South Africans started to receive the COVID vaccine on the 17th of February. Four weeks later, roughly 147,753 have received the shot. The daily average sits at 5910 according to Media Hack who have calculated that it should take the country 18 years, 6 months and 8 days to vaccinate 67% of the population.

I am not sure that we need Purim this year. I felt the same about the High Holidays back in  2020 when we were much younger, thinner and fitter. But not really that fit.

Whereas there might be many faces to Jacob Zuma, most of them can be condensed into two primary themes. He is either the villain, ominous and threatening and openly defiant of the law, of the NEC, and of the wishes of the country.

In the same way that within a short year, many of us became fluent in conversational virology, it appears as though we are now attaining

Winston Churchill’s radio broadcast of the 9th February 1941 was a particularly rousing affair. In part designed for a local audience, and in part an international plea for desperately needed assistance.

The story is told of an optimist who falls from the top of the Empire State Building. On the way down, around the 30th floor, someone leans out the window and shouts, “Hey, how is it going?” The optimist, still falling, looks at him, gives him a big thumbs up and a confident smile, and screams back, “Yeah! So far so good!” 

The happenings on Capitol Hill left most sane people winded. And whereas many were quick to blame 2021 for letting us down so spectacularly and so early into the year, it clearly had little to do with the calendar and everything to do with the former president of the United States Donald Trump.