A different view on current affairs & history
Main picture: Main Street prior to trams
With Janine at the Life Groenkloof hospital in Pretoria, I have been spending about four hours a day in my BMW. The time has not been wasted. The time has been used to envisage the future and to question why things are performed in the current manner. Trapped within my car with me, Alesha has been forced to endure my thought processes and speculative rantings.
Amongst the topics discussed have been whether the university degree in its current format was dead, the future of the car radio & modern forms of electricity generation.
Pictures: All of the pictures in this blog do not relate to the topics addressed but rather they reflect the wonder and beauty of nature
After being woken at 2am by the hospital to report that my wife’s condition had deteriorated and was now on a ventilator, I had no option but to watch the American Presidential Debate on CNN as I was unable to sleep.
How could Trump absolve himself from the controversy swirling around him regarding an offensive, lewd, lascivious comment which objectifies and demeans women? How did Trump handle such a crass comment? Did this debate merely confirm my previous opinions of the candidates and would it shift America’s public opinion?
Main picture: Presidential candidates square up Continue reading
Forsaking the timid passive route of quiet diplomacy, Sipho Pityana went for the jugular this week. The occasion was not some discrete inconspicuous meeting of academics or malcontents, but rather one where all the heavy-weights & decision makers were in attendance: the annual Mining Indaba.
This was speaking truth to power not in spurts of incoherent anger and rage such as a blustering Malema, but rather the poetry of well-marshalled facts. Pityana exposed for the world to view, the rot that lay beneath the platitudes, the evasive replies, the blatant mendacious lies of a kleptocratic government and a supine populace and industry.
Main picture: Sipho Pityana
The simple hiking hut eponymously called Oom Japie se Huis was probably originally the living quarters of one of Dr Okie van Niekerk’s ancestors, all of whom have resided on this huge plot since 1911.
It overlooks various streams that ultimately flow into the Komati River. Being on the escarpment, it is more Highveld than Lowveld. At this time of the year, the brown grassland is crying out in its anguished thirst, tortured by the expectation of the imminent summer rains.
Main picture: Huts among the sandstone rocks at Rooikrans Camp
Main picture: Cathy on the Humewood Beach
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Main picture: With a paucity of bridges, pontoons were the only way to cross the many rivers
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At the dawn of humanity, marriage was deemed to be sacrosanct. Divorce in most societies – especially at the instigation of a female – was not permitted. Royalty – men only – were usually entitled to have a lover as their wife was usually married for political and not affection reasons. In these circumstances, divorce was never considered as the wife was the baby production machine whereas romantic love was reserved for their mistress. What happened when the wife could not deliver a male heir or, like in more modern times, when mistresses were no longer tolerated, how did the king or the royalty get their divorce?
This blog dissects four vastly different royal divorces each of which exposes much about the milieu in which each occurred. Included in this blog will be the vignette on how [Bessiewallis] Wallis Simpson obtained her divorce from her second husband in order to marry King Edward VIII.
Main picture: Anne Boleyn in the Tower awaiting execution by Edouard Cibot (1799–1877)
The recently announced split of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt after two years of marriage raises, yet again, the question of what a couple signs up for when they tie the knot. The form & content of marriage – and relationships in general – have been in a state of flux since the 1960s. Presciently Richard Harris would sing MacArthur Park in 1968 about melting of the icing of the cake because
“Someone left the cake out in the rain….
And I’ll never have that recipe again”
(The meaning of these surreal lyrics by Jimmy Webb is available at the end of the blog)
Custom, duty or need to procreate would no longer produce the ideal ingredients for marriage ever again. However, would the idealised sugary sweet ingredient “happy-ever-after” be an adequate substitute?
If not, what would?
Main picture: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
Main picture: This holder for McDonald’s fries will resolve my problem when eating and driving. Naturally not eating while driving would be another solution but who wants to eat while parked at a McDonald’s