Week 13 Riding in a safari vehicle in Johannesburg – not to avoid potholes, but to appreciate graffiti and street art

 Street art at its best at Hallowed Ground, City of Johannesburg

Today, Saturday 1 April 2023, I had a lovely experience on a safari vehicle in Johannesburg!! Yes, it is true. A gentleman with the name of Eelco Meyes conducts graffiti and street art tours on a safari vehicle in Johannesburg – we even had visitors from behind the boerewors-curtain that enjoyed this outing. You guessed it right: they were from Pretoria. The one young man confirmed to me that they got safely thru customs and excise early this morning. And now they have to go back to their place – let us remember them!! This link is next level.

I had a restricted view of the artworks because of my position in that vehicle. I sat at the left hand, with my friend on my right and another gentleman on his right. They also had restricted views from their sides but we made the best we can do with what we saw – and that was pretty awesome. I take it that it is part and parcel of game drives in safari vehicles in big cities such as Johannesburg: to have restricted views. I felt as if I was a tourist in my own city! And maybe I was just that: a tourist because I have been places, I have never before been at. And I saw the most incredible art, I have never seen before. That is how I felt when my wife and I were on a conducted tour at the Dome in the Free State back in 2019. I hasten to add that there were certain streets I have been before, but then there was art on the walls I have never seen there before.

I took about 32 photos and I think I should go back to add to my collection. I gladly give credit to each and every artist for their work. You are great and keep it up. Please go to my GALLERY page to have a look at these amazing art work. 

Have a look at these stunning artworks! Under the guidance of Eelco Meyes I learnt so much about it and I thank him for it and for the initiative to organise these tours. You can find him on Facebook as well. This is a sub-culture with its rules and conventions: respect one another and respect the copyright in the images. That is why I give due credit for these guys and I think it is fair use of their art and it is for information purposes. I have not painted anything; I am not able to do so. It is their work for us to enjoy.

I am aware of the emotions these images stir up; and I think most of these artists paint incredibly fast and can even run faster than they can paint!!

I have decided to publish all 32 photos I took, instead of describing it to you.

Here are some links to good websites in respect of graffiti and street art.

Please write me your story: neelscoertse@wirelessza.co.za

 

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WEEK 12 A PHOTOGRAPHIC CHARACTER STUDY

 

THE VIEW, PARKTOWN

I am still concerned about the people in Turkey and Syria that are severely impacted by the earthquakes and the after shocks that tore the land apart on 6 February 2023. How are they coping? I asked you, my readers, how are you “coping” with this brutal creativity? Some of reacted on my Facebook page and I do appreciate it. Please keep working and keep on make a difference in life.

In the meantime, we genealogists of West Gauteng Branch of the Genealogical Society of South Africa [GSSA] visited the Transvaal Scottish Regimental HQ – “The View” in Parktown, Johannesburg. And it was such a pleasure. I hasten to add that we had the immense privilege of securing James Mitchell as our host and guide. He is such a character – I was standing outside admiring the garden, the trees and the magnificent and imposing homestead.

The tree

As a youngster I thought I should follow photography as a career. I haven’t.

Jerry Uelsmann famously said something like this that a camera is a license to explore. With that in mind, I fell in love with this special niche called street photography. And that caused some havoc. So much so that, some time ago, I was reported to the Law Society [as it then was] and even to the Human Rights Commission. The complainant requested the Law Society to move for my removal as a lawyer. Well, it didn’t happen; that is another story waiting.

I haven’t pursued this wonderful hobby of street photography for a number of years until last Saturday 18 March 2023. That was, until I saw this man sitting quietly at a table in the bar at THE VIEW, intently busy with his cell phone. It seems to me from a distance, as if he was struggling to see properly – what was it? Bad lighting? Bad eyesight? That was the least of my concerns. He was minding his own business; it was him and his cell phone in deep conversation. The rest of the patrons at the bar were concentrating on their drinks. This was going all the while the bagpipes were “piping” as it were.

So, every body was going about their own business. And I saw him sitting there. Without further thinking my old intuitions fired up and I was zooming in on him.

I sat at the other side of the table. That would give me the perfect place to observe him at close range. He was oblivious of my presence. And I greeted him. He looked up, had to refocus to come from where-ever his mind was – I could clearly see how he returned to planet earth from his planet he was visiting. And he smiled and greeted me. I was very welcome; I was welcome, even breaking into his solitude and interaction with his cell.

And we started chatting. I asked him permission, which I normally don’t do, but in this instance it was “in your face” camera-work, to capture him. He was surprised and he tolerated me snapping away. He was such a wonderful man to approach and to chat with. Another gentleman approached us and called him outside because there was a group of people waiting for him. It was my group; my group of genealogists. Only then did I find out that he was our host.

While we were chatting and I clicking on my cell, the bagpipers were busy. I noticed a lady which transpired to be Emily Pentz [the only lady I saw that afternoon]. She went into the room to face the judges so to speak and the door was closed. That left me outside next to the door with my cell phone at the ready. I decided to make a short audio-visual presentation of her piping [just the music] and of him smiling and chatting to me and interacting with his cell phone. My friends were waiting outside while I was having a ball of a time.

I took more than 40 photos of him – it is a character study! I cannot remember whether I had such a opportunity to capture a persons character impromptu!!! I edited some and today I will treat you to look at James Mitchell. 

Youtube video of my character study 

You may also look at the audio visual on my youtube channel 

 

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Week 11 Antakya - my new art project - so called

 Screenshot of the olive grove that was ripped apart on 6 February 2023 in Antakya, Turkey

A brand-new week that is behind us. A clean slate as it were; and yet there are 12.5 million people in Turkey and Syria that were adversely affected by the devastating earthquakes and the hundreds of aftershocks. They lost everything, except their lives. I think that the trauma must be almost unbearable. It must be sheer horror.

Video of the chasm that was ripped open.

I won’t forget that night I received a whatsapp from my brother-in-law who lives in Wellington, Western Cape, South Africa informing me about this. My initial reaction was one of disbelief and to put in the category of fake news. And then my quest began: can I believe this? Or not? And it quickly turned out that it is true. It is a horrific truth, but still true. My next reaction was that it was a brutal creative display of natural forces; the same brutal creativity since the beginning of earth time.

My short protest about the exotic cats in captivity in South Africa is about at its end and by that I mean my sketch I created to register my dismay at this abuse of nature. Being a lawyer, I kept on reading about this phenomenon of animals in captivity, it transpired that there are more Bengal tigers in captivity in the USA than there are in their natural habitat. Well, I enjoyed my short expedition into this lot.

My "protest" against these exotic animals in captivity.

Now, I am onto the earthquake and the devastating effects in specifically Antakya. Antakya? Yes, that is Antioch in New Testament times. It is the same place where St Peter and St Paul were working tirelessly promoting the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Crucified and the Resurrected One – the cutting edge of our Christian faith and rest. And I am aware how polemical this statement is. The cutting edge between the Christian faith and the rest? Really?

This is an aspect or viewpoint if you will, that is crucial. You either believe it or you don’t. You can’t have it both ways. Christ was murdered; it was a judicial murder. Judge Pontius Pilate found Him not-guilt of anything deserving the death penalty. This Judge was a strange character. So far it seems to me as if he is the only judge who was of the view that you, as a judge, should find the same suspect of heinous crimes worthy of death, not-guilty three times. Can you imagine? Three times not guilty. And then he did another thing that a judge should not do. When an accused is found not-guilty, such a person should be unshackled, and set free. Not Pilate. Oh, not him. He then handed Christ over to the murderous Jewish mob and the Roman Soldiers to crucify Him. Horrible. But true. Three days later He rose from the dead. St Paul, the same man, who worked tirelessly in Antakya/Antioch, promoting these facts, wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 about this lot.

I am trying to get to grips with this brutal creativity

Back to that whatsapp and Antakya. More than 50 000 people perished. Hundreds of thousands of buildings and structures were demolished. With all of this, the infrastructure of businesses and professional services came to an abrupt end. And landscapes were changed. For ever? Or shall I state until the next devasting quake; you see, Turkey is in the centre of an earthquake belt so to say. I read last night that there were more than 500 000 quakes last year of which only 100 were devastatingly destructive. And these two in Antakya of 6 February 2023 are part of the 500 000.

All of the above photos are from Antakya - how do you sketch the ruins? Rubble?

I am trying to make sense of this happening; trying to comprehend it; trying to come to grips with it. It eludes me. The videos that circulated on social media is riveting and at the same time repulsive. Now, I try to create something. And once again I will have it laminated and use as a place mat at the table. I downloaded images of the city that was destroyed and try to sketch the rubble. How do you sketch rubble? The glib and easy answer is just as you would an elephant, or a motor vehicle. I battle with that. I think I should go to a building site where a building was demolished and study it and take some photo’s – yes, I realise it is not the same. I must do something. And I will.

How are you doing? What are you doing with this quake? Does it affect you? How? And what are you doing to comprehend it? How do you grasp it?

Please write me your story: neelscoertse@wirelessza.co.za

 

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Week 10 Exotic big cats in private captivity in South Africa: legit without a permit? Unfortunately, so.

Tiger in captivity at Lory Park Zoo, Midrand

My wife and I visited a private zoo, or a boutique zoo, in Midrand and it was such a pleasure to be there. The place is kept very clean and to my mind the animals are kept in good condition – except these animals are deprived of their freedom in the wild. It is, without saying, the ultimate space for them: their natural habitat; the wild open spaces. Having said that, it is virtually impossible for me to have had access to these exotics in the wild – this is obviously the second best for both them and us.

And it seems as if a lot of scientific research is done on them. And I am very aware of that High Court matter in respect of the elephants in the Johannesburg Zoo – you would have read my write-up about that. I am still waiting the outcomes of this matter. After I did some reading about wild animals in captivity, I am not so sure whether the Court will be sympathetic to the applicants.

I took these two videos with my cell and am happy with the outcomes. What a magnificent creature – and well kept.

Please visit it Lory Park Zoo. 

My sketch protest against these exotic animals in private captivity is finished and remains to be laminated to be my first placemat to display while we are eating. At the moment I am busy with my next art project and I will keep a “secret” for a while – once again something very current and very real and scary but yet brutally creative.

With some reading done, I came to a shocking discovery and that is that there are more Bengal tigers in the USA in captivity than there are specimens in the wild. Please visit this website and read it for yourself.

Here is a quote from the one website [ANIMAL LEGALDEFENSE FUND est 1979 link] pertaining to the USA:

“More tigers live in cages in this country, than exist in all the wild. They are just some of the millions of wild animals living in captivity across the United States. Some are in aquariums, circuses, theme parks and zoos, others live caged at private homes.”

This website is brim-full of articles that will make your hand stand up in horror! And it refers to a number of legal actions against the authorities to take action.

The RSPCA’s article on WELFARE OF WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY is also worth a visit and to spend some time there.

And there is no legislation to regulate and protect it – this pertains to our beautiful country as well.

This holds true not only for tigers, but all kinds of wild exotic animals. I would venture a guess about the High Court Case about our Elephants in the Johannesburg Zoo, that it might go against the applicants who apply for the relocation of these animals. Initially I was swayed in favour of the applicants’ case, but now it seems to be open to some doubt. I suggest that there are, or might be, some good reason to keep these in  captivity. Maybe, and I have not researched this aspect, it needs better regulations and patrolling of these facilities?

Having said all of this about the Elephants-case, their legal team and experts, are a lot to be reckoned with; not mickey mouse stuff this. Heavy weights. But … we are waiting the Courts views with bated breath.

I came to the very sad conclusion about my “protest” against exotic Bengal Tigers in captivity in the RSA, that this a not going to succeed to have it eradicated or to cause these animals to be returned to their natural habitat. On the positive side, I at least have done something to draw attention to this phenomenon; every time we use the place mat on our table, I will know, and my guests, will know, about this huge problem and that there are animals in distress – and mostly it is us, human beings, that is causing it. And I hope that it will elicit a good lively discussion.

And, besides, I enjoyed this art project.

Please write me you story: neelscoertse@wirelessza.co.za

 

 

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Week 8 The day the Earth moved How the Turkey earthquake tore a 300-kilometre rupture through the Earth’s surface

An attempt to make sense of the earthquake in Turkey that ripped open an olive grove.

An attempt to make sense of the quake in Turkey that ripped open an olive grove

Midnight Monday 13 February 2023 I was doing art in my lounge while my wife was sleeping when I received a whatsapp message from my brother-in-law living in Wellington, Western Cape, South Africa. I was shocked and intrigued at the same time. Being a lawyer for more than 42 years, one of my other reactions was that this is a fake and a fraud. But I kept looking. And listening to the background noises. I heard as background, the muezzin (mu'adh-dhin in Arabic) calling the people to prayers. That had the sound of truth in it. But I was still sceptical. And then I saw the fissure with part of the olive grove deep down in the crater [?]. I kept looking. Eventually, I was somewhat convinced. But not too sure.

I decided to google it. And I got other footage of the same area captured by what seems to me different drones at different times. And I was convinced.

This took place on 6 February 2023 and this massive fissure ripping the olive grove apart was 150 kilometers from the epi centre of the quake. It further transpired that the earth was ripped open for more than 300 kilometers. Thousands of people perished. Homes were destroyed. Businesses crumbled.

And yet this crater was gripping.

Herewith a quote from the write up with the link below: “Even at the southern tip of the larger rupture, about 150 km from the epicentre of the initial 7.8 magnitude quake, the village of Tepehan, in Hatay province, witnessed extraordinary cracks tearing through the surface.”

Further thoughts of mine were that it is the brutal, creative power of nature at work; and I was thinking of Genesis chapter 1. When God, according to Moses, created the heavens and the earth. Powerful. Brutal. Creativity at work. Click on these links: Another link.

One of the people I sent these videos, and my initial thoughts starkly reminded of the loss of lives and the destruction of buildings, so as to remind me of the tragedy. This was not lost on me. I was painfully aware of this.

And I was thinking of the tsunami that struck Japan some years ago – We only saw the devastating effects of the quake and how it played out on land. We were not privy to the craters and fissures deep down on the crust of the earth covered by sea water.

Now I am trying to create something to remind me of this midnight experience. And I will keep you posted as to what I am doing.

This is obviously not an academic paper on the quake – just a couple of hundred words to record some of it. I am still reading and I am sketching.

Please write me your story: neelscoertse@wirelessza.co.za

 

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Week 7- A THING OF BEAUTY ON MY PAVEMENT

 A thing of beauty

The day is a blank sheet when waking up this morning. I spent some time during the midnight hours to sit quietly reading in our sitting room. Carlo Rovelli write lucidly and some people might even understand everything what he wrote about in HELGOLAND. To start off with: I didn’t even know who or what HELGOLAND is or was or might be? Was it a science-fiction thriller? What does HELGOLAND mean?

My one friend lent me his book; while we were chatting, we had a relaxed meal that his wife prepared for me and my wife. They were sitting there, and us two were sitting here chatting about all sorts of things; we were not discussing loadshedding or politics. There are enough exciting and motivating things that keep us busy and making sense of this world.

Helgoland by Carlo Rovelli

HELGOLAND? Unhospitable. Wild. Drought stricken. Off the grid. The birth place of quantum physics! Werner Heisenberger might be labelled “the father of quantum physics. Carlo wrote on page 3:

“On the island of Helgoland – barren, extreme, battered by the winds of the North – Werner Heisenberg lifted a veil. An abyss opened. The story that this book has to tell starts from the island where Heisenberg conceived the germ of this idea, and progressively widens to take in ever bigger questions opened by the discovery of the quantum structure of reality.”

An abyss? That is what Carlo calls the “discovery” of the quantum structure of reality. If I understand it correctly it means in essence that it is never ending?

Carlo Rovelli is a most brilliant scientist endowed with this clarity of spirit, clarity of mind and skillsets working with words to bring the most complex ideas about how the world is constructed to lay people like me. And yet, there are such a lot of things that he must have taken great pains to explain, that are flying like Boeing aeroplanes above my head. It is way above me. And yet, he also states, for what it is worth, that quantum physics are a mystery. Indeed. A mystery – this mystery changed the way we think about our existence on its head. It has had a profound influence on scientists who are still struggling to work it out and in so doing, they are making huge contributions towards our understanding of the world we live in.

And Werner Heisenberg? What does he say about this lot? On June 7 1924 he wrote [page 13]:

“At first, I was deeply alarmed. I had the feeling that I had gone beyond the surface of things and was beginning to see a strangely beautiful interior, and felt dizzy at the thought that now I had to investigate this wealth of mathematical structures that Nature had so generously spread out before me.”  [My emphasis]

This wealth … that Nature had so generously spread out before us – and we mere mortals may participate in this wealth that is spread out before us.

A thing of beauty - once again

I was walking outside on our pavement [or in other words: the sidewalk] when I noticed something out of the ordinary; so strange and stunning it defies logic and words. It was lying on the road surface waiting to be picked up and to be admired. It was this seed covering just lying on the road surface.

Botanists will be able to tell me much, much more about this thing of beauty; things that I don’t know at this moment. Somewhere I think, there will be a “Carlo Rovelli” in the world of botany who will be able to identify it and who might just go on and describe to me that finer details of this thing of beauty. In the meantime, I am just loving it. Oh yes, I remember Prof. Elizabeth A Johnson’s ASK THE BEASTS DARWIN AND THE GOD OF LOVE

And I am reminded of one day back in 2009 when I was wondering around in the veld at Hopetown in the Northern Cape; I was baptised in the Dutch Reformed Church there in 1950 when it was still in the Cape Province. Things do change in South Africa and now it is in the Northern Cape Province.

I was all by myself soaking in the colours of evening fast approaching, feeling the light breeze of the change over from day to night time, and taking one photograph – not more, just one photo. I felt somewhat out of place because I am not used to walking alone out in the veld especially when it is completely foreign territory which it was. All of a sudden, I was aware of something pricking my legs; ah, well, I thought, it is just the veld grass scraping my skin. And I tried to brush it off.

Guinea fowl skull

Guinea fowl skull

Guinea fowl skull

Guinea fowl skull

Guinea fowl skull

Guinea fowl skull

Then I turned completely around to look behind me to the changing colours and be in the moment. Down below, on the soil, stuck and entangled there I saw a sight that keeps on coming back to me: lots of scattered feathers of a birds remains. I was standing on this site where this bird was killed; my inference was that it was killed because the skeleton [what was left of it] and its feathers were scattered over a wide area. Well, it might have been weather conditions that sprinkled it around over some time. When did he/she came to such a violent death?

And stuck high up in the grasses swaying around in the wind I saw the skull of this guinea-fowl. Back bending and with the greatest dexterity I loosened it from the grass; it did not relent easily on the stronghold on the skull. “Please,” I whispered to the grasses, “I just want to take it home as a memento mori of my visit to Hopetown, the town I was baptised in many, many years ago. A memento mori.” It was a tempus fugit moment. At that moment I was oblivious of time; of wind, of the changing colours, of twilight, of every thing around me. It was a thing of beauty in the veld waiting for me to “rescue” as a memento mori moment. I still have it.

When I picked up that dried out seed covering on my pavement, I was silent. No words in my mouth. No words in my mind. It was so serene and silent: the same silence I experienced in the veld in Hopetown.

And I re-read Werner Heisenberg’s words I had gone beyond the surface of things and was beginning to see a strangely beautiful interior, and felt dizzy …

Please write me your story: neelscoertse@wirelessza.co.za

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Week 6 – exotic animals in SA completely out of its natural habitat

 

Progression of my tiger ink drawing in protest against exotic animals in private captivity

Progression of my tiger ink drawing in protest against exotic animals in private captivity

Progression of my tiger ink drawing in protest against exotic animals in private captivity

Progression of my tiger ink drawing in protest against exotic animals in private captivity

Progression of my tiger ink drawing in protest against exotic animals in private captivity

Progression of my tiger ink drawing in protest against exotic animals in private captivity

Progression of my tiger ink drawing in protest against exotic animals in private captivity

Progression of my tiger ink drawing in protest against exotic animals in private captivity

Progression of my tiger ink drawing in protest against exotic animals in private captivity

There are a lot of hot topics in SA such as the disastrous and devastating crisis at the top of Eskom’s leadership, the allegations of acting judges performing the most vulgar sexual acts on minors, and exotic wild animals in private “care.” Yes, we had another Bengal tiger on the loose!

As if we in South Africa have not had enough of life’s curve balls – those that we bring about on ourselves. Not nature’s disasters or what clever people refer to as “an Act of God.”! These are not “acts of God” – wow, God is not to blame for these. These are manmade disasters.

Eskom’s man made “disasters” – those things that are notoriously difficult “to prosecute” and to investigate, but that is discussed in the marketplace although it is subject to load shedding. I have difficulties understanding this thing called “load shedding” and in Afrikaans it is referred to as “beurtkrag.”

Nobody sheds any loads – unless it is meant to mean that the powers in “charge” of Eskom are shedding their responsibility onto its consumers.

Another man made “disaster” is the Bengal tiger that “escaped” its enclosure on the south-side of Johannesburg and on the media reports, it happened because there was an intruder who cut the fences. If we accept that premise, why did the tiger not attack that intruder and mauled him/her? Of course, so the narrative should at least go, the tiger was asleep. And then there were further reports of this tiger attacking a dog and a pig and a person. Just that: “a person”; no more particularity about this incident. And it got shot. No more details of that “person” – now, should I as a long-standing lawyer accept that say so? No - a thousand times, no I do not accept it.

It was shot because the tiger did what tigers do, not because it was dangerous. The tiger did not know that it was dangerous. It was us humans, that saw the tiger as being dangerous. Well, let me accept that premise: it was dangerous. Why then did the owner keep it in private “care”? I am absolutely positive that the owner knew it to be dangerous even in the face of a “lovely cute photograph” of the tiger “cuddling” him from behind. Of so cute! Such a lovable little cuddly creature!

Nonsense! An animal that was ripped out of its natural habitat [or else bred in captivity which is even worse] in a “friendly” pose with its human “carer”? All of these wonderful arguments, and more do not make sense to me.

And to top it, another Bengal tiger, this time in Edenvale, not far from me in Rivonia, got “out”. This time it was sedated and brought back to its owner – so the story goes.

I wonder what the guys that are taking the Johannesburg Zoo to the Court over elephants are saying about this lot? They must be very upset and up in arms about this. And they are not the only ones. And the powers in “charge” of these laws and by-laws are smug about it.

Now, in SA we are trained to think that the political powers in charge of our destiny are corrupt and therefor in line with this thinking processes we ask ourselves immediately the question why are these powers so reluctant to interfere? My I put forward a suggestion, and I truly and honestly hope that I am completely wrong and barking up the wrong tree, and that suggestion is that money is exchanging hands – that is money from dirty hands to dirty hands and that money keeps the animals on the loose, so to speak. These are only some of my thoughts and once again, I hope to heavens that I am wrong. Shall we wait, and see? And wait for another exotic to escape and met some disastrous encounter with security officers with high powered guns that are not trained hunters. Once again, I will further qualify the story about being a trained hunter in SA. What do I mean by that? I mean that that security officer carries that high powered gun to shoot human beings and not tigers on the loose. That is what I mean – and the tiger stood no chance at all. The burglar, who is a human being, stood a chance because he probably had a gun in his pocket.

So what do we have here: a senior advocate who once upon a time acted as a judge of the High Court, his very able assistant, tigers on the loose, Eskom high-brass telling us a lot of utterly shocking “stories, security guards with high-powered guns geared to shoot robbers, no on the loose to shoot a tiger who, so the narrative goes, attack a “person” – oh my word, we can go on and on and all those Tik-tok videos prophesying doom and gloom, and Afrikaans speaking guys such as Kobus Van Der Merwe and a certain Breytenbach-guy who are in the very cheap lime light for having huge money making schemes with diamonds and other stuff.  

 

 

 

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