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News & Views by Terry Bell
Browsing All Posts published on »July, 2012«
Why the law is so often an ass
July 27, 2012
The controversial medical parole of South Africa's former top cop, Jackie Selebi, has once again thrown into stark relief questions about kidney disease and treatment, questions that have long disturbed the labour movement. Over the years nothing has changed: it is the size of a bank balance, sometimes the level of powerful connections, that determines whether a chronically ill person lives or dies.
Hope amid the horror of joblessness and exploitation
July 19, 2012
For all its contradictions the annual Spring Queen pageant, staged by workers in the badly battered Cape Town garment industry, retains a social bite; it is a Cinderella moment that exopresses the hope of a better fife for all — and perhaps the determination to see change happen.
Ripping good reasons for an independent media
July 13, 2012
An free and unfettered media provides the only antidote to propaganda serving narrow political and corporate agendas. This issue has become highly pertinent as the Irish-owned Independent News Media group in South Africa comes up for sale.
Of spears, dicks and satire
July 13, 2012
The latest row over a "genital" cartoon of South Africa's President Jcob Zuma reveals an unwillingness to accept that respect has to be earned and that individuals, especially those in high office who behave in a manner contrary to the norms of society, lose respect and become legitimate targets for satire.
The Spear a Dick — and understanding satire
July 7, 2012
First we had the Spear, a painting by Brett Murray. Now we have the Dick, a cartoon by Jonathan — Zapiro — Shapiro. And this satire of a genital nature has, in both cases, caused the same polarised reaction: support or amused indifference on one side; expressions of outrage on the other.
Cry the Beloved Country — again
July 6, 2012
In an incredible irony, copies of Alan Paton’s Cry the Beloved Country were among the thousands of books shredded and dumped in what can only be described as an orgy of destruction in Limpopo. Yet it was only the sheer scale of the destruction that surprised members of the Cosatu-affiliated SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu).
Terry Bell Writes 
Why the law is often an ass
July 27, 2012
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“Then the law is an ass,” said Mr Bumble in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist when he was told that the law considered his wife to act under his direction. Few truer words have been said — or written. Because the law, that body of regulations that can shelter stupidity, pedantry, vindictiveness and sheer bloody-mindedness behind the veil of justice, is very frequently an ass.