Reitz 4 ‘pardon’: In defence of Prof Jansen’s decision

3rd November 2009 by Juanita

By Dr Colleen Aldous

Professor Jonathan Jansen has demonstrated a form of emotional intelligence that South Africans should be looking to as being exemplary. As a South Africa however, I hang my head in shame and disappointment, as I did when the Reitz racial incident occurred. Because instead of being him being revered and held in high esteem for the commitments he made in his inauguration speech, an oration that should go down in history as one of the greatest orations of our time, too many South Africans are currently in a vitriolic confusion, calling for his resignation as Vice-Chancellor of the University and threatening to make the campus ungovernable. It is sad that the efforts of Bishop Desmond Tutu through the Truth and Reconciliation Committees of the nineties have been so short-lived in their effects.

Bishop Tutu has however come out in praise of Professor Jansen pointing out that ‘forgiveness is not for sissies’. Professor Jansen has never been a sissie. As the first black Dean of a Faculty at the University of Pretoria, he set about changing blanket racial perceptions by setting an academic standard higher than had ever been set in his Faculty. He required of his faculty excellence beyond that which they had ever been expected to achieve. But he did not only set those standards, he demonstrated that they could be achieved. He, himself, achieved every academic goal that he set his faculty in terms of research output and publications while still delivering important social commentary in the press and running his faculty. At the beginning of his tenure as the Dean of the Faculty of Education, few people knew he was black, and his name gave no indication that he would be anything but a white Afrikaner. He would arrive at engagements to alarmed white faces and would set a
bout challenging their prejudices and converting so many racially prejudiced whites, particularly Afrikaners, into true South Africans who had no reverence for racial divide. He did this alone – he is not a sissie.

During these years, which for many could be likened to his years of being Daniel in the lion’s den, Professor Jansen also undertook to understand the complexities of white racial prejudice. He would hear stories from white students about how they had been victims of crime, crime they implied emanated exclusively from blacks. He would then tell them of crimes where his grandfather’s farm was taken from him by whites, amongst others inflicted by whites. Both he and the students got to learn of the hardships all have experienced at the hands of other people, sometimes from another race. The culmination of such discussions was the smudging of the lines between race and victimization. Professor Jansen wrote his new knowledge up in the book Knowledge in the Blood: Confronting Race and the Apartheid past. A must read for any South African who truly wants to understand our South African community dynamic.

If any South African understands the root of racial tension today, it is Jonathan Jansen. His experience, his intelligence, his strong sense of justice and the courage of his convictions has lead him to carry out one of the most remarkable acts of reconciliation we have seen this century in South Africa. He knows what he is doing and I hope he is left alone long enough for him to achieve his ultimate aim. If there be any sensibility in our land we will allow Prof Jansen to help knit our people into a single nation while preserving the diversity of our cultural treasures. His critics and detractors do not understand that the only true forgiveness is unconditional forgiveness. Anything less will not hold ground.

Dr Colleen Aldous
Research Fellow
Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA)
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine

Waiting is over for MJ fans

28th October 2009 by Renee Moodie

The documentary about Michael Jackson, This Is It, has been seen worldwide in 15 different screenings - and there were a bunch in South Africa.

Did you go? What did you think of the movie? If you couldn’t face that 2am start, will you be going?

If not, why not? There are a bunch of people who are boycotting the film as they say it covers up the grim truth about the star’s last days…

Theresa Smith went to the movie - and was very impressed.

Tell us what you think!

What’s your favourite vampire movie?

22nd October 2009 by Renee Moodie

Over on the Tonight site, we’ve got a vampire thing going.

There’s a good feature about Robert Pattinson (am I the only person in the world who doesn’t think he’s sexy?), there’s a review of  a True Blood DVD, and Tonight film writer Theresa Smith is sharing, along with a sh**load of videos.

Her favourite vampire movie at the moment? It’s Swedish film Lat Den Ratte Komma In, which she says has a combination of amazing use of light and mesmerising music which make for fascinating viewing.

As for me,  my heart belongs to Buffy.

What gets your blood flowing?

Beards are back in fashion…

16th October 2009 by Renee Moodie

A Tonight story says that a recent survey of more than 2 000 men and women conducted by Lynx unearthed some conclusively anti-beard statistics.

While 63 percent of men believed facial hair made them more manly and attractive, 92 percent of women said they preferred a clean-shaven man, with 95 percent complaining that facial stubble made a romantic kiss a turn-off. And a huge 86 percent said they found beards unattractive.

So men like beards (and they are, apparently, fashionable, again) and women don’t.  At IOL, we felt a picture gallery coming on… Check out our pic of the good, bad and ugly in beards, and tell us what you think…

Irene van Wyk dies in car crash

14th October 2009 by Renee Moodie

Renowned Afrikaans gospel singer Irene van Wyk died in a car accident after she apparently lost control of her vehicle and collided head-on with a truck.

Known by all in the industry as “The Voice”, Van Wyk performed as lead singer and bass player for 1980s all-girl group Chess who had hits with “Down by the River”, “Holiday” & “Hello My Mama”.  Irene has toured with Hotline, Stimela, Mango Groove, Brenda Fassie & Yvonne Chaka-Chaka, to name a few.

Pay your tributes here…

SA jazz legend dies

13th October 2009 by Juanita

One of Cape Town’s elders of jazz has died.

Winston Monwabisi Mankunku Ngozi was born in Retreat in 1943 - and his musicality emerged early on, according to his biography.

Mankunku experimented with piano and trumpet before he took up playing the saxophone for which he is now famous.

He will be missed, though his sounds live on…

Read the full story here

Top 5 lists: how we love them

17th September 2009 by Renee Moodie

The 2000  film High Fidelity,  based on a 1995 novel by Nick Hornby, tells the story of London record story ower Rob Fleming.  Rob and his employees  Dick and Barry spend their free moments constructing “top-five” lists of anything that demonstrates their knowledge of music. For instance, Rob’s Top Five Bands or Musicians Who Will Have To Be Shot Come the Musical Revolution:

1. Simple Minds
2. Michael Bolton
3. U2
4. Bryan Adams
5. Genesis

(Source: Wikipedia)

How we all love these Top Five lists.

Tonight colleague Zane Henry had Marc Sampson compile a few lists… his top record? Caster Semenya’s 800M.

So let’s share - what are your top five favourite albums  of all time? Mine (and I have been forbidden by my colleagues from naming five Springsteen albums) are:

1. Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen

2. Stop Making Sense - Talking Heads

3. Medusa- Annie Lennox

4. Nebraska - Bruce Springsteen (I just can’t help it, Juanita)

5. Running on Empty - Jackson Browne.

Come on - don’t think about it too much, just dash off a list.

The question of the mini skirt

14th September 2009 by Renee Moodie

Having taken a long hard look at male torsos, it’s now time to discuss mini skirts.

Or to be more precise - who should be wearing them, and at what age.  A Tonight article about older women wearing short skirts quotes an expert (well, someone who works for a shop) as saying: “It shows that women have an increasing confidence in their bodies and are happy to dress accordingly.”

We found some pictures and made a picture gallery…

Personally,  I think it depends on the quality of the leg - whatever the age. My knees have never really been good enough … let us know what you think? How old are you, do you wear short skirts? And should celebrities of a certain age be doing it? If so, which ones?

Who has the hottest torso?

9th September 2009 by Renee Moodie

So hot news is everywhere, and what are we talking about at IOL? Male torsos.

A Tonight story about an online poll which listed Hollywood’s hottest torsos is what prompted it all - we disagree with some in the list, and we have our own contenders. There was only one thing for it - make a picture gallery with as many torsos as we could find (we couldn’t find all ten on the list, but we had a lot of fun).

Tell us who you think has the hottest torso, even if they aren’t on the list below. My vote is for Hugh Jackman, who is not on the original list, but is in our picture gallery. Who could leave Hugh out?

The list from the online poll went like this (with the movie in which the torso was on display):

1. Daniel Craig, Casino Royale

2. Gerard Butler, 300

3. Brad Pitt, Troy

4. Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat

5. Sean Connery, Thunderball

6. Leonardo DiCaprio, The Beach

7. Hank Azaria, Along Came Polly

8. Elvis Presley,’Blue Hawaii

9. Russell Brand, Forgetting Sarah Marshall

10. Jan-Michael Vincent, Big Wednesday

Update: So hot was the traffic to this post that it was broken for a while… apologies.

A tale of pirates and pay-as-you-go

29th June 2009 by Philip

Hold your horses - the landing and activation of the Seacom cable, which was due for 27 June, isn’t happening. And it’s all because of piracy. Not the download-all-your-software-and-DVDs-for-free piracy, but the gun-toting, hostage-taking, high seas type of brigandry.

Seems the cable laying ships had to halt their work around the Horn of Africa due to an abnormal increase in pirate attacks in the past few months. Perhaps even the Somalia-based raiders are having to raise their revenue in these tough economic times.

The delay won’t make any difference to the lives of consumers, though. They should be more concerned with legislation regulating phone taps and email interception that comes into effect this week.

The laws will make it compulsory for anybody buying a pre-paid SIM card - and also current pre-paid SIM owners - to supply their provide proof of address and identification or have their account disconnected.

Like the 2001 FIC Act (Financial Intelligence Centre Act), the laws mean to protect both consumers and business. And, as with FICA, the requirements could end up costing mobile service providers the revenue of low-income consumers that they have worked very hard to retain.