A different view on current affairs & history
South End has experienced a tumultuous past. From devastating floods in 1867 to the destruction of a culturally diverse community through forced removals in terms of the Group Areas Act in the 1960s, South End has experienced it all.
The focus of this blog is the early beginnings when the Baakens River isolated South End from Port Elizabeth and its subsequent transformation from a huge farm into a residential area.
Main picture: Port Elizabeth from an agrarian South End in 1830
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Any criminal justice system, apart from the Wild West, comprises several independent components: the constabulary, the magistracy and the prisons. This chapter deals with all three elements during the early years of the town’s development.
Main picture: Commercial Hall which housed both the Magistrate’s Court and the Police Offices before their relocation. Ultimately this site became the public library.
Viewed through the sanguine eyes of nostalgia, Port Elizabeth in its formative years is naively seen as idyllic. This is not altogether true. Port Elizabeth not only exemplified a “frontier town” with all its attendant travails but it also bore the undesirable hallmarks of a busy, under-policed port.
This blog exposes the seamy, sleazy underbelly of that era.
Main picture: The sea wall from the north jetty in 1885. Beyond it was the Strand Street, the den of iniquity
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When Trump entered the fray to become President, his chances of success were almost universally rated as being as low as the single digits. Notwithstanding that, Trump confounded all the critics and naysayers and ultimately captured the Presidency.
Are we now any closer to take the measure of the man? What has been revealed so far? Has he already blotted his copy book and should he even he given the benefit of the doubt in future?
Main picture: A smirking Donald Trump, a defining characteristic of the man
Generically these are known as Animals Crossings as any fabricated structure, which facilitates the movements of animals across an impeding obstacle such as roads, or railway line could serve as a crossing.
However, as the most spectacular crossings are bridges, the focus will be on bridges.
Main picture: A Green Wildlife Bridge over an Autobahn in Germany
The CSAR existed from 1902-1910 and was well-known for its extremely luxurious suburban and main-line trains which were generally regarded as the most well appointed in South Africa and compared well to the best in the rest of the world. One of these four A-17’s was named the Pongola and became car No. 146 in 1911, and saw service until 1926 as a type A-17.
Main picture: Dining car of the Pongola 146 in its heyday
Main picture: Al “Scarface” Capone
What could be more innocuous than a handshake? Not a special handshake, but a conventional handshake where the only contact is between the two hands. Well, using the pretext of being anti-Islamic, two Muslim brothers have objected to shaking the hand of their female teacher.
This has resulted in numerous educational department rulings & reversals as this issue wends its way through officialdom and ultimately the Courts in Switzerland.
Main picture: No handshake exemption for Muslim pupils, Swiss canton rules
Main picture: If officials awarded Lance Armstrong’s 2005 Tour de France title to the next fastest finisher who has never been linked to doping, they would have to give it to the 23rd place finisher.
Most of these facts were unknown to me. Clearly I cannot enter any TV quizzes anytime soon.
Main picture: The smallest island with country status is Pitcairn in Polynesia, at just 1.75 sq. miles/4.53 sq. km and a population of 49 people.