It’s All About Caring About People
Caring about people is the formula for success, says Wits alumnus Stan Bergman who heads up a US$9-billion company in New York. […]
Green Jokes, How To Meet Woman And Avos
The other day I received an online survey asking “What do you think about avos?” It said that if I took the time to answer the survey I would be in the running for a bumper supply of the all green fruit. […]
Scotland, Anarchists & Taming The Tiger
“Going to Scotland to do my Masters in Law was one of the best choices I ever made in my life,” says Professor Nqosa Mahao who is originally from Lesotho and who has a Masters in Law from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD from the University of the Western Cape. […]
Future Cities, Future World
You wake up in the morning, switch on your solar-powered lights, head over to your coffee maker and enjoy a delicious renewable energy beverage. You get dressed in carbon neutral clothes produced by off grid factories and catch the wind-powered underground to your energy-efficient office. A dream? No. Welcome to Masdar City in the United [...]
The Karoo’s First Protected Environment
The first Protected Environment in the Karoo, Eastern Cape, has been proclaimed. Called the Compassberg Protected Environment it is a critical water catchment area spanning 42 000 hectares of livestock and game farms, and including the iconic Compassberg. […]
Impatience for change: The 1976 – 1981 Era Of Activism at Wits
The 1970s at Wits were a time of mass meetings, all-night vigils, marches, arrests and security police spies. The decade ushered in the June 16 uprisings and the era of Africanisation, when the SRC and the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) took a long, hard look at what it meant to be South [...]
China Time
“They’re taking over the world!” a resident from the country town of Middelburg in the Karoo stopped me outside the ‘Chinese shop’. She was whispering but it was more like a shout. “Look!” she said. I looked and I saw a bunch of Chinese people offloading a truckload of stuff and carrying it into the [...]
Big Brother is Watching You
The new BIG BROTHER who is watching you is the giant electronic eye on the world. This not only includes online criminals and internet fraud, but also an expanding network of as yet non-criminalised activities, including pervasive forms of surveillance, such as cameras in retail stores and microchips in garments that can track your every [...]
Hooves, Hooves and More Hooves
Too much rest damages the veld and only intense livestock hoof action can restore vegetation and reverse the effects of desertification, a major cause of climate change. Four decades since he gave his first course on holistic farming in South Africa, holistic management pioneer Allan Savory returned to Graaff-Reinet for a three-day workshop. Heather Dugmore [...]
The Rhino Wars
The ultimate prestige gift amongst wealthy Vietnamese who wish to curry favour with influential politicians and businesspeople is a rhino horn hangover cure. The powdered horn, priced at several thousand dollars for a few grams is packaged in an ornate little casket and presented with pride. […]