About

The Heroes Who Shaped My Bushbaby Instincts

During national service in the Rhodesian Army, Corporal Grey was the first to clue me in that stock markets existed. His fireside chats sparked a lifelong obsession with self-education and a journey that led me to a galaxy of remarkable thinkers.

Though by no means my first influence, topping my personal pantheon is Thomas Sowell. Through his writing, I discovered J.K. Galbraith, Walter Williams, and Shelby Steele—and the floodgates opened. I’d once been steered away from reading Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand, but through Sowell’s lens, their brilliance and enduring insights became impossible to ignore.

The journey continued: I stumbled upon Patrick Chabal and Jean-Pascal Daloz, Dambisa Moyo, the Freakonomics duo (Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner), Niall Ferguson, Nassim Taleb, Jordan Peterson and Slavoj Žižek.

There’s nothing new on Earth—only reconfigurations—and that theme came alive through a trio just a breath below Sowell on my shelf: Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, and Jack Cohen. Their storytelling nudged me toward the thinkers who explored the birth of the cosmos and the origins of life: Brian Cox, Steven Pinker, Jared Diamond, John Ralston Saul, and many others. Then one rugby coaching day 20 years ago, I sat beside Dr. Max. It blossomed into an amazing teacher-tutor exposé into the politics of banking and corruption.

From the Pratchett trio, I wandered naturally into the pages of Richard Dawkins—a fellow Umtalian once upon a time. He handed me a ticket to hop the library express to Daniel Dennett, A.C. Grayling, Sam Harris, Hans Küng, Karen Armstrong, Bart D. Ehrman, Osho, and Lion Feuchtwanger. Along the ride I rediscovered Aesop’s Fables, Gulliver’s Travels, the Bible, and authors like Robert Greene, plus my favorite sharp-edged satirists: Tom Sharpe and H.H. Kirst.

More recently, I’ve turned to two topics that set off fierce debates: climate change and diet. Here, I found truth-benders and truth-tellers. Patrick Moore helped dismantle the alarmist hype. Robert Lustig? His uncompromising breakdown of the Standard American Diet saved my life and set me on a race to regain my health.

Most of all, I became a student of the digital world: lectures, debates, videos—especially on YouTube. With censorship cracking, the gates to free knowledge flew open. The keto and carnivore communities, along with science-based climate realists, offer eye-popping content at zero cost. But it’s still up to us to dig. It always has been.

Many of my most enduring lessons came from the elders—those dozen-odd weathered souls who had seen life from every angle and who knew how to tell a story worth hearing. I owe them deeply. I hope I’ve told mine half as well.

This Is About Me

I’m Doug—or Duk, as they call me in Malaysia. The nickname suits me. I feel I am like a duck: grounded by webbed feet in the real world, wings always ready to test new air currents. This blog is my fireside chat with the next generation—young adults bold enough to challenge what they’re told and think for themselves.

From Zimbabwe’s Dust to South Africa’s Hustle

I began as a district development officer in Zimbabwe: idealistic, sleeves rolled up. Rights followed duties, and work came before whining. While many lionized Ian Smith, I leaned into Allan Savory’s warnings. Smith woke up too late. By 1981, I was labeled a dinosaur, so I headed south, reinvented myself in South Africa, and landed in organisation development, my closest private-sector cousin to public service.

The results came fast—success, prestige… and pressure. The cost? A descent into depression and alcohol. I wore both like a badge of independence, telling myself I could go it alone. In those quiet wrecks, I started asking real questions. Why am I here? What didn’t I see?

That curiosity sparked a rebirth.

Waking Up from the Hamster Wheel

It began with a single book: Who Wrote the New Testament? by Burton L. Mack. That simple purchase shattered assumptions about history, belief, and identity. For nearly 20 years, I’d been cozy in my “Chomskyitis”—handing out rights like candy while dodging responsibility. But that lens cracked. I returned to my roots: a pragmatic, emotionally tuned-in observer, unafraid to critique capitalists, religious fundamentalists, do-gooders, or the mob of the Church of Woke—sometimes all in one breath.

Grandfather’s Fireside Tales

This series is for you, the hungry thinkers. The quiet disrupters. The future leaders with open minds. You won’t find cozy narratives here. I challenge the dogma of the WEF, the UN, the so-called leaders of too many governments, and the sanitized intellectualism of modern academia. If your teachers are teaching you how to pontificate and protest instead of how to feed your family or face truth, you’re being shortchanged.

Throw out Wikipedia’s sanitised “fact-checked” comfort blanket. Dig deeper. Truth’s not trending—it’s hiding. And it won’t be spoon-fed.

Why This Matters

We’re suffocating in “instant truth.” Most adults—outside their work roles—operate on an “A is for apple” level. I did too. Then I checked the stories I’d trusted. They crumbled. Education is a long-form discipline. It’s not a reel or a meme. And if Santa and fluffy afterlife pets don’t make sense by the time you hit your 20s, maybe it’s time to rewrite your beliefs.

So here I am: part bruised, part reborn. From Zimbabwe’s dust, South Africa’s hustle, and Malaysia’s calm ponds, I’m offering you a spark. Maybe even a torch. I’ve been the man in the suit, and I’ve been the boy with a question mark. Now I’m just Duk—and I’m inviting you to dive deeper.