A different view on current affairs & history
During my youth, there was a zoo / animal sanctuary at Rocklands known as Wide Horizon on the road to Uitenhage. The owner / zookeeper was an iconoclast, with the pertinent sobriquet of Cowboy Mills. Being very young at the time, I recall very little of the place other that the entrance with a billboard advertising the delights inside. Whether we actually went inside, I cannot recall.
Main picture: Hugh Cadle Mills aka Cowboy Mills
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This is a blog written by my brother about an event that occurred almost 60 years ago. Despite living in the same house and in fact sharing the same bedroom, I was only informed of this event recently.
Main picture: Mills No. 36 hand grenade with its internal bits minus the detonator
Continue readingTrump was riding high, surfing his personal tsunami after announcing huge reciprocal tariffs on every country in the world. He then smugly boasted that 50 countries were now “kissing my ass.” Given Trump’s penchant for hyperbole, it might not have been 50 countries but five piss ant countries. Perhaps it even included a delegation of tuxedo attired penguins from the McDonald Islands who arrived to give him the bird and flip him off. But it still played out well with his non-discerning Magalanders especially when Trump threatened to double down if anyone retaliated. This was a tough guy script straight out of a Hollywood Chuck Norris screenplay.
Just about all South Africa’s economic woes of lack of growth, the highest level of unemployment and concomitant widening wealth gap amongst Blacks have their genesis in the race-based legislation enacted by the ANC since 1994. But even after their parlous showing in the 2024 elections which forced them into a coalition government with the ‘white’ DA, they have doubled down on their employment equity and preferential procurement rules. For SMAC’s take on this you can read on.
Continue readingThe beginning of Trump’s second Presidency has been without precedent. It has been characterised by extreme chaos as he has been all over the place like a demented squirrel on tik. He has declared economic war on everyone (except his secret bff, Putin), threatened to own Panama, Greenland, Canada and Gaza and he is busy taking a chainsaw to the Federal system courtesy of his point man and ‘Tech Support’, Elon Musk.
South African society is plagued by the wealth gap between black and white inherited from the old days. SMAC has nervously dipped his toe into these dangerous waters and reveals that “blacks are good, whites are bad” is just a useful trope for the ANC and it is actually their policies which have made it worse.
George William Smith was the doyen of local architects and Government Surveyors, and a senior partner in the well-known firm of Smith Sons and Dewar.
Main picture: George William Smith
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From 1819 onwards Korsten played an ever-larger role in the shipping trade of the Cape Colony. At one time or another, Korsten owned no less than 13 coasting schooners and cutters of various sizes, 12 of which ultimately came to grief. In the process, Korsten gained the reputation as the largest boat owner in the Cape colony.
As can be imagined, most of these vessels were the smallest size of ocean going vessels as they were merely used for servicing customers along the Cape coast. As such they probably weighed no more than between 80 and 140 tons. Whether the Helena, a 500-ton ship which Korsten owned while living in Cape Town and on which his family went on holiday to England in 1809 is included in the total of 13 vessels which Korsten owned over his life, is unknown.
Main picture: A schooner of the early 1800s
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Just over a century ago, the name Bunton was well known in Port Elizabeth as John’s father and grandfather in their day were both owners of the Grand Hotel in Belmont Terrace. When John’s father, Henry, changed careers in 1927 and went farming in the Selbourne district near Kirkwood, the name Bunton would never again resonate with the residents of Port Elizabeth.
John would attest to serve in the artillery. Later his younger brother, Peter, would join him in the same unit. It was during the opening stages of the battle of El Alamein on the 13th July 1942 that John would be mortally wounded, and Peter, who served in the same unit, would see his brother for the last time as he was stretchered away never to be seen again by him.
Such is the madness and futility of war.
Main picture: John Bunton in North Africa
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Hammelberg was a Dutch lawyer who emigrated to South Africa in 1851 and lived here until 1871 taking a leading part in the affairs of the Orange Free State. This blog covers the 10 days during December 1861 when he visited Port Elizabeth.
Main picture:
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