Category: Politics

Politics both in theory and in terms of party politics, mostly focused on South Africa.

As By Fire – Jonathan Jansen on the 2015/6 university protests

Post author By Jacques Rousseau
Post date July 15, 2017
Categories In Academia and teaching, Politics

The Cape Town launch of Prof. Jonathan Jansen’s latest book, As by Fire: The End of the South African University, was held last week at the Book Lounge. I was invited to be the discussant and, having already read the book a few weeks ago and found it to be worthwhile, was pleased to accept.

On re-reading it in preparation for the discussion, my initial impression persisted: relative ‘insiders’ to the last few years of university politics and protests might not learn much that they didn’t know, while the general public certainly could.

On the Democratic Alliance and Zille’s settlement agreement

Post author By Jacques Rousseau
Post date June 13, 2017
Categories In Politics

I’ve written two pieces pieces on Helen Zille’s recent tweets that led to today’s press conference with her and Mmusi Maimane, at which it was announced that she’ll continue as Premier of the Western Cape while withdrawing from DA activities generally, so there’s much I won’t repeat here.

Zille’s suspension, and the suspension of common sense

Post author By Jacques Rousseau
Post date June 10, 2017
Categories In Free Speech, Politics

CAPE TOWN/SOUTH AFRICA, 11JUN2009 - 2010: Helen Zille, Premier of the Western Cape Province, at Building a Legacy for South Africa held During the World Economic Forum on Africa 2009 in Cape Town, South Africa, June 11, 2009Copyright World Economic Forum www.weforum.org / Eric Miller emiller@iafrica.com

As those of you who care about these things know, Helen Zille was (on June 7) suspended from all Democratic Alliance roles, pending the outcome of a disciplinary hearing. The hearing began on Friday June 9, and it’s fairly safe to assume that Zille will contest any finding that doesn’t exonerate her.

The Press Ombusdman’s Huffington Post ruling – #ShelleyGarland and hate speech

Post author By Jacques Rousseau
Post date April 23, 2017
Categories In Free Speech, Politics

The Press Ombudsman received complaints regarding the piece by “Shelley Garland” published by the Huffington Post (who also asked him for comment), and his ruling on the matter was released yesterday.

The ruling is terrible, in both its reasoning and in its consequences.

It is terrible in its consequences first because the HuffPo’s editor, Verashi Pillay, was made to feel obliged to resign, and the career of a promising editor has now been interrupted. Despite her missteps (here, and in the Maimane case), and their severity, this incident should not have led to her resignation.

Huffington Post, Shelley Garland and editorial responsibility

Post author By Jacques Rousseau
Post date April 18, 2017
Categories In Free Speech, Morality, Politics

Edit (19/04): All the details of this saga have now been revealed. See Verashni Pillay’s post, and its linked interview with “Shelley Garland”.

Update (22/04): The Press Ombudsman’s ruling is out, and it’s pretty damning for HuffPo.

A quick recap for those of you who don’t know the story. On April 13, Huffington Post South Africa published an opinion piece, by someone identified as Shelley Garland, headlined “Could it be time to deny white men the franchise?“.

The consequences of publishing this piece were fairly predictable. For some, this was further confirmation that HuffPoSA has a political or ideological agenda – here, an anti-male and anti-white agenda.

Zapiro and the rape of South Africa

Post author By Jacques Rousseau
Post date April 11, 2017
Categories In Morality, Politics

Printed with permission from www.zapiro.com

If you are reading this, then you have likely seen today’s Zapiro cartoon. If you haven’t, you can see it on Daily Maverick. I’m not going to reproduce it here, both because I haven’t asked for permission to do so, and because some folk who I hope to engage via this post might think it’s needlessly provocative to do so.

Helen Zille and “valuable aspects of colonial heritage”.

Post author By Jacques Rousseau
Post date March 17, 2017
Categories In General, Politics

Readers will know that I’m not partial to shaming others, and that I try to avoid polarised viewpoints. I also try to apply the principle of charity – in other words, try to understand what someone was trying to say, rather than simply judging their statements based on surface-level meaning.

And while it’s fairly easy to imagine what Helen Zille thought we should take from her tweets yesterday, it’s very difficult to comprehend how someone with so much experience and knowledge of South African politics could be so naive – or ignorant – as to tweet what she did.

The (unbearable?) whiteness of philosophy

Post author By Jacques Rousseau
Post date February 14, 2017
Categories In Academia and teaching, Headspace, Politics

There’s an interesting – and important – discussion going on in South African professional philosophy at the moment. You can read about it on the Mail&Guardian, but the nutshell summary is that tensions regarding the “apparent supremacy of European philosophy over African philosophy” have resulted in the president and “several black philosophers” resigning from the Philosophical Society of Southern Africa (PSSA).

Fake news isn’t the same as lying

Post author By Jacques Rousseau
Post date February 1, 2017
Categories In Politics

First published on GroundUp.

Objectivity is impossible to achieve. We all have our biases, and on top of that, we all have brains that work to confirm those biases, and to undermine the impact of information that could change our minds.

We are of course not helpless in the face of misinformation – we can remind ourselves to read and think about dissenting views, we can debate issues with friends from different parts of the political spectrum, and most importantly perhaps, we can remind ourselves that discovering our own errors is an essential component of triangulating on the truth.

On the “caged woman” on the back of a bakkie

Post author By Jacques Rousseau
Post date January 20, 2017
Categories In Morality, Politics

The racial debate attracting the most opinion and anger in South Africa right now was sparked by this photograph:

Photo: Denise Rens/Oos-Kaap Plaaswerkers Opstand/Facebook

Some folk on social media are desperately reaching for an analysis of this that eliminates race and structural power imbalances from the situation. Others are focusing on the cage (it’s a sheep pen) as the primary problem. They are both wrong.