A note on ‘The 48 Laws of Power’

This reminds me very much of ‘The Art of War’ by Sun-Tzu. I’m still researching this list (I’m still reading through it), but it seems fascinating.
So far I can really identify with some of the rules, and I can see myself applying them daily. On the other hand I believe they have some of the [...]

Sunday morning blues

I’m ever more disillusioned with the church. I realise I’m not the first person ever to feel this way, but I was really trying very hard to enjoy our church.
On this beautiful Sunday morning we have some family here. Although not conservative, they are decidedly less liberal than I am, especially when it comes to [...]

Changing the world today, changing the world tomorrow

It has been a good day at work. I dreaded today initially because I was literally booked solid with meetings for the whole day, but they have all been (mostly) constructive and productive.
The best was the lunchtime brainstorm we had planning a new project. It’s amazing to be involved with such a creative process, even [...]

Intro vs outro

‘You have a way with words’ my wife said after defusing an extremely volatile situation with my (sometimes) thoughtless mother-in-law.
Since childhood I have been able to influence – manipulate is so unnecessarily negative – the feelings and emotions of my family. Practising on my brother, I was able to make him cry at will. I [...]

Crass contrast

About ten years ago our philosophy professor prescribed his newly published book for our course on multiculturalism. The term assignment was to study it and write a critical analysis.
Instead of focussing on his theories and arguments about why multiculturalism has worked wonderfully in South Africa – this was only the middle nineties – I [...]

Critical

I hope people are not as critical of me as I am of them.
Then again, I never expect anything of anyone else that I don’t expect a hundred times more perfect from myself.

Military complex to guilt complex

As a born African – and having taught the brightest young technology minds in Africa for the last seven years, I am qualified to have an opinion on the future of Africa. At least, let me narrow it down to South Africa.
Westerners should stop measuring African success by European standards. Africa only has problems in [...]

Sadam beats me

I found the Sadam video on YouTube today. It’s about two and a half minutes.
I have seen thousands of deaths on television. I have been on my knees – face against the wall and hands tied behind my back – with a gun at my head myself. Despite all of that, I am amazingly [...]

Slightly off centre

On the train, back from work. It’s 23:44 on a Saturday night and the train leaves in 6 minutes.
My travelling companions are drunk, on alcohol, on life, on some other addictive drug.
My body is tired and sore, having spent time in the gym. A quick trip into the city to visit the gym. It’s unorthodox, [...]

Ambitionless top management

It’s a sad day: the Head of our team’s contract ended.
This has led to a lot of conversation among us about the organisation, but especially about ourselves and our contracts, our views, our ambitions and our ideas. Interestingly, two of my colleagues clearly stated that they had absolutely no ambition to ever be top management. [...]