In recent years, there has been increasing attention in academic and policy circles to the problem of non-communicable diseases in Africa. Some have gone so far as to identify a “shifting disease burden,” wherein conditions such as diabetes and hypertension are taking over from HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis as the most serious medical problems facing […]
In 2009 the British photographer Araminta de Clermont made a set of portraits of high school seniors (locally known as matrics) in their prom night garb (locally known as matric balls). The subjects were all from the Cape Flats, that expanse of mostly working class and poor ghettos in Cape Town. The photographs were published in UK […]
Simon Kuper in the FT Weekend, takes shots at “the news,” maybe also at his own newspaper: … [N]ews has become news about rich people. Today’s economic inequality is reflected and driven by inequality of news. Much of this news about rich people is produced by just a few English-language sources. A wire service will […]
You have to admire the shameless smarts of Kenny Kunene. In the last two months, the relatively obscure club promoter–unknown before the start of 2011–has assured himself some valuable, free publicity. Who is Kunene? A 40-year old owner of trendy nightclubs with a penchant for bling, extravagant bashes, and eating sushi off half-naked models at his […]
Residents of a shack settlement in Khayelitsha–that’s an area of cheap housing and squatter shacks about 20 miles from the Cape Town’s city center –”were provided communal toilets by the City of Cape Town on condition they built their own enclosures.” Basically a few communal toilets without walls. Serious. Several residents told a local newspaper […]
The kind of thing new multiracial South African elites–who are all victims now–do not want to talk about: “South Africa is the most consistently unequal society in the world, with its former equal in these stakes, Brazil, increasing the incomes of the poor through land reform and social grants. Not only has Brazil decreased its […]
While some South African commentators like newspaper editor Ray Hartley, in a rare slip, are saying dumb things about “District 9″ (he got pilloried by his readers on his blog), most people are smart enough to get the film, like the people living in the slum where “District 9″ was filmed: “The movie, District 9 […]
