“Infection” is a dirty word
HIV is hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Just a few months ago, HIV was in the news because the end of the more than 40-year pandemic was in sight. There is still no vaccine or cure for
When democracy is broken
Ever heard of “autocratic breakthrough”? Me neither … well, not until I tried to make sense of the noise created by Donald Trump while his paymaster, Elon Musk, takes apart the US government. Let’s do a quick recap Trump stepped
A giant falls
How the US is destroying its legacy of leadership Once upon a time, America was great. It led the world in global health interventions, economy, trade, philanthropy, technology, space exploration and just about anything you can think of. Many also
My pick of small-town South Africa, Take 2*
Big city buzz is fabulous – in small doses. Small towns stole my heart a long time ago. Road trips through South Africa over many years have taken me and #him to some of the loveliest small towns. Here are
Upholding the right to breastfeed
Hospital keeps exclusively breastfed baby away from her mother Hospital bans exclusively breastfed baby from her mother Wouldn’t those be shock-horror news headlines? Well, it’s true. The parents gave me permission to share this story and use their names because
Navigating jet lag
The price we pay for crossing time zones Around the start of the 20th century, my great-grandfather, Henry Grey Granger, boarded a ship in Southampton, England, and went to South Africa. He was 18 years old. Henry spent the rest
The abiding sting of racism
It’s been almost 30 years since the end of apartheid – and racism is alive and kicking (it kicks and it hurts). V and I were kicked at an otherwise happy event – the wedding of friends – last week.
Let’s talk about Chat
The world changed while I was not looking. In a flash, artificial intelligence (AI) was melded to real life. Of course, there was warning, but I was among the majority that did not read the signs. AI is rewriting how
Proudly 60
No, we won’t go quietly One morning a couple of weeks ago, I woke up and I was 60. Just like that. As I do on any other normal day, I took an early-morning walk. But something was not the
All roads lead to De Rust
… and other true stories The Karoo dorpie of De Rust was a blip on my radar – a stopover town en route to Cape Town, a place to pause to visit the Meiringspoort waterfall, and not much more. That