The Casual Observer

Arranged Marriages: What’s Love got to do with it

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs, Religion 20 April 2014 0 Comment

A Personal View – April 2014

The concept of romance & marrying somebody that one loves is a fairly recent innovation in human affairs. If one believes that this is an outdated practice especially in Western Society, I will disabuse you of that fact.

Let us take the contemporary case of Shrien Dewani. Firstly a caveat: I have not been following the case nor am I aware of his sexual orientation but what I am aware of is that he was obligated to marry somebody that he did not want to. Despite being classified as a desirable or stunning woman by most normal males, this fact has no bearing on whether he would reciprocate her love or make a desirable marriage partner. Clearly he would not.

Oscar Pistorius: The Witnesses on Trial?

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs 20 April 2014 0 Comment

A Personal View – March 2013

From Day One of the Oscar Pistorius Trial, the sequence of events was plainly established: all witnesses would be subjected to a barrage of cross questions by Oscar Pistorius’s council, Barry Roux, all in an attempt to poke holes into their testimony or at best to discredit them.

In this Advocate Barry Roux has excelled.

Official Language, Mother Tongue & Lingua Franca: How should these sensitivities be handled in a multicultural society?

By Dean McCleland in Current Affairs 20 April 2014 0 Comment

A Personal View – April 2014

Theoretically in terms of the South African Constitution all languages are guaranteed equality of treatment but is it possible or even desirable in such a multilingual country with nine official languages?

A family history will illustrate how “transient” or flexible the language issue really is. My late maternal grandmother [nee Nel] was born in the 1870s to 1880s on a farm in the Middleburg District in the Eastern Cape. With a paucity of other white families in the area, her natural play mates were the children of the farm workers. Naturally Xhosa became her stronger language as most of her communication was with her friends, the black Xhosa speaking children on the farm. At the time her family spoke a pidgin version of Dutch which was prevalent at the time.

Telkom: The Monopolistic Urge

By Dean McCleland in Other Opinion Pieces 20 April 2014 0 Comment

A Personal View – April 2014

Like most government enterprises, Telkom shares common traits with other governmental departments & institutions as if it is hardwired into their DNA irrespective where they were located. This is not a South African phenomenon but a world-wide one.

The example that I would to share is something that occurred in the late 1970s & early 1980s. In retrospect, it is no more ludicrous than the episode that arose some 10 years ago but it would have been no less tragic as it would have stymied progress in South Africa.

The 1988 Wild Coast Trail – 25 year Retrospective Report – Part 5: The old & the future South Africa collide

By Dean McCleland in Hiking 20 April 2014 3 Comments

Throwing down the gauntlet, Mike & Kurt were gone. With their long strides – Mike because of his long legs & Kurt, well, because of his long strides – they easily increased the gap between George & I. I strained to keep the gap as small as possible but to no avail. They steadily drew ahead. I could almost hear the strains of Straus’ Radetzky March that Kurt was humming to himself. Eventually I consoled myself with the fact that as the first of the team into Coffee Bay, they would have to resolve the transport issue which now became the focus of our concerns. It was upper most in all our minds at this juncture.

The 1988 Wild Coast Trail – 25 year Retrospective Report – Part 4: The route march through a swamp

By Dean McCleland in Hiking 20 April 2014 1 Comment

The next day presented the same challenge as the day before, a surging enraged river hoping to do its worst. Not enamoured with the prospect of another treacherous crossing in dubious boats with equally dubious Sea Captions, that option was quickly discarded. With insufficient rations to allow for any delays to the schedule, there was no alternative other than a long haul up river to find a suitable ford. Turning back was not an option. A second treacherous crossing with Captain Treacherous was out of the question.

The 1988 Wild Coast Trail – 25 year Retrospective Report – Part 3: In Too Deep

By Dean McCleland in Hiking 20 April 2014 2 Comments

Refreshed & reinvigorated, we charged off after a breakfast comprising the full enchilada – eggs, bacon, sausage, tomato & toast. The resort had even managed to wash & iron our clothes overnight. The menacing clouds had converted themselves into friendly wispy innocuous candy floss fluff balls, cute & cuddly. First we had to pass the hut where we were supposed to have stopped the day before. That made the day’s hike slightly longer but being as fit as we were, not an undue burden.

The 1988 Wild Coast Trail – 25 year Retrospective Report – Part 2: An ignominious start

By Dean McCleland in Hiking 20 April 2014 2 Comments

Clear blue skies welcomed in a brand new day. A steady radiant sun hidden for the past 5 days greeted all & sundry with gay abandon as if it was a long lost friend. But first things first! I had talked both Kurt & Mike into doing a quick 21km run before breakfast & prior to commencing the hike. A work colleague at Monoweld Galvanisers, Danie van Wyk, had challenged me to a duel, a 42km race from Fairy Glen in Pretoria East to the western side of Acasia Park.

The 1988 Wild Coast Trail – 25 year Retrospective Report – Part 1: The Journey

By Dean McCleland in Hiking 20 April 2014 6 Comments

An unrivalled experience awaited us, the four members of George Malan’s hiking club eponymously called George Malan’s Hiking Club, before its transmogrification into the Quo Vadis Hiking Club as we set out to hike the Wild Coast Trail in August 1988. Having only previously done the Fish River Canyon Hike & the Blydepoort Trail with the Club, I was still the novice in the Club, minding my Ps & Qs – pints & quarts – so to speak. By now the team dynamics were becoming evident but this trail would expose those that were not the team players. Unfortunately it was not the appropriate time to do so but when is it ever?

The German Epoch in Quo Vadis– Walter Baumgartl – In Memoriam

By Dean McCleland in Hiking, Personal 20 April 2014 0 Comment

In 1994 the Quo Vadis Hiking Club was still teetering on the brink of extinction. Mick Crabtree had been a new appointment & shortly afterwards, his two mates Norman Dellar & Barry Williams had been brought into the Club. On our previous hike in the Drakensberg, a squat rotund Austrian – never call him German – appeared in the Club.

With Mike Brown deciding to retire from hiking altogether ostensibly due to shoulder problems but more likely due to complaints from the Spousal Department, a replacement was urgently required. Being work mates at CBI, Gunther invited his physical antithesis Walter Baumgartl to decisively outnumber the Prussian element represented by Kurt.