Browsing Archives of Author »Terry Bell«

Dialogue forum slams “erroneous reporting”

January 28, 2013

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The Forum for Public Dialogue, on whose board I serve, has issued a Press statement following a report in the local Mail & Guardian newspaper that impugned the the integrity of the board while also attacking, without evidence, the business ethics of the FPD chirman, Moeletsi Mbeki. Anyone interested can con sult the Press release […]

Playing politics while the fires rage

January 18, 2013

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Responsibility for creating the conditions that have now, sometimes literally, set the Boland ablaze should be shared to a large degree by the dismissive attitudes of provincial and national government, the mainstream trade unions and the reactionary farming lobby. As a result, the tinder and the makings for what has turned out to be a quite major conflagration have been in place for years.

Failing the children of the poor

January 15, 2013

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South Africa continues to fail the children of the poor and is once again reaping the results of that failure. Nowhere is this more evident than in the recurrent violent eruptions in the fruit and wine farm regions of the Western Cape.

London, 24.01 hrs 2013

January 3, 2013

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As fireworks reddened the low-lying cloud over London and 2013 dawned, Brendan Bell shot this picture (copyright — available through Alamy). It was so stunning — apocalyptic even — that I had to share it.

Citizens’ coaltion infrastructure is in place

December 31, 2012

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In South Africa, all the infrastructure exists to institute the modern world's first attempt to extend the partial democracy we now have into the real thing: a truly egalitarian system that could make a reality of the values of human dignity, equality and freedom. All it requires is organisation.

2012 in review

December 31, 2012

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Review of who looked at the blog in 2012, commented on it and where they came from. Hope you find it even more interesting in 2013 as it promises to be — and not only in South Africa — an even more tumultuous period.

The ‘Secrecy Act’ is coming

December 28, 2012

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The "Secrecy Act" is coming. And we can get a good idea of government’s intentions from the way ministers and officials have flouted existing freedom of information legislation.

An alternative to more chaos and destruction?

December 17, 2012

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The promises and the policies, the personalities elected, even the potential political punch-ups at Mangaung are basically irrelevant. Only a radical move toward a new political dispensation could stop the social fabric of the country from continuing to fray and tear, causing further moves towards repression.