A different view on current affairs & history
Main picture: The destruction of the Benoni Post Office by members of the CWU
For some inexplicable reason, during the 1930’s the myth of a Communistic utopia was implanted in the imagination of the West. Instead of the lower classes being infected by this contagion, it was an array of the wealthy well-to-do students who contracted the most virulent strain.
Main picture: Kim Philby with a sunny disposition but a treacherous heart
Ask most citizens of South Africa about the situation in Homs and they will in all likelihood answer the question with a question of their own such as “Where the hell is that?” Moreover the same question posed of Gaza or the Palestinians would elicit an immediate response. Why is this so?
Firstly some background.
King Edward VIII is notorious for two reasons. The first, the reason for his abdication in 1936, was his love for an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson. The second, and for the most part unproved, was his pro-Nazi views during WW2. The first is fact but is there any substance to the second allegation?
In terms of the primogeniture rules of succession then applicable, young Edward, or David as he was known to his siblings, would become the next king of England. By the throw of the dice, Edward who was ideally suited to this role for he possessed the common touch was the heir presumptive. Unlike his parents, he was unafraid of being seen by the commoner.
Conventional wisdom decrees that fat is bad for one’s health and if one so much as lets a glob of fat past one’s lips, one is liable to suffer from high cholesterol and die. The eating of all forms of fat including eggs, cream and fat on meat was not only eschewed, it was verboten. If any product had .005% less fat than a standard product, it would have the words low fat emblazoned all over it as if even such a miniscule reduction in imbibing fat would be beneficial.
Main picture: Tim Noakes
In spite of his Russian heritage, Sidney Reilly was imbued with a sense of duty to the British. Be that as it may but Sidney was an incorrigible rogue with perhaps a misguided sense of duty. Unlike the outdated British Secret Service, still wedded to a bygone era of chivalry and fair-play, Sidney obtained the results that they required through a ruthless uncompromising streak even if it meant breaking a number of female hearts or even killing in the process. Dubbed the Ace of Spies, Reilly’s sobriquet was apt.
Egypt is paradigmatic of what has gone wrong over the past half century in Muslim countries. From creeping secularisation across the Arab world led by none other than Gamel Abdul Nasser of Egypt, the bête noir of the West, the modernisation of many of these countries continued apace including such countries as Afghanistan.
What happened since that momentous epoch?
During the 1950s and 1960s even that icon of secularisation and modernity, the bikini, made its appearance in these countries. It is not that these countries were becoming less religious, it was merely the acceptance that there would be a separation between temporal and religious affairs. Was this not the journey that Western Europe embarked upon after the Enlightenment?
Main picture: Sunbathers near the Port of Alexandria, 1955
The game of spy craft is not James Bondesque with glitz and glamour. Champagne breakfasts, socialising and the luxurious idyll do not normally form part of the Job Description. Rather one operates in the shadows being unrecognisable and unremembered little grey men.
Main picture: Wolfgang Lotz and Waltraud
Hermann Goering, the morphine addict, who required 5 shots per day to remain functional, was the archetypal playboy or “The Renaissance Man”as he liked to refer to himself. Even when the Third Reich faced a catastrophic situation such as at Stalingrad, his focus was elsewhere: buttressing his image as the Reich’s foremost jaegermeister [Hunting Master], topping-up his art and diamond collection or having more medals and awards bestowed upon himself.