Because apparently having your own talk show for starting a thing on the internet isn’t enough, recent polling of Australia’s Labor Party suggests that the Wikileaks founder is reasonably likely to get elected to the Australian senate, should he choose to go ahead with plans to run.
Patricia de Lille is about to fire off a proposal to award the Freedom of the City of Cape Town to Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle. According to Cape Town’s mayor, the couple exuded leadership, excellence and inclusion, which made them “natural candidates for the city’s highest accolade.”
Derided or not, proponents of the KONY2012 campaign have managed to make Kony famous, or at the very least a topic of conversation. And now it would seem authorities are close to capturing him as well. There are three international armies hunting him, and according to Uganda’s army chief Aronda Nyakairima, Joseph Kony is currently operating in volatile border areas between Sudan and South Sudan:
CISPA – the ugly cousin of other internet-crippling bills SOPA and PIPA, whether Facebook admits it or not – passed late last week in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives. Worse, the bill was amended before it passed to allow even more types of private information to be tapped and shared by government agencies in the US.
Say what you want about South Africa, at least we’ve got some pretty good advertising in this country. It’s not just Nando’s or Santam that have the monopoly on that either. Check out this spicy ad from Kulula, telling us all about their new special.
Yesterday comedian Russell Brand gave evidence to British MP’s about his battle with addiction during a renewal of the government’s current drugs policy. True to his style, Brand sported a sleeveless t-shirt that showed off his heavily tattooed arm, copious jewellery, cowboy boots and hat, and a long trenchcoat. His colourful speech included a description of how emotional and psychological difficulties led to him becoming addicted to drugs.
SABC Radio and The New Age newspaper have reported that Julius Malema’s expulsion from the ANC has been upheld. As from today, 24 April 2012, Julius Malema is no longer a card-carrying member of the ANC, and holds no office in the party, or any of it’s organs.
If you’ve been following the Kony 2012 movement, you’d remember they called for an April 20 world wide canvassing campaign. “Cover the Night” also hit Cape Town over the weekend and saw activists put up their share of posters around town. See all the “excitement” after the jump.
A youth activist based in Johannesburg has apparently laid a complaint with the SA Human Rights Commission (HRC) regarding Helen Zille’s tweet of almost two weeks ago, where she referred to scholars in the Eastern Cape that come to the Western Cape for schooling as “refugees”. Read his justification while Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” gently resonates in your head, after the jump!
Nobel Peace laureate, Aung Sun Suu Kyi has hailed “the beginning of a new era” in Myanmar’s (also known as Burma) politics after her party claimed a spectacular 43 out of 44 parliamentary seats in a historic by-election yesterday.
This weekend, the City Press reported that Minister Lulu Xingwana, on being told she couldn’t have her flight seat upgraded from economy to business class, she merely enquired, “whether or not this was because she is a k****r?” Xingwana has responded by saying it is all “sensational hot air”, and accused the paper of “one-sided and biased journalism.”
Less than a week after Helen Zille’s latest Twitter-storm about comments she made about the state of education here in the Western Cape versus the same in our neighbours – she called students from the Eastern Cape who attend school here “refugees” – she has gotten all up in the ANC’s grille once more with fresh comments regarding the state of health here versus there.
Despite his insistence that Pretoria’s name would be history by the end of this year, it seems Tshwane Metro’s mayor, Kgosientso Ramokgopa, has had to concede that while the city name “Pretoria” will stay, a handful of street names will be made over. Details after the jump!
Here is a great example of how easy it is to ensure yourself a long, celebrated career in politics. After attending a conference in Washington recently, Barack Obama greeted some audience members. A deaf student in the crowd signed to him: “I am proud of you.” Not missing a beat, Obama signed back: “Thank you.” Video after the jump.
Black and coloured residents of sleepy Overberg town, Grabouw, were at each others’ throats yesterday as racial tensions exploded over attacks on a local school.
Can you imagine what these people must be like in real life? A picture taken of a racist bumper sticker aimed at Barack Obama has gone viral. Referring to the upcoming US elections – in which Obama will stand for a second term – it reads: “Don’t Re-Nig In 2012. Stop repeat offenders. Don’t re-elect Obama!”
The Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans’ Association (MKMVA) has kicked up quite a bit of dust over a statement they’ve made about Julius Malema. They say that if this was still the struggle era, Malema would have been killed by a firing squad for “the way in which he was rude to the ANC leadership.” See the ANCYL’s response after the jump.
Five guys recently got shortlisted for a promotion at the Western Cape Department of Correctional Services. Only one of them was recommended for the job, but because he is White he won’t get it. Instead, these leaked internal memo’s show that the post will be advertised and the process followed repeatedly, until a suitable Black candidate can be found for the position.
Yesterday, the internet was all about Invisible Children’s #stopKONY campaign and video, but while Americans get themselves into a froth about a country they don’t even know the location of, and a man they only know through rumours, we take a closer look at the organisation behind the hype. And as a number of commentators look closer, the cracks in Invisible Children’s premise, promises and their presentation become anything but invisible.
Recently, the ANC released a wad of discussion documents that will lead the various policy discussions at its upcoming National Electoral Conference this year. One of them outlines a startling plan to reshuffle and re-organise South Africa’s provinces to “ensure more functionality, economic viability and racial/ethnic integration”. So what exactly does that mean?
This weekend, the G20 Ministers of Foreign Affairs held an informal meeting in Mexico. During this time a group photo was taken of everyone wearing tropical, weather-ready white cotton shirts. Everyone except Hillary Clinton, that is. Clearly her memo was lost in the mail as she rocked up in a lime green blouse. Awkward group photo after the jump.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, that former head of the IMF who totally didn’t rape anybody, is being questioned by French police as a suspect in a prostitution ring inquiry, a prosecutor says. The man who was probably going to be the next president of France could be held for up to 48 hours.
Yesterday Julius Malema’s struggle with the South Africa’s judicial system surfaced in the media. See the video of him discussing his love-hate relationship with his white lawyers inside, but also keep an eye on our boy’s outfit. Once again he reminds us that just because you are a beret-wearing revolutionary, there is no excuse for not popping at least two collars in the process.
So there’s good news and bad news. According to figures released today: in January, our economy created 80 000 jobs, which is a significant rise from the end of 2011, but still significantly short of government targets. What’s the situation?
The lady in white clinging on for dear life to a security guard in this image is actually the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. Riot police had to force a path for her through a crowd of angry protesters following a ceremony to mark Australia’s national day yesterday. Intense video footage of the incident after the jump.
A rather sexy poster, featuring a naked interracial couple sparked debates across social platforms yesterday. Created by the DA Student Organisation, it shows a white man embracing a black woman with the tagline: “DASO: In our future you wouldn’t look twice.”
Following his opening address for the International Knowledge Conference at the University of Stellenbosch Business School, former president, Thabo Mbeki voiced some concerns about Twitter as “a great conveyor of reliable knowledge,” pointing to Gaddafi’s overthrow as a consequence of “false knowledge,” rather than the social media. Mbeki immediately started trending on Twitter.
In one of the closest candidate-selection ballots in US history, former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney won out over Rick Santorum at the Iowa caucuses, the nation’s first major electoral event of the year. Santorum and Romney switched between first and second frequently during the night, but a last-minute eight-vote tie margin put Romney ahead.
Two female sailors yesterday became the first to share the traditional “first kiss” on the pier following the repeal of the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. And because people are clever about these things, they took a couple of photographs modeled after that post-WW2 first kiss photo. It’s very cool.
You can say a lot of things about South African politics, but the worst we do to bloody agents is chase them from our revolutionary houses. In Russia they get thrown into the St Petersburg River.