Opinion
LitNet contributors voice their opinions about current affairs.
Migrants: fear of the "Other" changing the face of politics in Europe
2023-07-27"Apart from getting sanctions lifted – and the calculation is that the effect of the latest grain shipping blockade embargo will trigger another massive migration crisis in Europe – Putin must also be hoping that the political impact in the EU will speed up calls for an end to the war in Ukraine via a negotiated settlement."
Book discussion and interview on the Juta publication: Copyright reform or reframe?
2023-07-20"[The Copyright Amendment Bill] will do inestimable damage to our law of copyright and related areas. Perhaps worst of all, if made law, they will cause immense harm to the very people they purport to be assisting, namely the authors, the composers, the artists and generally the creative persons who seek to produce new and better works and make a livelihood from doing so."
Violence
2023-07-19"We gain a certain understanding of Victorian classrooms at home and abroad, during the colonial period and after. We also learned of the contemporary cultures of neoliberal kitchens in neoliberal cities, and by implication, of many universities, their purposes of higher education and coercive relations of governance and management."
South Africa, Russia and ten days that shook the world: Pretoria’s love affair with Moscow
2023-06-30"For Moscow, Fischer was to South Africa what Togliatti was to Italy – a loyal communist, through and through, who was majorly responsible for persuading the ANC to emulate the multiracial South African Communist Party and take in other races as members."
John William Colenso: Heretic or savant?
2023-06-29"In appraising Colenso, some have portrayed him as a heretic, an ambiguous figure and an enigma. As a bishop, he never really fitted in with the work he was meant to do, because of his divergent views from the mainstream canons of the English Church. This is not to deny his work as a missionary and a teacher, which, in retrospect, might have been the correct designation for his role."
The power of humour: Does it help or hurt us?
2023-06-29"It’s true that an attitude of good humour can ease the difficulties of everyday life, at least on an individual level. But does humour offer us anything more than that – an individual escape?"
Practical protection orders: How to stop harassment
2023-06-15"When no means no, does the law protect victims enough? Harassment orders are legal answers to stalkers and abusers; successful orders require the cooperation of courts and police services, which appears to be easier said than done."
Marc Bamuthi Joseph: video of the keynote address, Tribuo arts conference, 3 June 2023
2023-06-08Marc Bamuthi Joseph is the vice-president and artistic director of social impact at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. He delivered the keynote address at the Tribuo arts conference held in Stellenbosch in June 2023, and he spoke about a transformative future and the currencies of redemption.
Africa Day: Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika
2023-05-25"Lastly, I dream of an Africa that honours its own identity and looks after its cultural/historical heritage. Of a new African consciousness – not just in politics, but in a deeper worldview of environmental respect that arises from the philosophy of Ubuntu bethu, which we inherited from our forefathers and ancestors."
The hype of federalism
2023-05-12"Only those with selfish private economic income would think that a federal arrangement of our provinces makes sense, when the majority of our provinces are poor and rural, without many economic prospects. The rest of us know the drab reality of how the majority of our people are dependent on the state for the bare minimum of their living income."
The past is another empire: the coronation of King Charles on 6 May 2023
2023-05-04"Seventy years ago, as a boy of six, I attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. And now, decades later, Charles is about to be crowned king, and his mother’s empire is long gone. There is an irony in this, and I wouldn’t be in his shoes for all the tea in China."
South Africa bracketed with China and Russia: Is resentment of the West the real reason for Pretoria’s choice of strange bedfellows?
2023-04-25"The Ukraine-Russia war drags on, slowly but surely getting more dangerous as Western weapons pour in and the Russian army suffers absurd losses but keeps grinding into battle anyway."
South Africa’s national election in 2024: exciting times ahead?
2023-04-13"The ANC is losing ground to the EFF in that vital community, black youth. Young people worldwide are not interested in attending monthly meetings at which elderly people give rambling talks on the proud history of their movement – young people want action, protests, burning tyres, walking on and over the lines of legality. This the EFF offers, while the ANC Youth League is moribund, conceding this cohort of voters to the EFF."
Submission in opposition to the current Copyright Amendment Bill
2023-03-22"We implore the legislature to reconsider the entire clause 12A and 12D until a proper socio-economic impact assessment has been done. We are legitimately concerned that fair use will diminish legal certainty and harm authors and publishers by diminishing their work, and creating a climate for freely using their work without permission or compensation."
The sports bet & the bunny chow
2023-03-22"It’s why casinos are loud, have no clocks and give you free stuff every few spins. Like casinos, pachinko machines or Candy Crush, houses might be aware that some of their customers are there to go on a date, and then to lose a moerse klomp money over a f#%$n bunny chow."
"Maar jy’t eintlik vet geword" is just not a nice thing to say
2023-03-16"I was tired of wanting to regain compliments on my exterior, yet I was also tired of the dreadful comments directed at my weight. I had to learn how to love myself again."
ChatGPT, God and Scotland’s new Joan of Arc
2023-03-06"What sustains churchgoers then, other than blind faith? What empirical evidence is there for the existence of God? Perhaps if there was something more tangible for this woke and plugged-in generation concretely to put their hands on, then they may come to believe, as Kate Forbes does. I decided to put the question to ChatGPT."
Can there be a dance between the health sciences and the arts?
2023-03-06"The social determinants of health include factors such as income, unemployment and job insecurity, education, working conditions, food insecurity, early childhood development and access to health services. Research shows that these social determinants can be more important than healthcare or lifestyle choices in influencing health."
Press release: Ukraine, a year of war crimes and resolve
2023-02-23At least 13 Ukrainian and foreign journalists and media workers have been killed since 24 February 2022 while carrying out their professional duties.