Attention requested

News blues…

President Cyril Ramaphosa and health minister Zweli Mkhize's tease at dropping to level 1 lockdown and easing restrictions further.

According to Ramaphosa, some of the proposals are from religious leaders who are requesting an extension in the number of people who may attend gatherings… the sports sector, the entertainment, hotels and tourism industry had also submitted proposals.
“We are considering all of that as we do an evaluation of where the infection rate is. We will be able to give consideration to all of these proposals and get advice,” said Ramaphosa.  “This is where we will need advice from the Medical Advisory Committee as well as from our [National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure] NATJoints, which is the real engine of monitoring our coronavirus approach.

This, even as SA records 113 new Covid-19 deaths and approaches more than 650,000 confirmed infections. The recovery rate is close to 573,003 or close to 89 percent.  The latest pandemic update confirmed the death of 97 more patients in the past 24-hours: 17 from KwaZulu-Natal, 21 from Gauteng, seven from Eastern Cape, four from Free State, one from Limpopo, 26 from Mpumalanga, 15 from North West and six from the Western Cape.

Healthy futures, anyone

All the world’s people must begin to grapple with the reality of climate change. That we’re amid climate change is the reality that must shift from the ideological to the practical, despite denier politicians, denier corporations, denier citizens….

After touring the fire damage in the North Complex Fire near Oroville in Northern California, Governor Gavin Newsom was in no mood for one of his usual, careful media statements. “If you do not believe in science,” Newsom said bluntly while standing in the ashes of what once was a Butte County forest, “I hope you believe observed reality.”
“The hots are getting a lot hotter and the wets are getting a lot wetter. The science is absolute. The data is self evident. We have to own that reality and we have to own the response to that reality.”
Last year by this time, 118,000 acres had burned, he observed. This year, it’s over 3 million acres charred. The state is currently battling five of the 20 most destructive fires in the last century. The debate is over in terms of climate change. If you don’t believe that, just come to the state of California.”

Last week, it was predominantly California that suffered devastating wildfires. This week, it’s the west coast, from southern California to Washington, with Oregon and Oregonians experiencing fire nightmares. 
Cry, beloved west coast.

Deadly wildfires raging Friday in Oregon, Washington and California made two major West Coast cities — Portland, Oregon, and Seattle — the places with the worst air quality in the world.
Portland had an air quality index of over 200 on Friday — more than that of any other major city in the world, according to IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company that operates a real-time air pollution monitoring platform.
Seattle ranked second, with an AQI of around 190. 

My hometown-away-from-home, the island city of Alameda in the San Francisco Bay, recently experienced an AQI of 235.
All Bay Area friends, within the inner bay, and outside it, report ash falling like snowflakes, and cooler than usual temperatures. But no rain.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Anyone who is a daughter knows the kind of tension common among mothers and daughters. I’m no exception. Lockdown in SA initially exacerbated the tensions between me and my mother. Moreover, I’ve little in common with her chosen lifestyle – multiple dogs, domestic workers, huge house and garden. To me – independent, focused on art and ideas – that lifestyle is enigmatic, cumbersome, confining….
Yet, here I am, the “go-to” person expected to maintain this lifestyle. It’s a challenge to which the pandemic and Lockdown has added layers of complexity.
Over the last 170 days, my mom left the house once: last week, a trip to the vet’s clinic to put down her three elderly dogs. She’s unfamiliar with the lengths to which the public and neighbors conform or not, to pandemic regulations. Nor is she invested in ensuring her domestic workers conform. That was left to me. And, when I instituted regulations to ensure safety, especially the safety of my 87-year-old mother, my efforts were undermined, even chastised. This sticky situation was exacerbated by domestic workers reluctant to accept and conform to Lockdown regulations in general and more so to those of the household.
Next week, however, things look up: one domestic worker – the most reluctant – leaves my mother’s employ after 38 years.
Next day, I move my mother’s good to her new home in the Care Center.
Day after that, I move my mom and her dog.
Then, preparation for sale of house begins….