Opinion

LitNet contributors voice their opinions about current affairs.

Being coloured, a complexity in itself

tizz_91 2013-10-01 "Maybe the problem is not race, but the embracing of one’s roots. Like black South Africans are Xhosa or Zulu, etc, coloured people need to know which “tribe” they come from and celebrate it and live with the South African heritage in all its complexities."

Add hope: Socially conscious advertising

Doug Smart, Naomi Meyer, Lauren Turnbull 2013-09-27 Two major South African award ceremonies in the advertising industry took place recently: the Pendoring awards on the 20th and the Loeries on the 21st of September 2013. Humour and social commentary on the South African situation seemed to be common themes. After attending the Pendoring awards, Naomi Meyer noted with interest the new marketing campaign of Kentucky Fried Chicken by Ogilvy Johannesburg.

Heritage Day interview: Mamelodi for a Month

Ena Hewitt, Julian Hewitt, Naomi Meyer 2013-09-23 National Braai Day? Nope. A photo taken in Mamelodi by a privileged white South African family (who is under public scrutiny after moving into a squatter camp for a month in an attempt to see how the other half lives).

No more blurred lines – putting misogyny on parole

Megan Jane Bursey 2013-09-23 "'Suggestive', 'misogynistic' and 'demeaning' are three words which came to mind while I was watching the music video for Robin Thicke’s song 'Blurred Lines'."

Popping the Potchefstroom bubble

Leigh Schaller 2013-08-27 "Next time you’re driving into Potchefstroom, you may hear a plop sound. Don’t worry, none of your tyres has burst. You’re just entering the Puk (Potchefstroom University) bubble. You’re perfectly safe from the outside world. In fact, there is no need to stress too much about anything that extends further than the Mooi River from now on."

About Beauty: A love letter

Izak de Vries 2013-08-12 "This is a love letter to some of the most remarkable full stops in the world, and to their friends. It could also have been an essay about beauty, but I’d rather treat it as the former."

lKh? da !hoa 2013: Press release

Chrisna Beuke-Muir 2013-08-06 "By means of the first Namibian Word Festival, the lKh? da !hoa, I want the public to  acknowledge and give hope to the people in our country who create art even if they are poor and not always in a position to have the luxury of studying."

The spokespeople that won’t speak

Xanthe Hunt 2013-08-05 Why is the beautiful but earwormish “Adiemus” one of the theme tunes to a Johannesburg journalist’s life? It is provincial government’s ”hold” tone.

St James Church shooting: Twenty years on

Mervyn Eloff, Naomi Meyer 2013-07-25 On 25 July 1993 a shooting was carried out at the St James Church in Cape Town. Twenty years on, Naomi Meyer speaks to the rector, Mervyn Eloff.

A history of violence – and bullfighting

AC Coubleigh 2013-06-28 "South African writer John M Coetzee’s public appeal to Spain’s Cultural Committee contemplating the decision of whether or not to legally protect bullfighting as a 'cultural pastime' essentially pleads with the country’s lawmakers ... to be 'nicer' to unaware and unfortunate bulls."

World Press Freedom Day 2013

Pieter-Dirk Uys 2013-05-03 Pieter Dirk-Uys launched a political "movement" on World Press Freedom Day 2013 to unite those seeking an alternative democracy in the country. He addressed journalists at the Fugard Theatre in Cape Town on 3 May 2013. Read the full text of his speech.

Our needs differ. What to do? (Advice from a life coach)

Renate Landman Academic research 2013-02-11

"If you are the partner who pretends to be asleep to avoid your partner’s sexual advances, then – out of your love for and commitment to your mate – please seek the help you need."

Teen sex law: what changed and why?

Samantha Waterhouse, Naomi Meyer 2013-01-22 "Unfortunately the criminalisation of consensual sexual acts between adolescents, which has been the status quo in this country for decades, has not been shown to have any effect in preventing sexual activity between consenting young people. It does not prevent young people from choosing to engage in sex, nor does it provide them with the tools they need to make healthy decisions."

Imraan Coovadia responds to Ian Glenn

Imraan Coovadia 2013-01-07 "And all this, right to the edge of racial hatred, to prevent the fair or unfair scrutiny of a book and a writer?"

Every generation has its struggle

Lyndal Pottier, Naomi Meyer 2012-12-04 "As Trevor Manual identified in 2011, education is one of the most pressing problems in South Africa, the other being unemployment." Lyndal Pottier talks about how Equal Education wants to transform society.

I benefited from apartheid

Roger Young, Naomi Meyer 2012-11-15 "I truly just find myself quite irritated with people who say things like, "Apartheid was 20 years ago, why can’t just we get over it?" The fact is that white people in general can be very lazy about transformation, and the lazier they are, the more vocal they are on this level."

Writing in prison: Ampie Coetzee responds to Helize van Vuuren

Ampie Coetzee 2012-10-23 "Breyten's prison writing – Afrikaans poetry, of which little has been translated into English – comprises an anthology of 448 pages! The quality of these verses has been maintained in the more or less 20 books written since then."

Eish! The succession is with us again

FM Lucky Mathebula 2012-10-09 "As the murky road to Mangaung assumes a character of a dog-eats-dog fight, unlike a pig that eats its offspring, the ANC needs to demonstrate that its known resilience is equally fit to withstand conditions of legality, 'ruling-party-ness' and incumbency."

Who is African and who is not?

Christo van der Rheede 2012-09-06 "Well, I am an African and owe it not to my blackness, brownness or whiteness, but to my Khoisan, Malabar slave, Xhosa, Dutch, French, German and Scottish forefathers who embraced this continent with their hearts and souls, who made it their home and who developed this country."

Darryl David on the third Midlands Literary Festival

Darryl David, Naomi Meyer 2012-08-20 Founder and director of the Midlands Literary Festival, Darryl David, talks to Naomi Meyer about this exciting event, now in its third year.
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