The Casual Observer

The Spy who confused Fantasy and Real Life

By Dean McCleland in History, Opinion Pieces 10 October 2014 0 Comment

The most successful spies are those who live the role that is assigned to them: the fewer the lies, the less the chance of a mishap. In the case of Lotz, a Mossad spy in Cairo, he took the role too much to heart

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

Why I Love South Africa

By Dean McCleland in Other Galleries 8 October 2014 0 Comment

Do you experience the same conflicted emotions about South Africa on a daily basis that I do? I am continually enraged and enchanted in equal measure by South Africa every day. Today’s outburst by Gwede Mantashe at the Mining Indaba in Joburg about the ownership of the mines in South Africa made me realise why there is a “moratorium” on investment in new mines. Later as I walked across the carpark to the Spar at Retail Crossing, my spirits were buoyed when the Highveld sun streamed down onto my face, exhilarating me.

These photographs will show you why I love South Africa

Hermann Goering: “At Least I had 12 Decent Years”

By Dean McCleland in History, Military History 7 October 2014 4 Comments

That is how Hermann Goering, the Reichsmarshal and Nazi Party number two, classified the years from 1933 when the Nazis ascended power to its demise in May 1945. This is an understatement. They could rather be referred to as his halcyon days.

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.

Intriguing Photographs of the Past

By Dean McCleland in Historical 6 October 2014 0 Comment

My predilection in learning is experiental and by viewing pictures of things. As the well-known maxim states, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Why is this so? Partially by providing context and the emotions but not the stark facts of date & time. For without pictures, history is a uni-dimensional subject. Combined with prose, the pictures provide the full unembellished story.

Stalin’s Duplicity and Perfidy during WW2

By Dean McCleland in History, Military History 5 October 2014 0 Comment

Stalin played a very cynical and cunning game during WW2. Having deliberately killed millions of kulaks in Russia what more could the West expect when dealing with this brute of a man, a murderer of more people – his own Russians – than the Germans in total.

The full extent of Stalin’s duplicity and perfidy during WW2 was purposely understated or even whitewashed during WW2 by the British and the Americans. The reason for attaching little importance to these heinous crimes, for that is what they were, was the need to defeat the Nazis.

2014 was the Coldest Winter on Record in parts of SA

By Dean McCleland in Miscellaneous Topics 3 October 2014 0 Comment

Per the South African Weather Service the winter of 2014 was the coldest on record for many parts of South Africa. From experience, the odd winter got snow on the Drakensberg as well as other isolated spots around the country too but NEVER before has the whole country engulfed in ice and snow at the same time!

The flip side is that this icy cold weather brings with it some beauty to behold in its wake. These photographs highlight that beauty.

Black and White Photos Converted into Colour

By Dean McCleland in Historical 2 October 2014 0 Comment

By converting these historic photographs into colour, they present history in a different light.

Main picture: A young newspaper vendor sells newspapers in 1912 in London announcing the sinking of the Titanic.

I had no option but to slip some photographs of a young Aubrey Hepburn in amongst the other more serious photographs.

Do Religions Deserve Kid Glove Treatment in the Contest of Ideas?

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs, Religion 1 October 2014 0 Comment

How is the religion which is appropriate for one determined? Certainly not by being exposed to the doctrine of each and making an informed choice. Like all other ideas and aspects of one’s life, why cannot there be robust debate and contestation of ideas?

Has one ever considered approaching all the main religions to obtain an insight into their doctrine and way of life before making such a momentous decision regarding what faith one should adopt? In the movie The Life of Pi – and I admit that it was only a movie – in which the main character, Pi Patel, obtained first-hand experience of a number of religions before making his final choice, is precisely what I have in mind.

Isn’t Life Strange?

By Dean McCleland in Inspirational, Other Opinion Pieces 30 September 2014 0 Comment

Is life just a turn of the cards or a throw of the dice? In a large measure it is. Flip through the Rolodex of one’s life and cast one’s mind back how pure luck or blind chance determined which fork on the path of life that one took.

How did I decide to become a Chartered Accountant? It was certainly not a logical decision where all the options available to me were considered in a measured way with all the pros and cons carefully laid-out.

Absolutely not!

Come and Dine with the Afghanis

By Dean McCleland in Other Galleries 29 September 2014 0 Comment

How about joining me for an exotic meal in the middle of the Afghanistan desert? Enjoy a meal prepared in the tradition Afghani way and spend the rest of the night with my friends under the star-studded sky.