Nowhere is better than where you are right now, and no time is better than the moment you’re in. I don’t mean to sound like I’m trying to be profound, and even reading that sentence again makes me a little embarrassed, it makes me feel like a cheap motivational speaker telling a crowd of middle managers how to up their KPIs with some oft-repeated pseudo-wisdom. But it’s true. You’re not someone else, it’s the end of the year 2023 and the place you find yourself in is precisely the place you’re likeliest to make a difference. For me, that place is South Africa and the time couldn’t be more pregnant with possibilities...
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All anyone who thinks they’re smart can bring themselves to talk about these days is artificial intelligence. ChatGPT is all the rage, and not just because of their ludicrous boardroom saga. Thanks to the ubiquitousness of social media and smartphones, smartwatches and intelligent appliances; we’ve started to convince ourselves that we’re getting cleverer. But that’s not true…
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I am not a Jew and I’m not a citizen of Israel. I haven’t even visited Israel. I don’t trace my religion back to a holy site in Jerusalem and I don’t have a problem with Arabs or Muslims or Christians. I’ve read about Abraham, Moses, David and Solomon; the Umayyads, the Abbasids and the Ottomans; I know about the British, the Balfour declaration, Ben Gurion and Golda Meir. I know a bit about the Six-Day War and the Intifada. I might not have any personal stake in the Holy Land, but humanity certainly does - and I’m a human being.
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They say moving from one place to another - the packing of boxes, clearing of storerooms, throwing out of things you forgot you even had - is one of the most stressful things you get to do in the course of your life. I don’t agree...
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After the frenetic, upward-trending, mad thrills of 2016-2019... two years of panic, fear, lockdowns and hibernation ensued. 2022 (the first full year without nonsense) wasn’t ever going to be anyone’s best year. Increasingly, everything is political - which is boring.
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2022 is almost over, and very few of us will be celebrating the last year - in fact, the last three years - of our very bizarre lives on planet Earth. I could take up your whole day by listing the ways some humans have made the planet much worse for others...
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Sometimes I wonder if everyone has gone mad, if there are any adults left in the room? It’s 2022 and we’ve just been through a really challenging pandemic. Many died, many more got sick and many more than that had their lives changed irrevocably. Instead of taking a deep breath and looking on optimistically as COVID starts to fade, it seems the lunacy is ratcheting up...
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The elections are only days away, and that means you only have a few days left where the politicians will listen to you. I’m not going to bullshit you, I have been nothing but negative about politicians, and I resent them. I approach someone looking for my vote like I do an unctuous merchant trying to sell me fish that I can smell is past its sell-by date. With very few exceptions, these people are thieves, liars and parasites...
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Richard Spoor, an outspoken, controversial lawyer and commentator, found himself the centre of attention on Twitter last week for some bold, full-frontal nudity that shook both his critics and admirers...
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Does your brand tell stories? Absolutely! And podcasting is the most modern medium of the ancient form of storytelling. Welcome to the era of on-demand listening where people listen when they want to - and listen to what they want to. In 2021, branded podcasts have become an important tool in any company's marketing arsenal...
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