchool’s shock over killings suspect There have been ritual killings before, to use human body parts for muti, but the scale of these killings goes far beyond most reported cases - 18 killings in a village within five months!
4
Clips
Latest Pops
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Tags
Print
Save
Turn on live update