The Casual Observer

Animals experiencing Snow for the First Time

By Dean McCleland in Animals 14 December 2014 0 Comment

In order to celebrate the festive season I have decided to create a number of blogs of a less serious nature. I know that South Africa never has snow over the Christmas period but in the northern hemisphere snow is synonymous with Christmas.

The first of these blogs relates to animals experiencing snow for the first time. Their expressions are classics. Without the benefit of language, it is a visceral experience rather than being informed in advance what to expect.

See the sense of apprehension, wonderful and joyfulness on their first encounter. Their unbridled joy is a wonder to behold.

Electricity: Crisis? What Crisis?

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs 12 December 2014 0 Comment

Typical political spin. How can I tell? The new CEO of Eskom had barely put his feet under the desk and the denials commence yet again. What would the typical response of the new appointee in the private sector? In order to ensure that the sins of his predecessors are not borne by himself, he will perform a rigorous, if not over-diligent abd exhaustive cleaning of the Augean Stables. What is the politician’s instinct? A cover-up!

“Crisis? What Crisis?” was an iconic album by Supertramp in the 1970s. The cover of the Album shows a member of the band in a bathing costume reclining in a deck chair as if he was on Brighton Beach in mid-summer sunning himself. So far so good except that littered all around him are scenes of devastation.

Wild Animals: Sacrificing the Future for the Present

By Dean McCleland in Animals, Current Affairs 11 December 2014 0 Comment

South Africa has the scourge of rhino poaching but Asia has the canker of the plundering of their tiger populations. In a recent Time Magazine it states that 274 of a population of approximately 1700 have been killed over the past few years. At that rate, the chances of my grand-children being able to view tigers in the wild, is modest at best.

So far humankind has only been able to arrest the decline of one animal species and that is the whale. With the price of these animal’s body parts sky-rocketing – apparently it has increased by tenfold over the past five years – the supply of poachers has exceeded the demand.

Ferguson Missouri: What it illustrates to me about America

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs, Opinion Pieces 10 December 2014 0 Comment

I have not followed this episode closely at all. As such I am unable to sit in judgment on this tragedy in any way. Whatever the culpability of each party, it is irrelevant but in my mind it offers some confirmatory views of American race relations in particular and American societal values in general.

Before the rioting a few weeks ago in Ferguson Missouri, I, like countless other people in the world, had never heard of the place. The closest that I had ever come to knowing a Ferguson was Road Running with the grand old running stalwart by the name of Alan Ferguson in his Joburg Harriers vest. But that is a story for another day.

Main picture: An alternative view from the other side of the fence

Incredible Photographs

By Dean McCleland in Animals 9 December 2014 0 Comment

It is sometimes the small things in life that make one feel appreciated like a simple “thank you” given in a heartfelt and not a perfunctory manner. On the other hand, one wonders whether animals always appreciate when they are being assisted by humans especially when they are being rescued.

A personal incident was brought to mind when viewing the seeming affection displayed by animals in these photographs towards other animals. This arose when I was driving next to the Northcliff High School many years ago. Ahead of me on the left hand verge was a hadeda. As it attempted to make its usual ponderous take off in the direction of the road, the vehicle in front of me grazed the bird in mid-flight.

Are Blacks in SA worse off now than under Apartheid?

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs, Opinion Pieces 8 December 2014 0 Comment

This comment is periodically heard especially around the braai and after a few beers. But does this statement bear any truth in reality or is it merely a nostalgic yearning for the “good old days.”

Two recent episodes have brought this issue to the fore – in my mind at least. The most recent incident was an article this week by Justice Malala in The Time’s tabloid in which he berates the performance by the ANC under the all-dancing all-Zulu Jacob Zuma. Mr Malala even goes so far as question whether South Africa has not in fact “outgrown” the ANC and pointedly questions whether in fact it is now a hindrance to South Africa’s development especially when in alliance with the COSATU and the Communist Party.

The Thrill of Shopping with One’s Wife

By Dean McCleland in Animals, Other Personal 5 December 2014 0 Comment

When I first received these photographs, they struck an immediate chord with me. If my case it was not the wife, who you will not believe, hates shopping just as much as I do. It was my daughter. I also detest it but when we drew straws about who would perform which household chore, I drew the short straw on this one.

Maybe females attend Shopping School surreptitiously but how is it possible that all my shopping training with her over the years as she was growing up counted for nothing when she reached puberty. All of a sudden here was this little madam explaining to me how one ought to be shopping. The week-end excursion to the local Pick ‘n Pay at Blackheath became worse than plucking one’s eyebrows and just as painful. But she never relented.

Bill Cosby: From Chastened to Defiant

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs, Opinion Pieces 5 December 2014 0 Comment

“Not Cosby. Anybody BUT Bill Cosby!” The Breakfast Drive Presenter, John Robbie on 702 Talk Radio, almost willed a different outcome to a fairy tale gone rotten. Strangely I totally concurred with him. Somehow there was no way in which I could accept that Bill Cosby could have perpetrated such vile deeds. Why did he do so and why did I not believe that he was resort to such acts?

A number of such scandals have erupted recently, mostly decades after the event. The Bob Hewitt and Rolf Harris cases spring to mind. Then of course there is the on-going saga of the Catholic Church where literally hundreds of men had now come forward and exposed their friendly priest to be a paedophile.

The 1908 London Olympics

By Dean McCleland in Opinion Pieces, Other Opinion Pieces 4 December 2014 0 Comment

In many respects the Olympic Games prior to WW2 were vastly different from those held today. Largely without any sponsorship and definitely no TV coverage, these games were not lavish affairs. With only 22 countries participating in the fourth of the modern series of Olympics, most of the contestants were amateurs with full-time careers outside of sport. This Olympics broke a number of records including that of being the longest at 187 days.

From a personnel perspective and interest to me relates to the marathon or more precisely the distance thereof. The original distance was 25 miles but it was amended to become 26 miles in order that they could commence at Windsor Castle. It was amended again at the request of Princess Margaret so that the start could be beneath the windows of the Royal Nursery. What was so prominent about the Nurseries that the distance had to be extended.

Music Sales: The Pandora’s Box Dictum in Action

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs, Opinion Pieces 3 December 2014 2 Comments

Undoubtedly technology is a wondrous thing which has improved humankind’s lives immeasurably. As is it wont, its effects are never exactly as anticipated thereby creating new complications. The technologies unleashed upon the music business have created their own predicaments and conundrums.

The original forms in which music was delivered to the plebeians was extremely user unfriendly. Both the record and the reel-to-reel tape were cumbersome and unwieldy pieces on equipment not suited for use in moving vehicles and carrying with one to the beach.

Main picture: The mainstay of consumer music until the mid 1980s, the extremely cumbersome and fragile vinyl record.