The ANC's Malemma dilemma; consumers win latest bread price-fixing battle; Palestinians to seek statehood, but there's no easy solution; Syria's growing chemical weapons threat, and our US Open preview. By iMAVERICK TEAM.

Of all the legendary US record labels, there’s one that stands head and shoulders above the rest. Motown Records started 50 years ago in the heartland of the industrial country; it was destined to capture the American heart and soul and serve it ever-hot to the grateful masses. By J BROOKS SPECTOR.

The firestorm now engulfing Rastafarian reggae singer and French resident Ras Dumisani's unusual rendition of the South African national anthem over the weekend in Toulouse, France, is the latest version of an old song – a musician is asked to open an important sports event and he – or she – doesn't quite get it right. Or misses by a country mile – or more.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York is home to a priceless collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early modern, and contemporary art. Its Frank Lloyd Wright-designed shell, overlooking Manhattan’s Central Park, is one of the twentieth century’s great architectural achievements. On Sunday 24 October, the work of Ninja and Yo-Landi will be admitted into this company. Did someone say “genius”?

The label that’s just re-released her long delisted albums reckons that Outkast, Prince, Erykah Badu and The Roots couldn’t have existed without her influence. But Betty Davis missed the musical fame that seemed destined for her, and is instead remembered as Miles’s second wife, the founding muse of jazz fusion. By KEVIN BLOOM.

Just because you’re one of South Africa’s “big three” cellular providers; just because you are in bed with one of the country’s top stand-up comedians; just because you think your marketing campaign is very slick – don’t mean everyone has to find you funny. Cell C feels the burn.

Remember when the world’s media still loved us a few weeks ago? Well, the conviction of the one-time boss of Interpol has been reason enough to reduce our country to a continental cliché again.

In November 2009, a Russian policeman by the name of Aleksei Aleksandrovich Dymovsky uploaded a video to Youtube in which he blew the whistle on the endemic corruption surrounding him. Seems his life is better for it, which may get some local cops thinking…

As LiveAid marks 25 years comes news that a movie will be made about Sir Bob Geldof, the man who made “kwashiorkor kid” the poster child for Africa, reducing a diverse continent into a terrifyingly simple cliché. It’s touted as a film about a man who could “think the unthinkable and achieve the seemingly impossible".

As the manic debate about the future of newspapers continues and Hurricane Social Media continues to wreak havoc, Clay Shirky believes the survival of print news is irrelevant. What everybody should be in a stew about is sustaining the civic function of journalism and the future of hard-news reportage.

Ever since we stopped watching so much television, mankind has a trillion extra hours a year and the tools to change the world at its disposal. Now all we need is commensurate lashings of goodwill and technologies that motivate creative collaboration.

To US baseball fans he was a saint, sinner and Beelzebub himself, the man who reinvented the New York Yankees. To the rest of the world, he will be remembered as George Constanza’s bumbling boss in Seinfeld.

It’s not for nothing that millions of Americans look to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as their primary source of news. If irony and satire are more insightful methods of news delivery than straight reportage – and, if done well, they often are – then imagine the consequences once the US pros get Rich Mkhondo and Dan Roodt in the interview chair.

Dark clouds may be gathering again over Rwanda these days; clouds of an increasingly autocratic regime, led by a man once seen as a liberator and influence for good. Let's take a journey through this African country's reality.

Forget Amazon’s Kindle or the iPad, here's a novel project that’s making literacy fun and could just change the way teen literature is published in Africa. We spoke to Mobile for Literacy creator, Steve Vosloo.

While the World Cup delays local festivities to mark the Dalai Lama’s 75th birthday, his envoy says South Africans should celebrate by studying His Holiness’ teachings on moral and ethical values to build a better and more peaceful world.

The Web’s been in a flap over stories about Google’s new paywall initiative, Newspass, set to launch later this year. The Internet megalith believes it may just have found the answer to news companies’ prayers. Local media and Web experts are less convinced. 

While almost none of the pre-World Cup security threats have materialised (that we know of), it does appear as if cases that embarrass The General the most are getting the lion’s share of police attention.

Mapping the blueprint for life hasn’t quite brought the miracles and wonder of personalised drugs, a burgeoning billion-dollar biotech sector or a revolution in the treatment and prevention of diseases. As The Human Genome Project marks a major milestone, what humanity has discovered is that we’re only at the beginning of the beginning in the voyage of genomic discovery.

As the Carlos Parreira-led Bafana Bafana leave the World Cup stage, the movie about another iconic South African coach is about to hit theatres nationwide. The one that won us the only big cup, ever: Clive Barker.

The humanitarian aid industry is big business, in fact gigantic business. To protect the billions receiving aid annually, charitable organisations fiercely control the data on the basis that “he who owns the information owns the money”. That’s now set to change with disruptive technology that’s making information more freely available and rewriting the rules for the way global crises are handled. Meet Erik Hersman and his brainchild, Ushahidi.com.

In the first six months of 2010, South Africans saw a handful of low-budget music videos go insanely viral, with Die Antwoord and Jack Parow introducing a new breed of Afrikaans youth culture to the world. Could this Radio Kalahari Orkes video be next?

The company that gave the globe the biggest manmade environmental disaster is notching up a few new records. BP is fast becoming the world’s most disliked brand. The company’s gaffe-prone CEO has become America’s public enemy number one. And the corporation’s handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill will go down as a case study of how not to manage a disaster.

The Star, The Daily News, Cape Times, Pretoria News, Cape Argus and most other titles in the Independent News & Media (INM) stable literally took their tabloids online as an added-value proposition for subscribers. The result is an exact page-by-page replica of the print title that is both cumbersome and unwieldy to navigate or read. Experts describe the move as “outdated”, “confused” and a “recipe for disaster”.

It is fitting that the centennial milestone of the man who opened the world’s eyes to the wonders of ocean life and helped us to breathe underwater will be marked with year-long festivities that include the re-launch of his beloved ship, Calypso.

Change was the biggest obstacle to the launch of NewsDay in Zimbabwe this past week. Not democratic change. Or progressive media change. But a lack of common currency or coins that vendors could offer as change to people to mobbing them for independent news. The Daily Maverick spoke to Trevor Ncube in Harare about the launch of his new daily independent.

Come on now, South Africa. We have to get this anthem-singing thing right. We’re going to be doing a lot of it from Friday so let’s ensure we’re all doing it properly. To help us, the office of the presidency has set out concrete guidelines.

Chances are, unless you’re a hardcore science fiction fan, you’ve never heard of John W Campbell Jnr. But if you’ve read Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke or Robert A Heinlein you were touched by his influence. Campbell’s the guy who put science into sci-fi.

Two separate, but equally damning reports published in Europe, show the World Health Organisation may have created unnecessary panic about swine flu, and wasted vast sums of public money by declaring a pandemic, driving governments to stockpile drugs.

As their predestined defeat at the opening match of the World Cup draws ever closer, the delusional Mexican delegation on Monday continued to insist that its team stands a chance of at least a draw. Maybe it’s just as well that they get their celebrations over and done with now, because by Friday night it will all be tears.