Litnet

"Painful choices had to be made, if Meyer was to save both his house and his delicate wife from the privations of the crowded concentration camps, rife with disease and primitive sanitation. In Meyer’s view, the war was taking too brutal a toll, and would be lost in any event. Honourable surrender was the best way forward."

"The playwright sits on the stoep and watches the Cape robins and company flock into the back garden as objects around him in the cold dawn claim their shapes back from the night. The feathered visitors know when his wife has refilled the bird feeders, all cleverly designed to deny grey squirrels access. Having had their fill, the diners start the morning’s grooming and noisy chattering."

"It is important for parents to be empowered and to get involved in the debates around education. .... Parents as well as learners themselves should consider making submissions and having their voices heard."

"For just a day, we are asked to stop and think about our mental health and the health of colleagues. We are asked to consider when we are the patient needing help, how we go about accessing that help."

"Shakespeare always moved with the times; he would certainly have added that music is the food of politics, not only love, judging from contemporary events."

"On the same day Moscow’s chief propagandist warned that Russia had the capacity to ignite a 'Poseidon' underwater nuke capable of submerging Britain with a giant radioactive tsunami, I listened to Freek Robinson on LitNet interviewing Theo Venter on the likelihood of President Putin actually using an atomic bomb."

"So, as I stand on my stoep, looking up at the two rows of houses, I make the niyyah to pop around to each home and ask my neighbours what makes Ramadaan so special here on our street."

"Putin fears NATO expansion and the loss of his throne. EU countries are scared that Russia will invade them again. Ukraine understandably fears dismemberment. America fears the end of its hegemony. And China is afraid that its rise to great power status will be thwarted. Fear underlies all the guns, bombs and sanctions. It is what lies behind the bellicose statements and absurd propaganda."

"Piqued by his anonymity, by how well his poetry survived the passage of years, and by an error – which I learned only later was an error – I started looking for whatever I could lay my hands on concerning Vincent Swart, perhaps South Africa’s best forgotten poet."

"Can a Russia without Ukraine be the Russia it thinks it should be?"

"Within this country’s contemporary political discussion any mention of insurrection would likely refer to last July’s still unsatisfactorily understood KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng events. Besides historical enthusiasts, comparatively few South Africans will be aware that March marks the centenary of another local insurrection: the 1922 Rand Revolt/Revolution/Uprising or Miners’ Strike ..."

"But meanwhile, when Viktor was pressed to describe the essential difference between the bilingual Ukrainians and Russians, essentially speaking one another's language, he said the nearest analogy was that of Ireland and England."

"Am I waxing poetic about Russian culture? No, I don’t think so. I am not saying that Putin is good, or doing good things. But I have seen and experienced and read and been born into a life that sees, very well, that to heal the cycles of violence we are used to, we need to think differently to how we have been feeling thus far."

"What wasn’t surprising about the vote on Ukraine at the United Nations General Assembly on 2 March 2022 was that South Africa abstained ... For South Africa’s foreign policy to become focused on human rights again, the left-nationalist power cabal that is the ANC must go ... But underneath, tremendous forces are at play. The world is being reordered and it is unlikely to be in Africa’s favour."

"They bomb in the evening. And with bags in hand, we go down from the tenth floor to the subway."

"Institutional support and status involves far more than just mouthing platitudes to the electorate. It means a dogged determination, as displayed in the development of Afrikaans to where it is today."

"All the public talks and podcasts in Russia, all the conversations with friends and family, come down to just a few topics: Will the metro be a safe place to hide in case Moscow is bombed by NATO? Is it the right time to withdraw all cash from our bank accounts? Is it too late to buy US dollars and sell the stocks? Will our young male family members be mobilised and sent to war, most of them against their will? Will the government start mass repression of its own citizens, those who dare to speak up?"

"With the sun reaching nearly 40 degrees, some of the uncles are not singing from the flat-surfaced rock, and instead they sit under a gazebo, serenading the beachgoers with their velvet voices."

"The war began today (24 February 2022) ... Today represents the world’s failure to find peace for Ukraine. Unfortunately, tomorrow won’t be any better."

"The need for comfortable multilingual interaction from childhood is crucial in establishing respect and a sense of community in a country of diverse people." – Marguerite Poland remembers Benjamin Mahlasela, her Xhosa language tutor at Rhodes University 50 years ago.