‘Vigilant journos’ to continually seek out party finance secrets

“Where does the money come from?”

According to journalist and political analyst Richard Poplak, that is the greatest question South Africans can ask any political party.

Poplak was addressing a group of journalism students at the University of Stellenbosch yesterday during an ad hoc speech about his new book, Until Julius Comes.

In response to a question from the audience regarding the funding of political parties, Poplak assuredly answered that “since the dawn of democracy [in South Africa], every party has conspired to have no transparency of where the money comes from”.

Party funding has long been a thorny issue in South African politics, and pundits have repeatedly pointed out that secrecy allows corruption to flourish.

The issue became especially relevant in recent days when it became known that Economic Freedom Fighters’ party leader Julius Malema was suddenly able to settle his overdue tax bill of more than R16 million in an effort to avoid being sequestrated in the North Gauteng High Court.

The source of this money has been under scrutiny by the media, with Malema telling SAPA his overdue bill was being footed by “a trust established by fellow South Africans who saw this matter as a persecution”.

Poplak, who regularly uses Malema as a focal point for many of his articles, pointed out that this lack of transparency must lead to a more vigilant media, actively seeking to “crack those stories surrounding party funding”.

In a recent article for the Daily Maverick, the same publication Poplak regularly writes for, Rebecca Davis referred to Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille who said that by admitting where party contributions comes from, it might lead to retribution by opposition parties specifically aimed at those individuals or companies who made the donations to the DA.

“This can be done, for instance, by withholding government contracts,” Zille was quoted as saying.

However, the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC) retorted by assessing that “there is no evidence that donors to the DA will suffer reprisals, for example when AngloGold Ashanti decided to declare its donations to the DA it suffered no such reprisal.”

Regardless of the possible consequences of laying the truth bare, Poplak feels that it is still a journalist’s job to expose those things politicians do not want the rest of the country to know.

“Politics is like a bubble, it is our job to prick that bubble and allow the wider world in.”

Box office 2014 in a downwards slope

Just an infographic on the downwards decline in box office figures as compared to the last few years. Based on actual figures from Box Office Mojo.

2014s box office slowly dimming its lights | Create Infographics

Gauteng Drug Watch making massive progress in the fight against drugs

Gauteng drugs a bust | Create Infographics

Fiktiewe misdaadsyfers aangebied met behulp van 'n aanloklike infografika

Hierdie oefening was deel van klaswerk in finansiële joernalistiek en data joernalistiek. Die oogmerk was om syfers op 'n aanloklike wyse aan te bied wat maklik deur 'n leser verstaan kan word. Vandaar hierdie infografika wat met behulp van infogr.am gemaak is.

Misdaadsyfers skok | Create Infographics

Depressie kan lei tot slapeloosheid en andersom

Ná die onlangse selfdood van Hollywood akteur en komediant Robin Williams, het die wêreld weer regopgesit oor die realiteit van depressie en die gevolge daarvan.

Williams het volgens beriggewing vir jare aan depressie gelei en op Maandag 11 Augustus homself met ’n belt versmoor. Hy was 63 jaar oud.

Hoewel Williams moontlik aan ’n vorm van kliniese depressie gelei het weens sy somtydse misbruik van dwelms en alkohol sowel as sy diagnose met Parkinson se siekte, is daar verskeie oorsake vir hierdie siekte wat meer as 350 miljoen mense wêreldwyd affekteer.

’n Studie deur navorsers aan die Universiteit van Adelaide in Australië wat vroeër vanjaar in die gesogte wetenskapsjoernaal Sleep Medicine verskyn het, het bevind dat gevalle van chroniese slapeloosheid ook aktief tot depressie kan bydra.

Die navorsingsleier, Pasquale Alvaro, het aan die internet koerant Science Daily gesê dat daar “’n groeiende bewustheid onder die wetenskaplike gemeenskap is wat slapeloosheid, depressie en angsversteurings met mekaar verbind aangesien hierdie versteurings oorvleuelende neurobiologiese-, sielkundige- en sosiale-risikofaktore bevat.”

Volgens Alvaro kan slapeloosheid nie net vererger word deur gevalle van depressie nie, maar kan slagoffers daarvan ook aan depressie begin lei juis weens die feit dat hulle nie kan slaap nie.

“As ’n persoon sukkel om te slaap, maak dit hom in baie gevalle angstig,” verduidelik dr. Willem Naudé, ’n mediese-praktisyn van Pietermaritzburg.

“Hoe meer slaap die persoon verloor, hoe erger is die moontlike effek wat dit op sy psige en geestesgesondheid kan hê. Die effek van slapeloosheid is net soveel fisiologies as psigologies.”

Naudé voeg by dat dit baie moeilik is om te kan bepaal of slapeloosheid tot depressie lei en of depressie nie moontlik die oorsaak van die slapeloosheid is nie.

“Dis soos om ’n hand vol spaghetti te probeer ontrafel; alles is aan mekaar gebind sonder ’n duidelike punt van oorsprong.”

Volgens navorsing deur die National Sleep Foundation in die VSA, kan slapeloosheid nie net lei tot ’n gebrekkige geestesgesondheid nie, maar ’n mens bou as’t ware ’n vorm van “slaap-skuld” op.

Die NSF verduidelik dat ’n gebrek aan slaap ook gekoppel kan word aan ander gesondheidsprobleme soos vetsug en hoë bloeddruk, negatiewe stemming en gedrag en verlaagde produktiwiteit.

Jana Krige (24), self ’n jare-lange depressielyer, meen haar geestesgesondheid het ’n direkte impak gehad op haar slaappatroon.

“Die slaap het net weggebly. Jy lê en rol rond en probeer aan die slaap raak, maar hoe meer dit wegbly hoe meer angstig word jy.

“En daardie angs maak dat jy al meer depressief begin voel wat dan die slaap net al hoe meer weghou. Dis ’n sneeubal-effek.

“Dit was aaklig om ná sulke aande bedags normaal te funksioneer.”

Volgens Naudé is daar nie veel wat slagoffers van slapeloosheid en depressie met onmiddellike effek aan die saak kan doen nie. “Die oorsprong van die slapeloosheid moet eers bepaal word, en dit is meermale makliker gesê as gedaan.”

Putting the Oscars back on trial

If I ever win an Oscar, I would probably never stop boasting about it. I would start every conversation with “Well, as an Oscar winner...” and carry around in my wallet signed photographs of me proudly holding my statue to hand out to everybody I meet.

But that’s just me.

As a very unlikely winner, I can take some solace in the fact that looking back at some 80 years’ worth of Academy Awards out there, it comes as no surprise that winning an Oscar has increasingly become nothing more than getting a shiny new paperweight.

The whole process and hoo-ha surrounding it has become way too contrived.

There are hardly any surprises left. If you make a movie and you make sure to include either a transvestite, a retarded person or any form of physical transformation involving Meryl Streep, your movie is a shoe in come Oscar night.

But as a kinda-sorta expert on the whole world of movies, I can assure you: these days winning that golden statue does not mean you are the best guy in town.

Getting an Oscar has become just another business transaction in Hollywood. I’m in no ways parley to that glamorous crowd, but as a spectator it is not hard to fathom what strings nominees need to pull in order to win.

There are about 6,000 members in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the governing body overseeing the whole awards ceremony.

All 6,000 members vote in all 24 categories to determine a winner. This means an editor votes for a director of photography who votes for a costume designer that knows nothing about sound design but still votes for the technician they think probably ought to win.

It’s nothing more than a skewered effort where members of the Academy long stopped caring about voting objectively. Rather: it’s all about what film stands out as that years’ ‘clear winner’.

They can try as hard as they want to, but excellent films like Captain Phillips and Philomena, that was nominated for Best Picture this year, never stood a chance against the likes of 12 Years a Slave. A movie based on slavery featuring a transformative performance? Yea, it probably won the Oscar even before filming started.

Being so predictable all the time means that the Oscar’s often make horrible mistakes. Case in point: awarding the Best Picture award in 1999 to Shakespeare in Love rather than Saving Private Ryan.

It’s all about the buzz and creating awareness about you and your film beforehand.

The voters don’t judge films based on merit anymore. Famed Hollywood magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, annually gives its readers a glimpse into the voting process by having a tête-à-tête with some director or editor during the voting process.

This is often quite revealing. For example, shortly before last year’s ceremony, they interviewed an Academy member who was discussing the nominees for Best Actress. Specifically nine year old Quvenzhané Wallis was being discussed. Wallis, with no prior acting experience, made history when she became one of the youngest nominees ever for her performance in Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Instead of evaluating the merits of her performance against the other nominees, this Academy member was quoted as saying “Quvez---? Quzen---? Quyzenay? I don’t vote for anyone whose name I can’t pronounce. Her parents really put her in a hole by giving her that name.”

This just goes to show how this whole process is actually a farce. Winning an Oscar does not constitute having the most talent; sometimes it merely means something as arbitrary as having a pronounceable name.

I suppose it would be counterintuitive to disregard the Oscars completely. They still make for a fun night in front of the telly hoping somebody would trip and fall on their way to the stage.

Since the trial of Oscar Pistorius is drawing to a close, maybe it’s time to put the eponymous Oscars back on trial and reassess all your favourite winners to see if they are truly so deserving off all the “praise” they received.

Maties passop: stokkiesdraai kan jou dalk duur te staan kom

’n Hele kas wyn of ’n lekker tyd by ’n spa. Elke liewe dag.  

 

Dit is in geldelike waarde wat ouers van Matie-studente daagliks moet opdok aan klasgelde by dié universiteit.

 

Die Universiteit se kalender vir 2014 dui net 129 dae aan waarop daar amptelik klasgegee word.

 

Die res van die jaar word afgestaan aan eksamens (78 dae) en vakansies (93 dae).

Trek daarby ook naweke en openbare vakansiedae (waarvan sewe vanjaar op weeksdae val) af, en dit laat skaars ’n kwart van die jaar oor om aan akademiese bedrywighede te wy.

 

Een van die goedkoper kursusse, ’n BA in Drama en Teaterstudie, jaag ouers ’n rapsie meer as R29 000 per jaar uit die sak. ’n Gewone BSc kos net meer as R37 000 en een van die duurste kursusse, Ingenieurswese, meer as R40 000 per jaar.*

 

Dit bring die gemiddelde koste wat ouers betaal aan klasgelde vir elk van die 129 dae op enigiets tussen R220 en R310 neer.

 

Hierdie aardige bedrag laat boonop buite rekening addisionele kostes soos drukwerk en internetkostes. Volgens die Universiteit se woordvoerder, Martin Viljoen, word ouers aangeraai om sowat R3000 per jaar hiervoor te begroot.

 

Alle studente is ook onderhewig aan ’n paaiement van R230 om aan ’n Privaatstudente-organisasie (PSO) te behoort. Die betaal van hierdie fooi is verpligtend, mits die student ingeskryf is vir ’n Magister- of Doktorale-graad of in ’n koshuis is.

 

Koshuisbewoners word egter nie ontsien nie en moet benewens inwoningsgelde ook “huisgelde” van sowat R450 per jaar betaal.

Volgens die Universiteit word dit “aangewend vir die dag-tot-dag funksionering van die koshuise en dek ’n breë spektrum uitgawes wat tot voordeel van koshuisinwoners aangegaan word.”

 

Verblyf in universiteitskoshuise beloop enigiets tussen R2400 en R3000 per maand afhangende van die ligging en of ’n student ’n kamer deel.*

 

Gedurende die jaar is studente geregtig op 258 dae van koshuisverblyf, wat meebring dat die koste-per-dag tussen R110 en R140 is as hulle van al hierdie dae gebruik maak.

 

Etes beloop ’n bykomende gemiddeld van R44 per dag vir drie maaltye. Studente hoef egter nie van die verskafte spysenering by die koshuise gebruik te maak nie.

’n Parkeer-heffing van R88 per maand moet bo-en-behalwe al die ander kostes ook betaal word sou ’n student sy motor op kampus wil parkeer.

 

Studente wat BEd studeer kry ook geen skorting op enige van hierdie kostes nie, al is hulle die hele derde kwartaal nie op kampus nie tydens die praktiese komponent van hul kursus.

Viljoen maak dit wel duidelik dat hierdie feit alreeds ingereken is in die klasgelde wat BEd-studente betaal.

 

Rakende die BEd-studente wat in die universiteit se koshuise woon, sê Viljoen afslag op inwoningsgelde is ongelukkig nie moontlik nie, en dat die reëlings vir die proeftydperk reeds aan die begin van die jaar aan studente deurgegee word.

“Dit is dus hul keuse om van koshuisinwoning vir die jaar gebruik te maak al dan nie.”

 

*Gebaseer op syfers vanuit die Universiteit se amptelike Jaarboek Deel 3: Studentegelde.