Paul Jacobson

Tag: Current Affairs

  • My curated #OscarPistorius Twitter stream

    Update (2014-03-03): I’ve embedded the eNCA video feed too: Tracking one of the hashtags being used for the Oscar Pistorius trial is going to be overwhelming pretty quickly so I opted for a Twitter list which I have added a number of journalists and select profiles to instead. This might be helpful. Let me know…

  • Perhaps WhatsApp won't be merged with Facebook Messenger

    Update (2014-02-20): Nathan makes a good point in the comments and I was also reminded of my post from about a year ago in which I considered the implications of just such an acquisition. I was just reading the Facebook press release about its $16bn WhatsApp acquisition and noticed this quote by WhatsApp’s co-founder and…

  • The President's relationship with the truth

    Pierre De Vos’ post titled In the age of consent, the buck stops with Number One is a typically lucid explanation why President Zuma’s contention that he was largely in the dark about (and perhaps shouldn’t even have known about) the upgrades to his Nkandla estate has “an adventurous relationship to the truth”. De Vos…

  • The right to assemble and protest, selectively applied

    Yesterday the Democratic Alliance was forced to abandon its (misguided) march on ANC headquarters because ANC supporters seemed to view it as an assault on their territory and the police had something other than upholding DA supporters’ rights to protest and assemble guiding their actions. This isn’t the first time this has happened and won’t…

  • Why would G-d cry for Madiba?

    Our 6 year old son were talking about Nelson Mandela yesterday. He told me that the rain we has yesterday and the day before were “Hashem’s1 tears because Nelson Mandela died”. I turned to him and asked him why G-d2 would cry for Mandela and he told me its because he has died. I thought…

  • In defence of lawyers and their fees

    The Oscar Pistorius case discussion has shifted, to a degree, to the lawyers involved and the profit they are bound to make from this high profile case. This is a common meme in any high profile case and when talking about lawyers generally. It is also a pretty harmful meme and not necessarily for the…

  • Ze Frank's message: It's getting better

    Ze Frank published an episode on 1 October titled “Getting Better” which is important for anyone who feels overwhelmed by their pain and their life experiences, whether they are gay or straight. His video is a response to a gay boy’s suicide and its a message that still seems to be as critical as it…

  • His Majesty, Jacob Zuma's new palace

    Khaya Dlanga has a terrific post in Mail & Guardian today about President Zuma’s newly revamped and extremely controversial residence. He has a good point, let’s just called it a Palace and be done with it. It’s where we are heading anyway, aren’t we? To an imperial presidency under the guise of a democratic, revolutionalry,…