Gauteng is this country’s hotspot with 128,604 cases - that is 36.7 percent of all cases in SA.
KwaZulu Natal, with 11.3 million people, 19.2 percent of the country’s 60 million, has 40,086 or 11.4 percent all confirmed infections.
News blues…
Feed the kids!On Friday 17 July judgment was handed down in the North Gauteng High Court ordering the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to provide food to all qualifying learners immediately. “A more undignified scenario than starvation of a child is unimaginable. The morality of a society is gauged by how it treats its children. Interpreting the Bill of Rights promoting human dignity, equality and freedom can never allow for the hunger of a child….”BIG news. SA government may be introducing a Basic Income Grant (BIG), according to Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu.
… Zulu said historic and emergent factors, in particular the Covid-19 pandemic, had spurred discussions on how the poor will continue accessing support once the R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant is discontinued.Ironically, South Africa, a country pushed to socio-economic limits by the pandemic, at least considers a basic income grant during this time of global devastation.
“Since we already have categorical grants for children, older persons and persons with disabilities, the BIG will be an income support grant for the population aged 18 to 59….”
The SRD grant is being paid out until the end of October, after which the government is considering implementing the Basic Income Grant.
But the BIG discussion is nothing new.
Backed by civil society, policy proposals have been made since 2000 to introduce a targeted or universal basic income for unemployed individuals without financial support.
In a country that could afford to extend unemployment and other benefits to stricken Americans, the US Congress chooses not to do so. Indeed, Congress refuses hazard pay to front line workers, too.
Four months into the coronavirus pandemic, the only curve the U.S. has managed to flatten is wage growth for essential workers.Many front-line employees in grocery stores and other essential businesses received hazard pay increases at the start of the crisis. But most of those temporary pay bumps have since been phased out, which effectively amounts to a pay cut for many workers amid a record-setting surge in COVID-19 cases. And most workers in hospitals and other health care facilities never received any additional pay at all, despite being hailed as “heroes” by politicians.
Meanwhile, Congress has not approved a plan for federally funded hazard pay that would boost wages for nurses, bus drivers, retail clerks and others who were asked to continue working through the pandemic. The lack of a pay bump struck many essential workers as particularly unfair in light of expanded unemployment benefits that paid laid-off workers more than the typical low-wage job.
House Democrats included a hazard pay measure in a stimulus package they passed in May, but it has not been taken up in the GOP-controlled Senate.
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A change of pace with music – “Staying alive!” - Original version, Bee Gees (4:03 mins)
- Down memory lane with young John Travolta (5:04 mins)
- Naudo guitar solo version (2:45 mins)
- Bruce Springsteen version (in Brisbane, 2014 – 5:55 mins)
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The Lincoln Project: Latest ad – Wall – America now leads the world in Covid deaths. (0:58 mins)
Story hour - where we read excerpts from our favorite book: Mary Trump's Too Much and Never Enough. (The tell-all book sold a staggering 950,000 copies by the end of its first day on sale - a new record for publisher Simon & Schuster.)
- Story hour, Episode 3 Daddy Issues (1:30 mins)
- Story hour, Episode 2 (1:30 mins)
- Story hour, Episode 1 (1:30 Mins)
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
I intend to:- Uncover plants after a cold night – and chat with them….
- Walk the neighborhood
- Hang out with my mother
- Sit in the sun next to the pond – and ponder….
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