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When I was very young I wanted to grow up to be a fire engine. A few years later, noting with displeasure that my shoulders were not hardening and turning red and my limbs not mutating into wheels, I realised that this was probably not going to happen. So I decided to be a journalist. Since then, it’s all gone more or less according to the script.
In fact, I’m one of the only people I know who is working in the field for which my studies prepared me. Unlikely as it may seem, it is more common to dream of being an astronaut, study Zoology (specialising in Peruvian arachnids) and end up working as a dough expert at a bakery while freelancing as a Hebrew/English textbook translator. In short – it doesn’t often go according to plan...
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Speeches That Changed the Modern History of South Africa
Harold Macmillan – ‘The Wind of Change’
 On the 3rd of February 1960 Harold Macmillan, then Prime Minister of Great Britain, gave a symbolic speech at the South African Parliament which heralded the end of British colonial rule throughout Africa. While it was a repetition of a speech given in Ghana a few weeks previously, the media attention which followed his South African appearance meant that little could stand in the way of the tide of independence movements sweeping the continent...
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‘I’m Like a Fly in A Room Full of Mirrors’
Because these days studying Business Economics is often as likely to result in employment as a Lion Tamer, we asked a few South Africans in various careers whether their childhood aspirations bore any resemblance to what they are doing today. It will make you feel better to read this. It really will.
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It’s so perfectly designed you’d be forgiven for thinking that Hollywood’s modus operandi was forged around the principle of pleasing South Africans. When winter arrives here and we’re ready to cosy up in cinemas for a few months and Hollywood obligingly wheels out its biggest summer blockbusters. This year is no exception.
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 Freedom is Green
The right to vote means precious little if you don’t live in surroundings that are healthy enough to cleanse your water, filter your air and grow your food.
True freedom, says Leonie Joubert, can only happen if the environment is properly cared for.
It wasn’t a single winter of discontent. It was two, back to back. Earth pirouetted through space on the pointed toe of its axis, and tilted its southern bowl away from the sun as it had done, so routinely, for the past few billion years. But as it spilled South Africans into the winter of 1976 and then, one full orbit later, into the winter of 1977, something much darker and bleaker than the mere season was unfolding.
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 A settling global economy over the past month has strengthened the case against a global recession, but it's too early to get the champagne out, warns David Mayfield.
Over the past few weeks, a thawing of financial markets has begun. But recovery is not yet guaranteed, and some notable worries have yet to be resolved. There is still some balance sheet de-leveraging to come. House prices continue to be vulnerable. And some real economic insecurities remain - particularly in employment. The long-term trend shows emerging markets becoming increasingly relevant to the world economy.
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