The national dialogue sidesteps the truth that ANC policies sustain patronage and undermine job creation Those who want to pretend they have a doctorate should, like a certain high-profile director now under fire, choose international economics and work in SA. They’ll get away with it, because our policy debates take little notice of how the…Continue reading SA’s policy landscape a good place for faux PhDs to hide
ANC’s motivation to accuse Israel
When considering South Africa’s motivations for accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice, we should contemplate the electoral implications of ANC policies permanently marginalising most of our young adults. Have ANC leaders concluded that their hold on power will not survive legitimate elections in 2029? Does this explain their aligning themselves with…Continue reading ANC’s motivation to accuse Israel
Why Africa remains poor
SA should have been to Africa what the UAE has been to the Middle East Many politicians and intellectuals insist that this continent’s pervasive poverty is a consequence of colonialism. Rather, it traces to this era’s politicians and intellectuals. Former colonies feature prominently among the 21st century’s most competitive, and thus most dynamic, economies, whereas…Continue reading Why Africa remains poor
How SA’s decline coincides with Harvard’s
By earning zero points, Harvard came in last in a recent survey of free speech across 250 US universities. While free speech is still respected here, both South Africa and Harvard are declining due to how issues are framed On many elite US college campuses free speech has been suppressed to accommodate administrators, professors and…Continue reading How SA’s decline coincides with Harvard’s
What do we desire?
Surveys say voters prioritise job creation, the economy, service delivery, and corruption. The ANC wants to emphasise inequality. If we build many large blocks of flats, with each housing hundreds of urban homeless people, while also providing grants so they can eat, what will they then prioritise? For many, the answer is the type of…Continue reading What do we desire?
Boosting growth is no panacea for joblessness
Workable solutions require that we embrace uncertainty while purging outdated or otherwise costly biases Various commentators maintain we know how to fix the economy and just need to elect a competent, noncorrupt national government. But are they fixating on what they know while downplaying deeper challenges? Which is more critical: fixing the commercial economy or…Continue reading Boosting growth is no panacea for joblessness
Are we lost? GDP versus GPS
The world’s many smartphones can accurately and continuously share their locations. But can South Africans, or those in other lands, make sense of this country’s economic positioning? While holding a globe, it is easy to locate South Africa and to see that no country is as distant from a top-three economy, the US, China or…Continue reading Are we lost? GDP versus GPS
From pronouns to proactiveness
Using “they” when referring to one person is confusing. If woke activists genuinely wanted to accommodate those that identify as non-binary, they would invent and promote a singular, gender-neutral pronoun. Instead, they mimic the ANC by pursuing power not solutions. Updating pronoun usage would stoke much less polarisation if not for the underlying agendas which…Continue reading From pronouns to proactiveness
Promoting war
Deterrence is as old as aggression. What has changed is that many people, particularly progressives, want to rely on condemnations to promote peace. Such indulging encourages aggression. There hasn’t been a nuclear attack in almost eighty years as the likely reprisals would be too costly. This version of deterrence is called ‘mutually assured destruction’. The…Continue reading Promoting war
What the ANC has taught the world
Gaming Democracy The ANC has managed to remain electorally competitive despite a long litany of failures and abuses. Cyril Ramaphosa’s reign has purged expectations of his party self-correcting, yet they are still expected to remain in the Union Building until 2029. By then the accumulated damage will almost certainly overwhelm their prospects to survive legitimate…Continue reading What the ANC has taught the world