Saudi women still banned from taking part in Olympics

Posted on May 16, 2012  /  No Comments

While athletes around the world enter their final stages of training for the 30th Olympic Games in London this July, Saudi Arabia stands alone as the only country that has banned females from participating.  (more…)

Street papers make bold move towards digital

Posted on May 16, 2012  /  4 Comments

Street papers exist to help unemployed, marginalised and homeless people earn a dignified income. From the world’s first street paper in New York City in 1989, they have grown to become a global movement against poverty and social injustice, with 122 editions now being published in 40 countries, The Big Issue South Africa among them. (more…)

GMO food-labelling laws come unstuck due to lack of enforcement

Posted on May 15, 2012  /  No Comments

You could unwittingly be eating food containing genetically modified organisms (GMO) because government is not monitoring the implementation of its new food labelling regulations and failing to enforce penalties for those not complying. (more…)

Fairtrade Coffee Week celebrates‭ ‬growing‭ ‬support of small-scale farmers

Posted on May 15, 2012  /  No Comments

Calling all coffeeholics, the Fairtrade Coffee Week is where all roads lead this week.

Billed as the “premier event on SA’s 2012 Coffee Calendar”, Fairtrade Coffee Week is back in full swing from today to May 20 to celebrate South Africa’s coffee culture with a wider range of Fairtrade labelled coffees. (more…)

First school for transvestites opens in Buenos Aires

Posted on May 15, 2012  /  No Comments

Buenos Aires has made history with the opening in March of the first secondary school in Argentina specifically for transvestites and other members of sexual minorities who face discrimination in mainstream schools. (more…)

Marketing regulations set to put squeeze on formula milk

Posted on May 14, 2012  /  No Comments

The South African government is poised to take drastic measures to clamp down on the “aggressive” marketing tactics used by companies to persuade mothers to feed their babies formula milk instead of breastfeeding. (more…)

Brazil’s female farmers turn to eco-friendly methods to ward off climate change damage

Posted on May 11, 2012  /  No Comments

In the green belt of market gardens that feed the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, women farmers are learning environmentally friendly techniques in response to extreme weather events and their effects on the land. (more…)

A day in the life of a working-class hero

Posted on May 10, 2012  /  No Comments

For most mothers taking care of three or even one child is hard work enough. Christine Booysen, 46, then, can be called a super mom. After her three children grew up, she filled her empty nest with 20 children in need of a home. And she’s a day-mom to a further 20 children who would otherwise spend their days on the streets. With only her husband’s modest income to support the massive brood, but with a lot of love to give, Booysen’s small three-bedroom home in Lavender Hill has become a sanctuary for children in need Fem Eggers discovered. (more…)

Dutch bug cookbook launched to stir taste for insects  

Posted on May 10, 2012  /  No Comments

Need more protein in your diet? Try adding worms to your chocolate muffin recipe mix, or spice up a mushroom risotto with a sprinkling of grasshoppers.  (more…)

International Lupus Day puts spotlight on dearth of awareness in SA

Posted on May 10, 2012  /  No Comments

More than a quarter of a million of South Africans are estimated to be living with Lupus, yet “South Africans have no idea what this disease is all about and even the doctors need to get educated”, according to Lupus awareness campaigner Susan van der Walt, who was diagnosed with the auto-immunity disease in 2005. (more…)

Facing up to the uncomfortable reality of domestic work

Posted on April 20, 2012  /  No Comments

I only realised how weird it is that most middle-class South African families — even those in the lower end of that spectrum — employ a domestic worker when I went overseas for the first time. It was a surprise to discover that in many countries across the globe the luxury of having someone clean up your mess is one that only the very well-off can afford. We’re so reliant on this unusual luxury that it’s become a common joke the only thing keeping many from packing for Perth is that the Madam won’t know how to cope without her Eve. (more…)

High-level nuke trenderpreneurs hazardous to SA’s health

Posted on April 3, 2012  /  No Comments

Nukes. The very word sends shivers down many a spine and conjures up images of radiation ravaged victims of Chernobyl and, more recently, thousands of Japanese fleeing their homes after the Fukushima meltdown only a year ago. (more…)

Violence against women just ‘aint funny

Posted on March 9, 2012  /  No Comments

My sense of humour can be quite dark. Some may even say it borders on the macabre. But even I draw the line sometimes.

A string of incidents over the week before I wrote this made me colour that line with permanent marker.

The first was a video by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta). Those overly-zealous, militant bunny-huggers are known for ad campaigns which are hard-hitting, shocking and often tasteless, just to ram the point down all our animal-eating throats. But their latest online ad is by far the most offside to date. (more…)

The Big Issue, all grown up

Posted on February 20, 2012  /  No Comments

Fifteen years. That may not be a lot in human years, but in magazine years it’s one heck of a long time. Not quite the same as dog years, but close.

The magazine as it is today — a commercially competitive publication with a wide and loyal readership — is the product of nurturing by several editors before me. She (I designate a female identity to all my inanimate objects — from cars to washing machines) was born to Charmaine Bruins in December 1996 as a wrinkly, crinkly and somewhat smudgy black and white baby. Raymond Joseph then nursed her from the fourth edition and fattened her up from a bi-monthly to a monthly publication, now in full colour. (more…)

Get soppy about Africa this Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 7, 2012  /  No Comments

Forget boxes of chocolates and roses for your beau – this Valentine’s Day Fairtrade Label South Africa (FLSA) wants you to rebel against the soppy clichés and to show your love for Africa instead.

FLSA’s ‘Show your love for Africa’ campaign calls on South Africans to share the reasons why they love Africa in 50 words or less on FLSA’s Facebook and Twitter pages. (more…)

Why SA shouldn’t bow to the East

Posted on January 27, 2012  /  No Comments

I read Stanley Kwenda’s report on the rising tension between Zimbabweans and Chinese investors and entrepreneurs in our neighbouring country in The Big Issue’s latest edition with a creeping sense of dread. Alarm bells began to ring as similarities between China’s business interests in Zimbabwe and the powerhouse’s dealings with our own country became ever more striking. (more…)

The end of the world as we know it…here’s hoping

Posted on January 16, 2012  /  No Comments

So, this is the year the world is supposed to end. I don’t quite believe “The End is Nigh” hysteria — and neither do most Mesoamerican experts. I’d wager the Mayans probably just ran out of clay to make another calendar beyond 2012. Or they reckoned they had made enough for a couple of centuries and needed a good old holiday. Maybe they even got unionised and went on strike. I can just picture those callus-handed workers, sick of painstakingly carving out all those symbols in circular stone slabs, downing tools and hitting the bargaining table: “Boss, we’ve made these damn calendars all the way to 2012, can’t we give it a break for a couple of years?” Little did the Mayans know they’d be wiped out before they had the chance to pick up their chisels again. (more…)

When private security becomes a public concern

Posted on October 21, 2011  /  1 Comment

I’m a big fan of the improvement district (ID) concept. It works like this: if the majority of property owners in an area vote for that area to be turned into an ID, they pay an extra levy via their rates. Those funds are then channelled from the city to the ID to be used for improving the designated area. Most of the IDs start off focusing on tackling “crime and grime” but, like the Muizenberg Improvement District which I live in, they move on to include beautification and greening projects and initiatives to promote business and tourism to the area, and generally make life a lot peachier for residents. (more…)

Patronising, brought to you by the SA government

Posted on September 27, 2011  /  46 Comments

The below column, published in The Big Issue in March 2011, won Sipho Hlongwane the Vodacom Columnist of the Year award for the Western region in the 2011 Vodacom Journalist of the Year awards

Sometimes I wish someone would take a big sjambok out and give South Africa a jolly good hiding. The amount of snotty-nosed stupidity this country can generate beggars belief. (more…)

Words may lead to sticks and stones

Posted on September 23, 2011  /  20 Comments

So, the Breitling-boasting Julius Malema has been found guilty of hate speech for singing Dubul’ iBhunu (Shoot the Boer). Wait, don’t move off the page, I promise I’m not going to join every other commentator in SA and debate the merits or demerits of the judgment. (more…)