Tag: Howard Feldman

It always amazes me how much time political parties devote to other parties. It is not as if we would think that they support or admire their competitor, and it’s not as if their view of their nemesis is likely to convince us of anything.

Howard Feldman | Head of Marketing & People | Synthesis Technologies | mail me | Back in 1995, former World Bank vice-president Dr Ismail Serageldin said: "If the...

This is not about Israel. Or Palestine. Or Gaza. It is not about Hamas, the atrocities perpetrated, or about civilian deaths on both sides of the border. It is about us. It is about our ability to speak, be heard and in turn, to listen and to hear. Ten minutes on anyone’s social media feed and it becomes evident that there is not a lot of that happening.

Later today I will go to the local bookshop where I will buy an unreasonably priced moleskin notebook and a gel-based pen. My wife will roll her eyes, thinking of the half-used ones I have back home, but she will not attempt to talk me out of doing it. Because this is a yearly ritual that assists me to focus, plan, introspect and execute.

The conversation started poorly and deteriorate from there. “Triple or single phase?” was his opening gambit. And already I was stumped. “How do I tell?” was my weak retort … and already I could feel his eyes rolling on the other side of the phone.

The realisation came when I least expected it. We had been out of South Africa for five years when we met my parents, siblings and their families for a family holiday. Our children by then had gained New York accents and were stylishly attired in their overpriced fashion items, whilst the nieces and nephews marauded through the hotel in their 'Naartjie' outfits that were more akin to pajamas than to fashion.

Over the last few months, I have found it increasingly difficult to verify information. The Tembisa 10, the story of the alleged decuplet birth is case in point. It was accepted as fact and reported around the world. But it was fiction and rightfully condemned by the South African Editors Forum (SANEF).

News that Bill and Melinda Gates are to get divorced after 27 years of marriage, hit me hard. Not because I know them or their children, but because if any couple stood a chance of growing old and miserable together, it was them...

The chaotic scenes in the skies around the United States in the days that followed the September 11 attacks resulted in planes being forced to land wherever they could. In many instances, passengers, dazed and confused, found themselves disembarking at airports of towns that they had never heard of. As was the case for those arriving in Ganda on the island of Newfoundland. Somewhere in Canada.

I am perplexed as to why it should matter how the meeting between the ANC’s top 6 and former president Jacob Zuma went. They met him, apparently in an attempt to persuade him to comply with a court ruling and appear before the Zondo Commission of Enquiry. And they updated the country as if we should care.