The writing on the web: What the M&G is reading
What’s being read around the M&G newsroom? Here are some things we like. A lot.
Tanya Pampalone
Addicted to drug addiction memoirs
The first instalment of our drug edition looks at books that are easy to get hooked on – if you’re into misery, redemption and excruciating honesty.
Why the geeks will inherit the Earth
The Grugq, who is pale, balding, boyishly pudgy and was dressed in a black golf shirt and a zip-up black jersey, looked like he had just woken up.
Best little bookshop in Braamfontein
With its bright, floor-to-ceiling window shopfront, the Wits Hospice Shop just might be the coolest thing in town, writes Tanya Pampalone.
A high-seas education
Growing up in the global yachting community made for a great memoir.
In cruise mode: Living the high life on the high seas
Tanya Pampalone boarded the Crystal Serenity bubble for the Black Sea to find out how the other 5% live.
Tanya Pampalone: I’m a fan of Zapiro, but…
Zapiro’s cartoons are revolutionary, writes the M&G’s features editor, Tanya Pampalone. But defending his latest is proving to be difficult.
Is this the end of the bookshop, or just a new chapter?
Bookstores around the world have been shutting their doors in the face of what looks a lot like publishing Armageddon. What’s a bibliophile to do?
Champagne wishes and corrupted dreams
The top dogs of anti-corruption came out in force to support a new initiative. But can they make us all believe?
In a Dainfern state of mind
Life in Johannesburg’s premier luxury golf estate has reached surreal perfection. But whose reality is it anyway?
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Singing for his SUVs — and Kabila
One of the DRC’s most famous musicians talks about the elections and singing for President Joseph Kabila.
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DRC: And now for the bad news…
Death threats, assassinations, brown envelopes and politically aligned media owners. Being a journalist was never easy in the Congo.
High hopes and low blows in DRC election battle
Opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi takes on President Joseph Kabila in the DRC’s November elections, and already there’s blood on the streets.
Lightening up the fest
The LitFest brought out the M&G’s core readership to witness some intellectually heady discussions. But what it lacked was a serious injection of hip.
That’s Dr Oprah Winfrey to you
The queen of talk became the queen of tears as the University of the Free State handed over a PhD, dubbing her a South African — and a Kovsie!
Peddling the American Dream
She came, she saw and she conquered, wooing us with hope, glamour, power and good ole’ American values. But what was Michelle Obama selling?
Certain of my doubt
<b>Tanya Pampalone</b> has been agnostic for as long as she could claim a belief for herself. So what is she missing?
Confessions of a Walmart shopper
<b>Tanya Pampalone</b> was never going to walk into a Walmart store. Until she did. Then it was over.
Making a run for the border
Trying to make sense of the Zimbabwean documentation process, <b>Tanya Pampalone</b> headed for Musina. And that’s where things really got complicated
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Govt: Zim documentation a ‘phenomenal success’
The <em>M&G</em> spoke to Jacob Mamabolo, project manager of the Zimbabwean Documentation Project. Here’s what we extracted from the conversation.
On being foreign
What’s my country? Well, that’s complicated. Welcome to the globalised future of unbelonging writes <b>Tanya Pampalone</b>
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Pigspotter speaks
Pigspotter spoke to <i>M&G</i>’s <b>Tanya Pampalone</b>.
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Saving PigSpotter’s bacon
How <b>Tanya Pampalone</b>’s not-yet-seven year old daughter figured out the charges against the now-famous Tweeter of speedtraps won’t stick.
The site your mom warned you about
The <i>Daily Maverick</i> is taking on big media in a big way — and its fans love it. But its future still rests on support from advertisers.
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Catnip and the Constitution
The US ambassador, no stranger to a critical press, has joined the growing chorus of international concern over press freedom.
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How it is in paradise
<b>Tanya Pampalone</b> visits the Indian Ocean utopia of the Seychelles and is enchanted by the island life of the rich and famous.
On Paris, pot and Ziggy Marley
How many guys have you read about that go out and beat their wives after they smoke a joint?
Zim envoy rants about US ‘house slave’
Zimbabwe’s man in Washington took the opportunity this week to tell the US’s top diplomat on African affairs exactly what he thought of him.
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e.tv airs in Zim — but no news, thank you
There’s a new channel on the telly in Harare — all thanks to e.tv.
The new Nepad
Africa’s development agency has tweaked its name. But is that enough to make it relevant again? <i>Tanya Pampalone</i> talks to Dr Ibrahim Mayaki.
Malema’s media spin cycle
It all started out with an SMS exchange last Saturday, the contents of which ended up appearing on the front page of the <i>City Press</i>.
Freedom fighters of the diaspora
Munjodzi Mutandiri is not the kind of guy who does his work with a puffed chest. He does not shout from a platform or pound his fist from a podium.
