“Do you ever wonder what it costs, metabolically, to wake at 4 a.m. for twenty years? What it does to the body, the dream life, the capacity for imagination when every day begins in darkness and ends in exhaustion?” open.substack.com/pub/nkhensan...

Changing place names is a complex issue in SA. "Renaming a place brings new meaning to it, but it also, inevitably, erases meaning. Ultimately, someone is going to have to make a sacrifice. Renaming can be violent, or it can be reparative. What it can’t be is exclusionary." t.co/FOFPVIw4nP

Not a wasted word in this piece. And a reminder of what lies at the core of good journalism - being in the world you write about. Which is something today’s resource strapped journalists longingly think of as a luxury, but should actually be an indispensable condition provided to them.

Another good bit, in case you need a prod to read "AI and the aesthetics of fascism." [link below] "Despite all their absurdist posturing, [the right] struggle to come to terms with a contradictory world that does not conform to their pre-decided categories.

"Sartre’s injunction to remember that antisemites are primarily “amusing themselves” is true of most right wing discourse, no matter... how terrible. As such, the right are strongly averse to any sort of reality-testing." @garethwatkins.bsky.social newsocialist.org.uk/transmission...

Hard to work out who the criminals are here. Right?

The spokesperson for South Africa's president said the govt was in talks with Russia over bringing home 17 men allegedly tricked into fighting for Russia. "They are facing grave, grave danger to their lives... the information that we have is that they were bungled into the Russian military forces."

the intensity of my anger at those who would criminalize the homeless — a population literally created by the greed and callousness of the ruling class — is very hard to contain. it was you who dismantled the safety net. if you don’t like the results, put it back

If you wondered why the hype machine shrieks. “Nearly 500 AI unicorn companies now exist worldwide with a combined value of $2.7 trillion, with 100 of these billion-dollar firms established after 2023 alone.”

“The posts and palaces and public places have been filled with buffoons, fools and clowns at various levels, offering a variety of services. Their function is to preach before the fetish the fiction of its perfection.” - Achille Mbembe, De la postcolonie (2000)

This is a must-read by @chrisroper.bsky.social ... Well pleased that that paywall has been removed. I am a columnist and essayist for @businesslivesa.bsky.social but don't have access to the stable of publications. Strange how that works. www.businesslive.co.za/fm/features/...

I’m probably the 500th South African to point this out to the superlative @andrewhickey.500songs.com podcast, but Ricky Fataar/Blondie Chaplin’s group was The Flames, not The Flame. (Hope I didn’t mishear) Is it weird to be so happy that he’s mentioning SAfricans? Hugh Masakela has featured, too.

"People hardly ever make use of the freedom which they have, for example, freedom of thought; instead they demand freedom of speech as compensation." Søren Kierkegaard, who could have been writing about the shrill demagogues of today.

Excellent.

Source unknown. Except in the sense of the pit of despair from whence it came.

This is terrible. “UNICEF said at least 221 children, including boys, were raped by armed men” in Sudan. aje.io/vswtia

It’s all just a circus. “President Trump on Friday directed government officials to prioritize the resettlement of South Africans of European descent through the U.S. refugee program, which he suspended during his first day in office.” www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-o...

Zapiro always draws it starkly.

We’ve been there as South Africans. A thoughtful summation of US state capture. mg.co.za/thought-lead...

If you look for oppressed whites, you’ll conjure them up. The orange panopticon sees all, albeit through a glass, crazily. And has now noticed South Africa. www.politico.com/news/2025/02...

Via LeoArt SZ on Facebook.

While the US is burning, literally as well as figuratively, and it's tech-oligarchs are throwing truth onto the bonfire, we should probably remind ourselves of the threat posed by Russian disinformation in Africa. Here is a great overview by @klyszcz.bsky.social ridl.io/russia-s-glo...

All the false gods that promised to be journalism's saviours. And who knows - they might have prolonged the death spiral, in some cases. But now we're reaching the age of merciful deaths, for some news organisations.

There is a perception that charity, donations and aid from the Global North is what is keeping African economies afloat. Yet the combined aid and development assistance to Africa in 2022 was $37-billion less than remittances from African diaspora. https://theoutlier.co.za/charts/chart/89546

The necessary redefinition of journalism, via @pboehler.net “This industry appears to have just for a moment forgotten that formats have no power beyond their habituated consumption, and platforms don't pursue long-term altruist goals. The skills persist.

Reading a Der Spiegel investigative piece about the 1000s of women whose faces are used to make fake porn. And it turns out that in Germany, there are no specific legal regulations against this. According to legal experts...

the rich people pushing AI on everything are going to be the same rich people who will brag they can afford to send their kids to a school with human teachers

Talk about crazy. “The ATF is not legally permitted to keep a searchable digital database of gun sales, thanks to hysteria that ‘the government will come to take our guns,’ so they only have printouts.

Love these old school airports. And who doesn’t like a plane with propellers. You catch a boat taxi to this airport too, which is really quaint. Manda Island Airport.

This is actually a really nice restaurant. I’ve had fish or crab every day. The only thing I can’t figure out is the tuna larb. It’s probably obvious, as someone will point out.

5:30am Lamu.

Setting up for the start of our symposium on “AI and the weaponisation of hate speech.” A venue as far removed from the cliches of AI as it’s possible to be.

Hello Mr Ginger Crab. Delicious. #peponihotel #lamu

Land in Nairobi 10pm. Stuck on apron until 11pm because ‘no buses because it’s raining.’ Yes…. that makes sense. Raining. It’s midnight now and still we wait for luggage. I might start appreciating OR Tambo at this rate.

Off to Lamu Island for a symposium, so doing a bit of country research. Inflation at work. In Kenya, "the national average bribe increased from KES 6,865 [US $53] in 2022 to stand at KES 11,625 [$90] in 2023." (National Ethics and Corruption Survey)

Lack of assets declared by MPs raises questions — Is parliamentary register fact or farce?Lack of assets declared by MPs raises questions — Is parliamentary register fact or farce? www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024...

BBC News - South African anti-apartheid writer Breytenbach dies www.bbc.com/news/article... Solid, principled guy. Will be missed especially for his stand against discrimination . "Why shall we look the other way"... makes you think

The military number speaks volumes. “People think that 54 percent of the country owns guns (real number: 32 percent); that 40 percent of the country served in the military (real number: 6 percent); and that 30 percent of the country is vegetarian (real number: 5 percent).”

It's distressing to read how China plans to destroy forest and #baobab trees in Limpopo, to do open cast mining. We shall protest hard, to try and stop this madness. Please help anyway you can.

New hero just dropped

Oh, my fellow South Africans. They’re all laughing at us. Xenophobia with a punchline. “Nigeria celebrates victory over South African rivals with Miss Universe runner-up” www.theguardian.com/world/2024/n...

I really wish so many people's livelihoods, including mine, weren't dependent on the whims of narcissist techbros

And if you watch PSYCHO on streaming platforms, you get this:

Non-elected, cripplingly uninformed tech billionaire Elon Musk met with Iran’s ambassador to discuss tension between the US and Iran, Iranian officials said. (NYT)

Owner of the company that makes Rega turntables just gave (not sold — gave) the company to his employees www.whathifi.com/news/rega-ha...

This idiot. Always with the fake death notifications. The way of the X, I guess. But it’s so inhuman, I can’t even remember his justification for the fake news game.

Without thinking, reskeet with the first Simpsons quote that comes into your head

as horrible as it is theres something darkly comic about the Department of Efficiency having 2 chairmen

Fascinating. Anthropic has hired its first dedicated "AI welfare" researcher, to explore whether future AI models might deserve moral consideration and protection. "The hire could signal a shift toward AI companies examining ethical questions about the consciousness and rights of AI systems."