Author Archives: bruss.young@gmail.com

Aweh dearly beloved fellow ruminants & groupies This week a book about Eskom, the South African state electricity utility, was published by André de Ruyter about his three years as CEO. He is now in hiding abroad after leaving Eskom in February. In December he survived an assassination attempt. I have now read most ofContinue reading “Ruminations on truth to power”

Aweh dearly beloved fellow ruminants & groupies Next week I start teaching a course on decarbonisation and earlier this year I taught a course on sustainability. This has allowed me to ruminate deeply on these two related topics and I can now pontificate verbosely and annoy you with my blog. The whole idea behind theContinue reading “Ruminations on decarbonisation, sustainability, and exponentials”

Aweh dearly beloved fellow ruminants & groupies Forgive me it has been two weeks since my last blog. One of the most gratifying aspects of writing this blog are the comments and interactions I have with friends and colleagues from all over the world. In many cases, I have not seen some of my readersContinue reading “Ruminations on beer, good news, optimism, and government policy”

Aweh dearly beloved fellow ruminants & groupies When I introduce myself to students, I teach, I deal with the issue of white privilege straight away. I confess to being white and privileged. Relatively speaking and in the South African context, I am very privileged. You only need a net worth of about R4.2 million  ($233Continue reading “Ruminations on what it means to be rich”

Aweh dearly beloved fellow ruminants & groupies During this last week that has been more chatter about South Africa being on the potholed road to becoming a failed state. There is a Bloomberg article suggesting the failed state destination is near. The author, Richard Cookson, is a former chief investment officer at Citi Private BankContinue reading “Ruminations on failing and failed states”

Aweh dearly beloved fellow ruminants & groupies This last weekend Nerine and I caught up with two critically acclaimed movies of 2022. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (EEAO), and “The Banshees of  Inisherin” (BOI).  EEAO cleaned up at the academy awards receiving 11 nominations and winning 7 Oscars while BOI received 9 nominations and wonContinue reading “Ruminations on everything everywhere all at once and coulda, woulda, shoulda”

Aweh dearly beloved fellow ruminants & groupies Our household has been completely sucked in by Apple and it’s not a cheap option. The latest iPhone 14 entry level price is currently R20 000 ($1100) in South Africa. If you want an iPhone Pro Max with a terabyte of storage you are looking at double that.Continue reading “Ruminations on crime, cell phones and values”

Aweh dearly beloved fellow ruminants & groupies This week something completely different and sentimental. In general, I am not one for spending too much time thinking about the past and having regrets about what I could have done, or I should have done. Of course, examining the past so that you don’t repeat the sameContinue reading “Ruminations on a moment in time”

Aweh dearly beloved fellow ruminants & groupies This week some more eclectic philosophical ramblings from an ageing privileged white cisgender male with a colonial background on the taboo topic of politics. This week I have been marking several post-graduate student essays discussing the issues associated with the potential phasing out of coal in South AfricaContinue reading “Ruminations on worldviews, beliefs, and statism”

Artistic rendering of a potential colony on Mars Aweh dearly beloved fellow ruminants & groupies This week some eclectic philosophical ramblings from an ageing privileged white cisgender male with a colonial background.  I would suggest that the three questions posed in the heading are the three most fundamental strategic questions any country, organisation or companyContinue reading “What can we do? What should we do? What do we do?”