Initiation Schools Open and the Killing Season Commences

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs 0 Comment

Initiation within the black community is a cultural imperative or rite of passage. With the initiation season barely started, so far this year the death toll already stands at 23. Foremost amongst the various trials that the initiates undergo is a circumcision by a traditional healer. The number of penectomies – the amputation of the penis – has not been recorded and never is as it normally merely included under the figure of disfigurement and other serious injuries. In any other society there could even result in the downfall of the government but in South Africa it only rates a mention on page three or five of the newspaper.

 The use of an initiation to induct a member into a society, club or institution has a long history across all civilisations. The form of initiation which subjects the initiate to physical pain, mental torture or death has been severely circumscribed within most of the first world over the past few decades. Within South Africa’s black society on the other hand, it appears still to play a significant role especially within rural communities.

Main picture: Initiates or amaKwetha covered in white clay and the traditional knobkerrie
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The Friendly City – Port Elizabeth – My Home Town

By Dean McCleland in Landscapes, Other Personal, Port Elizabeth of Yore 4 Comments

For me Port Elizabeth represents my roots, physically and emotionally. It was only the lack of work opportunities after I had completed my Articles of Clerkship, that I was forced to relocate to Joburg in 1980. Emotionally it is more that the place where I grew up, went to school and university. My roots go much deeper than that. One of the first citizens of Port Elizabeth was my great great great grandfather. With his house at Number 7 Castle Hill being a National Monument, I can truly feel a part of Port Elizabeth’s illustrious history.

Main picture: The central suburb of Port Elizabeth.

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The Luddites and Bullies of the Taxi Industry

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs 0 Comment

Two recent events have once again highlighted the bullying uncompetitive attitude of the South African Taxi industry. Firstly there was the shooting of a bus driver in Mamelodi together with the associated violence and then this week the harassing tactics against Uber drivers and passengers outside Sandton City confirming this attitude.

The use of “mini buses” – colloquially called black taxis – as the preferred method of transport for the lower classes in South Africa arose as a direct consequence of Apartheid. The use of these vehicles is an aberration as it is cheaper to use other modes of public transport such as buses and trains rather than these smaller vehicles. Moreover these vehicles were never designed to carry 18 passengers.

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Was the WW2 German Tank design philosophy of bigger-is-better correct?

By Dean McCleland in History, Military History 3 Comments

Nazi Germany undoubtedly produced some of the most advanced and impressive tanks of WW2 but were they truly better than their opponents vehicles? Were the designs after the Panzerkampfwagen iv including the renowned Tiger 1 as excellent as was claimed or were they merely a vanity project of Adolf Hitler which was ultimately an evolutionary cul-de-sac or did their design presage the future of tank design?

Disregarding the fact that Hitler had been only a corporal in the Deutsche Wehrmacht during WW1, Hitler ever the indolent dreamer had never held a proper job before becoming leader of the Nazi Party. Instead he had been a dissolute layabout without an income apart from charity of family and friends.

Main picture: The 1,000 tonne Landkreuzer
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Animals showing their nurturing side

By Dean McCleland in Animals 0 Comment

Some animals display no nurturing actions at all such as turtles. As soon as they have laid their eggs, they abandon them. At the other extreme are bonobo monkeys who nurse their infants for four years while other species fall between these two extremes. In the case of many such as the leopard, it is the arrival of new mating season when the mother abandons their young. Lion cubs have a different set of considerations. If a new male takes over the pride, the incoming male will kill all the cubs as they are not his offspring.

Interspecies nurturing is uncommon in the wild but instances have been noted. With domesticated animals on the other hand, it is more prevalent.

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Piercing the Veil: Behind the Greek Debt Tragedy

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs 0 Comment

Like a delinquent wayward child who discovers the keys to the cavernous underground wine cellar, his parents do not notice when a few bottles go missing let alone a few cases. After a while the wine bottles are being replenished by the child. The small matter of culpability by only using water to refill them seems to have escaped the miscreant who ultimately loses track of whether the bottles contain wine or water and where he placed them. When his parents inevitably open one with water instead of wine, the secret is exposed. Instead of blaming the alcoholic delinquent teenager, the parents blame the purveyor, the transporter and even the vineyard & its vintner; anybody but the child. Even the second opinion of an expensive child psychologist concurs with the parents’ viewpoint.

Of course in this case substitute the parents for the government, the child for its citizens, the suppliers for the ECB, the EU, the Germans, Angela Merkl and the IMF. In tow corroborating their story would be the likes of renowned economists such as Joseph Stiglitz.

Main picture: Sunset in Oia, Santorini

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Did 863 Commonwealth Soldiers really have to die on the last day of WW1?

By Dean McCleland in History, Military History 2 Comments

Nowadays most generals are extravagant in their use of ammunition but parsimonious with the lives of their troops. Not so during WW1. By the end of WW1, the British Commonwealth had suffered more than 1.1million deaths and countless millions more maimed and injured. Most of the deaths on the last day occurred between the Armistice being signed at 5:10am within a railway carriage in Compiegne Wood and the ceasefire coming into effect at 11am that same morning. How could 10 000 soldiers become casualties that day when the Deed of Cessation of hostilities had already been signed?

For those with a conspiratorial disposition, be assured that there was no significance in the fact that the time and date of the cessation of hostilities comprised the number eleven. This was pure happenstance. The German delegation led by a civilian Matthias Erzberger had arrived some days earlier to conclude a peace treaty. In spite of the Allies being aware that the German’s mandate was peace at any cost, the Allies under Marshal Ferdinand Foch was truculent and in no mood to make any concessions to the Germans. This truculence was to delay the peace by three days.

Main picture: Carriage in which the Deed of Armistice was signed
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What will Shopping of the Future be Like?

By Dean McCleland in Other Miscellaneous Topics, Other Opinion Pieces 0 Comment

There are two types of shopping. To differentiate them I will classify them as consumables such as groceries, cleaning materials and toiletries and personal and luxury items such as clothing and appliances. To date internet shopping has not superseded personally shopping for one major reason; the cost of the delivery. Secondly should internet shopping become the norm what will the role of physical shops become?

I have been a keen follower of the internet shopping from its exuberant birth in the 1990s. The prognosis was that within 10 years, the demise of physical stores would become a reality. Reality TV shows showcased celebrities attempting to survive without ever entering a shop. Doomsday predictions abounded. Even within the steel industry where I was working at the time, the death of the steel merchant was predicted.
Main picture: A worker is seen in the Amazon.co.uk warehouse in Milton Keynes, north of London

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