The Casual Observer

Riots in Tshwane: A Window into the ANC’s Psyche

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs, Opinion Pieces 22 June 2016 0 Comment

With the patina of age, the real ANC has been revealed. Like in a 22 year old marriage, the state of the relationship is not determined by telling one’s spouse how much one loves them but by showing how much one cares. So it is with the riots in Tshwane. The ANC members wanted one candidate yet the party unilaterally foists another candidate on the metro.

That is one dimension of what has occurred. What is more illustrative is how the members actually reacted. No longer was it robust debate but rather an unedifying display of base emotion? What do those reactions reveal of the members’ real psyche and the current state of the ANC?

Main picture: Scenes of violence and wanton destruction in Pretoria which the SABC banned South Africans from viewing

A Nesting Crested Barbet

I have only caught sight of the bird fleetingly in the garden but evidence that it has set up home in our yard is obvious. It has been creating a hole in the dead limb of a tree. My best guess at the identity of the freeloader is that it is a Cardinal Woodpecker. By rights, I would have preferred if it had obtained the necessary Planned Permits but the deed has clearly already been perpetrated.

Main picture: The Crested Barbet obtaining free board and lodgings in my tree

A Sunday Jog through Soweto

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs 19 June 2016 3 Comments

This morning’s race was in Orlando, Soweto. Many whites refuse on principle to run in the townships. The usual reasons advanced are the lack of cleanliness combined with safety concerns. Whilst accepting the former as generally a given considering that these areas are populated by the lower classes, in the case of the latter it is no more dangerous to run races in rich or poor suburbs. It might be unchartered territory to run through Soweto but many whites will be surprised both confirming their preconceptions whilst dispelling others.

This is a journey through one suburb of Soweto. Please join me on my jog.

Main picture: The Orlando Community Hall

Zimbabwe: Lessons in how not to run a Steel Plant

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs, Rhodesia / Zimbabwe 18 June 2016 1 Comment

Zisco Steel located at Redcliff in Zimbabwe highlights the problem when politics, factionalism, cronyism and corruption override economic considerations. The end result was the destruction of the steel industry in Zimbabwe.

At Independence in February 1980, Zisco Steel was the second largest integrated steel plant in Africa. It employed some 6000 workers in a network of companies that produced rolled steel, long products, reinforcing rods and wire. Half its output was exported. More importantly, it supplied Zimbabwe with the majority of its steel requirements.

Main picture: Zisco Steel when still operational

I slipped the Sultry Bonds of Earth

By Dean McCleland in Military History 17 June 2016 2 Comments

This sonnet by John Magee, written in September 1941, about his experience in flying a Spitfire will forever epitomise for me the elegant and sleek lines of that iconic plane. At 80 years old on 5^th March 2016, it has certainly aged gracefully. Of the 20,351 built only 55 are still flying today. To celebrate its diamond anniversary milestone, aerial photographer John Dibbs and wordsmith Tony Holmes have created an epic & fitting tribute to the Supermarine Spitfire.

These legends of WW2 and the Battle of Britain in particular are captured by John Didds in pin-sharp pictures using only a hand-held camera. John Dibbs took years of being flown to within 15 feet of these planes to capture the stunning pictures below.

This is tribute both to the enduring beauty of the plane and to the skill and experience of John Dibbs.

Main picture: AR614 tears through the sky over the white cliffs of Dover

High Tech Engineering versus Boer maak ‘n Plan

By Blaine McCleland in Opinion Pieces 16 June 2016 0 Comment

I can still recall my Rocket Scientist brother, as Blaine has always been known to me, recounting how he had to design both this airborne antenna but also the survivability test. This would ensure that it could withstand a bird impacting the plane at 250 kph. I found that story fascinating. Fortunately he has agreed to share that detail with me again. What I found particularly fascinating was that various products of Omnipless ‘shook the world.’

Sadly with transformation and BEE being the drivers of the ANC’s economic policies, factors such customer satisfaction or indeed world-class products have become a distant third or forth consideration rather than having primacy. Dean McCleland

Written by Blaine McCleland:

I came across this article below in fin24.com. I did the mechanical design of that antenna and all the mechanical and environmental qualifications. This was the aircraft HGA (High Gain Antenna) which provides radio telephony (and internet services nowadays) to the geosynchronous Inmarsat satellites.

Main picture: The HGA [High Gain Antenna] 7001 with its proud Production Manager

Lt Freddie Zeelie – In Memoriam

By Dean McCleland in Military History 16 June 2016 17 Comments

During my National Service training in 1972, I was assigned to Charlie Company 3 SAI based in Oudshoorn. Unlike most platoons, our platoon leader was a more experienced and professional Lieutenant. Lt Freddie Zeelie was different not because he was a PF Officer but because he displayed more wisdom and insight whilst treating us like adults unlike the other National Service Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers. This must never imply that he was soft on us. No siree! WE HAD TO BE THE BEST PLATOON. To achieve that, he worked us harder than any CF officer but without the bullsh*t.

Main picture: Lt Zeelie circled in the bottom left with me circled on the top right hand side.

Beaches of D-Day: Images of June 1944 versus June 2016

By Dean McCleland in Military History, Other Galleries 15 June 2016 2 Comments

Seventy two years after the D-Day landings on the beaches of Normandy in France, are the places in these iconic images still recognisable today? Surprisingly most locations can still be identified 72 after that momentous and pivotal day.

Four years ago, Nigel and I traipsed across some of these beaches and cliffs. Standing at the German gun emplacements on Omaha Beach, one wonders how anybody could have survived the landing on this exposed beach.

Main picture: The sounds of Nazi jackboots have been replaced with the slap of sandals on the tar

The Sins of our Fathers

By Dean McCleland in History, Military History 14 June 2016 1 Comment

What does one feel about one’s parent if one’s father is culpable of some heinous crime? Is it denial or loathing? It can never be both or even some adulterated commingled version. Whenever the latter occurs, ones protestations in support of one’s parent become self-serving, irrational and tenuous whilst never addressing the real issue at hand. Such is the case with Horst von Wächter, son of Baron Otto Gustav von Wächter, Governor of Galicia during WW2.

How does Horst today at 77 years of age, reconcile his vision of a loving father with that of a monster who was responsible for the deaths of at least 100,000 Jews?

This is the tale of convoluted denial against all the evidence to the contrary.

Main picture: Horst Von Wachter, Philippe Sands and Niklas Frank behind the scenes of My Nazi Legacy Continue reading

Are Minimum Wages Moral or Immoral?

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs 13 June 2016 0 Comment

Two situations have raised the profile of the issue of minimum wages into the spotlight once again. First it was the government tabling a proposal at Nedlac regarding minimum wages and much more recently, the Social Development Minister, Bathabile Dlamini claiming that a grant of R753 per month is sufficient for social grant beneficiaries to buy food as well as additional non-food items. Incredulity is the more polite response that Bathabile has received.

Disregarding the emotional issues, the quasi Orwellian agenda of denialism and the dismissive tone, what is the social effect of minimum wages on a country?

Main picture: The Shark Rock Pier in Port Elizabeth. All of the photographs in this blog are that of this pier