Brown-envelope journalism rife at Independent
Revelations that journalists at the Argus and Cape Times accepted money in exchange for influence have rocked the media over the past week. Being paid cash “in brown envelopes” to write and influence news stories for ­political ends is really just the tip of the iceberg. The international media group has a serious problem with [...]

Israelistine – is a three state solution possible?
It strikes me there is something pitiful about the two-state tango in which both Palestine and Israel are caught in an existential embrace from which neither country can extricate itself. Sure, recognition of a Jewish State contingent on there being a democratic Palestine in which human rights are preserved. But this leaves out an important third [...]

Godsell is looting South African energy sector
The arguments given by Eskom CEO Bobby Godsell for increasing tariffs are an insult to the intelligence of consumers. The former mining boss is quoted by Bloomberg as saying “South Africa needs to set electricity prices at levels that will attract companies into the industry and encourage funding for necessary expansion by the utility.” In [...]

Tony Weaver you are a disgrace to the human race
Tony Weaver who epitomises the macho gun-slinging war correspondent, now wants to ingratiate himself with the End Conscription Campaign and its 25th Anniversary celebration. In a recent column in the neo-con daily Cape Times, Weaver relates his military career in the apartheid war machine. Listing several occasions in which he served in the same military [...]

Send International Space Station to Mars
With all this talk about the recent discovery of water on the Moon, and now http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/science/space/29mars.html?ref=science it seems a new age of space exploration is upon us. Could the International Space Station be the answer to the USA failed Constellation programme? Sending a self-contained habitat to the distant shores of a new world, where [...]