South Africa’s Freedom Day is just past, and World Press Freedom Day is just around the corner. An opportune time, then, to highlight some troubling developments on the continent in The darkness of Africa. Governments are naturally at odds with a free press, but their attempts to control it are a danger to liberty and prosperity.

One consequence of speaking to people in the tourism industry is an acute appreciation for exactly how badly FIFA and its marketing partner, Match, are exploiting South Africans, and giving South Africa a bad reputation for international guests into the bargain. Here’s the column: Who’s ripping off whom?

Our new communications minister, General Surprise (or rather, General Disappointment), went to visit Cuba, to escape the sordid media coverage he is getting back home. He wants South Africa and Cuba to share technology expertise. This warranted a little rant on ITWeb: Cuba veneration survives Poison Ivy.

The world didn’t end while I was on holiday, and neither did my columns. First, I grabbed a review unit — the sweet little Nokia Booklet 3G I had lying around — to take along. Security reasons, you understand. I had cleaned it up thoroughly in preparation for its return to Nokia, so imagine my surprise when I fired it up and it alerted me of a new email. That prompted this column on ITWeb. I always said Google could very easily be evil.

While I was away, I first wrote a column in response to the UK parliamentary whitewash of the East Anglia Climatic Research Unit email leak. However, the noise around Eugene Terre’blanche and Julius Malema prompted its delay, in favour of this: While FIFA takes over, we fight. A week later, upon my return, Anatomy of a whitewash found its way online.

I have some more very juicy bits lined up about FIFA. It doesn’t get any prettier as we count down to the World Cup. I’ll keep you posted.