‘White Foreigners’: History Repeating
Terry Bell Gwede Mantashe, former chairman of the SA Communist Party, former general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and now the powerful secretary-general of the governing ANC, sounded furious this week. In what must qualify as the most ironic case of “we’ve heard all that before”, he blamed the platinum […]
‘A Party of Crooks and Thieves’
In the build-up to the 2011 elections in Russia, the opposition rallied around a powerful slogan coined by public corruption fighter and opposition politician Alexei Navalny. The phrase rebranded United Russia, the political party of President Vladimir Putin, from “the party of real deeds” to “the party of crooks and thieves”. As Ben Judah points out […]
When Power Pays for Property
When deposed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych popped up in Russia a few weeks ago claiming to still be the president, he looked a bit of a laughing stock. A week earlier he had signed a compromise agreement with three EU foreign ministers and opposition political leaders in Kiev, which stipulated the country would hold […]
To Russia, With Love
On the 7th July 1896 the Lumière brothers screened six soundless films at the Watson Hotel in Bombay as part of their roadshow which included performances by magicians. Dhundiraj Govind Phalke (Dadasaheb Phalke), the newly widowed artist and printer, shared the fin de siècle Victorian fascination with the novel and bizarre was an eager part of […]