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News & Views by Terry Bell
Browsing All Posts filed under »Commentary«
A slippery slope to fake news
August 23, 2020
However apparently small the publicly promoted distortion of history it makes for the start of a slippery slope in this era of widespread fake news. And it aids the growing distrust of the media.
Memories of nicotine deprivation
May 1, 2020
In Tanzania in 1981, the country's only cigarette factory ran out of paper — and the country ran out of cigarettes. The result revealed clearly just how addictive is nicotine: packs of cigarettes had buyers at 230 times to normal price and "puffs" on a single cigarette were sold on street corners.
Tax, war & the Covid-19 future
April 22, 2020
If, as governments and international in stitutions aroun d the world say, we are at war that is costing all economies dear, why is the historic means of funding such conflict — and financing the subsequent peace — not used? It seems to have been forgotten that wars and subsequent reconstruction were financed by taxing corporates and the rich.
FW de Klerk has so much more to apologise for
February 20, 2020
There is nothing new in former apartheid president FW de Klerk's latest denialist comments, nor in the belated apology that followed it. He has never changed, nor has he told the truth about so much, especially about the massacre of five children in Mthatha in 1993.
The chequered history of Valentine’s Day
February 13, 2020
The major problem with St Valentine's Day is that nobody is sure who Valentine was or even if a single martyr of that name existed. But for the commercial success of the day, we have neither church nor pope to thank; that honour belongs to Ester Howland.
Journalism is more than ‘just a job’
January 22, 2020
With the explosion of fake news, courtesy of social media, accompanied by mounting attacks, verbal and physical, against journalists, it may be useful to remember what the role of journalists — not bots and trolls — should be and that ethical journalism still survives. In this context, in South Africa, it is worth remembering how journalism (the work of journalists) brought to light the whole disgusting state capture venture.
Terry Bell Writes 
Echos of Hani & the Broederbond haunt ANC
August 31, 2020
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By elevating the tactic of principled unity to the sole principle of unity at all costs, South Africa's governing ANC created the malaise that is destroying the party.