Building a nation’s reputation as a realistic investment and tourism destination is not pie in the sky nor is it simple nor is it one-dimensional. But successes should feature prominently in the national display cabinet as well.

While Billy Joel’s 1980 hit rocks the socks off the perennial theme of “love”, in a perverse (and back-to-front) way it seems to hint at the fundamental metaphysical concept of falsifiability – that by demonstrating the falsehood of a belief or proposition we can determine whether it is true or useful.

How can government make more money? Simple. Tax everything that moves. The latest "green tax" proposals are a thin cloak for bleeding the masses dry.

We’ve succumbed to the oldest political trick in the book: When things go wrong, kick the cat.

We are all equal in death, and we are all equal in the face of the homicidal South African minibus taxi driver. We’ve come to accept death as inevitable through centuries of experience. In less than half a century, we’ve come to accept the utterly disdainful way with which minibus taxi drivers treat all people, inside and outside their death-mobiles. 

Dear Robert,
Through the insanity that has been your reign there have been times when I seriously started to believe you were immortal and would live forever, but just recently your sister died and now I hear you are slowly losing your battle against cancer. It would seem all men die sometime.

The proposed Protection of Information Bill is an exercise in purest futility. The Information Express left the station years ago and simply cannot be stopped. Just ask the Chinese or the American intelligence community.

In what must be one of the most overhyped political events in modern South African history, Helen Zille and Patricia de Lille have decided that it is time for the DA is munch up the ID. Strangely enough, the biggest winner appears to be good old Patricia.

It's not personal, the President tells the media. So stop being such cry-babies, and let's talk about all the things that are wrong with the media in South Africa. Which would have been not at all concerning, except that the President apparently (a) has no idea of the deep introspection already happening within the media, (b) believes it's as simple as "ANC good, media bad" fight, and (c) thinks government performance should only be judged by those who are in tune with ANC objectives.

Amid all the yackety-yack about freedom of choice versus censorship, pornography and moral rectitude, we need to ponder whether our children are more in peril from cyber-porn or lazy parents and irresponsible education.

Homophobes aren’t the only people making gay (and bisexual) life difficult these days. There are also those people who think homosexuality is a biological absolute, that it’s okay to be gay because the poor dears can’t help it. Puh-leeze! Sexuality is fluid, it’s a choice, and no one has the right to tell others what to do – or to pigeonhole them for doing it.