A discursive journey into the highways and byways of English
By Hook Or By Crook: A Journey In Search Of English by David Crystal My rating: 4 of 5 stars A discursive linguistic and geographical ramble through Wales, and bits of England bordering on Wales, with...
View ArticleFacilitating conflict
A few years ago, when I was working in the Editorial Department at the University of South Africa, the university administration arranged for all the staff in the department to attend a workshop on...
View ArticleThe Apocalypse is coming!
The Apocalpyse is coming! The Apocalypse is coming! Web sites like this one have been proclaiming it, with “Apocalypse” spelt with a capital letter, of course. The 2012 Apocalypse is predicted by an...
View ArticleAfrikaans cultural award for two Orthodox priests
Yesterday we went to the Voortrekker Monument for a ceremony in which two Orthodox priests, Fr Zacharias van Wyk and Fr Kobus van der Riet, were given special awards for their contribution to Afrikaans...
View ArticleCan we only understand racism in terms of postmodern litcrit academic jargon?
There seems to be a growing tendency among academics to define racism in terms so abstract and obscure that it is difficult to know what they are talking about. The most recent example I have...
View ArticleSomething bad is happening in Burundi
Something bad is happening in Burundi. I learnt this from Tweets on Twitter, and from things friends post on Facebook. Yesterday I bought a Sunday newspaper, City Press, in the hope of learning...
View ArticleHow anti-racism became racist: All lives matter
I keep seeing more and more articles and links to articles like the following: Why you should stop saying “all lives matter,” explained in 9 different ways – Vox It’s Time You Realize #AllLivesMatter...
View ArticleNew secular religions and original sin
Yesterday morning at TGIF Johan Erasmus spoke about new secular religions and original sin. There were secular ideologies that used religious language, and were rejected by some people as being “too...
View ArticleRacism and Prejudice
The other day I came across a question on Quora: What is the difference between a black man and a white man? How would you answer that question? I thought about it for a while, and looked at the other...
View ArticleWitchcraft, witches and wizards FAQ
On Question-and-Answer web sites like Quora I see so many questions about witches, wizards and witchcraft that I think one could classify them as Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), and to save a lot of...
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