Dean McCleland, Author at The Casual Observer

Twenty Historical Photos That Are Rarely Seen

By Dean McCleland in Historical 20 December 2016 0 Comment

Helen Keller and Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin was a famous silent film movie actor and Helen Keller was an author, political activist and lecturer who was deaf and blind. She still learned to communicate. Bizarrely there is a photograph of Charlie Chaplin and Helen Keller meeting each other in 1912 Hollywood. They are standing face to face and Helen appears to be touching Charlie’s face to read his expression. It’s probably not seen often because it looks like a photograph a friend may have taken as a keepsake of the meeting.

Which South Africa did we actually get?

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs 20 December 2016 1 Comment

If Joe Slovo or Chris Hani were to suddenly reappear in South Africa what would their first impressions be? Similarly with Hendrik Verwoerd or D.F. Malan? Even for those who have lived through this tumultuous transition, is the current status quo what they envisioned?

Main picture: Cape Town in all its splendor

Graph to Explain Brexit & the Appeal of Trump

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs 20 December 2016 0 Comment

On my list of future blogs was this topic except that I never had a convenient succinct coathanger on which to hang it. That is, until this morning when I serendipitously discovered a blog on a little known backroom economist called Branko Milanović.

First, there was Thomas Piketty, the rock star economist. Now, in the mould of the dismal scientist, comes Milanović, rescuing economics from irrelevance.

Main picture: Branko Milanović

Middle Class Woes

By Dean McCleland in Other Miscellaneous Topics 18 December 2016 0 Comment

Today’s road race was at the Elkah Stadium adjacent to Thokoza Park in Soweto. While driving home listening to 702 Talk Radio listeners airing their humdrum concerns, it struck me forcefully that many of the denizens of Moroka now face a different foe from one endured during the turbulent 1970’s, the dreaded middle class woes.

Never fatal but its symptoms are overwork, stress and a lack of free time.

Main picture: Soweto is a symbol of the New South Africa, caught between old squatter misery and new prosperity Continue reading

Come back Chris. All is forgiven

By Dean McCleland in Opinion Pieces 18 December 2016 1 Comment

This statement refers to the now long-forgotten outrage of Chris Hart, the Chief Economist of Standard Bank, for brazenly tweeting that Blacks in South Africa harbour a sense of entitlement.

For me what was truly remarkable about this incident was the selective outrage and morality.

Main picture: Chris Hart, ex Standard Bank Economist Continue reading

Origin of the Stone Walled Structures of Mpumalanga

By Dean McCleland in Other Miscellaneous Topics 17 December 2016 0 Comment

One of the oddities on the Suikerboschfontein Hiking Trail is a number of stone walled structures, one of which is grandiosely referred to as the Dying Sun Chariot. By implication, the function of that circular settlement is alluding to some religious or astronomical function much like Stonehenge in Wiltshire, UK. The only explanation that is proffered for their existence is transparently “exotic” with apparently no credible evidence to substantiate the assumptions.

**Even the Kaapsehoop Hiking Trail has its own stone circle too small to function as a settlement known as Adam’s Calendar after its supposed function .**

Who constructed these little-known structures and when but, more importantly, why?

Will a new publication by Tim Maggs and Alex Schoeman finally settle this enigma and usher in a revised postulation?

Main picture: An aerial photograph of these structures reveals their extent

SABC Chairman: Is he a Charlatan or an Alternative Reality?

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs 17 December 2016 1 Comment

Being retired, I had time on my hands to watch the Parliamentary enquiry into the SABC. Frankly, it was more riveting than many of the dramas on SABC, except that this reality TV show revealed current South Africa writ large.

Apart from Minister Faith Muthambi’s deft blame shifting, the most interesting for me was a floundering Chairman of SABC, Professor Mbulaheni Maguvhe clearly out of his depth. An articulate Grade 10 pupil – sorry learner – would have trounced his Varsity Professor with ease.

Main picture: Professor Mbulaheni Maguvhe

Is the World of Abundance, No Work & Universal Basic Grants Dawning?

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs 15 December 2016 0 Comment

All revolutions whether economic, political or social, cause fundamental dislocations to society & in the case of political revolutions, such as the Russian Revolution, or the French Revolution for that matter, major loss of life.

With the impending birth of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the fate of the livelihoods of the bulk of the world’s population is in jeopardy.

What does this imply for humankind? No work and hence no income in a sea of abundance or will this be ameliorated by the awarding of a Universal Basic Grant to all inhabitants on the earth?

Let us open the Pandora’s Box.

Main picture: A tiger shaking itself vigorously

Oddities Portrayed in these Unusual Photographs

By Dean McCleland in Other Galleries 14 December 2016 0 Comment

Oddities prevail everywhere. Whether it is people with too much time on their hands who design the most exquisite but odd creations to an ape grooming a buck as if it were a fellow ape, the world has seen it all. Some are just happenstance – chance in modern parlance – being in the right place at the right time, such as a ship crashing into a pier or due to exquisite timing when a fish eagle catches a fish.

All in their own way are highly unusual. This blog reveals forty such eclectic oddities.

Main picture: Who would want to cycle around on a toilet? Clearly the designer / builder is not out to impress the females but rather his own ego.

The Pitfalls of Land Reform in South Africa

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs 14 December 2016 1 Comment

The resolution of the land question in South Africa is often touted as the solution to black frustration at the inequities of land ownership. For understandable reasons, I am in agreement that the issue has not been adequately addressed but it would certainly be wrong to suggest that this is a nirvana. Instead it could well be the road to perdition.

In spite of a shining example on our northern border where agricultural production is now 10% of what it was 16 years ago, the ideologues and race baiters such as the EFF are impervious to the economic consequences of wholesale indiscriminate redistribution of land in South Africa.

This blog reveals one instance where such a transfer led to disastrous consequences.

Detachment is not option.

Main picture: Lukas Meyer, an employee who has not been paid for five months

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.

Author: Dean McCleland