THE days when jetting off to places like Chile or Paraguay were considered a political in-joke are long gone, but the fact remains that South Africa's head of Aikona!-stan is beginning to look suspiciously like he is on a perpetual state visit to parts unknown. Could it be that Thabo Mbeki is try...

"I write what I like." — Steve Biko HAS your work been suppressed? Do you live in fear of retribution from the powers that be? We all have stories to tell of hitting that glass wall, whether through abuse of editorial power, misuse of legal authority, or merely brushing copy under the carpet, the...

AFTER hearing pretty much every angle on the nuclear issue over the last two decades, it seems the best argument for not pursuing this technology comes from the nuclear industry itself: "The atom bomb is a huge risk to public safety and is the only rational reason not to support nuclear energy"....

DON'T you just love the hypocrisy of South Africa's media double standards? One law for the rich, another law for the poor? Wealthy media barons who proclaim to have your best interests at heart but at the same time, steal copyright, insist on not paying for services, push their bottom line way p...

THE Cape Times is gambling that enough people in this country suffer from collective amnesia – that readers will forget what happened last week, or the week before that, and even last year and the year before. They are waging a bet that a small judgement against them means nothing. The Independen...

Fagin, spendthrift character who refuses to give an extra bowl of soup to the homeless, from Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist. Willie Wonka, strange boss who keeps oompa loompas locked up inside a factory and forces them to make sweets. (Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) Cruella de Vil...