The Opinion Pieces are an eclectic bunch on current affairs & history often with a human interest aspect. The Movie/DVDs reviews are mainly on documentaries with a smattering of movie reviews.
Despite a breakwater being a critical component of a harbour, Port Elizabeth was deprived of one until the 1920s. That consigned the unloading of the ships to be performed in the roadstead, an archaic practice, long since abandoned by other ports.
The initial attempt at building a breakwater in 1856 was disastrous as it became unusable due to silting after the flood in 1867. It would be fifty years before another attempt would be made to construct the breakwater.
Main picture: Breakwater with the Charl Malan Quay still under
construction
In the midst of the Coronavirus epidemic ravaging the world, South Africa will have to brace itself for a tsunami of dead bodies. Given crowding in the townships and on the public transport, social distancing is impractical. The last time that South Africa experienced such a pandemic was in 1918 which resulted in at least an estimated 500 000 deaths.
How did this pandemic affect Port Elizabeth? And what lessons can be learnt?
Main picture: Mouth of the Shark River in Humewood with Lazaretto Contagious Diseases Hospital
Amongst the many iconic buildings in Main Street during the mid-1980s was this building. Originally built in 1937, it underwent a major upgrade in the 1950s and a minor one in the 1960s.
That evening, Monday 15th January 1934, was not going to be a good one for the ship from Osaka, Japan en route to Cape Town. An angry south-easter was gusting as this steamer left the protection of the recently completed Charl Malan Quay at 19:00. Unlike the days of the sailing ships, when the wind from this direction could be a death sentence for ships at anchor in the bay, the conversion to steam had long since tamed that menace. After exiting the harbour and entering the choppy waters of the Bay, the ship veered to starboard and headed for Cape Recife to meet its fate.
That day would also not be a good day for the newly-arrived destitute Jews from Nazi Germany. In effect the call by the Grey Shirts in the Feathermarket Hall to block the emigration of Jews to the Union, would constitute a death sentence to Jews trapped within the warped bigoted anti-Semitic world of Nazi Germany.But how would the stranded Japanese sailors fare in a race addled country far from home?
Main picture: The swansong of the Japanese merchantman, The Paris Maru
While the hiking function of Quo Vadis might have terminated with a whimper, the game viewing segment of our “hike” bore testimony to both Malcolm’s generosity as well as the capacity of a certain contingent to once again drink themselves into a stupor. For them, the wealth of game was a distraction.
But as Julie Andrews would
sing in the Sound of Music, “Let’s start at the very beginning”.
Main picture: Malcolm’s shack in the Olifant’s North Game Reserve
As the Dutch boeren trekked ever eastwards in order to escape from authority, they encountered an enemy of a different kind: a series of rivers in steep defiles. The one solution was to bypass them by traversing the Langkloof route. The final challenges were the Gamtoos and Van Stadens Rivers. The Gamtoos was the easier foe as it could be crossed by making a turn to the north. The Van Staden river was a foe of superior mein.
Van Stadens Pass is a passage through the gorge of the Van Stadens River and is locally known as the iPospathi – the post road, for it was with the opening of the pass that post was conveyed by way of the road for more than a century.
The success of Port Elizabeth has always been determined by its transport links to the interior. Initially it was the port from which the bulk of the Cape Colony’s wool was exported and then in the first half of the 20th century it was the port through which all cars assembled in South Africa were imported. Before the introduction of rail services in the 1870s, inland transport was dependent upon the state of the roads which were execrable. Secondly the condition of the roads impeded the exports in that it took three months for an ox wagon to complete a round trip from Graaff Reinet to Port Elizabeth and back.
Main picture: Typical old Divisional Council roads, narrow and rutted, with a drift below and ox wagons toiling up the hill
During the period June 2006 to June
2019, the traditional initiation procedure for African males has resulted in a
veritable genocide in South Africa. Yet year after year all that government provides
as a solution and solace for grieving parents are platitudes and promises.
What is the extent of this travesty?
Main picture: Xhosa initiates
The extent of this disaster is obvious
from the cumulative statistics for this period. These statistics relate only to
the Eastern Cape.
Consequence
Number affected
Hospital admissions
8218
Deaths
794
Amputations
317
What has been the response from the
government? Apart from some platitudes and proposals, no concrete action has
been taken. Has any person been charged for culpable homicide? Has anybody been
incarcerated or even fined? A deafening silence will be heard. Instead somebody
is fined R200,000 for uttering the word Kaffir. The use of such a pejorative
and demeaning term cannot be justified but none of the perpetrators of death
was even fined by a derisory R1. Where is the justice?
On the other hand what has been the
response when one black scholar was drowned while on school-organised adventure
in the North West? Immediately the Education MEC for Gauteng, Pansy Lesufi, was
baying for blood. The principal of the school was suspended, the South African
Human Rights Commission became involved and vitriol was heaped upon all and sundry.
Yet 794 black youths can callously die without nary a raised voice. The school
officials deserve to have opprobrium heaped
upon them as all the basic control procedures such as the issue of life jackets
seemed to have been ignored but what about the rights of 794 youths on the cusp
of attaining adulthood. Does tradition trump life itself? Any government truly
concerned about the rights of all its citizens would have put in place the relevant
controls and punishments to prevent this senseless slaughter.
Why the asymmetrical treatment? Surely one irregular death is the same as another. This demands equivalence in the treatment not only between the various methods of death but also the severity of crimes such as crimen inuria versus death.
At this rate, South African doctors
will become the most experienced in the world in performing penis transplants.
In fact we will be in the invidious position of inviting foreign doctors to
hone their skills in this little-practiced area in medical treatment.
A TED Talk about the reality of renewables set the cat amongst the pigeons – in my mind at least. Most people are unaware of the energy intensity of fossil fuels vis-à-vis renewals whether biofuels, solar or wind power which means that the facilities to produce the latter are so much larger.. Furthermore, renewables such as solar and wind power are subject to the vagaries of the weather as well as the diurnal cycle. These factors confound the issue of reliable 24/7 power requiring alternative energy sources such as batteries, open [or closed] cycle gas turbines or pumped storage schemes to meet such shortfalls.
Main picture: The future blight on the landscape. Wind turbines on all available land in windy regions
The objective of any biography is to obtain an understanding of what motivates that person and how they handle situations, especially the troublesome ones. Essentially what one attempts to do, is to understand what makes a person tick. Even in the best cases, vital pieces of evidence are missing, hidden behind the veil of their private lives. Just ask a divorced person for a resume of their ex-spouse and compare the response with what is publicly known about the person. The mask will slip, and the real person will be revealed. So it is with Francis McCleland except that Francis’ obnoxious actions towards third parties became common knowledge and were not restricted to one person. Being so egregious, the other parties took public umbrage at Francis’ actions and hence his personality – or at least to the putrescent bits.
