Opinion
LitNet contributors voice their opinions about current affairs.
To Google or to Chat? Getting information is likely to change
2023-02-14"Google makes about 80% of its revenue from search. And up until now, they’ve more or less had a monopoly on search, with over 90% of the world’s search queries going through Google. In fact, we don’t talk about searching for something online; we talk about googling it. But monopolies can fall. Remember Skype?"
The demise of Eskom | Iingxaki zikaEskom zikubaphathi
2023-02-07"The provision of reliable energy is at the centre of South Africa's ability to solve the scourge of poverty, unemployment, inequality, violent crime ..." | "Yiyo kuphela indlela enokukwazi ukusikhupha kula manyundululu orhwaphilizo kulungiswe eli ziko uEskom aphuhlise isizwe, azise impilo engcono kwabo babetheka kakhulu yintlupheko nokulamba."
Opening the GG Cillié Building and visual redress at Stellenbosch University (VRSU)
2023-02-07"Currently, SU has adopted a visual redress policy to come to terms with its historical relations with the apartheid state structure. Starting in 2015, student protests, namely #Rhodesmustfall, #Feesmustfall and #OpenStellenbosch, called for 'transformation' and 'decolonisation' at historically white universities. SU reacted by choosing 'visual redress' as one of its core responses to these protests."
Is the "big picture" of South Africa really so bad?
2023-02-06"In 1994, ignorant of this future, and on a national consensus of all political parties, we set out to do something that no country before us had done – we set out to deliver a welfare state to a country with a rapidly growing population, in the absence of an oil bonanza or some such."
Getting the lights to work by teaching anti-corruption values
2023-01-26"What’s gone wrong with Mandela’s ANC?"
Obituary: Frene Ginwala – ANC loyalist and friend to an important overseas audience
2023-01-20"Dignified to the last is how she will be remembered."
General De la Rey and his accidental part in Hitler’s downfall
2023-01-17"The legendary Boer War hero, Koos de la Rey, was a kind of Volodymyr Zelensky of his day – a 'bittereinder' tactical genius (he introduced trench warfare to South Africa) who refused to surrender to Lord Roberts after the capture of Pretoria, and tormented the British imperial army to the 'bitter end'."
The ANC: Is there hope for a new generation?
2023-01-09"Politics is a dynamic field, and one can only hope that one way we as South Africans can have a future of some sort, lies in the energies of the next generation of leaders who bear with them the qualities of integrity."
Season’s greetings (and some outrageous predictions) for 2023
2022-12-21"This is the traditional end of the seasonal (and astrological) cycle when we take stock of what lies ahead. New Year’s resolutions are wheeled out, and everyone has a crystal ball."
LitNet-AfriKI-miniseminaar: Kunsmatige intelligensie as skrywer
2022-12-20Wil jy deelneem en jou opinie gee? ChatGPT van OpenAI en die vermoëns van kunsmatige intelligensie het almal aan die gons. Kan ’n KI-romanskrywer die Hertzogprys ontvang? Waar gaan uitgewers hulself posisioneer? En skryf studente binnekort opstelle met KI-sagteware? Hoe gaan studieleiers weet of ’n verhandeling volledig of gedeeltelik deur ’n student geskryf is? Watter invloed gaan dit op geakkrediteerde akademiese tydskrifte hê? Hoe gaan die media daarmee omgaan? Wat wag op ons? Laat van jou hoor!
Water-saving tips generated by an algorithm using artificial intelligence
2022-12-13"By planting these and other drought-resistant indigenous plants in your garden, you can help to conserve water and create a beautiful, sustainable landscape. It is important to do your research and choose plants that are well-suited to the conditions in your area."
Language of activism
2022-12-13"From Fanon to Robert Sobukwe and Biko, these are prototypes of what Richard Wright called his 'split position' and 'double vision', which a Western-educated black man born in the Anglo-American-oppressive zeitgeist has to deal with."
To swim or not to swim
2022-12-08"The beach quandary arose after I read a Rapport article, 'Jy swem eers, dan swem ons, Meneer die Burgemeester', which stated that Durban may be forced to keep their beaches closed due to high E. coli levels in the water."
New history curriculum for South African schools 2024: A historian’s opinion
2022-11-29"A new history curriculum is scheduled for implementation; completion thereof is intended by 2024, and it is almost definitely constructed around ANC nationalistic assumptions of what constitutes valid historical knowledge. This potentially forebodes disturbing implications regarding state attempts to manipulate students’ comprehension of their own identity, particularly minorities and specifically white South Africans."
Race and Transformation in Higher Education Conference raises crucial themes in pursuit of Stellenbosch University’s transformation journey
2022-11-25"Attended by 150 persons from various regional and international universities, as well as participants from civil society, the conference occurred in the wake of the release of the Khampepe Report, which highlights, among other things, the lived experiences particularly of students and staff of colour at SU."
The ambiguity of the name Luckhoff: my thoughts at the Race and Transformation in Higher Education Conference at Stellenbosch University
2022-11-25"While I was sitting in one of the conference sessions, I recalled a discussion we’d had in school 35 years before. It was about the name of the school which I matriculated from. The issue was, who is this person whom Luckhoff, our school, was named after?"
We cannot go back: my reactions to the Race and Transformation in Higher Education Conference at Stellenbosch University
2022-11-24"I come to the Race and Transformation Conference looking for expert, substantive ways of understanding race and transformation globally, and at Stellenbosch University. I crave an ethical and empirical sense-making, gatvol of the patriarchal, anecdotal tales I am fed, before being silenced."
China’s President Xi: Crossing the Rubicon
2022-11-09"But crossing the Rubicon, as always, carries risks. PW Botha lasted a few years more, Julius Caesar had his Ides of March moment not long after – and Xi Jinping?"
Cyril Ramaphosa, King Charles and Rishi Sunak – the art of imperial swagger redefined
2022-10-26"The bottom line of Ramaphosa’s state visit to King Charles and new prime minister Rishi Sunak is that adroit footwork is now required by all parties to mitigate the effects of the global polycrisis, defined by historian Adam Tooze as a situation consisting of multiple crises, the whole being more dangerous than the sum of the parts. The danger is the deep global recession now taking shape ...."
Amos Nteta: Growing up in the shadow of the Cradock Four
2022-10-19In this video Amos Nteta talks about the work of Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkhonto and Sicelo Mhlauli, who jointly became known as the Cradock Four.