So you thought that you were having a Tough Day?
Enthralling Journey to Europe’s World Heritage Sites
Represented here are stunning photographs of twenty of Europe’s World Heritage Sites. All are equally sublime and it would be extremely difficult to select any one as being the best as all are equally as excellent.
Main picture: The Ring Of Brodgar at Night in Orkney Islands. It is a phantasmagoric place with a beautiful starlight by Joan Gosa Badia
Photos Celebrating Life
All of these photographs have one thing in common. They celebrate life by illuminating its enchantment, pathos and joie de vivre.
Life is like a coin. You can choose to spend it anyway that you wish, but you can only spend it once.
Make your choices wisely.
SONA 2015 epitomises everything that is wrong with South Africa at the Moment
Most reports have focused on only one or two aspects of SONA 2015. Yet I contend that that it is indicative of a deeper malaise within South Africa at the moment. These encompass the protection of an incompetent leader in Zuma, high-drama within the EFF and the blocking of various signals.
No wonder Zuma was in such an ebullient mood when he was interviewed by the Press Club on Monday. He was apparently unperturbed by the prospect of the EFF attempting to disrupt his State of the Nation speech. Speculation was that either Zuma would pull the proverbial rabbit out of his hat during the speech or alternatively that the ANC had a trick up their sleeve as regards how they would handle any EFF disruption.
Main picture: The violent and forceful removal of the EFF members
Exorcising the Demons of the Past
It is not just the sufferers of torture who suffer but their families and more surprisingly often their torturers. Usually their sense of anger and hatred are suppressed for their whole lives but occasionally instead of retribution, unconditional forgiveness is given. Such a man, Eric Lomax, cast off those demons to confront his nightmares both real and imagined.
I first “became acquainted” with Eric Lomax in the mid-1990s when I encountered his harrowing book, “The Railway Man.” But this “encounter” was via a circuitous route. Sometime before hearing about the “Railway Man”, I had attended a book launch by a fellow compatriot of Eric Lomax.
Main picture: Eric Lomax and Takashi Nagase
Why there are fewer Men than Women – Part 2
When I wrote my first blog on all the idiotic and inane unsafe acts that men performed as if they possessed a death wish, I was under the mistaken belief that I had seen it all. Clearly I had not. Like the continual stream of photographs of shoppers in Walmart whilst in the most surreal forms of attire, so it is with these behaviours.
Clearly Safety Inspectors are a rarity or perhaps they are like the Dodo, extinct. If these photographs had been taken in South Africa, which clearly they are not, I would have suspected that another activity had kept the Inspectors at bay.
Surely these people are aware that they have no margin of error and that even a slight miscalculation could result in death or maiming. They should rather adopt a high risk sport such as abseiling, paragliding or base jumping.
Twenty Five Astonishing Wide-Ranging Photographs
These photographs are truly eclectic in their diversity: part historical, part geographical and part physiology. Each in its own right deserves to be pondered upon. For instance the photograph on Hitler’s office without any humans in it could have been taken at any time of the day or year because Hitler seldom if ever used it and after Stalingrad never again.
From that time onwards he divided his time between Berchtesgaden and the Wolves Liar in Eastern Prussia. Finally after the precipitous collapse of the Eastern Front in January 1945, Hitler’s final office was a warren of passages and rooms under the Reich’s Chancellery.
Main picture: Hitler’s office
How accurate is the Historical Record?
How much reliance can be placed on historical facts especially those at the dawn of the age of writing? For that matter aren’t even current events recorded in a manner to represent and mirror the social milieu prevalent at the time?
Whilst reading an article on the earliest known writings on the nascent Scotland – it was then five disparate unrelated kingdoms – this fact struck me.
Calgacus is proudly proclaimed as the first authentic voice that Scotland produced. Apparently Calgacus was one of the Caledonian Chiefs who rose up against the invading Roman Army under Agricola in 80AD. His ignominious defeat by Agricola in a battle at Mons Graupius is recorded by Tacitus. Agricola’s son-in-law some 20 years later.
An Eclectic Array of Historical Photographs
For me historical photographs even if they are unpretentious and unassuming provide a different perspective & keen insight on life and in particular how it was lived and experienced. This series of 25 photographs provides a mere peep into that lost world. Whilst most of the photographs fascinated me, I ultimately chose this one of the Beatles a year before they became famous as the main picture.
Main picture: The Beatles play for 18 people in the Aldershot club before they rose to fame a year later. [December, 1961]
I suspose that the main reason why it enthralled me was when I considered those 18 people that they could attract to a dance were unwittingly witness to a musical sensation in the making. Imagine what they would tell their friends over a drink a year later.
Does the adage “Everything in Moderation” apply universally?
Like all generalisations, the exceptions disprove the rule. In this case does smoking, snorting cocaine or injecting heroin in moderation apply? Certainly not. It probably applies with eating and drinking but what about exercise? Is strenuous exercise good for one’s health?
This maxim is often bandied about as a justification for behaviour that is clearly suspect or injurious to one’s health. Yet those protagonists of its use would never use this saying in other contexts where they disbelieve its veracity.