When someone (like myself!) criticises the President of the day (for making homophobic statements, say, or for appointing a dishonest lackey as head of the prosecuting authority), it is often said that such criticism is wrong because it does not show respect for the incumbent head of state as an individual and also insults the Office that [...]
Posts under ‘Suresh Roberts’
Do we need a jury system?
Ronald Kevin Roberts (alias Ronald Suresh Roberts) published an intriguing – if wrongheaded – opinion piece in the Sowetan yesterday. In it he argues that the jury system should be reintroduced in South Africa because a “jury is the exact opposite of the sort of illiberal clique that until recently dominated key institutions of legal [...]
A risky legal strategy?
News that Judge President John Hlophe is planning to claim R10 million from the judges of the Constitutional Court for defaming him, comes as somewhat of a surprise to me. Hlophe’s lawyer Lister Nuku is quoted saying that the constitutional court judges is being sued for making “untested allegations of gross judicial misconduct against [...]
Ronald Suresh Roberts may be a plagiarist says Press Ombudsman
The Press Ombudsman panel dismissed a complaint by Ronald Suresh Roberts (also known as Robert Kevin Roberts) against The Weekender newspaper this week. The paper reported late last year that Roberts had been charged with plagiarism by Aids denialist Anthony Brink for lifting passages from Brink’s unpublished book and using it in his “biography” of [...]
Denialism = dissidence = Mbeki = death
On Thought Leader Ronald Suresh Roberts again tries to argue that President Thabo Mbeki is neither an Aids denialist, nor an Aids dissident, but merely a poor misunderstood and maligned man with a deep passion for the lives of the vulnerable and the poor living with HIV. This, after Mark Gevisser said Mbeki was [...]
After the party…. (I)
I am busy reading Andrew Feinstein’s book After the Party and it seems so far to be quite an honest book and quite scathing of President Thabo Mbeki and the ANC that he now leads. Of course, I immediately turned to the chapter on HIV/AIDS to see if there was anything new there.
Feinstein includes the [...]
Aids denialism (II)
A reader points out that my post two days ago suggests that Mbeki did not deny that HIV causes AIDS, but only that there are other issues that affect immune deficiency. I would contend that this is mere semantics.
Most South Africans would not make this distinction and would believe Mbeki to have denied the link [...]
Sunday Times advert circa 1985. . .
If only Ronald Suresh Roberts had seen this TV advert for the Sunday Times made in 1985 he would have had more to say about the sexism, racism and deeply obnoxious prejudice of this newspaper. Particularly shocking is the headline: “Exclusive picture interview with South African dying Aids victim…” Almost as bad as a headline [...]
¨Them¨ and ¨Us¨ mindset primitive
Ok, I promise this is the last word on the topic. I have now finished the tome by Ronald Suresh Roberts on the train back from Machu Picchu and a few things strike me about this vigorous defense of President Thabo Mbeki.
According to the unlikable Mr. Roberts, President Mbeki is always right and his detractors [...]
On colonialism and Ronald Suresh Roberts
It is the most disconcerting experience to be reading Ronald Suresh Roberts´book on Thabo Mbeki while also reading the Rough Guide to Peru. Roberts talks at lenghth about the way Western discourse has infected our world view and at times he is actually quite interesting.
I like the fact that he is trying to create an [...]
