Thomas Johnson - The Blog

The University of Cape Town (UCT) is broken, financially, organisationally and its ethos. This article explains why. When I saw the title of the op-ed "Universities under siege: UCT and the assault on its autonomy and academic freedom" by Nazeema Mohamed in Daily Maverick, I thought it was going to be about how UCT's academic freedom is being threatened from within, and threats to university freedom in general. She is a member of UCT's council. Instead, it was tirade against the Trump administration, Israel and UCT's donors who object to its resolution suspending academic ties with Israel. Although it's specifically about the US and other donors cancelling and threatening to cancel funding, Mohamed's wrath is directed against everyone who disagrees with UCT's council and executive policies and decisions.  I'd never heard of Mohamed until now. But then I don't know who most council members are. I suppose I should; I'm an alumnus who has the...

David Bullard To many it was unthinkable Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris and won a second term. In the run-up, American and other commentators were incredulous that the two would be so close given who Trump is and what he stands for. But here we are again. In his column Tuesday November 4 on Politicsweb, David Bullard wrote that while he's not fond of either Trump or Harris, he'd vote for Trump because he has job experience as president. (He conveniently excludes that Harris is vice-president.) He then attacks Harris for her policy of giving $20,000 to black Americans to start a business, which Bullard describes as a "handout", not help. He also criticises other proposed measures for the LGBTQ+ community in a derogatory way. But these were not Harris's only proposed policies. But it suits him that it was. Harris did not spark the imagination of many people, American liberals and around the world, particularly for siding with the status quo on Palestine. But Trump...