Opinion Pieces Archives - Page 17 of 43

Is being Overweight a Life Sentence?

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs, Health 2 May 2016 0 Comment

Reality TV shows in which contestants lose enormous quantities of weight seem to suggest otherwise? In what can only be described as results vindicating those who are unable to lose weight, the release today in the Obesity Journal – 1^st May 2016 – of the tests performed on those contestants seems to confirm the dismal performance of diets. In an article entitled The Science of Fat, Gina Kolata presents those findings.

Main picture: The most expensive artifact is the Space Station at USD 150 billion

Will the Bicentennial of their Arrival provoke Vilification or Celebration?

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs 25 April 2016 1 Comment

Being of 1820 Settler Stock, the year 2020 looms large in my mind. The bicentennial represents a time when our family can reflect and rejoice on our time in South Africa and how much that hardy band of Settlers have contributed to South Africa’s development. Will any form of large scale celebration merely bring opprobrium to those celebrating it or will it bring mutual rejoicing as everybody shares in the commemoration? I fear the latter response.

Main picture: The Campanile was constructed between 1920 & 1922 in order to commemorate the arrival of the 1820 Settlers a centuary before

Was Einstein a closet misogynist?

By Dean McCleland in History 18 April 2016 2 Comments

Einstein has always fascinated the world for his intellectual genius but very little light has been cast on Einstein, the private man. The fact that he was married as a youngster to Mileva Maric, a Hungarian and supposed “intellectual equal”, is little known. However what was totally unknown, until 31 years after his death in 1955, was the existence of his daughter Lieserl whose whereabouts and life still largely remains a mystery.

It was that revelation that set me on the course to uncover the “real” Einstein – not the man synonymous with genius – but the Einstein as lover, father and husband; the private man.

Fools and their Money ……

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs, Financial Matters 13 April 2016 0 Comment

I was reminded of this maxim last night whilst listening to Xolani Gwala’s show on 702 Talk Radio. The topic under discussion was the collapse of the MMM Global Investment in most countries in which it operated. Despite this, the South African operation remained open. It was at this juncture that I recalled the adage regarding fools and their money. Incredulously a female listener disputed the fact that the SA operation would collapse like their foreign counterparts. Xolani was unsuccessful in attempting to convince the caller that if all the operations used the same modus operandi – that is acted as a Ponzi Scheme – then the local operation was bound to collapse as well.

Main picture: Uncle Charlies. The rest of the pictures are in the same vein ie South Africa of the 1970s and 1980s.

Will Sylvester the Wayward Lion be Reprieved?

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs, Nature & Animals 31 March 2016 0 Comment

Animals always draw the short straw in their interaction with humans. Sylvester the Lion is merely the latest in that long line. What was the National Parks knee-jerk reaction? Sylvester must be killed. This attitude prevailed until such time as the chorus of opposition became too vociferous. At that point, euthanasia became one amongst an array of options such as relocation.

Main picture: Sylvester the Lion is at large again after once again having escaped from the Karroo National Park. So far he has alluded all attempts at capture.

Bitcoins: A Real Currency or a Chimera?

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs, Financial Matters 24 March 2016 0 Comment

According to the shrill emails received and the rants by Max Keiser on RT’s economic program on DSTV, the solution to currency crises is the adoption of a virtual or a cryptocurrency – call it what you will – such as Bitcoin. Seemingly immune from government and bankers manipulation, they are a secure method to bypass government control. Will this “currency” ultimately supplant traditional currencies or will it be a chimera? Won’t the criminal element combined with human greed, folly and venality ultimately prove its downfall?

Minister of Defence: “Exiting Pilots Stole Air Force Planes”

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs 1 March 2016 0 Comment

Do government representatives and Ministers take us for fools? Either the reasons that they provide for non-performance are not factual or they are farcical. Perhaps they operate on the principle that South Africans are gullible. There have been a number of such preposterous claims lately that require rebutting including the one that pilots who are resigning from the South African Air Force are taking their planes with them!

Main picture: Pilatus PC-7 turboprop trainers

SONA 2016: Zuma does not Deserve our Respect BUT……

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs 13 February 2016 0 Comment

Again Zuma has underwhelmed. If there ever was an occasion when the President needed to issue a clarion call, a rallying cry, to the citizens of South Africa, it was SONA 2016. But he failed dismally. With dubious moral and intellectual credentials, I had lowered my expectations but even those low standards could not be attained. Does that not reflect the malaise in South Africa? Despite Zuma’s dismal performance was the farce not exacerbated by the EFF’s childish behaviour?

Main picture: The action during SONA 2016 was on the streets of Cape Town

South Africa on “The Road to Nowhere”

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs 11 February 2016 0 Comment

The ANC could compliment the citizens of South Africa for their forbearance if it was “The Long and Winding Road.” In that case we could at least enjoy the scenery of the journey but just for good measure we are being taken along known treacherous paths where wisdom cautions one not to tread – the proverbial Road to Nowhere. It is a sad indictment that wisdom and sanity has not prevailed. This is the path to perdition. That is why am I so profoundly despondent about South Africa’s future?

Main picture: The Road to Perdition, the theme of this blog. Like the movie starring Tom Hanks, South Africa’s future is murky & full of foreboding.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution: Peer to Peer Transactions

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs 6 February 2016 0 Comment

Davos has brought the concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to the forefront of the imagination. Already society is on the cusp of the revolution but the anticipation of the merging of various technologies such as 3D printing, artificial intelligence, sensor technology et al will enable this revolution. One aspect of this will be peer to peer transactions becoming the norm. What does this mean and how will it affect everybody?

Only this aspect will be the subject of this blog.

Main picture: Airbnb now operates in Cuba

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.

Category Archives: Opinion Pieces