Our world, our country, our lives, all our assumptions and prejudices now divide in two. Globalisation pundit Thomas Friedman defines it as "BC" (before coronavirus) and "AC" (after coronavirus). With SA and much of the world now imprisoned at home, we can add a third acronym: "DC" - during Covid-19, the state we are in [...]
Covid 19 has converted us all into armchair immunologists. So here’s a trick question used sometimes to test aspiring medical specialists: “What treatment is offered by ear in an emergency?” The correct answer: “Words of comfort.” At his best, Cyril Ramaphosa reminds me of a trusty doctor. He might have a lousy diagnosis to deliver, [...]
On the issue of the widening and constriction of our sovereign borders, the propulsive fuel for populists far and wide, the virus is a global crisis, though infection rates and governmental responses differ widely. US President Donald Trump’s cry of “America First” and Boris Johnson’s “take back control” Brexit had winning voter appeal. Writing in [...]
It is both uniquely national, even intensely parochial on any given day, and yet it really matters hugely to the world, even here, beset though we are with our own problems. I refer to the current spectacle of the US presidential election, which still has nearly eight months to go until voting day on November [...]
