Perhaps you are a journalist covering the May 7 elections or the Oscar Pistorius trial – and will soon be immersed in Shrien Dewani’s adventures in our specialist niche of the honeymoon-tourism market. You might be a TV continuity announcer-cum-journalist, circling endlessly between serious discussion about bone fragments, Nkandla’s fire retarding swimming pool, Numsa’s endless exit from CosatuContinue reading “Cynical quotes and facetious asides: an attempted antidote to the twin plagues of pompous banality and gruesome brutality”
Category Archives: Misanthropic Quotes
Damnation … without relief
Real debates about societal problems and ways of fixing them have little to do with elections – which of necessity appeal to the most base and common human drives. What we have is a Hallmark Hell of platitudes, populism, red herrings and whining. Spare a thought for those few politicians for whom the behaviour requiredContinue reading “Damnation … without relief”
Slightly cynical quotations about elections and democracy
From one of my favourite books of all time: Cassell Dictionary of Cynical Quotations (John Green – Cassel, 1994) with a few comments from the peanut gallery. The first few are new here, but I then attend append – not sure what I was thinking – to the end of the post “Some light weekendContinue reading “Slightly cynical quotations about elections and democracy”
Some (more) light weekend contempt
On the drift to the left in South African policy making: When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators. – P. J. O’Rourke On certain young leaders in South African politics: Fame is but the breath of the people, that is often unwholesome. – ThomasContinue reading “Some (more) light weekend contempt”
Julius snippet – while Rome burns
While I am writing a response to the shocking news that Mo Shaik will be our new head of the SASS (South African Secret Service) here’s a thing you just can’t miss: Julius Malema attacked Nedbank from a platform while addressing students at the Mangosuthu Technikon in Umlazi, Durban. The real reason Nedbank had withdrawnContinue reading “Julius snippet – while Rome burns”
Some light weekend contempt
Our Democracy? Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor. James Russel Lowell Democracy becomes a government of bullies, tempered by editors. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals, 1909 – 14 Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage. H.L. Mencken, 1916 Jacob Zuma? An honest politician isContinue reading “Some light weekend contempt”
Nic Borain 