Ubuntu in action.
The AMSP is designed to unlock access to supplies across the continent and save money for African countries suffering high rates of viral infection.
I hope it works.
President Ramaphosa calls it a “silver lining… the glue that is going to bind the continent together.”
“The one-stop shop [will] give the continent a fairer chance in the international scramble for Covid-19 test kits, protective equipment and any vaccines that emerge.”Finally, a scramble for Africa by Africans for Africans.
News blues…
 |
| Trump, post Tulsa rally. Click to enlarge. |
Trump, being Trump, will find a way to rebound and reframe and re-rally.
For now, though, even his tie has come undone.
As mentioned yesterday, I’m not a fan but I recognize compassion when I feel it.
Watch the 3 short video memes in this article – set to appropriate music - and tell me you don’t feel a flicker of pity for The Donald as the memes multiply….
Is Donald Trump finally paying “a direct, personal price for his pandemic denial - the possible shelving of the thing he cares about most, the raucous rallies that defined his political rise and are crucial to his reelection hopes”?We’ll see.
Sara Cooper passes comment on Trump’s Tulsa turmoil with her latest voice over: How to empty seat.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
I’m not a person who shies from “speaking truth to power” – no matter the power. I’m not very successful at it – no eponymous not-for-profit organization, few interviews on “mainstream media”, little to no income generated from freelance writing, radio show short-lived – four years (Raising Sand Radio), conned by my book publisher, etc., etc.Moreover, I’m an equal opportunity speaker: I alienate friends and colleagues on the Left and foes on the Right, and on multiple continents, too. (I’m not boasting. I wish I had better control of the conduit between my outrage and my emotional intelligence.)
Overall, though, I’m not someone who gives up. It’s odd, therefore, to find myself locked up in Lockdown, inside looking out.
I follow the rules: maintain social distance, wear a mask, wash my hands, and stay home.
I read online news. I participate in webinars. I read WhatsApp messages from a small circle of friends (one of whom, after I requested that she discern truth from conspiracy theories, deleted me from her group).
While I talk regularly on the phone to friends and family in the US – who follow virus-related safety precautions, stay home, and work online via Zoom - I’m without face-to-face friends.
Nevertheless, I’m relatively cozy: nourished, warm enough, safe enough.
“Out there”: hunger stalks, cold weather unavoidable, and, too often, shelter and security inadequate. Accordingly, I donate small amounts of funds to a local non-profit that provides food and essentials to children and families. It all feels – is – insufficient in the face of reality.
One day a week, I learn from our public-taxi-commuting gardener about the effects of lockdown on him, his family, and residents of his “location.”
(FYI: “Location” usually describes an underdeveloped sub-urban residential area. “Township” denotes larger residential communities built on the periphery of towns and cities that may/may not offer electricity, septic tanks, garbage/rubbish disposal service. “Informal settlements” describes shacks cobbled together on land residents have no legal claim to/occupy illegally and offer no amenities other than what is carried in/out.)
The gardener reports that, to date, no one he knows has contracted Covid-19, that, of those residents who had jobs before lockdown, many still have jobs waiting for them and, for now, income/handouts from those jobs. (I’m happy to hear it although I suspect this is unusual.)
With infections surging in South Africa, I reduced our gardener’s working/commuting days to reduce the risk of contagion for my 87-year-old mother and her two health-compromised, live-in domestic workers (one diabetic, one asthmatic).
I found him another day job in the neighborhood. I offered to place a classified ad in the local newspaper seeking yet another day of work, if needed. He declined: his current schedule suits.
Last week, after work, I sent him home with an assortment of groceries: chicken, rice, apples, spinach, potatoes etc., and chocolate brownies for his two kids.
It’s awkward purchasing groceries across culinary cultures. Would his family like chicken feet or chicken thighs? Canned beans or unprocessed samp? Chocolate cookies or garish pink coconut-sprinkled puff balls?
Whether more to Euro-American than Zula taste buds, he carried the groceries in two ordinary store bags.
This week, I played it safe and gave him one 12.5 kg bag of mealie/maize meal, a Zulu staple.
He asked for a black bin liner.
As I handed it over, he explained the opaque bin liner disguises the contents resulting in fewer strangers hitting him up for food.
***
I’ve two more opportunities to flee and fly: Opportunity 1: Health Alert: Announcing June 27 Repatriation Flight on Lufthansa – U.S. Embassy Pretoria, South Africa.
Event: The South African Ministry of Health has confirmed [then] 83,890 cases of COVID-19 within its borders.
Announcing June 27 Lufthansa Flight
We have been notified of a special commercial repatriation flight operated by Lufthansa from Cape Town to Frankfurt and onward connecting destinations on Saturday, June 27, 2020.
Flight information:
- Potential passengers must book their tickets directly with Lufthansa. To make a booking please visit: www.lufthansa.com. Seats are subject to availability and sales close on 21 June 2020.
- IMPORTANT: You must select “ONE WAY” when making you booking online, as this a special repatriation flight and not a regular commercial flight. Only once you have made a confirmed booking for this repatriation flight, you must complete the attached Passenger Information excel document and return this to Lufthansa via the following email: Jnbmarketing@dlh.de
- The flight will depart from Cape Town to Frankfurt, Germany and connecting destinations.
- Passengers will be responsible for travel to their final destination in the United States.
- Once the flight has been closed for sale, all passengers who have purchased a ticket will receive information about the assembly point. This will be provided by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany.
- Passengers will be responsible for finding transportation to the required assembly point. The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany will issue you with a letter which allows passengers to travel to the assembly point. Thereafter, all passengers will be transported from the assembly point to Cape Town International Airport by bus. Please note that you may not travel directly to the airport yourself.
- For any questions regarding availability, cost, baggage allowance, or other flight details, please contact Lufthansa directly.
Opportunity 2: Health Alert: Announcing June 28 Repatriation Flight on Ethiopian Airlines – U.S. Embassy Pretoria, South Africa
Event: The South African Ministry of Health has confirmed 101,590 cases of COVID-19 within its borders.
We have been notified of a special commercial repatriation flight operated by Ethiopian Airlines to Chicago, United States on Sunday, June 28.
Flight information:
- Interested passengers must book their tickets directly with Ethiopian Airlines by contacting SouthAfricaSalesTeam@ethiopianairlines.com.
- The flight will depart from Johannesburg and then Cape Town on Sunday, June 28 before proceeding to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and onward to Chicago O’Hare International Airport, United States.
- Passengers will be responsible for travel to their final destination in the United States from Chicago O’Hare.
- This flight is open to U.S. citizens, Lawful Permanent Residents, and visa holders who have received DHA approval to depart South Africa.
- Passengers will be responsible for finding transportation to the required assembly point, which will be communicated by Ethiopian Airways prior to the flight departure.
- Travel permission letters for U.S. citizens and green card holders are not required unless you will be crossing provinces to arrive at the assembly point. If you must cross a provincial border to join this repatriation flight, please write to SAEvacuation@state.gov requesting a travel letter. Include your name, passport or greencard number, current address, and flight confirmation.
- For any questions regarding availability, cost, baggage allowance, or other flight details, please contact Ethiopian Airlines directly.
...
U.S. Mission Repatriation EffortsIf you would like to depart South Africa, we highly recommend you avail yourself of any available opportunity, even if it is not your desired flight route. We cannot guarantee frequency of special repatriation, nor can we guarantee that previously scheduled commercial flights will depart as planned. We do not have further information about when regular international commercial flights will resume.
To date, over 30 repatriation flights have departed to the United States in coordination with airlines and friendly mission partners since the government lockdown, returning over 1500 U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and visa holders to the United States. For questions about other potential upcoming repatriation opportunities, please contact the airlines directly for details.…
Despite my personal drawbacks and the public health situation, I’m mentally-emotionally unable to depart.
Certainly, travel restrictions affect my decision – how do I make my way to Cape Town? Or Johannesburg? – but restrictions hamper only if I allow them to hamper.
Rather, I appear to have accepted/intuited that I’ll remain here until the expected surge – August? September? – has receded.
In other words, the conduit between my brain and my emotional intelligence has presented a solution I can live with – at least psychologically.
Yet, I must figure out how to vote in the US presidential election, 3 November.
Silver linings, indeed.
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