Active versus Passive Funds: Is the Debate Finally Over?

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs, Financial Matters 0 Comment

Certainly Warren Buffet, an investor par excellence, has been beating the drum of Passive Funds with elevated vociferousness recently. In South Africa, most commentators hedge their bets with a paucity of actual statistics to back their case. A recent article by Patrick Cairns does just that as he nails his mast to the Passive Funds wall.

Main picture: It is your money and your future that is being invested in. Fund Managers will always steer investors towards Active Funds for self-serving reasons: their commission

Note: I have used the term Passive Funds to denote Index Funds throughout

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Lateral Thinkers with Time on their Hands

By Dean McCleland in Other Galleries 0 Comment

Just when you thought that you had seen it all before, along comes somebody with time on your hands. Each in its own way illustrates a create spark that was actualised. As can be seen from these two dozen examples, it many instances the inventor/creator is merely using discarded items with a minimal monetary investment. Instead such investment is mainly or wholly in the artist’s time.

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Just Don’t Look Down

By Dean McCleland in Other Galleries 0 Comment

Especially if one suffers from acrophobia. It might be irrational but, for sufferers, they feel a sense of panic when they are at a certain height. When gripped with this fear, they are often unable to trust their sense of balance. If you are concerned for the safety of the users of these structures, what about the workers who constructed them?

Just a word of caution. Never attempt to take the ultimate selfie. It might well be the last one that you will ever take.

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Of Cars and Tow Truck Drivers

By Dean McCleland in Other Personal 0 Comment

In less exalted circles I might be deemed to be fortunate to drive a BMW but, for the most part, for me a car is merely a mode of transport. It might be classy, it might be comfortable and it might have few peers but when a BMW needs servicing or repairs, one rues purchasing it. In the annuals of motoring, the past month could justifiably be termed my mense horribilis [Latin for horrible month]. First it was my BMW and then Alesha’s Ford Figo. Notwithstanding those “challenges”, it was a tow truck driver who almost ruined the rest of my year to make it an annus horribilis.[Latin for horrible year]

Main picture: My BMW in less than pristine condition

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The Three Eras of the Historic Port Elizabeth Harbour

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

The harbour in Port Elizabeth has always been intimately connected with the City. When the 1820 Settlers arrived, they found wide expansive, almost virgin beaches devoid of human habitation except for the occasional Khoi San nomads. Fort Frederick had recently been constructed and some troops were manning it. Apart from that it was desolate and unoccupied.

Essentially the harbour’s history can be trifurcated as follows:

  • the North Jetty – 1837
  • the Charl Malan quay in 1933
  • The modern era

Main picture: An early view of the harbour from the Donkin

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The Rand Athletic Club 10km Race on 15th May 2016

By Dean McCleland in Running 0 Comment

In his heyday, I recall Bruce Fordyce declaring in his non-dilettantish almost boyish way that once the cosmos appeared, winter was nigh and it was time to peak for Comrades. His fragile figure belied his steely determination, his steadfast conviction and his obsessive focus on the minutia of winning the Comrades. Moreover with his urbane charm, he bewitched the South African public and seduced a nation with his self-deprecatory charm.

 On the other hand, for me it was not the sudden emergence of this herbaceous perennial plant which made an impression but rather it was the annual RAC 10km run a week before Comrades. Almost like a cathartic release, it signalled the end of the Comrades taper but more importantly, a heightened awareness of the daunting task shortly at hand.

Main picture: Instead of the usual field of 3000 runners, it was a field in the hundreds which pitched courtesy of the inclement weather Continue reading

Demyansk: The Template for Hitler’s Disaster at Stalingrad

By Dean McCleland in History, Military History 0 Comment

In many ways, the Demyansk Pocket [German: Festung Demjansk or Kessel von Demjansk] was the forerunner of what was to occur later in 1942 except that in the latter instance, the outcome was tragic. Hitler, the Commander of the German Wehrmacht, had drawn the wrong conclusions from this action. The consequences of Stalingrad were immense: the elimination of Germany’s strategic initiative in the war forever.

Main picture: Like Napoeon’s forces before them, the Germans during the winter of 1941/1942 literally freeze to death in inappropriate clothing.

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Part-time Jobs while still at School

By Dean McCleland in McClelands, Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

Nowadays our children shun these jobs mainly because their parents supply them with too much pocket money. Forty to fifty years ago if one wanted something special like a watch, one would have to work for it – not in some make work scheme at home but a proper job. We all had those types of jobs. In this blog I will relate the jobs that my brother and I had.

Main pcture: Blaine worked in the Port Elizabeth harbour as a Tally Clerk before he went to Varsity.
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It is a Dog’s Life when on a Chain

By Dean McCleland in Nature & Animals, Other Opinion Pieces 1 Comment

An aphorism that I strenuously advocate is that animals should be free. That is why I am averse to zoos and even caged birds. Like humans, all animals have certain rights and one of those is freedom. Amongst others is that they must be able to feel real grass under their feet and not to be confined in the animal equivalent of “solitary confinement.”

Main picture: Rusty, the dog, that was chained to a fence for over 10 years

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Zimbabwe – The Final Countdown

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs, Rhodesia / Zimbabwe 0 Comment

After many false alarms regarding Mugabe’s ultimate demise, could the next year finally witness the final dissolution of the Mugabe’s Regime? It goes without saying that one of the factors could be biology – Mugabe’s superannuation – but ignoring that possibility it is most likely the economic dimension that deposes him. What are the numbers behind this bold prediction?

Main picture: Burchell’s zebra in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. Photo by Ariadne van Zandbergen

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