I began Pandemic Posting naively, thinking the event of the century would be relatively short-lived.
Who knew it would be so poorly managed that, six months later, more than 14 million would be infected and more than half a million dead? [Addendum, Nov 25, 2020: 60 million infected worldwide, 12.5 million in US; almost 1.5 deaths worldwide, 260k in US.]
These week-by-week posts record an experience of a dual-citizen - South African-born, four decades living in California - under lockdown in KwaZulu Natal. My immediate family lives in California and Texas while I care for my 87-year-old mother and watch from afar as events unfold in my adopted country.
Week 10: Day 70 Thursday June 4 - “Tiny, little, short period of time”
Soon, I hope, Americans and other human and animal residents of planet Earth will look on the Trump years as a “tiny, little, short period of time” – whose historical significance will be as long as Trump spent in the White House bunker….Bunker mentality. President Donald Trump
… denied reports that he retreated to the underground bunker beneath the White House last Friday night as protests outside the executive mansion escalated, insisting he only visited the secure facility for a brief time during the day for the purposes of “inspection.”What and how long is half a visit to a bunker?
“It was a false report. I wasn’t down. I went down during the day, and I was there for a tiny, little, short period of time. And it was much more for an inspection. There was no problem during the day,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade on his Fox News radio show.
… Trump also maintained that the Secret Service did not order him to the bunker, but merely “said it would be a good time to go down, take a look, because maybe some time you're going to need it.” Since assuming office in early 2017, Trump has entered the bunker roughly “2½” times, he said.
Standing in the doorway for a “tiny period” but never looking inside?
News blues…
To quote Rep James Clyburn – D Majority Whip: “This country is at a cross-roads and if we don’t choose wisely between now and the end of this year, I think we’re seeing the demise of the greatest democracy ever on earth.”
***
From The Lincoln Project: America or Trump?War Zone
Donald Trump has no qualms about inciting violence and mayhem, from the safety of his White House bunker. In an explicit show of totalitarianism, he has taken the U.S. military and police forces and mobilized them against our own citizens.Flag of Treason
Trump has taken the side of the oppressor and the American people have made it clear: we are not him, and he is not us.
Perhaps this choice resonates because what you and I already know is becoming more obvious to more Americans: Donald Trump only cares about himself — not our country.
You and I have always known Donald Trump was unfit for office.
But the fact he has not addressed the nation while our cities are on fire, and instead sits in his bunker tweeting petty insults and planning his next round of golf is worse than I expected this to get.
The Lincoln Project will do everything in our power to defeat this president.
***
Defense Secretary Mark Esper (to whom James Miller sent his resignation letter yesterday) on Wednesday declared his opposition to sending active-duty troops into US cities to deal with violent protesters, two days after President Donald Trump threatened to do so if governors don't call up National Guard troops.The option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire situations. We are not in one of those situations right now," Esper said in his first public comments since the protests erupted.Confusion reigns, but that’s par for the course in the Trump White House.
Just hours later, after a meeting at the White House Esper abruptly reversed course. It is unclear if Esper met with President Donald Trump. [Some suggest] the change was based on ensuring there is enough military support in the region to respond to any protest problems if needed.
…The White House meeting and Esper's reversal suggests the president or his aides pressured Esper to keep troops in the region after he told reporters in no uncertain terms that he opposed the use of active-duty troops as law enforcement right now.
***
Another domino falls… In a forceful rebuke of his former boss, former Secretary of Defense General James Mattis castigated President Donald Trump as "the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people…."What’s extraordinary about Mattis’ statement?
… it appears to imply that an order by Trump for troops to deploy against protesters would be a breach of their constitutional oath. And since former top military brass remain highly loyal to their comrades and plugged into the Pentagon, one of the most political of power centers, Mattis' broadside will spark speculation as to whether he is conveying the thoughts of serving senior officers who are unable to speak out.
***
Daar lê die ding. The average South African consumer of alcohol swallows from 28.9 to 34.9 litres per annum – “the fifth highest consumption rate in the world.”Lockdown Level 4 forbade the sale of alcohol. Level 3 restricts but does not ban South Africans from purchasing alcohol:
...they will not be able to buy alcoholic beverages between 5pm on Thursday until Monday morning.Despite restrictions,
National police spokesperson Brig Vish Naidoo said anyone found buying or selling alcohol between those designated times would face the might of the law.
“From 5pm on Thursday until Monday morning, people are not allowed to carry liquor. We want to prevent people from getting intoxicated and getting together. We would be opening an avenue for them to start parties, which will cause a further spread of the disease,” he said.
“This is not saying it’s illegal to drink - just don’t drink in public or attempt to buy through the illicit trade.”
Trauma cases … have spiked substantially since the easing of lockdown regulations to Level 3.Would it have been wiser to ease restrictions on cigarettes and maintain restrictions on alcohol? Enquiring minds….
The Western Cape Department of Health confirmed … significant increases in admissions this week… the majority… alcohol-related trauma.
Groote Schuur hospital has seen an increase from eight patients per day during Level 4 to 20 per day [at Level 3].
Helderberg Hospital has seen "100 percent increase. [Previously,] in a 12-hour period, we saw 28 patients. On Monday, in a 12-hour period we saw 50 patients of which the majority was alcohol-related trauma.”
*Idiomatic Afrikaans, literally “there lies the thing” and implies seeing to the core of an issue.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Humor and art and music help overwhelmed humans cope in stressful times.Accordingly, today, let’s enjoy Weezer’s wonderfully fun existentialist “Undone - The Sweater Song” (4:14 mins)
Day 69 Wednesday June 3 - Herd immunity, impunity, or fraternity?
So much going on it’s hard to stay current.
News blues…
A friend under curfew (also a lawyer) texted news from the San Francisco Bay Area:- Yesterday was the attack on peaceful protesters, media, and clergy by secret service, police, and the National Guard in Lafayette Square [outside White House] to clear it for a Trump photo op. They attacked protesters under the direct command of Attorney General [William] Barr, who could clearly be seen ordering the attack. I watched this in real time.
- There were a number of crimes committed by all involved, the main crimes being criminal civil rights violations and conspiracy to violate civil rights.
- I spent the morning calling my federal representatives about this stuff, and my state and county reps about the wholesale use of gas, flash bang grenades, and rubber bullets against non-violent protesters, many of whom are young college and high school students. This is happening all over the state [California]… A main freeway [near me] was blocked [by protesters, too].
- A MSNBC TV reporter asked Republican Senators about these attacks. All senators either refused to answer or claimed not to have seen it.*
- Former CIA analyst Gail Heit said, “This looks like what happens when democracies die. It happens like this in countries before a collapse. It really un-nerves me.”
- There are big demonstrations all over defying the curfews. Like many cities and counties around the country, San Francisco and East Bay counties [population of 3.5 to 4 million], are now under curfew indefinitely.
- [Signaling]…resistance from the big state governors and other quarters, a member of the Defense Science Board, James Miller, a former under-Secretary of Defense, resigned today. [He wrote] a scorching letter to the Secretary of Defense saying both he [current SecDef] and Trump had violated their oaths of office and the law.
*For now, leaders such as Marco Rubio still prop up the stale edifice. Rubio (R-Fla.), the acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said about the attacks on peaceful protesters outside the White House:
“That wasn’t even a protest ― that was a provocation … created deliberately for national television… Show me the pictures of that crowd and tell me those are real protesters and not professional agitators.”Meanwhile, Republican Voters Against Trump, a Republican group opposed to President Donald Trump urges voters to end his “American carnage” by voting him out of office in November. The group is using Fox & Friends, one of Trump’s favorite TV shows, to spread the message.
The spot uses the president’s own words against him and is centered around a line from his inauguration has taken on new meaning amid a deadly pandemic and nationwide civil unrest: “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.”Former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Mike Mullen, wrote in The Atlantic:
It sickened me yesterday to see security personnel — including members of the National Guard — forcibly and violently clear a path through Lafayette Square to accommodate the president's visit outside St. John's Church. I have to date been reticent to speak out on issues surrounding President Trump's leadership, but we are at an inflection point, and the events of the past few weeks have made it impossible to remain silent.Televangelist Pat Robertson, on his “700 Club” TV show, scolded President Donald Trump over his threat to send the U.S. military into American cities to control civil unrest.
Whatever Trump's goal in conducting his visit, he laid bare his disdain for the rights of peaceful protest in this country, gave succor to the leaders of other countries who take comfort in our domestic strife, and risked further politicizing
“You just don’t do that, Mr. President. It isn’t cool.”Ah, yes, this is what I love about America and Americans. When the fur flies (aka “sh** hits the fan”) Americans guided by principle come out of the woodwork and show their courage.
In comments posted online by Right Wing Watch, Robertson also called out Trump for getting the tone all wrong in dealing with the people protesting against racial injustice in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis, last week.
“You know, there’s a purpose to everything under heaven, you read in the Bible, and there’s a time,” Robertson said. “And I think now is the time to say, ’I understand your pain, I want to comfort you, I think it’s time we love each other.”
I find fraternity at these times with James Miller, and Mike Mullen, and Republican Voters Against Trump, even very conservative Pat Robertson.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Third feature of Lockdown Syndrome: coupled with isolation, disconnection from the Internet for more than 24 hours causes irritation, anxiety, even depression.Sitting by the garden pond helps, watching dragon- and damselflies helps. Seeing a vibrant Woodland Kingfisher certainly helps. But, there’s nothing like reconnection to the Internet!
***
Mea culpa. Fulsome complaining about the kitchen alarm and staff’s misuse of gas comes back to haunt.It is true that staff does not moderate gas burners.
It is true that fire alarms are necessary tools to signal emergency.
And, it is true that alarms malfunction.
Indeed, malfunction was the root cause of our kitchen’s overactive alarm.
Another humbling lesson in why not to jump to conclusion, why not to assume, and why not to assign blame.
My excuse? I’m all-too-human.
On the topic of all-too-human, this was the perfect morning to listen to Arlo Guthrie’s, “City of New Orleans.”
Good morning, AmericaI listen, smile with joy … and cry with anguish as American burns. (Why brutalize people who justly claim their humanity?)
How are you?
Say, don’t you know me?
I’m your native son…
Crying is not allowed in my family of origin. Never has been, never will be.
So, like a well-trained seal (Bored Zoo Animal?) Dutiful Daughter sits on her bed, alone in her bedroom in KZN, far from friends and family in burning, adopted-country America, and cries.
Take care, Americans and America.
Do not give up your fight for your humanity, your human rights – and our democracy.
Day 68 Tuesday June 2 – Going cuckoo
After brief Internet connection, I’m disconnected. Again.A “problem with the tower.”
The tower ain’t got no power!
Coming from California – close to hyper-urban, hi-tech Silicon Valley – to KZN’s rural low-tech Midlands demands patience.
News blues…
Uneasy about being cut off from US news during one of the most significant domestic moments of the New Millennium, I grimace… grumble … grouse…Friends and family text me their local news:
- I’ve been watching videos of cops and undercover cops inciting violence. One video showed an undercover cop breaking windows. Another showed people intentionally pushing other people into the cops from behind then running away. What’s fascinating is that they used to get away with all this stuff but now it’s all captured on video so all can see the tactics.
- Resistance [to heavy-handed cops] is already happening. In Minneapolis a bus driver refuse to drive arrested protesters to jail. In a couple of places cops even joined protesters. This has never happened before - so it’s a good sign.
- [Congressman] Seth Moulton, a Democrat and a [war] vet just called on the military to “lay down arms” if ordered to confront protesters.
- As per the UN International Human Rights Standards of Law Enforcement pocket handbook, soldiers have a duty to refuse unlawful orders: “All measures for the restoration of order are to respect human rights.”
A curfew is in place…tonight and tomorrow night, June 1 and 2, from 8pm to 5am. If extended, we will continue to update the community.Hmmm, nothing about banned cigarettes, rationed alcohol, or wearing/not wearing short-sleeved white undershirts.
Last night, May 31 into June 1, the East Bay was hit hard by widespread incidents of looting, burglaries, and violence. Here in Alameda, we experienced a dozen incidents from 9pm to 5am, and arrested 7 individuals. What we experienced was less severe than in neighboring cities, but damage was done to our community.
These unfortunate events will also further complicate statewide and regional efforts to slow the spread of Covid-19.
We have substantially increased the number of officers we have on duty and have contingency plans in place to address changing circumstances.
Curfew regulations…include that it is unlawful for any person to travel or be upon a public street, sidewalk, or public place within the City during dates and hours designated, unless you are exempt. Exemptions include essential workers and individuals traveling to and from work, seeking emergency care, fleeing dangerous circumstances, or experiencing homelessness.
The Alameda County Sheriff issued a curfew order for the entire County [1.67 million people] beginning tonight at 8pm and extending through June 5 at 5am.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Day 2 of Lockdown Level 3. Except for masks covering many but all faces in public, and the occasional store clerk holding an infra-red thermometer to customers’ foreheads, life here appears back to normal. Heavy traffic, crowded taxis, crowded shopping malls, crowded stores, crowded pavements.
***
The live-in domestic worker who took ill yesterday suffered, not a stroke, but a form of lockjaw!She reports that a fellow patient in the communal ward where she spent the night suffered similar symptoms … and he succumbed. Dead.
I’m trying to get further details on the malady.
No one knows nothin’.
Without Internet, I can’t even consult the Internet’s diagnose-from-a- distance “health experts.”
***
Further symptoms of Lockdown Syndrome. Sunday’s post admitted my growing obsession with the graphs displayed by my iPhone’s Last Charge Level.
Today, I admit my daily Weed Walk resembles the anxious lope of a Bored Zoo Exhibit. The swaying elephant… poop-tossing baboon… cage-circling wolf… breast-feather-plucking cuckoo….
Come 3 o’clock, I don walking shoes and pluck weeds while I prowl: over mown and unmown lawns, up the stairs and turn right or down the stairs and turn left (last minute changes of direction add variety), around and around, up and down, down and up, over and under, under and over – over and over and over.
Vehicles passing on the dirt road poof clouds of dust that settles onto my hair and shoulders.
Hadidah ibis roosting on the electric pylon observe and chuckle raucously.
The dogs that once alleviated their boredom by following me no longer bother.
On the plus side, Weed Walking has eliminated garden weeds.
At 3:30, I dust off the dust … and visit my mother for a cup of tea and a dose of Judge Judy.
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| Click to enlarge. |
End of day, I review the graph displayed by my iPhone’s Last Charge Level.
Love the pattern!
Day 67 Monday, June 1 - “Change in political and economic power”
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Protestors demonstrate in
Columbia, S.C. in response
Sean Rayford, © The New York Times
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I’ve lived, worked, and engaged with events in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years, including the 1992 Rodney King riots, the 2010 Oscar Grant riots, the 2003 anti-war protests, and the 2011 Occupy encampments.
What protesters say now was true then: We, the People, protest injustice and mobilize for change yet our protests go nowhere - beyond police banging up protesters, shooting with rubber bullets, and arresting hundreds.
We get labeled, too.
Once upon a time, “Communist” was the worst Boogieman name to label Americans. These days, “socialist”, even “Democrat”, thanks to Trump - are in the running, but both lag behind the current worst naming label: “Antifa.”
Antifa lends itself to amorphous projections that imply all the bugaboo lables: communist, un-American, traitor, terrorist, domestic terrorist, socialist, Democrat, radical, Left, far-Left, and ultra-Left. It implies youth: dissatisfied, disengaged, disenfranchised, disempowered. And, dare I say it, it implies poor “people of color”…
In fact, Antifa is an abbreviation for something truly American: anti-fascist.
Pronounced an-tee-fah, and defined as “a political protest movement comprising autonomous groups affiliated by their militant opposition to fascism and other forms of extreme right-wing ideology.”
If Antifa is made up predominantly of young people (no proof of that) then these young people are among the most politically engaged Americans. They’re willing to risk their health and well-being to demand progressive change in our country.
South Africans know how to protest – effectively, too. Yet, for me right now, KZN seems so, so far from the current round of protests in the US that:
…shook more than three dozen [American] cities on Saturday as crowds expressed outrage over the death of George Floyd…. Demonstrators shut down freeways, set fires and battled police batons and tear gas…the pain and frustration of the moment spilling out into the streets.Ah, “change in political and economic power”….
In Columbia, the city where Mr. [Joe] Biden delivered his victory speech after the South Carolina primary just over three months ago, demonstrators on Saturday said they were demanding more than what it seemed like an election in November would deliver. Not only justice for the death of George Floyd, but change in political and economic power that would prevent the death of another black person in police custody, another brutal video going viral.
“Change” is a tough enough ask of politicians.
Add “in political and economic power”… and you’re wandering into the realm of “ain’t gonna happen” – at least not without sustained protest.
News blues…
“Willing to kill democracy”?…we can focus this simply on Trump or we can also focus on all of those folks that have enabled Trump: the Republican leadership, the corporation that may make statements in support of this work but, on the other hand, do all sorts of things to prop up, support, donate to Donald Trump. You don’t get Trump and Trumpism without a whole host of institutions and individuals that support and enable him.”
***
The Lincoln Project reports that Republican Senator Mitch McConnel responds to their ad, “Rich Mitch” with a page from Trump’s playbook: tweeting insults. McConnell roundly denounces the team who created the ad with name calling: inane, ridiculous, etc. But the Gentleman from Kentucky does not refute their central claim, that Mitch enriched himself at the cost of Kentucky.
To be fair, Mitch’s second wife Elaine Chao, inherited money after her mother died in 2007. That marriage would have increased Mitch’s net worth on paper. He balanced those books by elevating his wife to Transportation Secretary.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Further symptoms of Lockdown Syndrome. Yesterday, I described a growing obsession with the various patterns displayed by my iPhone’s Last Charge Level.Today, I recognize my daily Weed Walking around the garden resembles the anxious lope of a Bored Zoo Animal.
Limited access to Internet news and limited exposure to public behavior under Lockdown suggests South Africans view Lockdown Level 3 as an opportunity to socialize again.
Accordingly, I elected to delay until next week the gardener’s return to work, and then he’ll work only one day. Returning to/from work via public taxi one day a week poses a risk of Covid-19 infection; returning three days a week is a greater risk, one I’m unwilling to take.
***
Yesterday, one domestic worker suffered a medical episode that’s a repeat of an event eight years ago diagnosed as a stroke. Her face swelled up and her upper lip was rigid. Swelling is not a feature of stroke, nor is moving around easily.
An ambulance transported her to a provincial public hospital.
This raises a dilemma.
South Africa’s notoriously under-funded and over-crowded public hospitals cater to, well, ill people, including people carrying, knowingly or unknowingly, coronavirus.
Today, I sought advice from a “sister” – an advanced nursing professional – on how safely to incorporate the worker back into the household.
The domestic worker returned – unexpectedly by public taxi – to quarantine.
We’ll all take necessary precautions.
***
Another round of canna removal. The succulent garden I imagine slowly takes shape.
Day 66, Sunday May 31 – Micromanaging, or barely managing?
Lockdown Level 3 begins at midnight. Confused messaging from the country’s leadership adds up to overall confusion among the people.Forty-eight hours without Internet means 48 hours without easy access to news.
Forty-eight hours without Internet is like a month on a desert island with a can of beans but no can opener.
News blues…
Brief peeks at the news via my cell phone indicate confusion reigns about what is and is not permitted during Lockdown Level 3.Cigarettes? Still banned. Except … cigarettes can be “transported for export” while also “prohibited to be sold, and prohibited to be bought” [sic] and “police have a right to seek the receipt of where you have bought cigarettes….”
If I were a smoker, my brain would fry ….
Work? “An essential or permitted work permit from the employer is required” - or not. No “letter from employer” exists in Level 3 regulations, and a permit is required only for movement across provinces, districts and metro boundaries, or declared hotspots.
Dress code? The confusion regarding “short-sleeved t-shirts as under-garments” reminds me of Woody Allen’s 1970s movie, “Bananas.” The storyline includes an authoritarian leader insisting citizens wear clean underwear. To prove they’re changing underwear regularly and according to law, citizens must wear underwear on the outside.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
This morning, soon after sunrise, the upstairs kitchen alarm squawked three different times.Back in February, I installed two small battery-powered fire alarms inside my mother’s large house.
I placed one alarm above her bed. This because, despite my entreaties to the contrary, my mother burns an open candle next to her bed at night – she says its to memorialize her dead partner. Try arguing with that!
I placed the second alarm on the wall above the kitchen stove.
In the past week, soon after sunrise, the kitchen alarm has squawked five times.
Each time, still in pajamas, I slip on shoes, depart my warm room, run through the garden, up the back stairs, along the balcony, and enter the hallway that leads to the kitchen.
Each time, I’ve found no one inside the kitchen while steam rises furiously from a pot filled with dog food bubbling on the stovetop.
Does humans depart the kitchen because a watched pot never boils?
I’ve demonstrated to the staff how to moderate gas flow.
I explained the theory and mechanics of moderating gas flow.
I attempted to raise awareness of the economics of natural gas, even, in desperation, expounded on the politics of fossil fuels and described the impending disasters of climate change.
Other than increasing resentment toward me – and the alarm – there’s no sign of behavior modification.
Soon as I depart the kitchen, the gas is full throttle again.
My mother’s attitude?
Yes, natural gas is expensive, “But,” she claims, “I can’t hear the alarm.”
(Translation: if she can’t hear it, it doesn’t squawk.)
My mother’s solution after today’s three episodes? “We should turn off the alarm.” (Translation: “We” means yours truly.)
Flabbergasted, I departed the kitchen and scuffled along the balcony, down the back stairs, through the garden, and into my warm room.
Still dressed in pajamas, I returned to bed.
I developed a throbbing headache and a fever.
An effective headache capsule convinced me I hadn’t contracted Covid-19. Just to be sure, I (gratefully) self-isolated and spent the day quietly pondering 1) life in general: why opt for live-in staff? And, 2) my life in particular: what the hell am I doing in South Africa?
I could die here.
Lockdown Level 3 decrees no domestic or international flights. I cannot follow my instinct to flee back to California, back to where violent protest against violent police killing innocent Americans makes more sense than disarming an alarm because it works.
Am I a traitor if question why someone who:
- spends her day watching TV spend none of her day watching TV news.
- reads nothing, hasn’t been outside the gate for eight weeks, and pays no attention to official Covid-19 recommendations, believes she’s au courant?
- never insists on staff wearing masks “out there”
- never insists on staff sanitizing their hands after re-entering the property yet when I insist, tells me they wash their hands with “soap”?
***
Symptom of Lockdown Fever: Obsessively tracking cell phone’s battery level. I use an elderly iPhone, model 6. Before departing California, I visited an Apple store to replace the phone battery.
Apple no longer supports iPhone model 6.
I left California with the iPhone battery I have, not the iPhone battery I want.
I purchased a back-up battery charger to counter Eskom’s program of load shedding.
Background: Eskom is South Africa’s state-owned-enterprise that supplies the nation with electricity.
Load shedding is Eskom’s solution to dwindling electrical capacity: it “saves” energy by switching off the electrical grid for wide swathes of the country for anywhere from 6 to 10 hours, sometimes longer, per day.
One upside to the pandemic is Eskom refraining from load shedding for now (although electricity still fails for long minutes).
Lack of availability of energy – coal-generated electricity or electrically charged phone batteries – focuses one’s attention.
I’ve become fascinated with the bar graph displayed by my iPhone’s Last Charge Level.
1) Go to “Settings”Green bars indicate regular battery use. Yellow bars indicate Low Power Mode. Red bars indicate battery charge is dangerously low.
2) Scroll to and select “Battery > ”
3) Scroll to “Last 24 Hours”
4) Examine the graph.
Note: No bars indicate iPhone switched off
If, like me, you’re “arty” and would like to create your own charge pattern, vary your use of Full and Low Power mode. Experiment with creating nice green/yellow/red display patterns.
Such is life under Lockdown Levels 5 and 4. Little indication that Level 3 will change much.
Am I losing my marbles?
I remind myself: lockdown will end.
When it does, I suspect we’ll see a flurry of post-lockdown support groups for people who, like me, showed signs of going bonkers around Day 60.
“Hello, I’m Susan. I’m addicted to checking the bar graphs displayed by my iPhone’s Last Charge Level.”
Day 65, Saturday May 30 - No ‘net, no post. Reprise!
Just as America explodes in rage and this Enquiring Mind wants to follow the news, I exceeded my monthly Internet data usage.Temporarily disconnected, this Saturday post published Monday.
News blues…
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| Law enforcement officers gather in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 29, as fires burn after a night of unrest. (c) David Joles/Star Tribune/AP Click to enlarge. |
Following outraged protesters burning a Minneapolis police station, five hundred Minnesota National Guardsmen were deployed to St. Paul, Minneapolis and surrounding communities.
Subsequently, protests exploded around the country.
With his usual (lack of) leadership, inimitable Trump Tweeted,
"These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won't let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!"The orange-head knows how to, well, inflame.
Protests are symptoms of social dis-ease - and protesters don’t respond kindly to politics-as-usual treatment.
Unfortunately, the Democrats running Joe Biden for president present a band-aid, not holistic healing nor the long overdue amputation of gangrenous organs in the US-body politic.
***
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© Center for Responsive Politics
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From Grim Reaper to Moscow Mitch. Sparked by the various revelations into Russian interference in the U.S. 2016 election, Mitch blocked a proposal that would have required candidates, staffers, and family members to alert federal authorities if offered aid by foreign governments.
Thank you, TV host Joe Scarborough for “Moscow Mitch.”
From Moscow Mitch to Midnight Mitch. During Trump’s impeachment, McConnell restricted impeachment managers to 24 hours over two days. Given the 1 p.m. start time, that meant arguments would continue into the early morning hours - when no one would be watching.
Thank you, ace reporter Carl Bernstein for “Midnight Mitch.”
From Midnight Mitch to Rich Mitch. “After 35 years, Kentuckians are still waiting for the kinds of opportunities Rich Mitch has worked so hard to give himself.” (58 seconds)
Thank you, The Lincoln Project for “Rich Mitch.”
“Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures”
If the current moment represented business-as-usual national politics, Republican-centric The Lincoln Project, would not aim devastatingly negative ads at Republican political leaders, corrupt or not. Nor would they promote a Democrat for president.
Corporate/financial-capital-beholden Democrat Joe Biden is about as middle-of-the-road as politicians come…which is why The Lincoln Project promotes him.
Joe may as well be Republican for all the desperately needed political change his presidency will bring.
Nevertheless, it is increasingly clear that democracy as We, the People know it will not survive another four years of Donald J Trump.
It may not survive another four weeks.
Whether voted out of office or hauled from the White House wrapped in a straight-jacket, Trump must go.
“Actions or affiliations that would seem extreme during normal times are appropriate during times of adversity.”
To the extent that I appreciate The Lincoln Project’s sense of humor, dedication to principle, and growing list of succinct ads, I declare myself an “Honorary” (Lincoln Project) Republican.
Background of “Honorary.” Before 1994, foreign dignitaries who planned to visit South Africa, but didn’t meet apartheid’s stringent “sniff test” – color, race, political ideology, etc. - were temporarily classified “Honorary.” This “sanitized” the visitor from the white South African government’s political molestation for the duration of the visit.
Visitors such as US Ambassador to the UN Andrew Young during the Carter administration, soul musician Percy Sledge (1970), chanteuse Shirley Bassey (1985) legally crossed South Africa’s border and, briefly, thrilled South Africans.
As an “Honorary” (Lincoln Project) Republican I’m inside the tent Lyndon Johnson referred to back in October 1971 when he spoke of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover: “It's probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.”
Whackjobbery, never ending…
Conspiracy theories thrive on right-wing radio.Much of the media coverage of right-wing pundits tends to focus on Fox News hosts … who can count on Trump watching their shows and are able to serve as informal advisers. But conservative talk radio is an immensely important part of the pro-Trump media ecosystem. Nationally syndicated shows [and] a sprawling network of local hosts, function as a means of reaching the Republican base and gauging its feelings.
“One of the big roles of conservative media in the past 20 to 30 years has been doing the mediation between Republican office holders and the conservative base,” said Nicole Hemmer, author of “Messengers of the Right” and a research scholar at Columbia University.“The Only Good Democrat Is A Dead Democrat”
When Republican voters have felt confusion or frustration with Trump’s reactions to the coronavirus pandemic, hosts have stepped in to reassure listeners and mend those rifts while validating their audience’s grievances.
…an array of conservative talk radio stars … reach[ing] tens of millions of listeners every week… have spent the pandemic downplaying the crisis, promoting conspiracy theories and sycophantically praising Trump. These hosts have created an alternate reality that exists largely outside the scrutiny of fact-checkers and mainstream press coverage, spreading unchallenged misinformation that threatens public health.
Scanning through top conservative radio hosts’ recent coronavirus coverage reveals a staggering number of falsehoods and facile arguments…[touting] an unproven coronavirus treatment as a miracle cure….[railing] against social distancing measures and [defending] armed lockdown protests.
[Recently], the president quote-tweeted a video shared by Cowboys for Trump. In the video, the group’s founder, Couy Griffin, is speaking in front of a New Mexico church, encouraging his audience to violate stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic.In response, President Donald Trump tweeted a note of thanks.
“I’ve come to a conclusion where the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat,” says Griffin, going on to add that he doesn’t mean that in a “physical sense,” but in a “political sense.”
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
The invasive canna plant is disinclined to separate from fertile KZN soil.After dumping two wheelbarrows-full of canna stems and leaves, I tackled the roots and tubers. These tend to clump. Clumping requires intervention with heavy tools such as pickaxe and garden fork. Pickaxe and garden fork require strength and fortitude… of which I have a limited supply.
Before giving up for today, I removed five clumps of canna – each the surface area of an extra-large pizza and the depth of a millstone.
Fourteen more clumps to tackle.
My reward for back-stressing work? Relaxing in a hot bath as I imagine that section of garden with semi-shade indigenous plants….
Day 64, Friday May 29 – Fiddling the data?
Typically, politicians deliver bad news to Americans late Friday. This, as politicians assume Americans will cool down over the weekend and Monday will bring a new start, fresh thinking, and a dose of amnesia.Even while Trump’s White House tenure delivers outrageous news thick and fast all day, any day, and every day, the coming weekend promises no cooling down nor amnesia.
Perhaps just the opposite.
Two days ago, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, African-American George Floyd was killed by up to four police officers.
In February, African-American runner Ahmaud Arbery was shot to death in Satilla Shores, Georgia .
In March, African-American Breonna Taylor was shot eight times and killed during a police raid of her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky.
Unlike other similar deaths, these deaths burst into public awareness and stoked outrage.
They’re adding to the stress brought on by an apparently out-of-control pandemic, a controversial election, and what looks very much like the crumbling of a venerated democracy.
This weekend in the US looks be long, hot, and violent.
Instead of steady leadership, Trump, of course, resorted to blaming via Twitter:
“I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right.....”Ironically, it was just two weeks ago that Trump threatened to “terminate” 40,000 National Guardsmen by June 24, one day before thousands would have qualified for key retirement and education benefits. (See post “Distracting the Distractor”)
After an outcry, Trump made a sharp U-turn. The federal government will now keep funding National Guard troops across the country.
“The National Guard remains committed to its service in support of the fight against Covid-19 and will remain in that fight as long as we are needed," a National Guard Bureau spokesperson told POLITICO. "Our nation is looking to the National Guard to help and we will not let them down.”
News blues…
New week, new numbersWorldwide: 5,810,335 confirmed cases; 360,335 deaths
US: 1,721,750 confirmed cases; 101,620 deaths
SA: 27,405 confirmed cases; 577 deaths
Several news outlets report federal and state officials across the nation altering or hiding public health data that tracks the spread of Covid-19, and
… hindering the ability to detect a surge of infections as President Donald Trump pushes the nation to reopen rapidly.Nor is our planet out of the woods…or the atmosphere… where the load of carbon dioxide continues an upward trajectory:
In at least a dozen states, health departments have inflated testing numbers or deflated death tallies by changing criteria for who counts as a coronavirus victim and what counts as a coronavirus test according to reports …and states' own admissions. Some states have shifted the metrics for a “safe” reopening; Arizona sought to clamp down on bad news at one point by simply shuttering its pandemic modeling. About a third of the states aren’t even reporting hospital admission data — a big red flag for the resurgence of the virus.
The spotty data flow is particularly worrisome to public health officials trying to help Americans make decisions about safely venturing out. The lack of accurate and consistent Covid-19 data, coupled with the fact that the White House no longer has regular briefings where officials reinforce the need for ongoing social distancing, makes that task even harder.
23 May 2020: 416.97 ppm
23 May 2019: 414.72 ppm
May 2010: 393.46 ppm
Pre-industrial base: 280
Safe level: 350
Reading from Mauna Loa, Hawaii (part per million). Source: NOAA-ESRL
Scientists have warned for more than a decade that concentrations of more than 450ppm risk triggering extreme weather events and temperature rises as high as 2C, beyond which the effects of global heating are likely to become catastrophic and irreversible.
If that news leaves you blue, consider that Covid-19 at least benefits some animals. In Yosemite and Death Valley, critters appear that have not been seen, “in our lifetimes,” said Kati Schmidt, a spokesperson for the US National Parks Conservation Association.
Deer, bobcats, black bears, pronghorns, coyotes, even wolverines are taking advantage of human-free environments while they can.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, “only 300 [wolverine] species [are] left in the contiguous US,” and a handful have been spotted in Washington State. One on a beach, another “walking down a road in Naselle, a town east of Long Beach Peninsula.”
***
Use of plastic has soared during the pandemic. Restaurants trying to stay afloat rely on plastic utensils for takeout orders, grocery shoppers have reverted to disposable bags over sanitary concerns, and the CDC says disposable dishes, utensils, napkins and tablecloths should be the default."The idea that the CDC recommends that single-use disposable items should be preferred seems a little illogical to me," said Chris Slafter, interim coordinator of Clean Water Action's ReThink Disposable program… Someone still has to handle that item before it goes into a customer's hand."
Before the pandemic, California was leading the way on eliminating single-use plastics in various consumer sectors. While environmentalists have long criticized plastic products for polluting oceans and overwhelming landfills, state and local leaders also have sounded the alarm after China in recent years stopped accepting many U.S. plastics for recycling.
[T]he virus has thwarted efforts to toughen statewide recycling targets.
***
Another Daily Maverick Live Webinar, “School Reopening: The Great Debate”After weeks of uncertainty, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga confirmed last week that schools will reopen on 1 June – but only for Grades 7 and 12.
Hosted by Judith February, governance specialist, columnist and lawyer. With Dr Nic Spaull, education economist at Stellenbosch University and commentator on education policy in South Africa, and Dr Sara Black, former high school maths teacher who now trains teachers and works in critical education sociology, with a focus on equity and justice in education policy.
***
Comedienne Sara Cooper’s Trump impressions have tickled more than 18 million viewers. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell recently interviewed her on The Last Word (5:31 minutes). We’ve celebrated Sara – “The Trump Whisperer” – on this blog, too. (See post, “Humor might save us”.)
I’m in awe of how many wonderfully talented, funny people out there keep the rest of us sane during crazy times. Thank you!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Following the direction of Category 1b of the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act, I’m removing invasive cannas from the inside garden. As mentioned in yesterday’s post, cannas – originally from the Caribbean and tropical America - were introduced to South Africa as an ornamental where they have, well, blossomed.Black jacks, khaki weed, cosmos, cat’s claw – ditto, from South America - have successfully settled into KZN’s fertile soil, too. They are among 775 identified invasive species – that’s about seven new species introduced each year. (List of invasive species in South Africa.)
I’ve written elsewhere about my small success eradicating cat’s claw creeper and I intend eradicating canna. At least, from the inside garden. I’ve no ambitions to tackle the plant beyond the inside garden where it thrives along roads, in the wetlands, indeed, wherever its hardly seeds germinate.
Frost damages the leaves and stems but does little to discourage its tuber.
Getting rid of tubers requires persistence – and heavy digging.
Week 9: Day 63 - Thursday May 28 - "Viruses respond to science, not politics"
After his recent visit to the Trump White House, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a public address, “Viruses respond to science, not politics”. (24:00 hard hitting minutes followed by questions – a total of 52:29 highly recommended, well worth watching minutes.)Based on his rhetoric during the briefing - “Is now the time to savage essential services?” and “There is no nation without the states” - the meeting did not go well. No melding of the minds.
Get ready, folks, we’re in for a rough ride!
Cuomo, not Biden, for president!
We, the People of the United States needs someone with real management, “control freak” skills at this precarious time. Cuomo has those skills.
Alas, the Biden octogenarian presidency currently in the works will provide the same old, same old maintenance of the status quo…with old-style “malarkey” rhetoric.
Who needs that?
***
Twitter tweets. Expect more whackjobbery from the White House as, for the first time ever, Twitter editorializes.Twitter recently tagged two of Trump's tweets, calling them “potentially misleading.”
One evidence-free Trump tweet falsely claimed mail-in ballots would lead to widespread voter fraud.
The other evidence trampling Trump tweet accused TV host Joe Scarborough of murder.
Twitter added a linked message beneath Trump’s mail-in ballot Trump tweet: "Get the facts about mail-in ballots,” that it’s not “rigged” as Trump suggests. Twitter aims to provide context around Trump’s remarks and “combat information and disputed or unverified claims.”
Trump responses?
Tweet 1: “Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election. They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post.
Tweet 2: “…Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH and I, as President, will not allow it to happen.”
Gird yourself for a barrage of Trump tweets…
Moreover, looks like the “Trump administration will target a 1996 statute that protects the companies from lawsuits — an avenue that a growing number of Republican lawmakers are advocating as they press their bias accusations about Silicon Valley.”
CNN’s Chris Cillizza believes Twitter’s pushback will not work because:
- Twitter isn't going to remove Trump's account. Which means Trump can use Twitter’s platform to savage Twitter – as he’s already doing.
- The Twitter link isn’t bold enough. The small link urging people to "get the facts" is ineffective. Twitter could suspend Trump’s account, but under the aegis of protecting 1st Amendment rights, they have no plans to do that.
- Twitter is damaged goods. Trump and Trumpies have insisted for years that Twitter, Facebook et al are biased against conservatives. “That conservative accounts are taken down, muted or disappeared. That the Silicon Valley founders of these social media giants are all liberals and are finding ways small and large to promote views they agree with and to silence those they don't…. Twitter’s attempt to point people to facts when the President has made a false claim isn't a good faith effort [but another] example of how conservatives are being unfairly treated, and how liberals get away with things they never could.”
That might mean We, the People, begin to see a turning of the tide away from the Trumpster.
One can only hope!
News blues…
The US has more than 1.7 million cases of infection and beyond 100,000 known Covid-19-related deaths (despite the real numbers being wrong – “and everyone knows it” )My home state, California, joins Illinois, New Jersey, and New York as states with 100,000 known infections.
It’s bad out there.
***
Another Daily Maverick webinar, “Junked: Consequences of the Downgrade.” Hosted by Tim Cohen with Nazmeera Moola and Peter Worthington (currently locked out of South Africa and locked down in Canada). Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
 |
| Frost, Thursday morning. Click to enlarge |
Yesterday afternoon, I walked the garden and inventoried the frost-damage.
The plants shown mid-right background in this photo are invasive cannas, aka Indian Shot, introduced as an ornamental, not from Indian as the name suggests, but from the Caribbean and tropical America.
Tenacious and prolific, these plants fall into Category 1b of the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act, meaning it must be removed from gardens as it forms dense spreading clumps which when left unattended eliminates indigenous species.
I’ve had them in my sights for eradication for years. Today is the day to begin that process. Alas, frost may have softened up the plant for easier eradication, but the tubers and seeds promise another bumper crop come spring.
***
They're baaaack!Repatriation flights confuse! Announced, cancelled, announced again - with a short window of opportunity.
That cancelled SAA flight of a couple of weeks ago?
It’s back on schedule!
Health Alert: Announcing May 29 South African Airways Flight – U.S. Embassy Pretoria, South Africa (May 27, 2020)I detect an assumption underlying these emails: that while in South Africa caring for aging family, Americans longing to return to the US, must live out of packed suitcases, ready to depart with less than one day’s notice.
Location: South Africa
Event: The South African Department of Health has confirmed 24,264 cases of COVID-19 within its borders.
South African Airways Flight – May 29, 2020
South African Airways (SAA) has notified the U.S. Mission of a special repatriation flight on May 29, 2020, from Cape Town to Washington, D.C. (Washington-Dulles International Airport.) For further information or to book a seat, please see SAA’s repatriation portal here. If you were previously booked on the canceled May 19 SAA flight, you have been automatically re-booked on the May 29 flight but must contact SAA to confirm. This is not a U.S. government-coordinated flight; you must contact SAA directly to book tickets or for further information.
Please note:
- The airline will submit a final list of passengers to the U.S. Mission and we will confirm with the airline that passengers have appropriate travel documents. We will work directly with the relevant authorities for clearing passenger lists and are not providing documentation such as a permission letter to individual passengers. You do not need to contact the U.S. Embassy or take further action for this approval.
- For non-U.S. citizens (excluding U.S. legal permanent residents), you need to contact DIRCO directly for permission to depart South Africa.
- For information regarding price details, payment methods, baggage allowances, and other specific questions, please contact SAA directly.
- Please do not contact the U.S. Mission to South Africa regarding assembly point logistics and travel permission letters for confirmed passengers. SAA is coordinating assembly point logistics and will distribute that information to you separately.
- You will need to contact the airline directly for questions about availability.
I’d love to return to warm, sunny, northern California. But living under lockdown amid a pandemic with an aging parent, seven dogs, two domestic workers, and a large garden hosting invasive species, provides enough stress without the added stress of living out of a suitcase.
Digging through packed belongings for toothpaste and warm socks while checking one’s email inbox for emails that announce flights, cancel flights, announce flights again?
All for the privilege of landing in Washington D.C., home of the whoppers?
Who needs it?
On March 23, 1775 at the Second Virginia Convention in Richmond, VA: Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty, or give me death!"
I paraphrase Patrick Henry: “Give me SFO, or keep me KZN’ing….”
Day 62 - Wednesday May 27 - "A change in the weather..."
In South Africa, under the lockdown ban on cigarettes and alcohol, it takes four minutes and 28 seconds to find contraband cigarettes under levels 4 and 3 lockdown regulations.Sure, cigarettes cost a lot more than usual: from R1.50 to up to R7.00 per ciggie – and up to R140 for a pack of 20. (US$1.00 = about ZAR17.00 – so about US$8 per pack of 20.)
While the ban on alcohol will ease at Level 3 (next week), the ban on ciggies will continue.
Musician David Scott, of The Kiffness, protests the ciggie ban via one song with two versions of the South African national anthems: African and Afrikaans.
Not everyone seeing this video will “get” the lyrics that will make multicultural South Africans smile, here’s a brief translation:
- Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, currently Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, former wife of former president Jacob Zuma, stepmother(?) to Duduzane Zuma, entrepreneur, comrade-in-arms with Jacob, his father, and reported cigarette merchant.
- Rizla: papers for rolling “zol”
- “zol” – “dagga” or marijuana cigarettes.
This is a satirical piece, and is not necessarily based on fact. The views expressed in this song are my own. I have the right to freedom of expression. In addition, if any deaf people watching this video are offended by my "sign language", please know that I have nothing but love & respect for the complexity and skill that comes with your language. I often watch the sign language during these political speeches and am always impressed by how quickly the interpreters are able to sign what the President is saying. I hope it's clear have no idea what I'm doing, and the idea is for the audience to laugh at me, not at you. I hope you understand that that is part of the satire & the video's in no way made to make a mockery of your language.After enjoying this video, I researched The Kiffness. I’m delighted to discover how David Scott uses lockdown as an opportunity to create and share his lockdown experience.
Check out his YouTube channel for more laughs and scroll to section Lockdown Parodies to view.
News blues…
On March 27, the first day of the lockdown, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded SA’s international long-term credit rating from Baa3 to Ba1, a subinvestment grade. This meant, according to all three credit rating agencies - Moody’s, Fitch and Standard and Poor’s (S&P) - the country’s international credit rating was below investment grade, aka junk status. The outlook looked grim.Then, the easing of lockdown regulations with some countries starting to reopen their economies has provided a welcome boost.
The rand strengthened as much as 5.2 percent last week and continued its rally, opening at R17.57/$ on Monday morning. It strengthened to as much as R17.53/$ before trading at R17.67 by late afternoon.
The rand has been the second-worst performing currency after the Brazilian Real, having weakened more than 20 percent for the year to date. Just weeks ago, analysts were predicting the currency would test the R20/$ mark, as they anticipated large capital outflows as much as $14 billion on the back of the rand falling out of the World Government Bond Index, due downgrade to junk status.
This has not yet happened.
On the contrary, appetite for SA portfolio assets has not died down… Investec chief economist Annabel Bishop noted that she expects the rand to strengthen further this year, possibly to R16 against the greenback, and even further into 2021
***
Daily Maverick's latest webinar, "The Upside of Down: How chaos and uncertainty breed opportunity in SA." Daily Maverick’s Stephen Grootes goes behind the scenes with financial journalist, talk show host and author Bruce Whitfield to discuss how problem-solvers thrive in tumultuous times, how your mindset can define your future and other topics covered in Whitfield’s latest book, The Upside of Down. Webinar sponsored by book publisher Pan Macmillan.
***
Michael Moore-produced documentary "Planet of the Humans" debuted on YouTube last month. Subsequently, it was condemned as inaccurate and misleading by some climate scientists and some activists. Now, it has been temporarily removed from YouTube in response to a copyright infringement claim by British environmental photographer, Toby Smith. Smith alleges the documentary includes a material used without his permission and that he does not approve of the context in which the clip is used.
No doubt Moore will respond to Smith and edit the movie.
Regarding the complaints by climate scientists and activists, I suggest you watch the movie when it is reposted on YouTube and decide for yourself. I watched about half of it in short bursts of time – due to Internet access, nothing to do with subject matter – and found it strikes at the heart of the climate controversy. Moore posits that there is no long term, quick fix…that big/corporate money is omnipresent, and that climate activists are jollying people along into believing all is quick-fixable while maintaining the usual western standards of life.
Moore suggests climate activists (350.org, etc,) are settling for wishy washy action and not preparing middle-of-the-road humans for what it will actually take for our planet to produce sustainable “green”/”renewable”/”environmentally adequate” energy.
Moore and his team may have violated fair usage rules. I don’t know. But I tend to agree with Moore that the movie’s science and activist critics pan the movie because of his unwillingness to toe the moderate “we-got-sustainable-energy-under-control” line.
There are no quick-fix panacea to our energy crises.
Solar helps. Wind helps. Hydro/wave helps. None is a solution.
We, the People must grasp our ongoing energy challenges and the depth of damage perpetrated by our dependence on fossil fuels. The sooner the better.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
A story to soothe the savage breast, or at least to alleviate the blues. South African stork falls in love with Croatian stork and finds a family.
***
Microcosm weather woes. Last night, KZN temperature dropped to 1 degree Centigrade (33.8 F). California’s daytime temperature rose to 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40.5 C).
What’s the difference between climate and weather?
Weather is the day-to-day state of the atmosphere (temperature, humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, visibility, and wind) and its short-term variation in minutes to weeks.
Climate is the weather of a place averaged over a period of time, often 30 years.
(Donald Trump take note.)
Day 61 - Tuesday May 26 - “By the way, I’m still here”
Donald J. Trump’s antics on Memorial Day 2020 will go down in history as, well, bizarre.From Tweeting accusations of murder about a TV reporter, insulting current and former politicians and leaders, threatening to cut funds to struggling states – all while playing golf – the guy appears to be coming apart at the seams.
Back in 2017, Bandy Lee, a forensic psychiatrist, edited a book called, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump. Twenty-seven psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals contributed essays describing the "clear and present danger" that Trump’s mental health poses to the "nation and individual wellbeing". His mental health, the authors argued, was affecting the mental health of the people of the United States and that Trump places the country at grave risk of involving it in a war, and of undermining democracy itself due to his dangerous pathology.
The book was unprecedented.
The American Psychiatric Association’s Goldwater rule states that it is unethical for psychiatrists to give professional opinions about public figures without examining them in person. The authors, however, maintained that pointing out danger and calling for evaluation is different from diagnosis.
Four years later the president’s increasingly compromised mental health is on full display via press conferences, briefings, interviews, and Tweets.
More alarming is how far into whackjobbery Americans and American leaders have allowed Trump’s craziness to manifest – with nary a sign of invoking the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Essentially, the Amendment states that if the President becomes unable to do his job, the Vice President becomes President.
Perhaps the operative words are, “becomes unable”. Donald J Trump has always been “unable” to do the job of president.
Yet, full blown whackjobbery persists! Indeed, he’s still there!
News blues…
Hyped hydroxychloroquine. Yet again, the thesis of Rick Wilson’s book, Everything Trump Touches Dies proves true.Even as health and science professionals urge caution, The Donald insists hydroxychloroquine is the cure for Covid-19. He even claimed he popped hydroxychloroquine pills, an unproven treatment. (Reportedly, he stopped last Friday saying, “Finished, just finished. And by the way, I’m still here.” )
The World Health Organization temporarily dropped hydroxychloroquine from its study into coronavirus treatments. Director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the decision was made in light research that showed people taking it were at higher risk of early death.
Back in April, the US Department of Veterans Affairs admitted dosing 1,300 of 10,000 veterans with the drug. (See post of April 23rd, “Experimenting on American servicemen?” )
Despite contra-indications, the VA states it will continue to use the drug.
Relying on his “very large brain” and his “morbidly obese” gut to run a government proves Wilson’s thesis: “everything Trump touches dies.”
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Sunday night President Ramaphosa’s announced South Africa would enter Lockdown Level 3 as of June 1.Grocery shopping less than 24-hours later, I noticed people acting as if Level 3 was already in effect. Groups of people gather in streets and in stores. Parking lots are full and car guards* back in attendance. The energetic "we're all in this together" spirit once displayed by store personnel spritzing customer’s hands at entrances is gone, leaving lethargy in its wake.
*car guard: an “independent contractor” who wears a safety vest and assists drivers in backing out of public parking spaces. Car guards are paid in tips – if a driver feels generous.
***
Before sunset each day I visit the garden pond. Seeing goldfish, and tossing fish food, is a highlight.This evening, ambling over a pond weed path, I spotted a common brown water snake (Lycodonomorphus rufulus) – the second I’ve seen in my life, both in the garden pond. Night feeders, their favorite food is frogs although they also eat fish, small rodents, lizards and even nestling birds.
These non-venomous, apparently good-natured, reluctant-to-bite snakes can excrete a foul-smelling substance, so I touched its tail, cautiously.
Slowly, the long, slender snake slide down the pond’s rock wall, entered the water, and dove under lilies.
What a treat!
I trust large goldfish are off the menu for common brown water snakes.
Day 60 - Monday May 25 - Memorial Day
Memorial Day is a US federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. The day honors and mourns military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.Under normal circumstances many Americans would enjoy a holiday off from work. Under pandemic circumstances, many Americans would pay to go to work or to have a job to go to!
Memorial Day is also considered the first day of summer. This means Americans flocking to parks and recreation areas.
Hope they remember to wear masks and maintain social distance!
While Donald Trump golfs (unmasked), The Lincoln Project recognizes Memorial Day.
News blues…
Ramaphosa speaks!Level 3 coming up as of June 1.
Ciggies still banned. Alcohol? “…phased in … as part of a swathe of details such as the conditions, times and days of sales for home consumption…”
All manufacturing, mining and construction can fully reopen from 1 June, alongside financial, professional and business services, including IT. Wholesale and retail trade will open, as will all spaza shops and informal traders. … Exercise is allowed anytime, anywhere – just not in groups. Domestic business air travel will be phased in. Announcements on this will be made as part of a swathe of details such as the conditions, times and days of sales of alcohol for home consumption. … “(W)e have not yet reached the eye of the storm and therefore we caution all South Africans not to think of the lockdown easing as a return to normalcy but rather the opposite, ramping up precautionary measures and staying safe.”
***
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that Covid-19 cases are rising in some African countries that so far have a relatively low death toll.“The COVID-19 pandemic today reached a milestone in Africa, with more than 100,000 confirmed cases. The virus has now spread to every country in the continent since the first case was confirmed in the region 14 weeks ago”… noting there were 3,100 confirmed deaths on the vast continent.Remembering the dead and dying:
WHO regional director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, from Botswana, said: “For now COVID-19 has made a soft landfall in Africa, and the continent has been spared the high numbers of deaths which have devastated other regions of the world….Even so, we must not be lulled into complacency as our health systems are fragile and are less able to cope with a sudden increase in cases.”
The WHO said about half of African countries are experiencing community transmission of the virus,.
South America has become a new epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic with Brazil hardest-hit. Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO’s top emergencies expert… said: “In a sense South America has become a new epicenter for the disease.”
Worldwide: 5,408,310 confirmed cases; 342,694 deaths
US: 1,643,215 confirmed cases; 97,720 deaths
SA: 22,583 confirmed cases; 430 deaths
Brazil (surpassed Russia, now second only to the US); 363,215 confirmed cases; 22,750 deaths.
Whackjob bots?
A bot (short for "robot") is an automated program that runs over the Internet.Carnegie Mellon University lead researcher, computer science professor, and head of the university’s Center for Informed Democracy and Social Cybersecurity, reported that, since January, researchers have collected more than 200 million tweets discussing the coronavirus or COVID-19…[of which an estimated] 45 to 65 percent … are generated by bots.
These [bots] plug false cures, peddle conspiracy theories and clamor for the US to drop safety measures [and] re-open America.Hmmm, on one hand, slightly fewer whackjob poopagandist/ conspiracy theorists out there?
Ongoing research …indicates that a significant portion of the social media conversation about COVID-19 is likely automated amplifications of political perspectives and do not represent individual human authors.
On the other hand, “automated amplifications of [whacky] political perspectives” by bots?
Human poopaganda* is a challenge. Bot poopaganda is a horror.
*Whackjob: term promoted by Steve Schmidt of The Lincoln Project to denote virulent Trump supporters who’ve given up common sense in favor of Trumpism.
*poopaganda – a quasi-genteel term for virulent bull-s**t “truthiness” masquerading as self-empowering info.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Carl Jung’s approach to psychology appears to have fallen out of favor in the new millennium. Theoretically, millennials engage with in Jungian analysis but I know none. (Then, 60 days locked down means not knowing much of anything happening out there.)Brief background to dreams and dreaming: Carl Jungian theorized that dreams encourage and support the work of integrating the conscious and unconscious aspect of the human psyche. This integration he called individuation.
Individuation, according to Jungian psychology, is the process of transforming one's psyche by bringing the personal and the collective unconscious into consciousness. It’s a process of psychological differentiation with the goal the development of the individual personality.
Two dream snippets from early this morning:
Snippet 1: I’m one of a crowd jamming a hallway at Jo’burg’s Oliver Tambo Airport’s international departure hall. The hall’s interior design is deceptive: vast, high, wide. It feels spacious, yet the walkways on the top floor are cramped and narrow. Knees of anxious people occupying the single row of chairs lining one wall poke into the knees of anxious passengers standing single file in the crowded passageway.It’s been years since I’ve clearly recalled dreams.
Snippet 2: I’m a new member of a ceramic studio (yes, in “real life” I am a ceramic sculptor.). In the first dream scene, I access the studio by picking my way along rickety plumbing attached to the wall. In the second dream scene, I’ve climbed halfway up the same wall, but the rickety plumbing is different and I’ve lost my way. A fellow artist tries to help me. I ask her to call the studio manager who asks what I’m doing, where I’m going. I don’t know. My mind is completely blank. I cling like a spider to the plumbing and laugh. They join in. Our laughter does not erase our collective sense of foreboding.
Omen? Extra sensory perception?
Just dreams?
Weather. Predictions this week indicate freezing temperatures. In preparation, I’ve snuggled leaves and grass clipping around plants.
I expected to have returned to California by now. Ironically, temperatures there will rise into record triple digits: 100-104F (around 41C).
Day 59 - Sunday May 24 - "Going herd"
First time in 2 months of lockdown that I felt my enthusiasm flag. I’ve no peep into my future in California, no idea when I can see my American family and friends, or maintain my houseboat, or actively respond to responsibilities there.This morning, writing the daily blog post felt daunting.
What more to write?
Who cares?
Then, the miracle of whackjobbery!
Paralleling the coronavirus pandemic is the pandemic of whackjobs and whackjobbery*.
Whackjobs believe in the illusion of support offered by populist, know-nothing-much, wanna-be authoritarian leaders. This false empowerment, the illusion of power over one’s life direction, lulls a growing number of humans into believing they/we are stronger and safer than reality indicates.
It’s tough when one’s friend/s fall into the suffocating bog of false empowerment and conspiracy theories.
I love my friend for her independence and internal strength and I’m concerned that she’s falling into this bog. Most recently, she messaged the following (with flashing bright red and green icons, not shown):
INTERNATIONAL: ITALYI’ll not share the entire harangue here. (You’ll likely get your own version soon…) This fantastic “news” goes on and on, mocking the stupidity of everyone who believes or understands science, medicine, and pharmacology.
IN ITALY THE CURE FOR CORONAVIRUS IS FINALLY FOUND *
The Italian doctors disobeyed the WHO world health law, not to make an autopsy on the dead coronavirus and they found that it is not a VIRUS but a BACTERIA that causes death. This causes blood clots and the patient to die.
Italy beats the so-called Covid-19, which is nothing but "disseminated intravascular coagulation" (Thrombosis)
And the way to fight it, that is to say, cure it, is with "antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and anticoagulants". ASPIRIN, indicating that this disease has been poorly treated.
This sensational news to the world was produced by Italian doctors by performing autopsies on corpses produced by the Covid-19.
…It is in our hands to carry the truth and the hope of saving many lives… SPREAD this message…!
Outcome?
I’m no longer flagging.
I’m rejuvenated; ready for more lockdown.
Another week?
Another month?
Bring it on….
For once, it's not just whacky Americans on this crazy train.
For the ninth week running, thousands gathered in European cities to vent their anger at social distancing restrictions they believe to be a draconian ploy to suspend basic civil rights and pave the way for “enforced vaccinations” that will do more harm than the Covid-19 virus itself.*Whackjob/whackjobbery: term popularized by Steve Schmidt of The Lincoln Project to denote virulent Trump supporters who’ve given up common sense in favor of Trumpism or Alex Jonesism, or Rush Limbaughism or ….
...The alliance of anti-vaxxers, neo-Nazi rabble-rousers and esoteric hippies, which has in recent weeks been filling town squares in cities such as Berlin, Vienna and Zurich is starting to trouble governments as they map out scenarios for re-booting their economies and tackling the coronavirus long term.
News blues…
The small Indian Ocean island of Mauritius makes remarkable progress in protecting its public from Covid-19.Sweden, on the other hand, hoping to achieve herd immunity, decided it was everyone for her/himself.
Unlike its Nordic neighbors, Sweden decided early on in the pandemic to forgo lockdown in the hope of achieving broad immunity to the coronavirus. While social distancing was promoted, the government allowed bars, restaurants, salons, gyms and schools to stay open.The Donald refers to Sweden’s decision as “going herd.”
Initially, Sweden saw death rates from COVID-19 that were similar to other European nations that had closed down their economies. But now the Scandinavian nation’s daily death toll per 1 million people is 8.71 compared to the United States’ 4.59, according to online publication Our World in Data. Sweden's mortality rate is the highest in Europe.
Talking about herds, Millions of farm animals culled as US food supply chain chokes up:
Covid-related slaughterhouse shutdowns in the US are leading to fears of meat shortages and price rises, while farmers are being forced to consider “depopulating” their animals.Did you note the sentence: "President Trump issued an executive order to keep slaughterhouses open which would, he said, help solve liability problems for meat companies”?
More than 20 slaughterhouses have been forced to close, although some have subsequently reopened. On Tuesday President Trump issued an executive order to keep slaughterhouses open which would, he said, help solve liability problems for meat companies.
At least two million animals have already reportedly been culled on farms, and that number is expected to rise. Approved methods for slaughtering poultry include slow suffocation by covering them with foam, or by shutting off the ventilation into the barns.
A nationwide advisory issued last Friday by the US Department of Agriculture and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said state veterinarians and government officials would be ready to assist with culls, or “depopulation”, if alternatives could not be found.
The advisory was described … as a clear indication of a national farm animal emergency… chickens are most at risk, followed by piglets. “Chickens are bred for speedy growth and are meant to be slaughtered at between 42 and 47 days. After that they die.”
Political leaders in Iowa – the biggest pig producing state in the US - have warned that producers could be forced to kill 700,000 pigs a week due to meat plant slowdowns or closures.
This refers to
…meatpacking plants have become coronavirus clusters, infecting as many as 5,000 workers industrywide and killing at least 20.Ah, capitalism….
But the language in the executive order offered little in the way of further clarity. In the days after the order was issued, pundits savaged the president, saying it was part of a plot to “indemnify corporations in advance” for what might happen to their employees. That is, the companies would be able to avoid being held accountable for exposing their workers to a potentially fatal virus.
… there’s been a lot of chatter from politicians and business owners about the need for “liability shields.”
…[in] New York, for instance, where real estate and hospitality interests are pushing for legal immunities that have been afforded to doctors and hospitals. It’s happening in statehouses … And… Washington, D.C. [where] majority leader Mitch McConnell has demanded business liability protections in the next stimulus bill, citing the prohibitive costs of warding off hundreds of coronavirus-related lawsuits that have already been filed. “This epidemic of lawsuits …is going to impact our ability to get back to work.”
… Legal experts … say that language is deliberately vague—and meant to achieve rhetorical goals as much as legislative. A “liability shield” could be a way to limit employees’ claims for coronavirus-related medical bills. It could be a way to end consumer lawsuits. Or, some say, it could be a Trojan horse for tort reform.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
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| (c) Madam & Eve Click to enlarge |
Winter’s first freeze is due next week. Odd to be in freezing KZN when California experiences record high temperatures.
Telkom update: Telkom emails continue, apologizing for my problem…and explaining why it’s the responsibility of some other department to assist.
Kafka would love this.
Day 58 - Saturday May 23 - Desperately seeking...
I’m generally pro-Ramaphosa but I’m beginning to waver. Where is he these days? Why no regular presidential updates to the nation? Our president appears to … disappear … when people need lockdown updates. I understand he’s “consulting” with: He’s also got his hands full with Cooperative Governance Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma desire to impose full prohibition on wayward South Africans’ use of tobacco and alcohol.Still, there’s room for flexibility.
A sweet spot exists for introverts like Ramaphosa and extroverts like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo updating New Yorkers and Americans on television almost every night, Donald Trump admitting that he’s popping hydroxychloroquine pills and refusing to wear a mask and Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro’s jet skiing , cooking out, and joking about the mad “neurosis” of Brazilians worried about the virus.
My advice to South Africa’s president?
Find a comfort zone that includes a once-a-week pandemic update; 30 minutes a week will go a long way.
Enquiring minds, and all that…
***
The Lincoln Project is a Republican-centric outfit concerned about the direction of the US under current leadership. Not Republican, I appreciate the Project’s efforts. Earlier this week, I received a Project email listing three politicians and asking which We, the People, would like the Project to target.
I chose Senator Mitch McConnel… aka “Moscow” Mitch McConnell and “Midnight” Mitch.
Yesterday, I received another email:
… we asked for your advice on which of Trump's enablers we should feature in our next ad. It was...a landslide: 91% said Mitch McConnell. So, we’re starting work this afternoon on a new ad. But, let's be clear-eyed about something: Mitch McConnell is not like Donald Trump. In some ways, he's worse: calculating, methodical...intelligent. McConnell may be Trump's Enabler-In-Chief, but he has also built himself one of the most powerful and ruthless campaign empires on the map. Taking on the Majority Leader of the United States Senate is a seriously bold move, but it's one we're ready to make…I can’t wait.
Senator and Trump Enabler Lindsey Graham is a target, too.
This 81-second ad spot, produced by the new Democratic LindseyMustGo super PAC, slams Senator Lindsey Graham as “spineless,” “shameless” and “dangerous” and calls for him to be voted out of office in the November election.
Further reasons Lindsey Graham’s gotta go…
The mysterious nature of how, why, and when these supposedly logical systems operate suggest intervention not by high-end technology but by moody genie.
This excerpted from an email sent to residents of Alameda, California – where I lived for 20 years.
Here, in this KZN village, Slow Streets would not make sense because, 1) too few streets, 2) drivers would rather die than drive slowly, 3) too many potholes.
Potholes make driving a death-defying experience as drivers veer across lanes to avoid disappearing into potholes. In our road, thoughtful residents try to fill potholes by tossing bricks inside. One local pothole hosts at least 10 bricks. (I count as I drive around it.) And that pothole is far from full!
(A post with photos on potholes on my other blog.)
Dire predictions for South Africa. We’ve gone from expecting a manageable Covid-19 wave to predicting a million infections, 40,000 deaths and a dire shortage of ICU beds by November.
Ouch!
The US is in trouble, too, although for different reasons. "How Covid-19 Overwhelmed The American State: Decades of poor policy choices and neglect of government agencies have left the U.S. ill-equipped to handle this crisis."
How does Africa’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic differ from Western society? What is the African continent’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its long-term development prospects?
Host Tim Cohen, Business Maverick Editor, in conversation with Dr Jakkie Cilliers, founder, Institute for Security Studies, and Ottilia Maunganidze, head of Special Projects for the ISS.
Instead, an old joke that’s still pertinent:
I coined this after I shared my mother’s recent Telkom experiences with a friend who’d moved from this neighborhood to Mooi River 15 months ago. Since that time – 15 months! - she’s been waiting for Telkom to install their telephone.
*Whackjob: term coined by Steve Schmidt of The Lincoln Project to denote virulent Trump supporters who’ve given up common sense in favor of Trumpism.
After my mother finally agreed that Telkom’s half-assed phone service ain’t cutting it (see yesterday’s post, Boiling frogs ) I set off to research cell phones.
Best case scenario would have been to drive twenty-five miles to the city of Pietermaritzburg and pick a phone from the range of choices at the gigantic Liberty shopping mall.
With lockdown, roadblocks, aggressive police and military, and rumors the city is an infection hot-spot, I headed, instead, to the local village’s only computer store.
There, they’d cordoned off the store’s entrance and set up a table outside with hand sanitizers and printed directions about maintaining social distance (two meters/six foot) while lined up outside. Only two customers at a time allowed inside.
A clerk approached as I reached the head of the line at the store’s entrance. I explained my goal. He told me the store doesn’t carry cell phones, and advised, “Try the MTN store at Woolworth’s shopping center – across the road.”
It was bustling over there: parking lot filled with vehicles; masked car guards in attendance; masked shoppers dashing hither and thither; masked store clerks behind cash registers.
I found the MTN store and lined up outside behind two correctly spaced people.
After waiting about twenty minutes, one person gave up waiting. As I moved one person closer to the entrance, I noticed passing shoppers ignored social distancing in lines. Instead, they passed through our carefully constructed space as if it was a thoroughfare. (Apparently, this is usual public behavior. My friends and family tell me Californians do the same.)
At the entrance to the store, a clerk took my temperature (36.15 C) and spritzed my hands with sanitizer before I was permitted inside.
I brought home to my mother a brochure of MTN phones.
She’s risk averse. I sense she’s also ambivalent about her ability to adjust to a cell phone. I’m treading carefully and urging her to make decisions beyond the cost of a cell phone. This includes full commitment to learning how to use the device, rather than hand it over to someone else to manage.
Additionally, if I risk life and limb (virus and potholes) to return to the store to purchase a phone, she can risk a learning curve.
The best part of my day? Goodbye, Telkom!
Which politician recently said this?
Donald Trump
“Moscow Mitch” McConnell
Nancy Pelosi
Sounds like something Nancy Pelosi would say.
But it was Donald Trump…in response to Nancy Pelosi saying that Trump
In a recent attempt to distract the public from his dismal coronavirus response (1.258 million known Americans infections; 92,000+ dead), Trump said he was self-medicating with hydroxychloroquine. Pelosi’s statement about Trump’s weight – ‘morbidly obese’ – has thrown him off-stride.
We, the People microwave the popcorn in anticipation of the Trump Tweet Tirade (you know it’s coming). Meanwhile, enjoy a Randy Rainbow intermission: his latest parody interview and song, “Distraction!”
***
“You’re fired!”
Donald Trump has a well-documented history of not paying workers and contractors for services and stands “Accused of Routinely Stiffing his Own Employees”.
Before his presidency, Trump
As president, he continues his proclivity to fire people – often just before they’re eligible for retirement benefits.
Now, Trump is jeopardizing the futures of more than 40,000 National Guard members currently under federal orders known as Title 32.
The troops are under local (state) command, but the order grants them federal pay and benefits for helping states test residents for the coronavirus and trace the spread of infections in 44 states, three territories and the District of Columbia. This effort is the largest domestic deployment of National Guard since Hurricane Katrina.
Juxtapose Donald Trump’s history with his view of his brain and of himself: “nobody knows more about anything than “Me!”
Feeling all warm and fuzzy towards this man now, aren’t you?
Poopaganda is powerful.
Free your mind.
*Whackjob: term coined by Steve Schmidt of The Lincoln Project to denote virulent Trump supporters who’ve given up common sense in favor of Trumpism.
*poopaganda – a quasi-genteel term for virulent bull-s**t “truthiness” masquerading as self-empowering info.
*poopagandist – one who perpetuates poopaganda and then complains that social media and “fake news” is trying to silence contrary views and/or conservative voices.
Being left hanging in this way is the most disempowering feature of lockdown I’ve experienced. (Yes, I recognize I'm living la dolce vita conronavirus .... nevertheless....)
Emails and phone calls go unanswered.
Has the travel agency packed up and decided not to mention that to customers?
Enquiring minds wanna know…
Despite my personal trials and tribulations...daylight hours growing shorter and winter approaching, 55 days of lockdown have left my anything but bored.
I’ve built into my day, Weed Walking, pond weeding, fish feeding, dog, bird, crab, monkey chatting, and the occasional foray into town for necessities. (So far, I've not built in feeling sorry for myself.)
Today I continue researching cell phones for my elderly mother.
Place a frog in boiling water and it will immediately jump out.
Place a frog in cold water that slowly heats to boiling and the frog, not registering the rise in temperature, will cook.
Moral of the story? Frogs do not react quickly to significant change.
Substitute frogs for humans and we have a metaphor for humans’ current reality.
American frog-humans
The United States has a frog in charge (no prince hidden under the froggy warts) and We, the People, don't notice the increasing temperature or how to leap out the water to save ourselves.
South African frog-humans
Telkom is South Africa’s SOE – State Owned Enterprise – for telephonic communication.
Think of Telkom as the slowly heating water and Telkom customers as frogs.
Two years ago, Telkom decided to transition all landline phones to wireless phones.
I received a breezy marketing but detail-free email from Telkom that the transition was underway.
I worried about the implications for aging customers such as mother. Tough to learn new technologies at 87-years-old, plus wireless reception in this rural neighborhood is unreliable.
I asked that Telkom email me whatever information it had about the proposed change so that I understood, 1) the overall plan, 2) the conditions of the proposed plan, 3)how it would affect my mother IF she choose to transition.
No email ever arrived.
Calls to Telkom were a nightmare of endless loops – “press x for x” – and, if I managed to talk to an actual person, I was told there were no conditions under which my mother could keep her landline.
Last January, I arrived in South Africa to find Telkom had forced my mother to transition and presented her with two D-Link wireless phones made in China. Only one of the two phones had a SIM card.
Before the start of lockdown, calls on the working phone intermittently failed and displayed, “No mobile network available.”
For the next eight weeks, my 87-year-old mother had no way to call a friend, a doctor, or an ambulance, police, or security firm if an emergency arose.
I called Telkom on my cell phone (waiting for a Telkom representative to answer is an expensive proposition in South Africa). I was told to drive to Telkom center in a large shopping mall in Pietermaritzburg. That is, drive twenty-five miles during lockdown with roadblocks and aggressive police and military patrols and wait for at least an hour in lines with little, if any, social distancing.
I complained to Telkom via email. No reply.
I wrote a Facebook complaint and got a response to “contact Telkom” but no contact info was provided.
Eventually, we traveled to Pietermaritzburg. Three times. Each time there was a small variation in why we couldn’t be helped: phone was broken, sorry, no replacement; ID info, phone number, or something else was incorrect, etc.
Finally, yesterday, Telkom presented a phone that appeared to work.
I tested it with a call from my cell phone. My mother answered! It worked!
She called the first friend on the list of friends she hoped to reach.
During that call, the phone failed.
Now, the phone displays no messages at all. The screen is black.
The frogs are cooked.
Worldwide: 4,805,050 infections; 318,535 deaths
US: 1,508,600 infections; 90,360 deaths
Russia: 290,700 infections; 2,722 deaths
Brazil: 255,370 infections; 16,860 deaths
SA: 16,440 infections; 286 deaths
Map of infections per 100,000 by municipality in South Africa
Infectious disease expert Dr. Joseph Fair speaks from his hospital bed after contracting Covid-19: He shares his battle with coronavirus and warns others to take the outbreak seriously.
Sara Cooper:
Latest ad from The Lincoln Project
“Trump Says He Is Taking Drug That Is Deemed a Risk”
This, from a man who is notoriously self-centered and germophobic?
I don’t believe him.
He is either lying …or he understands only people with a heart can suffer arrhythmia.
Remember the day Trump swore the crowd at his inauguration was the bigly-est ever in the history of inaugural crowds? Soon after, we learned “Trump inauguration crowd photos were edited after he intervened.”
His whoppers have only become whoppier.
Trump’s pal, Howard Stern, believes that Trump’s run for president was a Trump branding exercise, and that no one was more surprised at Trump’s win than Trump himself.
I concur with Stern. In the spirit of offering The Donald advice, I’ve urged Trump – telepathically – to feign a heart attack, to get out of the job of president, to retire to Mar a lago and write a whopper of a memoir.
Surely, somewhere in his “very, very large brain,” he knows he’s killing humans?
Feigning a heart attack would get him out of the White House and a job he doesn’t really want. Best of all, many Americans would consider him a hero, rather than a buffoon.
A heart attack would also prove he has a heart … and suggest he sacrificed himself out of overwhelming love of country and countrymen.
Feigning a Covid-19 infection would also get him out of the White House, but it’s not as romantic as a heart attack. It also risks mixed messaging.
He’d be a hero – to some - but an infection could raise uncomfortable questions:
*Whackjob: term coined by Steve Schmidt of The Lincoln Project to denote virulent Trump supporters who’ve given up common sense in favor of Trumpism.
Continuing with building the pond weed path is next on the agenda.
The lines between reality and farce increasingly blur as The Don and his wrecking crew refuse evidence-based, scientific, medical, research-oriented data.
And, our life and times become increasingly surreal.
Donald Trump tweeted this video of a grotesquely transformed scene from the 1996 movie “Independence Day.”
Watch for faces of spell-bound Republicans – including Sen Ted Cruz (shedding tears of joy?), Marco Rubio, Donald Trump Jr. – superimposed over actors’ faces.
The Donald is the hero lip-sync’ing original movie script lines that he’d never think of actually saying.
We are in the fight of our lives – and getting little help from a chaotic wanna-be hero.
Conflict of interest, you ask? What conflict of interest?
Microbiology Society’s report, “The current challenges for vaccine development” states:
Enquiring minds ….
Despite all captured on film, Donald Trump slammed the report as “fake news.”
Last Friday, I shared Eric Trump speaking “fluent Donald.” Eric is an echo chamber of “fluent Donald,” too.
Taking a page from dad’s playbook, Eric insisted in an interview with Fox News uber-Trump-groupie Jeanine Pirro that:
[FYI: In English “cognizant” is defined as “having knowledge or awareness.”]
*Whackjob: term coined by Steve Schmidt of The Lincoln Project to denote virulent Trump supporters who’ve given up common sense in favor of Trumpism.
*poopaganda – a quasi-genteel term for virulent bull-s**t “truthiness” masquerading as self-empowering info.
*poopagandist – one who perpetuates poopaganda and then complains that social media and “fake news” is trying to silence contrary views and/or conservative voices.
This entails laps around the garden while wearing gardening gloves (and other clothing). I walk, I notice weeds. I pluck an armful of weeds and, at the end of the lap, I place them into a wheelbarrow.
When full, I push the wheelbarrowful through the security gate, along the road, and dump contents into the burn pit.
This time of year, the predominant weeds is the almost indestructible (not easily compostable) blackjack - Bidens Pilosa. Originally native of South America, each tenacious blackjack plant “bears about eighty flower heads that can produce over 3,000 seeds in a single generation.” Designed to persist, seeds “radiate outwards and have sharp awns that hook onto passing animals and people as an efficient means of dispersal.”
In the garden, Weed Walking keeps me ahead of blackjacks’ seeding phase.
With lockdown preventing outside garden care, weeds run amok and blackjacks are in Blackjack Heaven.
I return from the short trip to the burn pit covered in blackjack seeds. Before re-entering the garden, I pluck seeds from my hoodie, my pants, socks, shoes, gardening gloves, and hair.
Perhaps the only living thing currently more reproductively successful than blackjacks is the nightmare coronavirus.
The owners of a café in Berlin had fun handing out straw hats with two colorful swimming noodles attached and telling customers, "Keep the social distance."
Former US President Barack Obama is, these days, a man of few words. But the few he utters are elegantly concise.
In the face of ongoing abuse by The Donald - the “Obamagate” conspiracy theory (that alleges Obama led attempts in 2016 to sabotage Trump’s incoming administration) and Trump’s efforts to distract from criticism of his blundering coronavirus response - Obama Tweeted one word: VOTE!
***
Need more levity? Enjoy Matt Wuerker, Politico editorial cartoonist and roaster-in-chief …
News blues…
Rick Wilson, well-known Republican Party campaign strategist and a co-founder of The Lincoln Project, is author of Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever. I’ve never read the book although I agree with the sentiment. There are times when pity and glee come together to produce an emotion best described as, “Yikes, poor old Trump has an unerring instinct for choosing the wrong option!” Early in his campaign for president, Trump and white evangelical Christians joined forces.A poll found overwhelming support from white evangelical Christian voters, with 75 percent approving of the president.
Trump basks in this approval and, always aiming for biggliest, he continues to claim that "no president has ever done what I have done for evangelicals, or religion itself."
Trump appointed right-wing Christians to his cabinet - Pence,
Redfield, Pompeo, Barr, et al.
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© Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP
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Among his most ardent supporters is Jerry Lamon Falwell Jr., son of pastor, educator, evangelist, activist Jerry Lamon Falwell Sr., American Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and conservative activist (with a net worth of US$10 million upon his death).
Junior Falwell is president of private evangelical Christian Liberty University in Lynchburg, one of the largest evangelical Christian universities in the world and one of the largest private non-profit universities in the United States.
Backfiring? Trump’s recent demand that churches and other houses of worship reopen for services amid the coronavirus crisis may come back to haunt him.
Deeming religious services “essential” and threatening to override governors who ignored his orders for health and safety reasons, Trump’s support led the pastor of a small church in Arkansas to conduct services. Both he and his wife contracted Covid-19, and
ended up spreading [the virus] to 35 others who attended events at their rural Arkansas church - identified only as “Church A” in a rural Arkansas county of 25,000 people. An additional 26 cases in the community occurred among people who had contact with those who participated in the church events, according to the study “High COVID-19 Attack Rate Among Attendees at Events at a Church — Arkansas, March 2020.”
The report found that more than a third of 92 people who attended events at the church from March 6 to 11 contracted confirmed cases of COVID-19, and three later died. The pastor, the first known case along with his wife, led a Bible study group at the church before he developed symptoms….
The contagion study released just as Trump is demanding that churches reopen.
***
Take a deep breath and try to relax during this pandemic. For, No One Knows What’s Going to Happen. Stop asking pundits to predict the future after the coronavirus. It doesn’t exist.”
The best prophet, Thomas Hobbes once wrote, is the best guesser. That would seem to be the last word on our capacity to predict the future: We can’t. But it is a truth humans have never been able to accept. People facing immediate danger want to hear an authoritative voice they can draw assurance from; they want to be told what will occur, how they should prepare, and that all will be well. We are not well designed, it seems, to live in uncertainty.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
The day began with ongoing bank-centric frustrations: continued inability to send Instant Cash to the gardener who is under lockdown in distant Mpophomeni Township. (See yesterday’s post for backstory. ) The most recent email received from the bank’s Instant Money department explained:Thank you for the response, unfortunately due the account the OTP that gets sent to you from bank and not from the instant money department. We will not be able to fix the problem on our side because we do not have access to your profile, which can only be accessed by Transactional Banking customer care.Frustrated, I responded to that email:
I went to the bank yesterday where I was told only YOU guys could fix it. Now you tell me only THEY can fix it. This does not make sense.
Could you phone the person I'm trying to pay and explain to him that, THIS time I cannot pay him because … well, of all the reasons you’ve given. Olsen Z is his name and he’s a husband and father of two small children that he's trying to feed while under lockdown. His phone number is 072 xxx-xxxx.
Also, please explain to him that the last time I managed to pay him with your bank’s Instant Cash feature didn't really happen, that that was a figment of our imagination... Thanks for your help! Have a good day!Anxious to alleviate Olsen’s money worries, I tried again, two hours later, to send him Instant Cash.
Out of the blue, the transfer worked!
I messaged his passcode then sighed with relief!
One day the genie feels generous and happy and grants favors such as Instant Cash.
The next day? Nah! The genie is not in the mood.
Another sigh of relief today as I cancelled my mother’s Telkom account. (See post “Filling gaps?” for backstory )
This saga, however, will continue for 60 more days: 30 days for Telkom to cancel the account; another 30 days for Telkom to send the “final statement.”
After 8 weeks with, essentially, no phone service, my mother will be billed for two more months of non-existent service.
***
Repatriation flights update:
Health Alert: Announcing Additional Repatriation Flights via Amsterdam – U.S. Embassy Pretoria, South Africa (May 21, 2020)
Location: South Africa
Event: The South African Ministry of Health has confirmed 18,252 cases of COVID-19 within its borders.
Announcing KLM Special Repatriation Flights from Cape Town and Johannesburg to Amsterdam
We have been notified that KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, in coordination with the Dutch Embassy in South Africa, is coordinating two special repatriation flights departing on May 29 and 30. U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents are eligible for this flight solely for the purpose of transiting through Amsterdam. Non-EU and Schengen state citizens must have an onward ticket from Amsterdam in order to board this flight, unless you have a residency permit for an EU or Schengen state country.
Please note, U.S. visa holders of any kind will not be eligible for admission to the United States after transit in the EU.
Flight information:
- Flights will depart from Cape Town on Friday, May 29, and from Johannesburg on Saturday, May 30 to Amsterdam.
- To book a ticket, you must contact KLM directly. Bookings can only be made through KLM’s Sales and Service Centre via phone at: +27(0)10 205 0101, daily between 09:00 – 16:00. You do not need to notify us that you purchased a ticket; we will coordinate with the airline directly.
- U.S. citizen and LPR passengers are eligible to transit through the airport but will not be allowed to enter the Netherlands and must have a connecting flight.
- Passengers will be responsible for onward travel to their final destination in the United States.
- For any questions regarding price, payment, baggage allowance, seats, and other flight details, please contact KLM directly.
- You do not need to email the U.S. Mission to South Africa to request a “laissez-passer” travel letter; these will be distributed as soon as possible after KLM sends us a confirmed passenger list.
- KLM has a final manifest, passengers will receive all information about the assembly point, time schedule, and other relevant info from the Dutch Embassy. We thank you for your patience and ask that you do not email asking for this information.
You will be responsible for finding your own transportation to the required assembly point.And, there is the rub: getting to Johannesburg’s Tambo International.
Moreover, assuming I can figure out the six- to seven-hour one-way car trip to Johannesburg, how do I return to San Francisco from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport?
If one must be stuck in an airport, Schiphol is the world’s most user friendly. Unlike other airports, it provides chaise longues for all weary travelers to nap, not only those with private business club access.
I need more information from KLM before deciding on whether to depart or not.
So far, none of my calls have been answered.
I’ll keep trying but hope fades….
Day 57 Friday May 22 – If the glove don’t fit…
Week 8 ended with more than 5 million confirmed Covid-19 cases and 333,000 deaths worldwide. The US at the top of the list with 1.578 million confirmed cases and 95,000 deaths.
Police have arrested 22 000 people for violating the Covid-19 lockdown, and 3 600 police and soldiers have been deployed to Pietermaritzburg where adherence to regulations has been poor. General crime, however, has dropped by 49 percent.
[At a recent] briefing … provincial police commissioner, General Khombinkosi Jula, said lack of compliance with lockdown regulations in the city had resulted in police escalating their operations in Pietermaritzburg. “We remain concerned about non-compliance and as such we will be stepping up visibility in Pietermaritzburg.”
News blues…
Brazil is quickly climbing the charts. Third after Russia (317,555 cases) with 310,100 cases, you may recall Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro aping US President Trump’s denials, saying Covid-19 was “just a weak case of the flu.”On May 9, Brazil’s death toll from the coronavirus topped 10,000. Instead of marking the grim milestone with an address or a sign of respect for the victims, President Jair Bolsonaro took a spin on a jet ski. Video footage widely circulated on social media shows Brazil’s far-right leader grinning as he pulls up to a boat on Brasília’s Paranoá Lake where supporters are having a cookout. As he grips onto their boat, Bolsonaro jokes about the “neurosis” of Brazilians worried about the virus. “There’s nothing to be done [about it],” he shrugs. “It’s madness.” Even by the standards of other right-wing populists who have sought to downplay the COVID-19 pandemic, Bolsonaro’s defiance of reality was shocking. From the favelas of densely packed cities like Rio de Janeiro to the remote indigenous communities of the Amazon rain forest, Brazil has emerged as the new global epicenter of the pandemic, with the world’s highest rate of transmission and a health system now teetering on the brink of collapse.
***
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| (c) Zapiro click to enlarge |
More than 3,600 law enforcement officers, who include members of the South African Police Services, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and traffic department have been deployed to Pietermaritzburg. Police operations since the start of the lockdown have so far resulted in the confiscation of more than 551,000 millilitres of alcohol and 5,400 loose cigarettes in the city. Major transgressions within the city include failure to adhere to social distancing rules, particularly at month-end. Besides making arrests, police are also engaging business owners to address the problem of long queues outside supermarkets and other businesses. While Pietermaritzburg and Isipingo in Durban are non-compliance hot spots, Jula said other areas of the province have also become a problem, resulting in arrest[s]….
Whackjobbery* …
While Germany braces for more protests against coronavirus policies, a minister urges people not to join rallies that include conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers and anti-Semites.Thousands of people are expected to gather in cities across Germany at the weekend to demonstrate against the government’s coronavirus policies. Germany’s foreign minister has warned people to distance themselves from the growing movement, which includes radical extremists, conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers and antisemites, after domestic intelligence agents warned that extremist groups were exploiting fears around the virus in order to gain support. “If radical extremists and antisemites use demonstrations in order to stoke hatred and to divide, then everyone should keep a lot more than just a 1.5-metre distance from them,” Heiko Maas said in an interview on Thursday.
“Those who spread conspiracy theories throughout the world, without a mask, without keeping the minimum distance, without any concern for others, are confusing courage with blind anger, and freedom with pure egotism,” he added. Among the protesters are those who accuse the government of inventing the virus in order to impose dictatorship-like conditions. Their anger is focused on everyone from the chancellor, Angela Merkel, and her health minister, Jens Spahn, to the virologists and epidemiologists who are advising them. The US billionaire Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft who has committed to a fund to solve the crisis, is often depicted at the demonstrations as a satanic figure, accused of engineering the health emergency in order to achieve world dominance. A celebrity vegan cook, a prominent R&B singer, and a former broadcast journalist turned YouTuber are among the movement’s figureheads. Some align themselves with an initiative called “Querdenken” or lateral thinking, whose symbol is a pendant fashioned out of a tinfoil ball. Another movement, called “Widerstand 2020” or resistance 2020, headed by a lawyer, a psychologist and an ear, nose and throat specialist, is also gaining support.Hmmm, a tinfoil ball? Symbolic, indeed.
***
While Trump tries to be normal, shock jock radio celebrity, Howard Stern, “once friendly with the Donald Trump who was a regular guest on the radio show years ago”, has some advice for this former friend.
Stern suggested he’d be happy to join Trump at Mar-a-Lago again ― under one condition. “I do think it would be extremely patriotic of Donald to say, ‘I’m in over my head, and I don’t want to be president anymore,’” Stern said. “It’d be so patriotic that I’d hug him, and then I’d go back to Mar-a-Lago and have a meal with him and feel good about him because it would be such an easy thing to do.”*Whackjob: term coined by Steve Schmidt of The Lincoln Project to denote virulent Trump supporters who’ve given up common sense in favor of Trumpism.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Cell phone purchased. The line outside the cell phone store consisted of two other women and our wait went slightly faster because we chatted, about the learning curve of cell phones for the elderly, the pandemic, and, yes, about inefficiency. I took my place in line already irate from a frustrating adventure with, and at, the bank.Banks offer an online feature called Send Instant Cash. One fills out and submits an online menu with cell phone details of the intended cash recipient. The submission auto-emails a One-Time-Passcode – OTP – to enter into a online submission menu. Voila! Theoretically, the money is released after the sender messages a password to the recipient, who picks up the cash at a nearby store.
I’ve been trying – unsuccessfully - to send money to our locked down gardener for three days.
The time delay between submission and the arrival of the OTP is faulty. By the time the OTP arrives – usually after about 15 minutes, the bank’s OTP window has expired. An infinite loop follows: the bank resends an OTP, I enter it, it is already expired….
I admit I’m impatient with systems in South Africa – from banking, communication (Telkom), medical (hospitals and meds), to infrastructure (Prasa, see below). My attitude – expecting frustrating delays - spurs spurts of anger before anger, under “normal” conditions, would be justified.
This go round, a bank customer services representative who “couldn’t help” as the topic was one only the Instant Cash team could resolve. The team was only available by phone.
I called from the bank and an Instant Cash team member told me the delay was the fault of my email system.
“I don’t believe that’s correct,” I told him. “I regularly pay bills etc., online and the only place I have this issue is with your Instant Cash feature.”
Naturally, we went back and forth assigning blame before the representative said he’d “escalate” my concerns up the chain – to wait a “few days, not more than a week”.
This issue has been “escalated” several times over the last months.
Perhaps my irritation would be less instantaneous if I had more confidence in systems here. Consider Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) purchasing locomotives that didn’t fit SA train tracks:
South African railways officials imported brand new locomotives from Europe worth hundreds of millions of rand despite explicit warnings that the trains are not suited for local rail lines. In what may be the country's largest and most expensive recent tender [contract] blunder the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa has to date received thirteen new diesel locomotives that are too high for the long distance routes they were intended for. Senior railways engineers and sources with firsthand knowledge of the issue told Rapport Prasa had been warned that the new diesel locomotives it ordered from Spanish manufacturer Vossloh España are too tall for local use. … A senior Transnet engineer said, “Prasa was warned the locomotives were too high even before they started arriving in the country. They carried on with the contract despite our warnings.”Small in comparison, my bank experiences are, nevertheless, colored by such blunders.
Week 8: Day 55 - Thursday May 21 - Filling gaps?
Last day of Week 8!This excerpted from an email sent to residents of Alameda, California – where I lived for 20 years.
Thank you Alameda, for your ongoing efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19, save lives, and keep Alameda safe and healthy. As of this afternoon, the City of Alameda has 42 cases of COVID-19, Alameda County has 2,560 cases and 88 deaths, the State of California has 84,057 cases and 3,436 deaths, the United States has 1,551,853 cases and 93,439 deaths, and across the world, there are a staggering 4,996,472 cases and 328,115 deaths. These numbers continue to grow, and we must continue to be vigilant about wearing face coverings and using physical distance to protect the health of our community.The email continues with specific actions, one of which is to recognize Slow Streets:
Slow Streets Alameda temporarily reconfigured Pacific and Versailles streets to discourage through traffic and provide more space for residents to walk, run, bike, scooter, and roll at a safe distance from one another. Last night, the City Council approved expanding the program….Alameda is a small island city (78,000 people) with many city street so the reconfiguration makes sense.
Here, in this KZN village, Slow Streets would not make sense because, 1) too few streets, 2) drivers would rather die than drive slowly, 3) too many potholes.
Potholes make driving a death-defying experience as drivers veer across lanes to avoid disappearing into potholes. In our road, thoughtful residents try to fill potholes by tossing bricks inside. One local pothole hosts at least 10 bricks. (I count as I drive around it.) And that pothole is far from full!
(A post with photos on potholes on my other blog.)
News blues…
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| (c) News24.com click to enlarge. |
The release of the projections during an extensive technical briefing with Health Minister Zweli Mkhize and members of several teams producing modelling for government on Tuesday night came after intense criticism over the apparent lack of transparency over the modelling and other Covid-19 data.
The projections, which the experts stressed were subject to change as more data became available, show:
- Between June and November, 40 000 to 45 000 people could die from Covid-19, with nearly 500 deaths by the end of May.
- The total number of cases between June and November is expected to be between 1 and 1.2 million, with around 50 000 cases expected by the end of May.
- Projected need for ICU beds is between 20 000 and 35 000 between June and November, and 500 by the end of May.
- General hospital beds required are expected to be between 75,000 and 90,000 between June and November, with just more than 2,000 beds required by the end of May.
- Provinces are expected to peak at different times, with varying levels of infection and deaths, but the national peak infection rate is expected around mid-July to mid-August.
Ouch!
The US is in trouble, too, although for different reasons. "How Covid-19 Overwhelmed The American State: Decades of poor policy choices and neglect of government agencies have left the U.S. ill-equipped to handle this crisis."
Although American struggles have a lot to do with choices President Donald Trump has made in the past few months, they also have a lot to do with choices that the U.S. has been making for decades ― in particular, skimping on its safety net and funding for key government agencies.
National and state officials have been scrambling to make up for that with new initiatives, most recently a relief bill called the Heroes Act, passed by House Democrats on Friday. Like its predecessors, it would provide much-needed help to millions if it became law.
But there’s only so much that even the most determined policymakers can do right now. What the U.S. really needs to do is reimagine what the government does and how it operates ― to build a new state edifice, starting with its foundation, in a way that it has done only a few times in its history. And it’s not clear the political system is capable of that.
***
On a (slightly) brighter note: Another Daily Maverick webinar, “Africa First”How does Africa’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic differ from Western society? What is the African continent’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its long-term development prospects?
Host Tim Cohen, Business Maverick Editor, in conversation with Dr Jakkie Cilliers, founder, Institute for Security Studies, and Ottilia Maunganidze, head of Special Projects for the ISS.
Whackjobbery* …
I’ll dispense with real-world examples of whackjobbery for this post. There’s too much of it around and, today, it’s just too depressing to share.Instead, an old joke that’s still pertinent:
A Soviet official tour guide is showing a group of Americans around a city touted as the jewel in the crown (wool cap?) of Soviet-style socialism.And a new curse word: To Telkom someone, as in, “he’s such a bad guy, I hope he gets Telkomed.”
An American asks the guide, “What’s the difference between socialism and capitalism?”
The tour guide thinks a moment then says, “In capitalism, its man against man, and every man for himself. In socialism? It’s the exact reverse!”
I coined this after I shared my mother’s recent Telkom experiences with a friend who’d moved from this neighborhood to Mooi River 15 months ago. Since that time – 15 months! - she’s been waiting for Telkom to install their telephone.
*Whackjob: term coined by Steve Schmidt of The Lincoln Project to denote virulent Trump supporters who’ve given up common sense in favor of Trumpism.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Not much of a shopper at the best of times, recent excursions shopping during lockdown centered around purchasing basic groceries for the household and prescription meds for my mother. I’ve little experience with shopping behavior under the new normal.After my mother finally agreed that Telkom’s half-assed phone service ain’t cutting it (see yesterday’s post, Boiling frogs ) I set off to research cell phones.
Best case scenario would have been to drive twenty-five miles to the city of Pietermaritzburg and pick a phone from the range of choices at the gigantic Liberty shopping mall.
With lockdown, roadblocks, aggressive police and military, and rumors the city is an infection hot-spot, I headed, instead, to the local village’s only computer store.
There, they’d cordoned off the store’s entrance and set up a table outside with hand sanitizers and printed directions about maintaining social distance (two meters/six foot) while lined up outside. Only two customers at a time allowed inside.
A clerk approached as I reached the head of the line at the store’s entrance. I explained my goal. He told me the store doesn’t carry cell phones, and advised, “Try the MTN store at Woolworth’s shopping center – across the road.”
It was bustling over there: parking lot filled with vehicles; masked car guards in attendance; masked shoppers dashing hither and thither; masked store clerks behind cash registers.
I found the MTN store and lined up outside behind two correctly spaced people.
After waiting about twenty minutes, one person gave up waiting. As I moved one person closer to the entrance, I noticed passing shoppers ignored social distancing in lines. Instead, they passed through our carefully constructed space as if it was a thoroughfare. (Apparently, this is usual public behavior. My friends and family tell me Californians do the same.)
At the entrance to the store, a clerk took my temperature (36.15 C) and spritzed my hands with sanitizer before I was permitted inside.
I brought home to my mother a brochure of MTN phones.
She’s risk averse. I sense she’s also ambivalent about her ability to adjust to a cell phone. I’m treading carefully and urging her to make decisions beyond the cost of a cell phone. This includes full commitment to learning how to use the device, rather than hand it over to someone else to manage.
Additionally, if I risk life and limb (virus and potholes) to return to the store to purchase a phone, she can risk a learning curve.
The best part of my day? Goodbye, Telkom!
Day 54 - Wednesday May 20 - Distracting the Distractor
Spot Quiz: “We’re dealing with people who have to get their act together, for the good of the country.”Which politician recently said this?
Donald Trump
“Moscow Mitch” McConnell
Nancy Pelosi
Sounds like something Nancy Pelosi would say.
But it was Donald Trump…in response to Nancy Pelosi saying that Trump
“could be at greater risk of complications from taking an unproven coronavirus treatment because he is ‘morbidly obese.’ [She added] that she didn't anticipate he would be ‘so sensitive’ about his appearance…. [After all]‘He’s always talking about other people's ... weight, their pounds."The president, consummate distractor, has met his match in Pelosi.
In a recent attempt to distract the public from his dismal coronavirus response (1.258 million known Americans infections; 92,000+ dead), Trump said he was self-medicating with hydroxychloroquine. Pelosi’s statement about Trump’s weight – ‘morbidly obese’ – has thrown him off-stride.
We, the People microwave the popcorn in anticipation of the Trump Tweet Tirade (you know it’s coming). Meanwhile, enjoy a Randy Rainbow intermission: his latest parody interview and song, “Distraction!”
***
“You’re fired!”
Donald Trump has a well-documented history of not paying workers and contractors for services and stands “Accused of Routinely Stiffing his Own Employees”.
Before his presidency, Trump
…received at least 3,500 official complaints for failing to pay employees, contractors, and other business affiliates money owed…at least 60 lawsuits, 24 instances where Trump failed to pay overtime and minimum wage, and countless out-of-court settlements. Among those to whom Trump owed money, according to USA Today: dishwashers, bartenders, painters, real-estate brokers, and ironically, even his own lawyers.Before the presidency, Donald Trump had become “a reality television sensation” on “The Apprentice.” At the end of each episode, Trump would send one contestant packing by turning his hand into a finger gun, fixing it on the contestant, and saying, “you’re fired."
In 1990, a casino commission audit of the Trump Taj Mahal, then about to open, revealed that Trump owed an astounding $69.5 million to 253 subcontractors.
As president, he continues his proclivity to fire people – often just before they’re eligible for retirement benefits.
Andrew McCabe, a 21-year veteran of the FBI, was forced out in 2018 amid an internal investigation by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) into his approval of unauthorized disclosures to the media in October 2016 related to the bureau's Hillary Clinton email probe.
McCabe’s firing would have posed a significant risk to his pension benefits and financial future.
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| © AP Photo/Lynne Sladky Click to enlarge. |
The troops are under local (state) command, but the order grants them federal pay and benefits for helping states test residents for the coronavirus and trace the spread of infections in 44 states, three territories and the District of Columbia. This effort is the largest domestic deployment of National Guard since Hurricane Katrina.
Trump administration’s order ends deployments on June 24, just one day … shy of many members becoming eligible for key federal benefits…. [T]housands of members who first deployed in late March will find themselves with only 89 days of duty credit, one short of the 90-day threshold for qualifying for early retirement and education benefits under the Post-9/11 GI bill."Nobody knows more…"
…Governors and lawmakers in both parties have been pleading with the White House to extend the federal order for several more months or until the end of the year, warning in a letter to Trump that terminating federal deployments early in the summer just as states are reopening “could contribute to a possible second wave of infection.”
Juxtapose Donald Trump’s history with his view of his brain and of himself: “nobody knows more about anything than “Me!”
Feeling all warm and fuzzy towards this man now, aren’t you?
News blues…
South Africa’s numbers grow more alarming as:… confirmed cases of Covid-19 rose to 17,200 on May 19, modellers said the number was likely to grow to 30,000 cases by the end of May at a best-case scenario and 54,000 cases in a worst-case scenario.
Ekurhuleni metro in Gauteng, eThekwini metro and iLembe District in KwaZulu-Natal, Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela Bay metros in the Eastern Cape as well as the Cape Town City metro and the Cape Winelands district in the Western Cape have the highest number of Covid-19 infections in the country.
This is based on the average number of active cases between 2 and 8 May per district, which is then compared per 100 000 people of the population.
***
After causing havoc in the Philippines, the typhoon renamed Super Cyclone Amphan, approaches the Bay of Bengal. It’s just the second super cyclone to hit the Bay of Bengal since records began. During the last super cyclone in 1999, nearly 15,000 villages were affected and almost 10,000 people were killed.
The super cyclone is due to make landfall on the India Bangladesh border on Wednesday evening, near the Indian city of Kolkata which is home to more than 14 million people
The whackjobbery* just never ends…
Poopagandist “mommy bloggers” are rebranding as coronavirus skeptics or deniers…[Mommy bloggers] are uniquely well-positioned to open people’s minds to dubious and false information. It’s a sobering sign of far-right ideologies creeping in from the fringes of social media amid a colossal “infodemic” that’s causing real-life harm.What to say?
In recent weeks, HuffPost has reviewed the Instagram accounts of more than a dozen seemingly radicalized influencers who have been propagating COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Only a few returned requests for comment, including Cohen, who accused this reporter of being “part of the DeepState agenda.”
Poopaganda is powerful.
Free your mind.
*Whackjob: term coined by Steve Schmidt of The Lincoln Project to denote virulent Trump supporters who’ve given up common sense in favor of Trumpism.
*poopaganda – a quasi-genteel term for virulent bull-s**t “truthiness” masquerading as self-empowering info.
*poopagandist – one who perpetuates poopaganda and then complains that social media and “fake news” is trying to silence contrary views and/or conservative voices.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
I was supposed to depart South Africa today and return to San Francisco. I’m still here. More than a month ago, I received an email from British Air cancelling the second leg of my return flight. I’ve heard nothing at all about the first leg and none of my eight emails to the travel agent have enlightened me about how or when I’ll get back to California.Being left hanging in this way is the most disempowering feature of lockdown I’ve experienced. (Yes, I recognize I'm living la dolce vita conronavirus .... nevertheless....)
Emails and phone calls go unanswered.
Has the travel agency packed up and decided not to mention that to customers?
Enquiring minds wanna know…
Despite my personal trials and tribulations...daylight hours growing shorter and winter approaching, 55 days of lockdown have left my anything but bored.
I’ve built into my day, Weed Walking, pond weeding, fish feeding, dog, bird, crab, monkey chatting, and the occasional foray into town for necessities. (So far, I've not built in feeling sorry for myself.)
Today I continue researching cell phones for my elderly mother.
Day 53 - Tuesday May 19 - Boiling frogs?
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Place a frog in cold water that slowly heats to boiling and the frog, not registering the rise in temperature, will cook.
Moral of the story? Frogs do not react quickly to significant change.
Substitute frogs for humans and we have a metaphor for humans’ current reality.
American frog-humans
The United States has a frog in charge (no prince hidden under the froggy warts) and We, the People, don't notice the increasing temperature or how to leap out the water to save ourselves.
South African frog-humans
Telkom is South Africa’s SOE – State Owned Enterprise – for telephonic communication.
Think of Telkom as the slowly heating water and Telkom customers as frogs.
Two years ago, Telkom decided to transition all landline phones to wireless phones.
I received a breezy marketing but detail-free email from Telkom that the transition was underway.
I worried about the implications for aging customers such as mother. Tough to learn new technologies at 87-years-old, plus wireless reception in this rural neighborhood is unreliable.
I asked that Telkom email me whatever information it had about the proposed change so that I understood, 1) the overall plan, 2) the conditions of the proposed plan, 3)how it would affect my mother IF she choose to transition.
No email ever arrived.
Calls to Telkom were a nightmare of endless loops – “press x for x” – and, if I managed to talk to an actual person, I was told there were no conditions under which my mother could keep her landline.
Last January, I arrived in South Africa to find Telkom had forced my mother to transition and presented her with two D-Link wireless phones made in China. Only one of the two phones had a SIM card.
Before the start of lockdown, calls on the working phone intermittently failed and displayed, “No mobile network available.”
For the next eight weeks, my 87-year-old mother had no way to call a friend, a doctor, or an ambulance, police, or security firm if an emergency arose.
I called Telkom on my cell phone (waiting for a Telkom representative to answer is an expensive proposition in South Africa). I was told to drive to Telkom center in a large shopping mall in Pietermaritzburg. That is, drive twenty-five miles during lockdown with roadblocks and aggressive police and military patrols and wait for at least an hour in lines with little, if any, social distancing.
I complained to Telkom via email. No reply.
I wrote a Facebook complaint and got a response to “contact Telkom” but no contact info was provided.
Eventually, we traveled to Pietermaritzburg. Three times. Each time there was a small variation in why we couldn’t be helped: phone was broken, sorry, no replacement; ID info, phone number, or something else was incorrect, etc.
Finally, yesterday, Telkom presented a phone that appeared to work.
I tested it with a call from my cell phone. My mother answered! It worked!
She called the first friend on the list of friends she hoped to reach.
During that call, the phone failed.
Now, the phone displays no messages at all. The screen is black.
The frogs are cooked.
News blues…
The numbers continue to growWorldwide: 4,805,050 infections; 318,535 deaths
US: 1,508,600 infections; 90,360 deaths
Russia: 290,700 infections; 2,722 deaths
Brazil: 255,370 infections; 16,860 deaths
SA: 16,440 infections; 286 deaths
Map of infections per 100,000 by municipality in South Africa
***
"If it can take me down, it can take anybody down." (video clip, 7:44 mins).Infectious disease expert Dr. Joseph Fair speaks from his hospital bed after contracting Covid-19: He shares his battle with coronavirus and warns others to take the outbreak seriously.
***
Ready for a laugh? Sara Cooper:
Latest ad from The Lincoln Project
Whackjobbery*:
Just when one thinks Donald Trump can’t go any further in his brand of whackjobbery, he goes further!“Trump Says He Is Taking Drug That Is Deemed a Risk”
Hydroxychloroquine can cause arrhythmia, but the White House physician says the “potential benefit from treatment outweighed the relative risks.” Stocks rose after positive vaccine news.Trump wants the public to believe he’s taking regular doses of Hydroxychloroquine?
This, from a man who is notoriously self-centered and germophobic?
I don’t believe him.
He is either lying …or he understands only people with a heart can suffer arrhythmia.
Remember the day Trump swore the crowd at his inauguration was the bigly-est ever in the history of inaugural crowds? Soon after, we learned “Trump inauguration crowd photos were edited after he intervened.”
His whoppers have only become whoppier.
Trump’s pal, Howard Stern, believes that Trump’s run for president was a Trump branding exercise, and that no one was more surprised at Trump’s win than Trump himself.
I concur with Stern. In the spirit of offering The Donald advice, I’ve urged Trump – telepathically – to feign a heart attack, to get out of the job of president, to retire to Mar a lago and write a whopper of a memoir.
Surely, somewhere in his “very, very large brain,” he knows he’s killing humans?
Feigning a heart attack would get him out of the White House and a job he doesn’t really want. Best of all, many Americans would consider him a hero, rather than a buffoon.
A heart attack would also prove he has a heart … and suggest he sacrificed himself out of overwhelming love of country and countrymen.
Feigning a Covid-19 infection would also get him out of the White House, but it’s not as romantic as a heart attack. It also risks mixed messaging.
He’d be a hero – to some - but an infection could raise uncomfortable questions:
- Should people wear masks after all?
- Should people stay home after all?
- Should states not open? Should workers, including meatpackers, refuse to go to work?
- Would the stock price of Hydroxychloroquine plunge instead of rise?
- Could Democrats, worse, socialists, be right about a more robust health insurance policy?
*Whackjob: term coined by Steve Schmidt of The Lincoln Project to denote virulent Trump supporters who’ve given up common sense in favor of Trumpism.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Finding the right cell phone for my mother is top of today’s agenda.Continuing with building the pond weed path is next on the agenda.
Day 53 - Monday May 18 - Reopening America
First things first. Download the CDC’s recently published Guidelines for Reopening America (pdf).This is intended for all Americans, whether you own a business, run a school, or want to ensure the cleanliness and safety of your home. Reopening America requires all of us to move forward together by practicing social distancing and other daily habits to reduce our risk of exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19. Reopening the country also strongly relies on public health strategies, including increased testing of people for the virus, social distancing, isolation, and keeping track of how someone infected might have infected other people.
***
A spoof or not a spoof? That is the question The lines between reality and farce increasingly blur as The Don and his wrecking crew refuse evidence-based, scientific, medical, research-oriented data.
And, our life and times become increasingly surreal.
Donald Trump tweeted this video of a grotesquely transformed scene from the 1996 movie “Independence Day.”
Watch for faces of spell-bound Republicans – including Sen Ted Cruz (shedding tears of joy?), Marco Rubio, Donald Trump Jr. – superimposed over actors’ faces.
The Donald is the hero lip-sync’ing original movie script lines that he’d never think of actually saying.
Trump apparently viewed the manipulated clip as calling Americans back to a reopened economy amid the COVID-19 crisis. But the speech could also be interpreted as a call to Americans to fight for their lives.In the clip, Trump, the man who couldn’t care less about actual humans, mouths,
The twisted version uses [original movie actor Bill] Pullman’s …voice, but images of Trump’s head have been superimposed on [Pullman’s far sleeker] body. Spectators enraptured by his speech include Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson of Fox News, a teary-eyed Sen. Ted Cruz, Ivanka Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and others.
“Mankind. That word should have new meaning for us today… We’re “fighting for our right to live, to exist.”Indeed, with 4,716,520 million infected and 315,225 dead, Trump got something right, even if unintentionally.
We are in the fight of our lives – and getting little help from a chaotic wanna-be hero.
News blues…
Trump names Moncef Slaoui his COVID-19 vaccine czar/ “chief scientist” for Operation Warp Speed COVID-19 vaccine development. Slaoui, former pharmaceutical executive of Moderna, owns 155,000 Moderna stock options, totaling more than $10 million.Conflict of interest, you ask? What conflict of interest?
Moderna last month announced that it received $483 million in federal funding for vaccine development, which sent its stocks up 15 percent, CNBC reported.Hmm, what if the challenge proves too challenging?
On Friday, when Trump introduced him in a Rose Garden press briefing, Slaoui said the president’s aim to have a vaccine by the end of the year was “credible,” though it would be “extremely challenging.”
Microbiology Society’s report, “The current challenges for vaccine development” states:
…there is still a great need for new vaccines and these are emerging far more slowly than we would wish. Despite the massive expansion in understanding of immune responses to infection, research is often hindered by a lack of understanding of the immune responses required specifically for protection, or by a lack of approved adjuvants and delivery systems to induce the required responses. In addition, the financial commitment required to license new vaccines is significant, and the more lucrative markets are often not those with the greatest need.How soon before Trump fires Slaoui for promising a vaccine and didn’t deliver? Or Trump, notoriously truth-averse, tells Americans that Slaoui never, ever said a vaccine was possible by the end of the year?
Enquiring minds ….
Whackjobbery*: it’s baaack
Journalist for News 12 Long Island, Kevin Vesey covered a pro-Trump, anti-stay-at-home protest. There,... a protester without a mask and wearing a red MAGA hat and Trump T-shirt deliberately advanced on Vesey (who was wearing a mask).Kevin Vesey writes, “The level of anger directed at the media from these protesters was alarming. As always, I will tell a fair and unbiased story today.”
“I think you need to back away from me,” the reporter told [the protester] on video, turning his face away.
“No, I’ve got hydroxychloroquine,” said the unidentified protester as he strode closer. “I’m fine.”
The drug, touted by Trump, has not proved to be effective against COVID-19 and can have lethal side effects.
Despite all captured on film, Donald Trump slammed the report as “fake news.”
***
Eric, son of TrumpLast Friday, I shared Eric Trump speaking “fluent Donald.” Eric is an echo chamber of “fluent Donald,” too.
Taking a page from dad’s playbook, Eric insisted in an interview with Fox News uber-Trump-groupie Jeanine Pirro that:
COVID-19 will “magically” disappear — after election day.Gosh, is Eric a poopagandist* who believes his own poopaganda*?
He indicated that the coronavirus [that has killed 315,000+ people around the globe — including nearly 90,000 Americans] is a ploy cooked up by the Democrats to stop Donald Trump from rallying his supporters at campaign events.
[Middle son maintains] Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden “loves this. They think they’re taking away Donald Trump’s greatest tool, which is to go into an arena and fill it with 50,000 people every time.” [BTW, Trump has never had 50,000 people in any American arena.]
“You watch,” Eric added. “They will milk it every single day between now and November 3rd.”
“And guess what – after November 3rd, coronavirus will magically, all of the sudden, go away and disappear and everybody will be able to reopen.” He called it a “very cognizant strategy.”
[FYI: In English “cognizant” is defined as “having knowledge or awareness.”]
*Whackjob: term coined by Steve Schmidt of The Lincoln Project to denote virulent Trump supporters who’ve given up common sense in favor of Trumpism.
*poopaganda – a quasi-genteel term for virulent bull-s**t “truthiness” masquerading as self-empowering info.
*poopagandist – one who perpetuates poopaganda and then complains that social media and “fake news” is trying to silence contrary views and/or conservative voices.
***
Recently, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni warned against people misbehaving during the COVID-19 period. "God has a lot of work,” he said. “[God] has the whole world to look after. He cannot just be here in Uganda looking after idiots...."President Museveni, can you extend that warning to anti-mask, anti-stay-at-home idiots in the United States? And, to the current inhabitants of the White House and Trump Tower?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Still struggling for sufficient aerobic exercise - and trying to keep busy - during lockdown, I’ve taken up Weed Walking.This entails laps around the garden while wearing gardening gloves (and other clothing). I walk, I notice weeds. I pluck an armful of weeds and, at the end of the lap, I place them into a wheelbarrow.
When full, I push the wheelbarrowful through the security gate, along the road, and dump contents into the burn pit.
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| Blackjack seedpod. © Something over Tea |
In the garden, Weed Walking keeps me ahead of blackjacks’ seeding phase.
With lockdown preventing outside garden care, weeds run amok and blackjacks are in Blackjack Heaven.
I return from the short trip to the burn pit covered in blackjack seeds. Before re-entering the garden, I pluck seeds from my hoodie, my pants, socks, shoes, gardening gloves, and hair.
Perhaps the only living thing currently more reproductively successful than blackjacks is the nightmare coronavirus.
Day 52 - Sunday May 17 - Humor might save us
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| German café tells customers to wear pool noodles to enforce social distancing Click to enlarge. |
Creative, friendly, and humane customer service lifts the spirits more than floor markings and perspex screens geared to keep people apart.
Friendly humor and comedy can save us humans from ourselves.
Animals are in on it, too, as this short photo essay indicates.
Is it inappropriate to laugh when, globally, close to 4.64 million humans have been infected with, and more than 312,000 killed by a mysterious and apparently fast-morphing virus?
Consider the intangible pluses:
Psychologists Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun of the University of North Carolina Charlotte, maintain that while prolonged traumas can cause untold psychological damage, there is a portion of people who report psychological growth in the face of trauma.
Tedeschi and Calhoun call this “post-traumatic growth” and describe it as “positive psychological change experienced as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life circumstances.”
Post-traumatic growth, they claim, has five facets that survivors report experiencing:
- a greater appreciation for life,
- closer social relationships,
- enhanced feelings of personal strength,
- spiritual growth, and
- the recognition of new possibilities for their lives.
They don’t specifically mention humor as an element of a greater appreciation for life, but I will. Humor and laughing at oneself and with others fits into all the bullet points, above.
Give it a try with comedienne Sara Cooper who lets “Trump be Trump” at his campaign-rally-cum-press-conferences:
- Cooper/Trump on Katie Miller and testing
- Cooper/Trump, “How to Medical”
- Cooper/Trump, “Obamagate!”
- Coooper/Trump, “Testing”
Anti-blues News
More to feel good about:- Wild white storks hatched in the UK for the first time in centuries A Polish female [white] stork fraternized then mated “with a male [white stork] believed to be one of the ‘20 or so vagrant storks’ that visit the [UK] every year.” This year, for the first time “in hundreds of years …white stork chicks have been born in the wild” at the Knepp Estate in West Sussex. “Before this, the most recent babies hatched was recorded on the roof of St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh in 1416.” Immigrant storks, vagrant storks, chick storks … it’s all happening out there. (I hope the Polish female has her Brexit paperwork in order. ) Life goes on…
- A rare blue bee scientists thought might have become extinct has been rediscovered in Florida. The extremely rare metallic navy insect, a blue calamintha bee, previously found in only four areas "totaling just 16 square miles of pine scrub habitat at Central Florida's Lake Wales Ridge," has been discovered by a researcher.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Fifty-two days of lockdown haven’t quenched my zest for talking to all the dogs, monkeys, birds, fish, crabs, dragonflies, plants, and spiderwebs that will listen.Nor have 52 days dulled my desire to conduct garden experiments.
Back in late April I experimented with laying a footpath made of recycled pond weed and waterlilies (see Day 34, April 29).
The success of that experiment persuaded me to extend the footpath around the pond edge.
Accordingly, I donned waders yesterday, entered the pond, harvested excess pond weed, and formed a new section of path.
Only excess pond weed and invasive lilies are harvested so it’ll take time to form this path.
I’m confident completion will conclude about the same time as lockdown level 4.
I was anxious about how the goldfish might feel about me messing around in their habitat.
I’m pleased to report that, at days end, three of the four showed up for their late afternoon snack.
If the fourth fish refused to join his friends because he was miffed at my intrusion, I hope the three help him understand I mean no harm.
Day 51 - Saturday May 16 - VOTE!
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| Click to enlarge. |
In the face of ongoing abuse by The Donald - the “Obamagate” conspiracy theory (that alleges Obama led attempts in 2016 to sabotage Trump’s incoming administration) and Trump’s efforts to distract from criticism of his blundering coronavirus response - Obama Tweeted one word: VOTE!
(Someone please mention to White House senior adviser, son-in-law, and general-fix-it-guy Jared Kushner that neither he nor his boss can postpone the election, not even in an emergency. Despite Jared’s lack of familiarity with life's disappointments - or the US Constitution - shouldn’t someone mention that pesky third branch of government, the US Congress, not the prez – nor Jared – has the power to pass a statute changing the date of the election, yet not even Congress has the power to cancel it altogether?)
“Seeding the Great Divide” addresses agriculture and agri-business in South Africa, Africa in general, and the possible effects of the pandemic.
Hosted by Daily Maverick’s Richard Poplak the webinar features Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, and author, Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity and Agriculture.
Takeaways:
Mail & Guardian also offers free webinars, most recently, “Alcohol, tobacco and substance use during COVID19."
The South African government is unique in banning the sale of alcohol and tobacco during lockdown and, essentially, forcing withdrawal on its people. This webinar unpacks the implications and effects on mental health of the banning tobacco and alcohol.
Hosted by SADAG’s Cassey Chambers, with psychiatrist Hemant Nowbath and clinical psychologist Neil Amoore.
One happy gardener.
‘Trump Death Clock’ In Times Square Is Grim Reminder Of Preventable Virus Deaths.
The “Trump Death Clock” is a digital billboard in New York City’s Times Square that highlights President Donald Trump’s early inaction on coronavirus.
On Wednesday, May 13 it ticked over to an estimated 50,000 deaths that, according to two leading epidemiologists, could have been avoided had social distancing measures been implemented earlier.
While some suggest the president “was vague and uncertain”, my standards aren’t as high. After all, compare the US president’s demeanor … and that of the guy who was president prior to Ramaphosa.
The current president’s update was, for me, a pleasure to see and hear. Finally, a president who is presidential! And humane. And who admits failures – and apologizes for them.
Too bad he said, “hugging and kissing is a thing of the past.”
If the opportunity presented, I would hug and kiss him for the difficult challenge he's attempting to confront!
Imagine a dwelling for a family of, say, five South Africans with no running water and no indoor plumbing in a locked down township, informal settlement, or rural area.
Need water to drink, cook, bath, and wash hands to stay free of Covid-19?
Carry a container to the nearest communal water faucet (compromising social distancing), fill the container, carry it back to the house. (FYI: 1-gallon of water weighs 3.6 pounds; 1-liter weighs 1 kilogram.)
Need to pee or poop?
Walk to the nearest communal long-drop (ditto on compromising social distancing), walk back to your locked down house, and wash your hands using the household’s precious water.
South Africa’s water supply was the topic of Daily Maverick’s webinar, “Water Wars: Access to water in post-Covid South Africa.”
Hosted by Mark Heywood with Xhanti Payi - economist and head of research at Nascence Advisory and Research - and Simon Gear – a leading South African climatologists and a national authority on global warming and green issues.
Takeaways:
South Africa faces overlapping crises: climate change (last year, Cape Town and the Cape metro area - population close to 5 million – run out of water); health and social welfare, and, now, Covid-19 co-morbid with virulent TB and the highest HIV rate in the world (7.7 million people in South Africa live with HIV).
Just do it!
Day 19, April 19, I predicted it wouldn’t be long before Covid-19 presented the perfect reason to release Trump protégés and current inmates from jail. Three weeks later:
Enquiring minds want to know….
Like troops of baboons, monkey troops post sentries to ensure youngsters are safe. Today, by mid-morning, the sentries had declared the zone safe and the troop, youngsters and all, had infiltrated the ‘hood.
My so-so video skills captured monkey antics, including an active three-legged monkey.
Moreover, the ban on alcohol sales during the lockdown was meant to prevent drunken fights, reduce domestic violence, stop drunk driving, and eliminate weekend binge-drinking so prevalent across South Africa.
The ban was based up WHO data:
Instead, these bans have created an underground market of rampant deals. In Pietermaritzburg, KZN,
Biggest take away? South Africans must take personal responsibility to socially distance, wear masks, sanitize, sanitize, sanitize…
That’s great advice for anyone, not just South Africans. The implementation?
Well, we’d all live on a different Earth IF taking personal responsibility was easy.
I disagree with some points Prof Mahdi makes. (I was one vote of 22 percent webinar audience – 1,700+ - informally polled who thought Lockdown should continue.) Nevertheless, he’s clearly not a “political animal” and does not parse or hide his truth to avoid potential political fallout.
He states:
For an example of politics, political animals, and political-speak in action: “The Four Men Responsible For America’s COVID-19 Test Disaster”
For the duration of lockdown, the official monthly allowance per child has increased ZAR500 (US$27), from the usual ZAR400 (US$22). Only the funds aren’t quickly being dispersed into accounts.
Housing, feeding, clothing, educating a child on the equivalent of US$50 per month – while lockdown last.
Imagine having to return to US$22/month at the end of lockdown.
Word-on-the-street reports a confirmed Covid-19 infection in a health care worker from a local hospital.
To mothers on Mother’s Day:
I expected by morning a number on or under 4 million. It’s worse: 4,025,175 - 32.5 percent of which are in the US.
Testing is the US’s latest political hot potato with Trump’s press spokesperson saying, “It’s ‘Nonsensical’ to Think Everyone Should Get a Coronavirus Test”.
Members of the Trump administration, meanwhile, are regularly tested. Two members have been confirmed with the infection and three are quarantined.
Numbers of confirmed cases in South Africa are rising too: 9,420 today, an increase of 525 overnight.
After weeding the garden yesterday afternoon, I sat on the grass and relaxed in the warm autumn sun.
Scruffy – the half blind, fully deaf, pee-on-furniture-prone dog – sat with me.
Embraced by grass, trees, water, insects, birds, it is possible (though not easy) to clear one’s mind of worries, to enjoy being alive, despite lockdown to feel intimately part of the world.
Awareness heightens clarity, too.
In my world, acting fruitfully on decisions means getting things done, moving forward, making progress.
In my mother’s world these days, decisions are talking points, not plans of action. Fruitless planning, not implementation, is her end point. To date, every agreed upon plan to ensure her health and safety, and that of this household, has been jettisoned.
Do I have the required fortitude?
I’ll take this dragonfly as a good omen.
My camera was inside the house when it settled on a twig. Expecting it gone when I rushed for the camera, there it was, still posing.
Thank you, dragonfly.
Trump’s reelection campaign manager tweeted images Thursday of “Keep America Great”-branded and “Trump-Pence”-branded face masks. (I'll bet they're made in China, not in America. After all, MAGA, and all that....)
It was a matter of time before the numbers of South Africa’s confirmed infections – and deaths - began to climb, and double.
Tough to remain an optimistic realist in the face of our world-as-we-know-it falling apart.
Change is afoot.
Under the circumstances, however, do we have leadership capable of ensuring equitable and sustainable change?
Will the coming change make our planet better for the less-than-privileged majority, or tighten the grip of a vastly over-privileged minority?
The Swamp
Every US politician seeking higher office promises to drain The Swamp and “root out corruption” in Washington, D.C.
Donald J Trump promised that, too.
Today, The Swamp of Washington, D.C., is more, not less, corruption-and-disease-ridden.
The phrase drain the swamp originally referenced the literal removal of water, replete with disease-carrying mosquitos and Egyptian crocodiles from Italy’s Pontine marshes outside Rome.
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini introduced the phrase, “drenare la palude.”
The good news? That marsh was drained between 1932 and 1934.
Take away? If it suits them, even dictators can bring about positive change.
The Donald? Hmmmm, don’t hold your breath. Positive change ain't his concern or his bent.
On this lovely Saturday, Day 44, let’s celebrate Mission Blue’s Hope Spots.
Hope Spots are places critical to the health of our planetary environment.
Scroll down on this page for a map showing Hope Spots around the world.
In 9:47 minutes, discover Hope Spot Spitsbergen Island, in the Svalbard Archipelago. The 2,000 people-strong settlement of Longyearbyen is the northernmost inhabited place on Earth.
Watch ice divers face one of the most extreme effects of global warming.
With communication difficult in my part of rural KZN, I enlisted a friend in California to research the status of commercial airline service.
My generous friend phoned the Turkish Airline office in San Francisco. Persistence won out over listening to one dead-end voice mail after another and, imaginatively, my friend pressed the correct phone pad number for the Complaints line.
He talked to an actual and informed human being.
Yes, Turkish Airlines appears to offer sporadic commercial flights from Durban’s Shaka International. A flight is scheduled from Durban to San Francisco via Istanbul at the end of May. However, that flight is not confirmed. It depends on lockdown.
Best wait-and-see, until, at least, mid-June.
That news momentarily lifted my sagging spirits.
Then, alas, spirits sagged again at the Times news about the “biggest single-day increases reported since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country”….
Today, I’ll lift my spirits by creating a microcosmic Hope Spot: the garden and pond.
The saga heats up…
We are talking here about Trump administration that has, over just three years, epitomize a “different and dangerous kind of collusion”.
Mark Zuckerberg’s trend toward colluding with Trump only increases over time.
Trump/Zuckerberg “mutual assistance arrangement”
Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, discusses the lessons from the HIV pandemic that are applicable to Covid-19, whether Covid-19 presents a threat to people living with HIV-AIDS, how the spread of Covid-19 will impact Africa, how a vaccine, once created, will reach everyone who needs it, and the lessons from HIV that are applicable to the response to Covid-19.
Today was the deadline for a six-day long once-off allowance for interprovincial travel. Judging by the crowds, too many people left that to the last minute.
According the provincial police commissioner, since 27 March, at least 18,000 people have been arrested for violating Covid-19 lockdown regulations.
Roadblocks manned by the army and the Road Traffic Inspectorate are responding to a high volume of complaints about non-compliance.
I suspect Pensioners’ Day swelled the crowds, too. Every Tuesday and Thursday people over 60 years old get 5 percent discount off purchases.
Who wouldn’t risk Covid-19 for such a deal?
Alas, dense crowds lined the street - no one could maintain social distance – and bringing home giblets to overfed dogs might be worth the risk of infection to some.
To me?
Not so much.
Back home, I noticed the dogs didn’t seem to mind I was giblet-free.
My mother explained their point of view: “They like Pet Mince now.”
What a relief! No dog would starve due to my selfish desire for safety!
While Pet Mince fills the dogs’ culinary breach for now, it does not mean I’m off the hook for locating a source of giblets.
Rather, it means I visit Little Lagos on non-Pensioners’ Day: Monday, Wednesday, or Friday.
(*The phrase "outside the wire" originated with US military troops locked down on military bases in Iraq during that disasterous invasion. Heavily armored troops went off base only to patrol local towns and villages. Their routes, the same day-after-day, made them frequent targets of attack.)
A news snippet, however, might shed light.
To paraphrase the SAA flight captain, “Welcome to your flight. Nothing can go wrong… go wrong … go wrong….”
Tomorrow is the first day of Lockdown Week 7.
Forty-two days behind a security fence. Forty-two days with insufficient aerobic exercise. Forty-two days talking to dogs, monkeys, fish, birds, bugs, crabs, and plants…
How much more of this must a gal take?
Bad case scenario?
In 42 more days, this gal pines for the good old days of Lockdown Week 1 or 2… or 6!
A summary of Frieden’s ten truths:
Let’s try that:
My motto? Know the numbers and the risks.
Johns Hopkins University ranks Turkey seventh in the world for the number of confirmed infections although the actual toll, like everywhere else, is higher.
Is there a crew sanitizing the airport?
There is increasing evidence that the rise of highly infectious diseases is linked to the increasing destruction of, and human encroachment into, the natural environment. It behooves humans to understand – and mitigate – our destructive tendencies.
Start small. Understand the concentrations of carbon dioxide - CO2 – in our fragile atmosphere:
Your challenge, should you choose to accept it?
Figure our what you, in your ecosystem “bubble”, can do to cut down on CO2 emissions, plastics, and non-recyclables.
I thought, briefly, about reserving a seat on a repatriation flight from South Africa to Doha, Qatar. Dates were posted, people booked flights, things looked good – except for the part about having to find one’s own way from Doha to California.
Then, last night, the US Consulate in South Africa issued a follow-up email:
No one is saying…
Moreover, Americans trying to register for information on the SAA repatriation flight to Dulles, Washington D.C. get the message that the SAA website is “experiencing technical difficulties”:
After that?
Nothing.
I called to enquire about status and was told, “You didn’t pick up your document, so we sent it back to Pretoria.”
Finally, I went through the SA Embassy in Los Angeles.
I was issued a passport within six months.
Trump is attacking the Lincoln Project – thereby raising public awareness (and approval) of the ad.
The Lincoln Project creators are thrilled with the president’s reaction. A fight on the front pages of news outlets, from Fox & Friends to websites, will benefit the project, not the president.
Live and let die
I appreciate the American sense of humor and irreverence, hallmarks of American culture.
Trump and his entourage hoped to assure the public that they had things under control when they created a photo-op at a N95 mask manufacturing plant in Phoenix, Arizona.
It did not go well.
Somebody or somebodies with an irreverent sense of humor coupled with courage, unmasked (ahem!) the contradiction of those in power abusing their power.
That somebody (soon to lose her/his job?) blasted on-topic music into the warehouse, including ‘Live and Let Die’.
Of this moment,[comedian] Jimmy Kimmel tweeted: “I can think of no better metaphor for this presidency than Donald Trump not wearing a face mask to a face mask factory while the song ‘Live and Let Die’ blares in the background.”
Cognitive dissonance
Locked down in my security-enhanced South African home-away-from-houseboat-home (docked in California’s Sacramento Delta), I ponder cognitive dissonance: the “state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.
With the current global tally of confirmed infections at more than 3.6 million, at least one third of which are in my adopted country, and more than a quarter of a million coronavirus-related deaths, it’s weird to feel … as if I’m doing nothing.
My mother and her helper make masks, most recently for children, that I deliver. I make small online donations. I purchase the household’s groceries and related chores “outside the wire.” We four lockdownees adhere, best we can, to level 4 lockdown rules.
Yet the planet’s catastrophe “outside” feels distant, far away.
There’s enormous suffering “out there.” The incompetent leadership “out there” is too often a feature, not a bug.
We, the People, face enormous odds. I’m doing my best… but couldn’t I do more? If so, what more?
I’m caring for my microcosm.
Why does that feel like not enough?
Today’s walk around the garden – waving the anti-spider-web stick – revealed:
Attempting to sell real estate after South Africa’s financial status was downgraded to BB+ - 'non-investment grade speculative' or 'junk status' – seems like a fool’s errand. (BB+ signals to potential investors an increased risk that South Africa's government might not have enough money to pay back what it borrows.)
Attempting to sell real estate during a pandemic seems like a fool’s errand.
Attempting to explain these pertinent considerations to a stubborn 87-year-old resistant to change seems futile – more so as necessary change involves terminating her relationship with seven beloved dogs.
Bogged down by seeming futility in my physical yet emotionally isolating environment, I talk on the phone with American friends. Most recent topic of conversation includes the effect of emails from the US Consulate in South Africa.
Over the past week I’ve received three such emails. Each begins:
Flying an almost direct flight would be nice.
Masked.
Sanitized.
Socially distanced.
But… what about my mother? her dogs? her staff? her too-large house? her too-many lawns? her piles of useless household goods? her real property? her well-being….
Today, taking stock - internal therefore uncomfortably passive - feels like a good direction.
The crisis facing our multicultural planet is, indeed, both danger and opportunity.
One danger is the lack of effective US leadership.
One opportunity is that We, the People actually demand leadership that is honest, direct, unequivocal, humane, generous, and firm.
Let’s assume you and I agree (as does much of the planet) that Donald J Trump fulfils none of the above leadership traits.
Who, then, could lead us out of the current crisis?
Joe Biden? Not likely.
Joe Biden is a follower, not a leader.
Joe Biden has his schtick down pat: the folksy manner sold as a man of the people; the “I’ve been in politics all my life so trust me”; the grin designed to communicate “I’m just a friendly, honest guy”, etc., etc.
We, the People are in the political, socio-cultural, and psychological fix we’re in because of, not in spite of, long-term politicians like Joe Biden (and Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, “Moscow” Mitch McConnell, and, yes, Bill and Hilary Clinton, too).
I’ve shared in this blog the anti-Trump ads produced by The Lincoln Project and Republicans for the Rule of Law because it’s a first-time phenomenon. Four decades living in the US and I’ve never seen Republicans do anything like it.
But, remember, they’re still Republicans. Republicans concerned about the damage wrought by The Donald and his crew support Joe Biden because Joe’s manageable. Joe’s politics are Republican-Lite. Joe and Republicans can live with one another because they share the same values, politics, and, often, the same donor base.
Ol’ folksy Joe may bring Republicans and Democrats together “across the aisle” but that also brings business-as-usual politics.
I’m not just a crazy locked down lady running around her garden photographing bees and sharing crazy notions.
People “out there” share these crazy notions. Meet, for example, Nathan J. Robinson, and read his full article, “Democrats, You Really Do Not Want To Nominate Joe Biden”, excerpted here:
How about dump Biden and...nominate Andrew Cuomo?
Right now, Cuomo is the proven, and now experienced, Coronavirus ‘fix it’ guy. He also happens to be the kind of control freak needed for this crisis (danger and opportunity).
Cuomo presents facts and figures in a way that a majority of people understand (including in whole thoughts and sentences - unlike the current White House incumbent).
Moreover, Cuomo delivers tough facts and figures in a lovely family-friendly style reminiscent of FDR’s Fireside Chats during the Great Depression.
Finally, Andrew Cuomo would likely either have Elizabeth Warren as his VP or ensure that her brain-power and know-how were put to work for the country.
Imagine! Competence. Efficiency. Brains. And delivery.
We, not just The People, but the whole damned planet at this time of great crisis, need a pair of qualified and humane leaders who could work well with other qualified and humane leaders.
Joe Biden? No!
Cuomo and Warren could do it… and would do it well.
After years of vehement denunciation of retirement facilities, my mother has decided that a move to a care-giving retirement facility might, after all, better suit her needs.
I’m thrilled with this decision.
Except…
Guess who will have to carry out all the tasks to fulfil the mission?
Guess who will have to search for new homes for utterly spoiled dogs during a time people are abandoning dogs they can no longer afford?
Guess who will have to find the retirement facility that meets her mother’s stringent conditions?
Guess who will have to sell excess personal property and prep the large seven-bedroom house for sale?
Guess who will have to work out legal and financial ramifications of laying off domestic workers with a 35-year work history?
Guess who will have to find and work with a local real estate agent to attempt to sell a house during a pandemic and Level 4 Lockdown?
Guess who will have to fend off the rest of the family who, suddenly, will become “concerned” with the new plan?
You got it.
Dutiful Daughter.
Ah, yes. Crisis: Danger? Or opportunity?
Periods of 40 days are significant in Earth’s creation stories.
About 40 days into the pandemic:
In Cape Town’s crowded townships such as Khayelitsha, Nyanga and Langa infections increased by up to 173 percent last week, and in some cases shot up by well over 20 percent a day.
The Western Cape now has about 45 percent of South Africa’s confirmed Covid-19 cases and deaths.
Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal townships are defying orders, too, saying lockdown is impossible.
I talked on the phone with our gardener, locked down in Mpophemeni Township with his wife and two young children.
“It’s terrible! Terrible!” he said. “Police driving up and down the road all the time. Go out the house to buy food and they stop you. Shouting, shouting, always shouting.”
The good news is he knows of no cases of infection in his part of the township. While his relationship to gardening is not passionate – gardening is just a job where he can arrive late, leave early, and eat well in-between – he sounded almost wistful for weeds.
First Monday of the month and I drove into town to fill another prescription, drop off homemade cotton masks at a children’s center, and buy giblets for dogs.
Crowds of people lined the streets, particularly in a section of town lined with several banks. The crowd shown here, snapped as I drove past, is a fragment of the line along the street waiting for ATM service.
After I saw these crowds, I elected to drop off masks and buy giblets later in the week.
I spent the rest of the day eradicating pond weed then recycling it as another layer for my weed-smothering path under swamp cypress.
A sampler of his recent whoppers:
I missed the US Consulate’s deadline issued for its “last/final” repatriation flight to the US. I received another email yesterday:
My choice? Stay here with garden, lawns, critters, and mental health discomforts… or sit in Doha airport until I can book a flight from Doha to California?
Is this Hobson’s Choice, Morton’s Fork, or Buridan’s Ass?
Hobson’s Choice: A free choice in which only one option is offered; i.e., “take it or leave it”.
Morton’s Fork: A a choice between two equally unpleasant alternatives… or two lines of reasoning that lead to the same unpleasant conclusion. It is analogous to the expression, “between the devil and the deep blue sea,” and “between a rock and a hard place”.
Buridan’s Ass is an illustration of a paradox in philosophy in the conception of free will. It refers to a hypothetical situation wherein an ass is placed precisely midway between a stack of hay and a pail of water. Since the paradox assumes the ass will always go to whichever is closer, it will die of both hunger and thirst since it cannot make any rational decision to choose one over the other. The paradox is named after the 14th century French philosopher Jean Buridan, whose philosophy of moral determinism it satirizes. (Thanks Kennon-Green.)
Perhaps it needs more fleshing (ahem!) out.
How about simply slipping bodies – with or without coffins - into compost piles? Or stuffing bodies without coffins into garden sink holes? If charity begins at home, my garden sink hole has room to stuff bodies. Moreover, if my suspicious are correct, bodies would quickly be recycled by my sink hole’s debris-consuming dragon…
(Hmmm, talking about mental health…)
The Lincoln Project:
Forced Retirement | Dystopia | Fox and Friends
Donald Trump: Unfit. Unwell. Unacceptable | Everybody Should Be Able to Vote Safely
Keeping Santayana in mind - "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” – let’s remember 1993 – a kinder, gentler time…
Coneheads: Trailer 1 | Coneheads: Trailer 2
Credits:
The Lincoln Project is an American political action committee formed in late 2019 by several prominent Republicans with the goal of preventing the reelection of Donald Trump in 2020.
The Lincoln Project holds accountable those who would violate their oaths to the Constitution and would put others before Americans.
Republicans for the Rule of Law is the principal initiative of the conservative, anti-Donald Trump political group Defending Democracy Together, founded by Bill Kristol, Mona Charen, Linda Chavez, Sarah Longwell, and Andy Zwick in 2019.
These life-long Republicans, dedicated to defending the institutions of our republic and upholding the rule of law, are fighting to ensure laws apply equally to everyone, from the average citizen to the president of the United States. The group believes in fidelity to the Constitution, transparency, and the truth
(The small print: I am NOT a Republican - nor a Democrat. Rather, I’m astonished that Republicans like these two groups ARE THE ONLY MEMBERS OF POWERFUL ELITES publicly calling for sanity in an insane time. Looking at you, Democrats!)
The lawn calls. I’m mowing today.
Plus, I plan to carry my camera outside the fence near the stream.
Who knows what wildlife lurks out there?
***
The gift of free webinars on topics of concern during the coronavirus pandemic have helped ease the effects of lockdown. Thanks to Daily Maverick and their sponsors for their generosity in making these available. “Seeding the Great Divide” addresses agriculture and agri-business in South Africa, Africa in general, and the possible effects of the pandemic.
Hosted by Daily Maverick’s Richard Poplak the webinar features Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, and author, Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity and Agriculture.
Takeaways:
- Food insecurity is dire in the African continent – and will grow in the coming months due to the pandemic and climate change. This may mean migrations of hungry people in many African countries.
- South Africa is still exporting crops, but food insecurity is real for too many South Africans.
- South Africa desperately needs a land audit to determine who owns what, and where is the land the government owns and how to benefit from it.
- Worldwide, post Covid-19, there may be structural shifts in labor markets with more automation in agriculture. Over time, this will mean fewer people/migrants required to work.
- Brief discussion on Expropriation without Compensation (EWC) and why Wandile does not support it.
Mail & Guardian also offers free webinars, most recently, “Alcohol, tobacco and substance use during COVID19."
The South African government is unique in banning the sale of alcohol and tobacco during lockdown and, essentially, forcing withdrawal on its people. This webinar unpacks the implications and effects on mental health of the banning tobacco and alcohol.
Hosted by SADAG’s Cassey Chambers, with psychiatrist Hemant Nowbath and clinical psychologist Neil Amoore.
Whackjob* no more?
“Just last month,” Brian Lee Hitchens, a former Covid-19 skeptic, said:“I didn’t think the crisis was real. I thought it was maybe the government trying something, and it was kind of like they threw it out there to kinda distract us.”*Whackjob: term coined by Steve Schmidt of The Lincoln Project to denote virulent Trump supporters who’ve given up common sense in favor of Trumpism.
“I’d get up in the morning and pray and trust in God for his protection, and I’d just leave it at that. There were all these masks and gloves. I thought it looks like a hysteria,” he added.
In posts on his Facebook page in early April, he had claimed, “I do not fear this virus because I know that my God is bigger than this Virus will ever be.”
Then, Hitchens and his wife contracted the virus. They were hospitalized with serious infections.
Now, he’s urging people to take coronavirus seriously. “I don’t want to see anybody go through what I went through…This wasn’t some scare tactic that anybody was using. It wasn’t some made-up thing. This is a real virus that you’ve got to take serious.”
News blues…
The politics of food parcels in Cape Town.Food parcels are not a sustainable, comprehensive or systemic fix, but are governed by a logic of charity. When the state distributes a small number of food parcels through its ward councillors, it mimics this logic of charity: Whether they want to or not, distributors are forced to choose those they deem to be “deserving”.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Another warm autumn/fall day, another lawn mowed, grass clippings composted, and pond edging trimmed. Four healthy goldfish spied, swimming in the pond.One happy gardener.
Day 50 - Friday May 15 -
Day 50! Let the humor begin... Ragging on Eric Trump, known in the US as the “least smart Trump” is like, well, bobbing for fish in a pot – so to speak. Trying for an epic put-down of “truly evil people” @EricTrump Tweeted: “The chips are starting to crumble!” Fellow Tweeters responded with a flurry of mixed clichés:- No use crying over pissed milk
- You know what they say, the bigger they are, the more the eggs in the basket flock together
- How the turns have tabled!
- The tiger is now truly out of the barn!
- Down is away and up is far-fetched!,
- Time to shit or get out of the kitchen
- It’s collapsing like a house of cookies
- The cats out of the cradle
- Looks like the domino's on the other foot.
Talking Trump
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| Digital Death Clock
in Times Square, NY Click to enlarge. |
News blues…
Around the world:Philippines. More than 50 million people in the Philippines are locked down due to Covid-19, with 11,876 confirmed cases. Simultaneously, more than 200,000 people are facing Typhoon Vongfong with winds of at least 115 mph - an intensity equivalent of a category 3 hurricane - forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands.
Russia is hailing its medical workers as heroes …
But as the country becomes one of the global hot spots of the pandemic, those workers are suffering astonishing levels of infection and death in their ranks.
Thousands have been infected, and more than 180 doctors, nurses, paramedics and other medical workers have died. Like their colleagues in much of the rest of the world, many of those doctors and nurses are suffering from a shortage of protective gear and equipment. But Russian health workers are also at the mercy of a convoluted, unforgiving bureaucracy that increasingly appears outmatched by the pandemic.Bangladesh…[where] tented Rohingya encampments spread across landslide-prone hills are already susceptible to disaster and disease.
Diphtheria, all but eradicated in most of the world, has raced through them. Marauding elephants have trampled children to death. A fire recently destroyed hundreds of shelters. The first cases of the coronavirus in crowded refugee camps for Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh were confirmed on Thursday, raising fears about how quickly disease can spread through one of the world’s most overcrowded and vulnerable communities…. where around 1 million refugees have taken shelter after fleeing decades of persecution in neighboring Myanmar. A community leader in the camps said that up to 1,900 people who had contact with the pair have been identified and may undergo some form of quarantine. Epidemiologists fear the virus could spread like wildfire through such camps around the world, teeming with millions of people fleeing war, persecution and famine. It has turned up in camps in Syria, South Sudan and Greece’s Aegean Islands.Yemen. It was just two weeks ago that war-ravaged Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, reported its first cluster of coronavirus cases.
Since then infections appear to have exploded, realizing the worst fears of aid groups. Save the Children, the global charity, reported Thursday that at least 385 people had died over the past week with Covid 19-like symptoms in the city of Aden, where the first cluster — five cases — surfaced at the end of April. Several hospitals in Aden have closed, and some medical workers have refused to work because of a lack of protective equipment. The two main public hospitals are providing only emergency services, and are not admitting patients.Mumbai, India. India’s ‘Maximum City’ Engulfed by Coronavirus. Photo essay. Overflowing hospitals. Exhausted cops. Desperate slums. Images from Mumbai as the coronavirus upends the metropolis. After President Ramaphosa’s lockdown update
EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi weighed in saying, “US President Donald Trump's Covid-19 addresses are good compared with how President Cyril Ramaphosa conducts his.” This, because Trump “allows” reporters to “interrogate him” – nothing said about the lies Trump visits upon the American public and his abuse of reporters.
Economic Freedom Fighters – EFF – founded in 2013 by expelled former ANC Youth League President Julius Malema and his allies, describes the party’s ideology as “far-left Pan-Africanist.”
“Far-left,” indeed. If political ideologies formed a circle, EFF is so far left that they’re overlapping far right. Of course, they love Trump.
As Eric Trump might say, “they’re chicks of a feather.”
See post Day 6 – Tuesday April 1 for more.
(more) Whackjobery …
Another chapter in the ongoing saga of poopaganda, poopagandists, and poopagandism.*- Get Ready for a Vaccine Information War. Social media is already filling up with misinformation about a Covid-19 vaccine, months or years before one even exists. A concerned citizen (non-poopadandist) mulls the success of the anti-vaccine poopagandists mindset and raises awareness about what could be at stake.
- Conspiracy theorists, far-right extremists around the world seize on the pandemic. Civil rights advocates have warned for months that the coronavirus could aid recruiting for the most extreme white-supremacist and neo-Nazi groups. People seizing on the pandemic range from white supremacists and anti-vaxxers in the U.S. to fascist and anti-refugee groups across Europe, according to a POLITICO review of thousands social media posts and interviews with misinformation experts tracking their online activities.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Another sunny, warm autumn/fall day. Mowed 1.5 of 5 lawns – piece of cake! Mowing is smooth since I overcame the struggles encountered the first weeks of lockdown.Smooth, expect for the occasional wheel falling off the mower. The mower was new when first I began mowing and, during my first foray, the front left wheel fell off. Since then, all four wheels have fallen off, one at a time. Today, the front left wheel fell off again.
If a wheel falls off tomorrow when I tackle lawns 3 through 5, I'll know there's a wheel-conspiracy....
Wheels notwithstanding, mowing, weeding and prepping the garden for winter is a pleasure. Full body exercise – bending, pulling, clipping, crawling – allows the mind to range and enquire.
Ongoing area of enquiry: what’s up with the U.S. Embassy’s confusing Updates on Special Repatriation Flights?
Last week I mentioned Qatar Airlines had arranged several flights from SA airports to Doha. That upon arrival in Doha, travelers would seek flights heading to the US and find their own way home.
SAA had offered a flight to Dulles, Washington D.C.
Soon after, I received another email from the Embassy stating all flights had been cancelled.
Another confusing email arrived today:
Event: The South African Ministry of Health confirmed 12,074 cases of COVID-19 within its borders.
May 16 Qatar Airways and May 17 SAA Flights
The airlines have notified us that these flights have been sold out. The airlines are working directly with customers on ticketing for the flights. These special repatriation flights are organized by the respective airlines and are not U.S. government-coordinated flights, and the U.S. Mission did not compile or prioritize the passenger lists but did work with the airlines to clear the passenger lists.
If you have a ticket booked on one of these flights and have specific questions about baggage allowance, cost, or anything specific to the flight, please contact the airline directly. Otherwise, please wait until we have coordinated with the Government of South Africa and the airline to complete the passenger list clearance process after which we will create and distribute travel letters for confirmed passengers.
You do not need to email us to request a travel letter; they will be distributed as soon as possible once the passenger list is finalized. We continue to work with airlines for repatriation opportunities for our citizen community and we hope to be able to announce upcoming opportunities in the coming days.
We want you to know that we've heard your questions and concerns as the lockdown was extended and future commercial flights continue to be canceled. We understand there is a lot of uncertainty during this time and we are doing everything we can to seek clarity and pass on the latest information we have.
We will continue to follow every lead and pursue every option for repatriating U.S. citizens to the United States.Hmmm, each time I receive an email from the Embassy, my lack of confidence in repatriation flights grows ….
Week 7: Day 43 - Thursday May 14 - “Hugging, kissing, a thing of the past!”
Ramaphosa eases lockdown to level 3 – for parts of the country - as of end of May!While some suggest the president “was vague and uncertain”, my standards aren’t as high. After all, compare the US president’s demeanor … and that of the guy who was president prior to Ramaphosa.
The current president’s update was, for me, a pleasure to see and hear. Finally, a president who is presidential! And humane. And who admits failures – and apologizes for them.
Too bad he said, “hugging and kissing is a thing of the past.”
If the opportunity presented, I would hug and kiss him for the difficult challenge he's attempting to confront!
Water, water, not everywhere
Lack of access to safe or reliable water is reality for 1 in 3 South Africans, about 20 million people. Photo essay presents views of life for too many South Africans.Imagine a dwelling for a family of, say, five South Africans with no running water and no indoor plumbing in a locked down township, informal settlement, or rural area.
Need water to drink, cook, bath, and wash hands to stay free of Covid-19?
Carry a container to the nearest communal water faucet (compromising social distancing), fill the container, carry it back to the house. (FYI: 1-gallon of water weighs 3.6 pounds; 1-liter weighs 1 kilogram.)
Need to pee or poop?
Walk to the nearest communal long-drop (ditto on compromising social distancing), walk back to your locked down house, and wash your hands using the household’s precious water.
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| © Elitsha Click to enlarge |
South Africa’s water supply was the topic of Daily Maverick’s webinar, “Water Wars: Access to water in post-Covid South Africa.”
Hosted by Mark Heywood with Xhanti Payi - economist and head of research at Nascence Advisory and Research - and Simon Gear – a leading South African climatologists and a national authority on global warming and green issues.
Takeaways:
South Africa faces overlapping crises: climate change (last year, Cape Town and the Cape metro area - population close to 5 million – run out of water); health and social welfare, and, now, Covid-19 co-morbid with virulent TB and the highest HIV rate in the world (7.7 million people in South Africa live with HIV).
Just do it!
Decades of corruption and the mismanagement of public funds has weakened the Department of Water and Sanitation’s ability to deliver access to safe and reliable water.
Minister Lindiwe Sisulu denies that access to water is an issue in South Africa, but her team has been forced to draw up emergency plans to deliver water to those most in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is time to make safe, running water an everyday reality for everyone, always.Amnesty International urges signing their petition to encourage Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.
News blues…
Is the coronavirus mutating and becoming more contagious? A recent study claims a new dominant strain of the virus could spread faster than the original. (Could does not mean will.)Day 19, April 19, I predicted it wouldn’t be long before Covid-19 presented the perfect reason to release Trump protégés and current inmates from jail. Three weeks later:
- “Paul Manafort, convicted felon and former campaign manager to President Donald Trump, has been released to home confinement amid concerns over the spread of coronavirus in prisons.
- Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and longtime fixer, currently locked up at FCI Otisville in New York, “will be released from federal prison to serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement amid the coronavirus pandemic…. He will remain under quarantine for 14 days before he is released.”
- Harvey Weinstein, convicted rapist, contracted Covid-19 in mid-March at Wende Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison east of Buffalo, NY. He’s being held in the prison's residential mental health unit, where he remains on suicide watch. (Not a Trump protégé.)
- Bill Cosby will not be granted an early prison release. “Mr. Cosby is not eligible for release under Gov. Wolf’s order since he was convicted of a violent offence (aggravated indecent assault) and was deemed a Sexually Violent Predator.” (Not a Trump protégé.)
Enquiring minds want to know….
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Yesterday’s intruder sent me on a search of crime statistics since lockdown. Initially, there was a drop in crime:Attempted murder cases dropped from 1300 to 443, rape cases fell from 2908 to 371, assault GBV cases decrease from 11 876 to 1758 and aggravated robberies fell from 6654 to 2022.Then, alas,
Carjacking crimes decreased 80.9 percent, robbery at non-residential premises decreased 65.5 percent, robbery at residents’ premises decreased by 53.8 percent.
The first week of level 4 restrictions has seen vehicle recovery activities more than double compared to the lockdown extension figures, representing a six-fold increase from the first week of lockdown to figures that are now only 35 percent lower than pre-lockdown averages. Vehicle crime activities are set to rise even further, back to the same levels or even higher as South Africans return to work and criminals resume their operations.On the other hand, neighborhood monkey incursions continue unabated.
Like troops of baboons, monkey troops post sentries to ensure youngsters are safe. Today, by mid-morning, the sentries had declared the zone safe and the troop, youngsters and all, had infiltrated the ‘hood.
My so-so video skills captured monkey antics, including an active three-legged monkey.
Day 48 - Wednesday May 13 - Whither lockdown?
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| (c) The Week Click to enlarge |
My experience of lockdown is benign inconvenience and self-enforced psycho-emotional pause; can’t swim or walk, 14,000 miles separating me from my immediate family and houseboat home, can’t book a return flight, and little to no one-on-one intellectual stimulation. In other words, except for feeling constrained, my situation is comparatively cushy.
Within a 25-mile radius of my location, people have it far worse.
Some South Africas advocate:
In the United States yesterday, Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and White House health advisor quarantined for the next two weeks, addressed US Congress from his home. He's
South Africa now has the highest rates of confirmed infections on the continent:
Worldwide confirmed cases: 4,262,055 Deaths: 291,965
South Africa confirmed cases: 11,350 Deaths: 206
US confirmed cases: 1,369,685 Deaths: 82,375
Sweden: confirmed cases: 27,275 Deaths: 3,315
Russia confirmed cases: 232,245 Deaths: 2,116
Russia’s numbers have risen dramatically and, currently, are second only to the US.
Sweden refused to institute a lockdown or stay-at-home.
*poopaganda – a quasi-genteel term (thanks, Andy) for virulent bull-s**t “truthiness” masquerading as self-empowering info.
*poopagandist – one who perpetuates poopaganda and then complains that social media is trying to silence all conservative voices.
I saw no one pursuing him.
Did he mean we six ferocious ladies?
Three of my mother’s dogs barked from the safety of the upper verandah. Deaf Scruffy slept through the incident. Two senior mutts pricked up their ears but elected to remain on the bed.
The gate at the back of the garden is looped with razor wire that offered no obstacle. The intruder scaled it and disappeared into the brush.
After calling the security company - “someone,” I was told, “was on the way” – I checked the fence. The razor wire was intact with no torn fabric or bloody flesh on the barbs.
No one from the security ever arrived.
Life under lockdown resumed.
For now.
Within a 25-mile radius of my location, people have it far worse.
Some South Africas advocate:
A “smart lockdown …targeted to protect the elderly and those with health conditions that put them at higher risk…focused on geographical areas or hotspots where the virus is uncontained. [And] stop the police and soldiers from abusing, assaulting and even killing citizens who break the lockdown laws. (It is striking to see their new-found enthusiasm for checking vehicles and stopping people from shopping or working – an enthusiasm that lacked when it came to serious criminal offences prior to the lockdown.)Other South Africans “warn that we should not allow our freedoms to be removed during the national lockdown.
“We must ensure that the economic rules are rational and I think that a lot of the decisions that have been taken don’t pass the test of rationality, what you can buy, what you can’t buy, doesn’t work… the general appeal for reasonable conduct that extends to the police and army. Also, the idea that you can only exercise for three hours a day … none of this passes the test of rationality … we need voices to speak to the National Command Council and ask …that rationality be the order of the day [with] the objective … to prevent the spread of the infection and illness.”Confusion reigns as health experts, politicians, and economist offer differing views.
In the United States yesterday, Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and White House health advisor quarantined for the next two weeks, addressed US Congress from his home. He's
… worried some states are prematurely reopening businesses and may have ‘little spikes’ in coronavirus cases that erupt into full-blown outbreaks.My cushy position allows me to follow the advice that best protects peoples’ health and prospects for health, safety and survival. For people really under the gun, it's a tougher call.
Fauci’s comments come as the virus continues to spread across the United States, infecting more than 1.3 million people and killing at least 80,684 as of Tuesday morning … health officials say the true number of cases and deaths is likely much higher as some people infected with the virus go undetected.
South Africa now has the highest rates of confirmed infections on the continent:
Of the 11,350 cases detected so far, 97 percent have occurred in four of the nine provinces, with Cape Town and the surrounding Western Cape province accounting for 54 percent.Latest numbers weigh in
The numbers may be skewed by varying testing and screening approaches and capability.
The government is still reviewing its virus response… “There are very different stages that different parts of the country are in,” Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a televised address. “There are areas that have shown no new patients, no new cases, and therefore we have to approach the issues and levels very differently.”
Worldwide confirmed cases: 4,262,055 Deaths: 291,965
South Africa confirmed cases: 11,350 Deaths: 206
US confirmed cases: 1,369,685 Deaths: 82,375
Sweden: confirmed cases: 27,275 Deaths: 3,315
Russia confirmed cases: 232,245 Deaths: 2,116
Russia’s numbers have risen dramatically and, currently, are second only to the US.
Sweden refused to institute a lockdown or stay-at-home.
Sweden's controversial plan to deal with the coronavirus allows most people to go outside, visits bars, restaurants, and shops, and keep life relatively normal as long as they try to stay distant from each other.As you mull your thoughts on easing lockdown, keep in mind:
Not everyone in Sweden is happy with the approach. But even as deaths rise, the majority seems satisfied.
A poll this week showed that just 11 percent of people in the country said they did not trust state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, who is leading the strategy.
As governments around the world plan to loosen restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus pandemic, some countries have reported a resurgence in cases — prompting fears that a new wave of infections is imminent.
… several Asian countries including China and South Korea where the coronavirus first hit, have experienced an uptick in cases after restrictions were eased. In some instances, authorities have had to reimpose measures that restrict interactions between people to once again fight the virus spread.
Public health experts — including those at the World Health Organization — have for weeks warned authorities against lifting containment measures too early, which could cause a rebound in new coronavirus cases. Meanwhile, investors and analysts said another round of lockdowns would exacerbate the damage already inflicted on the global economy.
Whackjobery unchained – cont’d…
Online poopaganda* and poopagandists* - including those of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) persuasion – “are finding out what happens when political speech collides with misinformation rules during a global pandemic” : you get shut down.*poopaganda – a quasi-genteel term (thanks, Andy) for virulent bull-s**t “truthiness” masquerading as self-empowering info.
*poopagandist – one who perpetuates poopaganda and then complains that social media is trying to silence all conservative voices.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
An intruder yesterday afternoon entered at least three neighborhood gardens. Our garden was the last and as he ran, six neighborhood women yelling at him, he shouted, “People are chasing me, they want to kill me.”I saw no one pursuing him.
Did he mean we six ferocious ladies?
Three of my mother’s dogs barked from the safety of the upper verandah. Deaf Scruffy slept through the incident. Two senior mutts pricked up their ears but elected to remain on the bed.
The gate at the back of the garden is looped with razor wire that offered no obstacle. The intruder scaled it and disappeared into the brush.
After calling the security company - “someone,” I was told, “was on the way” – I checked the fence. The razor wire was intact with no torn fabric or bloody flesh on the barbs.
No one from the security ever arrived.
Life under lockdown resumed.
For now.
Day 47 - Tuesday May 12 - Going viral
Within hours of British comedian Matt Lucas spoofing PM Boris Johnson’s recent public address, Lucas had 2.8 million views and 141,000+ likes on Twitter. One viewer stated, "This is actually clearer than what Johnson said." To date, Boris Johnson’s address has garnered 49,000+ views and jokes about Lucas' message being easier to understand. Hmmm, Johnson's fidgeting body language, rhetoric, and presentation didn’t quite nail what he attempted to emulate: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”Whackjobery unchained…
Beware these discredited online vehicles of poopaganda* :- The 26-minute “documentary,” Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind Covid-19 circulating online (not linking to it) “promotes a number of dangerous falsehoods, including that wearing a mask can make people sick” and that the novel coronavirus was purposefully created in a laboratory.
- Anything produced by American whackajob Alex Jones, and most recently, “BREAKING! President Trump Sidelines Fauci/Birx…”
Whither lockdown?
The SA government has admitted to holding back information from the public on the Covid-19 pandemic, saying it is doing so to avoid panic.
What? Adults must be protected from the truth rather than be encouraged to face it and still act responsibily? Patriarchy in action!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Another brief trip into the village today revealed people still jammed together in long lines waiting to access ATMs. This because of too-slow deliveries of the government-promised supplementary child-benefit payments. Anxious recipients must travel back-and-forth from home into town to check bank balances. Addendum to yesterday’s post re official monthly child allowance:South African President Cyril Ramaphosa recently announced a significant package of social and economic measures to address the fallout from the country’s COVID-19 lockdown. The package includes a R50 billion increase to the value of existing social grants, a new grant and delivery of food parcels to poor households. All will last for six months.
The supplementation of the grants raises the child social grant (paid to the caregivers of around 12.5 million children) to R740 per child in May 2020. From June to October 2020, child social grants will be decreased to their original amount (R440 per month) and caregivers will receive an additional R500 per month. A payment increase per caregiver means that instead of a household with three children receiving an additional R1500 per month, they will only get an additional R500 – the same amount as a family with one child.
This has been condemned by civil society groups and researchers who called for grant increases per child. All other grants will be augmented by R250 per month for six months with a special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant of R350 per month for those who are not covered by other grants or the Unemployment Insurance Fund.
The COVID-19 lockdown has clarified the gaps and insufficiencies in South Africa’s social welfare system. The initial package of relief measures was aimed at supporting households by expanding the Unemployment Insurance Fund, but as economists have shown, about 45 percent of workers are not eligible for the fund. Informal sector workers also do not qualify for Unemployment Insurance Fund, and only one in five receives income support through the child support grant.
The shortfalls leave at least 8 million people without any form of direct income support. The grant increases, alongside the new COVID-19 grant, will provide a necessary salve to poor households especially as direct food aid is weighed down by lethargic bureaucracies and accusations of corruption. (Read more.)Question: Social grant increases may help keep millions from starvation but what happens when the immediate Covid-19 crisis abates?
Autumn/fall
Feeling the news blues? The autumn/fall garden offers an antidote. |
| Swamp cypress leaves turning golden red.
Click to enlarge. |
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| Leonotis Leonurus, aka "lion's ear" and "wild dagga"
Click to enlarge |
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| Autumn/fall succulent in flower
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Day 46 - Monday May 11 - Damned if you do, damned if you don't
As grumbling against lockdown gears up, the SA government admits to holding back information from the public on the Covid-19 pandemic, saying it is doing so to avoid panic.Moreover, the ban on alcohol sales during the lockdown was meant to prevent drunken fights, reduce domestic violence, stop drunk driving, and eliminate weekend binge-drinking so prevalent across South Africa.
The ban was based up WHO data:
- Avoid alcohol or keep drinking to a minimum as alcohol weakens the immune system.
- Alcohol can cause acute respiratory distress.
- Drinking reduces a person’s ability to cope with infectious diseases
- Drinking also increases the risk of domestic violence and child abuse.
Instead, these bans have created an underground market of rampant deals. In Pietermaritzburg, KZN,
“it’s not only dodgy characters indulging in the goods offered. Those supporting it are normally law-abiding citizens and many professional people. A Weekend Witness investigation conducted this week, revealed a “dial-a-fix” network on social media with door-to-door cigarette and alcohol deliveries.
It took four minutes and 28 seconds for news reporter to find cigarettes.
A must see webinar
For no holds barred presentation of a handful of issues behind the “end lockdown” grumbling, I recommend Daily Maverick’s recent webinar, “The Inside Track: A Special Covid-19 Discussion.” Hosted by DM’s Mark Heywood with Prof Shabir Madhi, M.B.B.C.H. (Wits), FCPaeds(SA), Ph.D., Professor of Vaccinology at the University of the Witwatersrand. Prof Mahdi is also co-founder and co-Director of the African Leadership Initiative for Vaccinology Expertise (ALIVE). More on Shabir Mahdi.Biggest take away? South Africans must take personal responsibility to socially distance, wear masks, sanitize, sanitize, sanitize…
That’s great advice for anyone, not just South Africans. The implementation?
Well, we’d all live on a different Earth IF taking personal responsibility was easy.
I disagree with some points Prof Mahdi makes. (I was one vote of 22 percent webinar audience – 1,700+ - informally polled who thought Lockdown should continue.) Nevertheless, he’s clearly not a “political animal” and does not parse or hide his truth to avoid potential political fallout.
He states:
- Continuing lockdown will not stop the wave of community transmissions from hitting South Africa
- Continuing lockdown will prolong the collateral damage
- Current strategy causes more harm as people with other illnesses – TB, for example, the country’s biggest killer - battle to access basic medical tests. There has been a 50 percent reduction in tests for TB and diagnosis has been delayed.
- Current government response is “setting us up for greater mortality from non-Covid related illnesses”
- Hospitals are starting to see cases of malnutrition
- Children’s futures are being placed in jeopardy by keeping the schools closed (Data suggests healthy children (18 and under) with no other underlying health issues, run little risk of infection.)
- The country’s chances to fight the spread of community transmission has been damaged by imposing lockdown before South Africa was ready to do mass testing.
- Results of tests take up to two weeks to be released. This allows the number of contacts that must be traced to skyrocket and creates impossible workloads for health workers.
For an example of politics, political animals, and political-speak in action: “The Four Men Responsible For America’s COVID-19 Test Disaster”
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Another brief trip into the village today… and, still, people jammed together in lines waiting to access ATMs. Apparently, the government-promised supplementary child-benefit payments are slow in coming. This means anxious parents traveling back-and-forth into town to check bank balances.For the duration of lockdown, the official monthly allowance per child has increased ZAR500 (US$27), from the usual ZAR400 (US$22). Only the funds aren’t quickly being dispersed into accounts.
Housing, feeding, clothing, educating a child on the equivalent of US$50 per month – while lockdown last.
Imagine having to return to US$22/month at the end of lockdown.
Word-on-the-street reports a confirmed Covid-19 infection in a health care worker from a local hospital.
Day 45 - Sunday May 10 - Mother's Day under Pandemic
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News blues…
Last thing last night, I checked Johns Hopkins site for latest numbers of confirmed Covid-19 cases. Sobering.I expected by morning a number on or under 4 million. It’s worse: 4,025,175 - 32.5 percent of which are in the US.
Testing is the US’s latest political hot potato with Trump’s press spokesperson saying, “It’s ‘Nonsensical’ to Think Everyone Should Get a Coronavirus Test”.
Members of the Trump administration, meanwhile, are regularly tested. Two members have been confirmed with the infection and three are quarantined.
Numbers of confirmed cases in South Africa are rising too: 9,420 today, an increase of 525 overnight.
***
Former president Barack Obama, on a phone call with the Obama Alumni Association said:“This election … coming … is so important because what we’re …battling is not just a particular individual or a political party… we’re fighting … long term trends … being selfish, being tribal, being divided and seeing others as an enemy. That has become a stronger impulse in American life… we’re seeing that internationally as well.”On a lighter note, enjoy photo essays:
“It’s part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty. It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mind-set — of ‘what’s in it for me’ and ‘to heck with everybody else’ - is operationalized in our government.”
Mr. Obama has adopted a public posture of muted disapproval of his successor during his post-presidency, although he has spoken out at moments calculated to have high impact. In the weeks before the 2018 midterm elections, Mr. Obama decried “crazy stuff” happening at the Justice Department under Mr. Trump and warned that “our democracy is at stake.”
He has told friends he is deeply concerned that Mr. Trump, despite his recent stumbles, will be able to successfully leverage the bully pulpit of the presidency….
- California surf shimmers with bioluminescence
- 'Sitting at home seems wrong': NHS coronavirus volunteers – a photo essay
- Animals during the pandemic
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
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| Scruffy |
Scruffy – the half blind, fully deaf, pee-on-furniture-prone dog – sat with me.
Embraced by grass, trees, water, insects, birds, it is possible (though not easy) to clear one’s mind of worries, to enjoy being alive, despite lockdown to feel intimately part of the world.
Awareness heightens clarity, too.
In my world, acting fruitfully on decisions means getting things done, moving forward, making progress.
In my mother’s world these days, decisions are talking points, not plans of action. Fruitless planning, not implementation, is her end point. To date, every agreed upon plan to ensure her health and safety, and that of this household, has been jettisoned.
Do I have the required fortitude?
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I’ll take this dragonfly as a good omen.
My camera was inside the house when it settled on a twig. Expecting it gone when I rushed for the camera, there it was, still posing.
Thank you, dragonfly.
Day 44 - Saturday May 9 - Hope Spots
Donald Trump and the Trump Organization have a new scam: Trump-branded face masks.Trump’s reelection campaign manager tweeted images Thursday of “Keep America Great”-branded and “Trump-Pence”-branded face masks. (I'll bet they're made in China, not in America. After all, MAGA, and all that....)
The irony was not lost on many Twitter users, who pointed out the president persistently dismissed the threat of the coronavirus, leading to a severe outbreak in the United States that has claimed more than 75,000 lives. The production of these promotional masks seems a particularly absurd move given the administration’s failure to help provide adequate personal protective equipment for health care workers and Trump’s own refusal to wear a mask at events despite safety guidelines.C’est la vie Trump! Irony is not his strong suite. Instead, up is down, down is up… lie, obfuscate, fire the truth-tellers – and make as much money as you can, while you can, wherever you can, however you can. Damn the logic, morality, or consequences.
News blues…
Another Trump snippet: CNN news anchor/presenter Chris Cuomo Reveals ‘Ugly’ Reason Why Donald Trump Downplays Coronavirus Testing. “It is dishonest and destructive and it is done by design.”For Trump, it was all about hiding the truth about the pandemic, which has so far killed more than 73,000 people nationwide. The United States has more confirmed cases than any other country in the world.Covid-19 lurks
“Testing is truth because numbers are truth, and they want you to believe that COVID is going away faster than it actually it is because they believe the longer it is real, the worse it is for Trump and the election,” said Cuomo, who himself recovered from the virus last month. “The politics of forcing reopening is as obvious as it is ugly.”
It was a matter of time before the numbers of South Africa’s confirmed infections – and deaths - began to climb, and double.
Times Live reports SA's confirmed Covid-19 cases increased to 8,895, a single-day increase of 663. There were also 17 new deaths reported, taking the toll to 178.
These were the biggest single-day increases reported since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.
Of the deaths, nine were from the Western Cape, there were three each in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng, and two from KwaZulu-Natal.Are your spirits, like mine, sagging?
The provincial breakdown of cases on Thursday [May 7] was provided as:
• Western Cape — 4,497;
• Gauteng — 1,851;
• KwaZulu-Natal — 1, 253;
• Eastern Cape — 989;
• Free State — 133;
• Mpumalanga — 60;
• Limpopo — 43;
• North West — 42; and
• Northern Cape — 27.
Tough to remain an optimistic realist in the face of our world-as-we-know-it falling apart.
Change is afoot.
Under the circumstances, however, do we have leadership capable of ensuring equitable and sustainable change?
Will the coming change make our planet better for the less-than-privileged majority, or tighten the grip of a vastly over-privileged minority?
The Swamp
Every US politician seeking higher office promises to drain The Swamp and “root out corruption” in Washington, D.C.
Donald J Trump promised that, too.
Today, The Swamp of Washington, D.C., is more, not less, corruption-and-disease-ridden.
The phrase drain the swamp originally referenced the literal removal of water, replete with disease-carrying mosquitos and Egyptian crocodiles from Italy’s Pontine marshes outside Rome.
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini introduced the phrase, “drenare la palude.”
The good news? That marsh was drained between 1932 and 1934.
Take away? If it suits them, even dictators can bring about positive change.
The Donald? Hmmmm, don’t hold your breath. Positive change ain't his concern or his bent.
***
Hope SpotOn this lovely Saturday, Day 44, let’s celebrate Mission Blue’s Hope Spots.
Hope Spots are places critical to the health of our planetary environment.
Scroll down on this page for a map showing Hope Spots around the world.
In 9:47 minutes, discover Hope Spot Spitsbergen Island, in the Svalbard Archipelago. The 2,000 people-strong settlement of Longyearbyen is the northernmost inhabited place on Earth.
Watch ice divers face one of the most extreme effects of global warming.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Previous posts indicated the US Consulate in South Africa’s flip-flops regarding repatriation flights.With communication difficult in my part of rural KZN, I enlisted a friend in California to research the status of commercial airline service.
My generous friend phoned the Turkish Airline office in San Francisco. Persistence won out over listening to one dead-end voice mail after another and, imaginatively, my friend pressed the correct phone pad number for the Complaints line.
He talked to an actual and informed human being.
Yes, Turkish Airlines appears to offer sporadic commercial flights from Durban’s Shaka International. A flight is scheduled from Durban to San Francisco via Istanbul at the end of May. However, that flight is not confirmed. It depends on lockdown.
Best wait-and-see, until, at least, mid-June.
That news momentarily lifted my sagging spirits.
Then, alas, spirits sagged again at the Times news about the “biggest single-day increases reported since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country”….
Today, I’ll lift my spirits by creating a microcosmic Hope Spot: the garden and pond.
Day 43 - Friday May 8 - "We've been Zucked!"
Post for Wednesday May 6 references The Donald’s reactions to The Lincoln Project’s latest ad, Mourning in America.The saga heats up…
News blues…
The Lincoln Project recent email to subscribers:…we've been Zucked: Facebook is now censoring the ad that made Trump lose his mind.But, is it an entirely different and dangerous kind of collusion?
You're not going to believe this — not much shocks me these days, but even I had to see it with my own eyes.
But now, less than 24 hours later — as if on cue — Facebook has slapped a "false" warning label on our video, telling its users to beware…
it's no secret that Facebook has stood by and done little to nothing as lie after lie — from the Liar-In-Chief himself — runs wild on their platform.
(Oh, and let's also not forget the conspiracy theories, foreign disinformation campaigns and negligence that got Mark Zuckerberg questioned by the United States Congress. )
But, this? This is an entirely different and dangerous kind of collusion.
We are talking here about Trump administration that has, over just three years, epitomize a “different and dangerous kind of collusion”.
Mark Zuckerberg’s trend toward colluding with Trump only increases over time.
“…Mark Zuckerberg and Donald Trump appear to have struck a “mutual assistance arrangement” that will help the US president “get re-elected”, referencing Facebook’s willingness to continue publishing political adverts.Unfortunately, words, any words, uttered by George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist, are attacked, reviled, and undermined – increasingly successfully – by US hard right, nationalists, fear mongers, and the gullible. Soros is the hard right’s bogeyman.
Trump/Zuckerberg “mutual assistance arrangement”
- January 2020: President Trump says Mark Zuckerberg running for president 'wouldn't be too frightening
- December 2019: Mark Zuckerberg says there was nothing shady about secret meeting with Trump
- November 2019: Trump hosted Mark Zuckerberg for private White House dinner
- April 2019: Mark Zuckerberg says he's 'confident' about 2020 election
***
On a different note, one of humane public service, I highly recommend Daily Maverick’s free webinar “The Dual Epidemics: Looking at the overlapping and interweaving of HIV and Covid-19”, hosted by Mark Heywood.Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, discusses the lessons from the HIV pandemic that are applicable to Covid-19, whether Covid-19 presents a threat to people living with HIV-AIDS, how the spread of Covid-19 will impact Africa, how a vaccine, once created, will reach everyone who needs it, and the lessons from HIV that are applicable to the response to Covid-19.
***
A combination of events had police tightening lockdown in the KZN city of Pietermaritzburg.Today was the deadline for a six-day long once-off allowance for interprovincial travel. Judging by the crowds, too many people left that to the last minute.
According the provincial police commissioner, since 27 March, at least 18,000 people have been arrested for violating Covid-19 lockdown regulations.
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| Street scene from Pietermartizburg, May 7 2020 Click to enlarge. |
Roadblocks manned by the army and the Road Traffic Inspectorate are responding to a high volume of complaints about non-compliance.
I suspect Pensioners’ Day swelled the crowds, too. Every Tuesday and Thursday people over 60 years old get 5 percent discount off purchases.
Who wouldn’t risk Covid-19 for such a deal?
***
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
I took a breath of freedom "outside the wire"* with a plan that was (I hope) lockdown compliant: seeking giblets for my mother’s dogs at the recommended butcher in “Little Lagos.”Alas, dense crowds lined the street - no one could maintain social distance – and bringing home giblets to overfed dogs might be worth the risk of infection to some.
To me?
Not so much.
Back home, I noticed the dogs didn’t seem to mind I was giblet-free.
My mother explained their point of view: “They like Pet Mince now.”
What a relief! No dog would starve due to my selfish desire for safety!
While Pet Mince fills the dogs’ culinary breach for now, it does not mean I’m off the hook for locating a source of giblets.
Rather, it means I visit Little Lagos on non-Pensioners’ Day: Monday, Wednesday, or Friday.
(*The phrase "outside the wire" originated with US military troops locked down on military bases in Iraq during that disasterous invasion. Heavily armored troops went off base only to patrol local towns and villages. Their routes, the same day-after-day, made them frequent targets of attack.)
***
Yesterday I described an upcoming SAA repatriation flight to Dulles International in Washington, D.C. Today, I received an update from the US Consulate in South Africa: Event: The South African Ministry of Health confirmed 7,808 cases of COVID-19 within its borders.This means that every repatriation flight mentioned in the last month by the US Consulate in South Africa has been cancelled.
South African Airways Flight
It was announced that South African Airways will be required to cease all operations on May 8. Unfortunately, due to that timeline, SAA informed us that they had to move their planned flight to the U.S. to repatriate South Africans to early this morning, making it impossible for us to put U.S. citizens on the outbound leg. We know this will be very disappointing news to many of you who had hoped to participate in this flight, as it is for all of us working to make it happen.
While we will continue to inform citizens of opportunities as they arise, we have no information on any other potential repatriation flights at this time.
We have no information on when commercial flights will resume.
A news snippet, however, might shed light.
The government [and public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan] is unhappy that SAA business rescue practitioners (BRPs) spent between R30m and R35m on American consultants, while it has not yet seen any plan to save the national carrier from total collapse.This is almost like the States. There, our fearless leader and his crew put out what appear to be definitive statements one day, contradict those statements the next day, then repeat the original statement on the third day.
Gordhan said the government also wanted the BRPs to reverse their decision to put a complete halt to all SAA flights on Friday, including planes that may be required to urgently repatriate South Africans stuck in foreign countries as the world battles the Covid-19 pandemic.
"What we've had in recent days is the announcement by the practitioners that all flights, repatriation or otherwise, will stop on May 8. … the department has had a discussion with the BRPs and there's now some indication of maybe some flexibility in this regard.
To paraphrase the SAA flight captain, “Welcome to your flight. Nothing can go wrong… go wrong … go wrong….”
Week 6: Day 42 - Thursday May 7 - "This is not my beautiful life!
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Forty-two days behind a security fence. Forty-two days with insufficient aerobic exercise. Forty-two days talking to dogs, monkeys, fish, birds, bugs, crabs, and plants…
How much more of this must a gal take?
Bad case scenario?
In 42 more days, this gal pines for the good old days of Lockdown Week 1 or 2… or 6!
News blues…
Dr. Tom Frieden, the former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, laid out "10 plain truths" about Covid-19 … at a House Appropriations Committee hearing on the pandemic response.A summary of Frieden’s ten truths:
1. "It's really bad" in New York CityRead the details
2. It's "just the beginning"
3. Data is a "very powerful weapon against this virus"
4. We need to "box the virus in"
5. We must find the balance
6. Protect the "frontline heroes"
7. Protect our most vulnerable people, too
8. Governments and private companies need to work together
9. We must not neglect non-Covid health issues
10. Preparedness is paramount
***
One joy of statistics and mathematical formulae is their ability to ‘sanitize’ the human experience from the messy and unquantifiable psychological and emotional aspects. Let’s try that:
Worldwide – Confirmed infections: 3,755,379; deaths: 263,831*Turkey listed as I may fly to California via Turkish Airlines via Istanbul.
US – Confirmed infections: 1,228,603; deaths: 73,000
SA – Confirmed infections: 7,808; deaths: 153
Turkey* – Confirmed infections: 131,744 deaths: 3,584
My motto? Know the numbers and the risks.
Johns Hopkins University ranks Turkey seventh in the world for the number of confirmed infections although the actual toll, like everywhere else, is higher.
Is there a crew sanitizing the airport?
There is increasing evidence that the rise of highly infectious diseases is linked to the increasing destruction of, and human encroachment into, the natural environment. It behooves humans to understand – and mitigate – our destructive tendencies.
Start small. Understand the concentrations of carbon dioxide - CO2 – in our fragile atmosphere:
May 2, 2020: 416.82 part per million (ppm)From Mauna Loa, Hawaii. Source: NOAA-ESRL
May 2, 2019: 414.45 ppm
10 years ago: 393.18 ppm
Pre-industrial base: 280ppm
Safe level: 350ppm
Your challenge, should you choose to accept it?
Figure our what you, in your ecosystem “bubble”, can do to cut down on CO2 emissions, plastics, and non-recyclables.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
I’m far from my houseboat home but I’m secure, nourished, with adequate privacy. Still… I’m ready to return to California.I thought, briefly, about reserving a seat on a repatriation flight from South Africa to Doha, Qatar. Dates were posted, people booked flights, things looked good – except for the part about having to find one’s own way from Doha to California.
Then, last night, the US Consulate in South Africa issued a follow-up email:
Qatar Airways FlightsWhat happened?
We have received notification from Qatar Airways that all flights scheduled for May 7 and beyond have been canceled. If you have already booked a seat with Qatar Airways, please contact the airline for a refund. We have no further information on whether other repatriation flights from Qatar will be available in the future.
No one is saying…
Moreover, Americans trying to register for information on the SAA repatriation flight to Dulles, Washington D.C. get the message that the SAA website is “experiencing technical difficulties”:
“SAA has assured us that the site is up and functioning, however, they are experiencing significantly higher than expected demand.”Hmmm, this reminds me of my experience with the Department of Home Affairs in Pietermaritzburg where I tried – for five years! - to get my passport. I’d presented my fingers for prints, smiled for rhe the ID camera, and paid the fee.
After that?
Nothing.
I called to enquire about status and was told, “You didn’t pick up your document, so we sent it back to Pretoria.”
Finally, I went through the SA Embassy in Los Angeles.
I was issued a passport within six months.
Joke: the SAA flight captain welcomes passengers aboard the plane, “Shortly after takeoff, our flight crew will come around and take your cocktail orders. We look forward to getting you to your destination. Be assured nothing can go wrong… go wrong … go wrong….”Plan for Day 42? Do a giblet run….
Day 41 - Wednesday May 6 – Push back…with humor and humanity
The Lincoln Project’s latest ad is Mourning in America.Trump is attacking the Lincoln Project – thereby raising public awareness (and approval) of the ad.
The Lincoln Project creators are thrilled with the president’s reaction. A fight on the front pages of news outlets, from Fox & Friends to websites, will benefit the project, not the president.
Live and let die
I appreciate the American sense of humor and irreverence, hallmarks of American culture.
Trump and his entourage hoped to assure the public that they had things under control when they created a photo-op at a N95 mask manufacturing plant in Phoenix, Arizona.
It did not go well.
Somebody or somebodies with an irreverent sense of humor coupled with courage, unmasked (ahem!) the contradiction of those in power abusing their power.
That somebody (soon to lose her/his job?) blasted on-topic music into the warehouse, including ‘Live and Let Die’.
Of this moment,[comedian] Jimmy Kimmel tweeted: “I can think of no better metaphor for this presidency than Donald Trump not wearing a face mask to a face mask factory while the song ‘Live and Let Die’ blares in the background.”
***
Cognitive dissonance
Locked down in my security-enhanced South African home-away-from-houseboat-home (docked in California’s Sacramento Delta), I ponder cognitive dissonance: the “state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.
With the current global tally of confirmed infections at more than 3.6 million, at least one third of which are in my adopted country, and more than a quarter of a million coronavirus-related deaths, it’s weird to feel … as if I’m doing nothing.
My mother and her helper make masks, most recently for children, that I deliver. I make small online donations. I purchase the household’s groceries and related chores “outside the wire.” We four lockdownees adhere, best we can, to level 4 lockdown rules.
Yet the planet’s catastrophe “outside” feels distant, far away.
There’s enormous suffering “out there.” The incompetent leadership “out there” is too often a feature, not a bug.
We, the People, face enormous odds. I’m doing my best… but couldn’t I do more? If so, what more?
I’m caring for my microcosm.
Why does that feel like not enough?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Day 41 feels like a day to take stock.Today’s walk around the garden – waving the anti-spider-web stick – revealed:
- more weeds to pluck (check!)
- a sink-hole to top up (check!)
- a pond-weed path to tamp (check!)
- flowers and bugs to photograph (check!),
- dogs to walk and entertain (check!)
- and an earth-bound freshwater crab with whom to chat (check!).
Attempting to sell real estate after South Africa’s financial status was downgraded to BB+ - 'non-investment grade speculative' or 'junk status' – seems like a fool’s errand. (BB+ signals to potential investors an increased risk that South Africa's government might not have enough money to pay back what it borrows.)
Attempting to sell real estate during a pandemic seems like a fool’s errand.
Attempting to explain these pertinent considerations to a stubborn 87-year-old resistant to change seems futile – more so as necessary change involves terminating her relationship with seven beloved dogs.
Bogged down by seeming futility in my physical yet emotionally isolating environment, I talk on the phone with American friends. Most recent topic of conversation includes the effect of emails from the US Consulate in South Africa.
Over the past week I’ve received three such emails. Each begins:
Event: The South African Ministry of Health confirmed "xx" numbers of cases of COVID-19 within its borders. (Today "xx" = 7,572 - up 352 since yesterday.)The email continues with information on how residents can return to the US. Most recently:
- Fly Qatar Air to Doha, Qatar … and find/purchase a ticket in Doha to complete the trip home.
- Fly SAA to Washington Dulles International and find/purchase a ticket to California. (I thought SAA was bankrupt.)
Flying an almost direct flight would be nice.
Masked.
Sanitized.
Socially distanced.
But… what about my mother? her dogs? her staff? her too-large house? her too-many lawns? her piles of useless household goods? her real property? her well-being….
Today, taking stock - internal therefore uncomfortably passive - feels like a good direction.
Day 40 - Tuesday May 5 - Crisis: Danger? Or opportunity?
The Chinese word for "crisis" is composed of two Chinese characters signifying "danger" and "opportunity" respectively.The crisis facing our multicultural planet is, indeed, both danger and opportunity.
One danger is the lack of effective US leadership.
One opportunity is that We, the People actually demand leadership that is honest, direct, unequivocal, humane, generous, and firm.
Let’s assume you and I agree (as does much of the planet) that Donald J Trump fulfils none of the above leadership traits.
Who, then, could lead us out of the current crisis?
Joe Biden? Not likely.
Joe Biden is a follower, not a leader.
Joe Biden has his schtick down pat: the folksy manner sold as a man of the people; the “I’ve been in politics all my life so trust me”; the grin designed to communicate “I’m just a friendly, honest guy”, etc., etc.
We, the People are in the political, socio-cultural, and psychological fix we’re in because of, not in spite of, long-term politicians like Joe Biden (and Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, “Moscow” Mitch McConnell, and, yes, Bill and Hilary Clinton, too).
I’ve shared in this blog the anti-Trump ads produced by The Lincoln Project and Republicans for the Rule of Law because it’s a first-time phenomenon. Four decades living in the US and I’ve never seen Republicans do anything like it.
But, remember, they’re still Republicans. Republicans concerned about the damage wrought by The Donald and his crew support Joe Biden because Joe’s manageable. Joe’s politics are Republican-Lite. Joe and Republicans can live with one another because they share the same values, politics, and, often, the same donor base.
Ol’ folksy Joe may bring Republicans and Democrats together “across the aisle” but that also brings business-as-usual politics.
I’m not just a crazy locked down lady running around her garden photographing bees and sharing crazy notions.
People “out there” share these crazy notions. Meet, for example, Nathan J. Robinson, and read his full article, “Democrats, You Really Do Not Want To Nominate Joe Biden”, excerpted here:
The reason many of us are so turned off by Joe Biden is that, over the course of a many-decade career in Washington, he has let us down on the key issues when it matters most. Joe Biden has shown himself to be fundamentally weak, unreliable, and dishonest. He gets taken advantage of by Republicans, and he seems more interested in making friends than advancing Democratic ideals. Biden, ultimately, is truly “just another politician”: a guy who will give you a warm smile and then sell you out behind closed doors, a person who will make terrible decisions and grubby deals and then cover them up with lies. He adopts a “middle class” image but sucks up to the rich and powerful, and has contempt for ordinary voters and their concerns. He’s a man with little integrity or moral character, whose choices in office have caused a lot of people a lot of harm.So, what do “We the People” do?
How about dump Biden and...nominate Andrew Cuomo?
Right now, Cuomo is the proven, and now experienced, Coronavirus ‘fix it’ guy. He also happens to be the kind of control freak needed for this crisis (danger and opportunity).
Cuomo presents facts and figures in a way that a majority of people understand (including in whole thoughts and sentences - unlike the current White House incumbent).
Moreover, Cuomo delivers tough facts and figures in a lovely family-friendly style reminiscent of FDR’s Fireside Chats during the Great Depression.
Finally, Andrew Cuomo would likely either have Elizabeth Warren as his VP or ensure that her brain-power and know-how were put to work for the country.
Imagine! Competence. Efficiency. Brains. And delivery.
We, not just The People, but the whole damned planet at this time of great crisis, need a pair of qualified and humane leaders who could work well with other qualified and humane leaders.
Joe Biden? No!
Cuomo and Warren could do it… and would do it well.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Amid a global pandemic, my mother has decided, finally, to give up the excess baggage burdening her 87-year-old life. She’s agreed to forego seven dogs and their ongoing visits to vets and to forego the ongoing hunt for giblets. She's agreed to forego the too-large garden and too-numerous lawns with too-needy lawn care. She's agreed to end the long employment of two live-in domestic workers who happen, coincidentally, to have decided that Lockdown doesn’t apply to them so they can exit and enter the property at will, saying nothing to nobody.After years of vehement denunciation of retirement facilities, my mother has decided that a move to a care-giving retirement facility might, after all, better suit her needs.
I’m thrilled with this decision.
Except…
Guess who will have to carry out all the tasks to fulfil the mission?
Guess who will have to search for new homes for utterly spoiled dogs during a time people are abandoning dogs they can no longer afford?
Guess who will have to find the retirement facility that meets her mother’s stringent conditions?
Guess who will have to sell excess personal property and prep the large seven-bedroom house for sale?
Guess who will have to work out legal and financial ramifications of laying off domestic workers with a 35-year work history?
Guess who will have to find and work with a local real estate agent to attempt to sell a house during a pandemic and Level 4 Lockdown?
Guess who will have to fend off the rest of the family who, suddenly, will become “concerned” with the new plan?
You got it.
Dutiful Daughter.
Ah, yes. Crisis: Danger? Or opportunity?
Day 39 - Monday May 4 - Forty days and forty nights
We're on the cusp of 40 days into the pandemic.Periods of 40 days are significant in Earth’s creation stories.
- The book of Genesis states, “I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living thing I have made."
- After his baptism, Jesus was tempted by the devil for 40 days and nights in the Judaean Desert. Based on this, traditional Lent lasts for 40 days.
- Similar to Jesus, Buddha started his ministry fasting for 40 days and nights in the wilderness and was also tempted by evil spirits.
- Forty days was the period from the resurrection to the ascension of Jesus.
- According to some, Moses' life is divided into three 40-year segments: growing to adulthood, fleeing from Egypt; returning to Egypt to lead out his people.
- The 40th Day after death is a traditional memorial service in Islam with family gatherings, ceremonies and rituals in memory of the departed.
About 40 days into the pandemic:
- Rifle-carrying Trumpies inside Michigan’s state legislature demanded freedom.
- Conspiracy theorists protested stay-at-home orders claiming that COVID-19 is a hoax and a “dry run for communism.”
- Conservative and/or remote California counties defied stay-at-home orders.
- Californians crowded beaches.
- South African township dwellers rebelled.
In Cape Town’s crowded townships such as Khayelitsha, Nyanga and Langa infections increased by up to 173 percent last week, and in some cases shot up by well over 20 percent a day.
The Western Cape now has about 45 percent of South Africa’s confirmed Covid-19 cases and deaths.
Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal townships are defying orders, too, saying lockdown is impossible.
I talked on the phone with our gardener, locked down in Mpophemeni Township with his wife and two young children.
“It’s terrible! Terrible!” he said. “Police driving up and down the road all the time. Go out the house to buy food and they stop you. Shouting, shouting, always shouting.”
The good news is he knows of no cases of infection in his part of the township. While his relationship to gardening is not passionate – gardening is just a job where he can arrive late, leave early, and eat well in-between – he sounded almost wistful for weeds.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Crowds of people lined the streets, particularly in a section of town lined with several banks. The crowd shown here, snapped as I drove past, is a fragment of the line along the street waiting for ATM service.
After I saw these crowds, I elected to drop off masks and buy giblets later in the week.
I spent the rest of the day eradicating pond weed then recycling it as another layer for my weed-smothering path under swamp cypress.
Day 38 - Sunday May 3 - White House: Home of the Whopper
By January 2020, Donald J Trump had made 16,241 verifiably false or misleading claims. With the pandemic offering him the opportunity to outdo his own record of whoppers, he’s excelling for once.A sampler of his recent whoppers:
- Maximum Of 60,000 Deaths
During a White House briefing March 29 in the Rose Garden, Trump referenced modeling that found there could be between 1.6 million and 2.2 million fatalities in the U.S. if no containment measures were taken.(May 3, US death toll is more than 65,000.)
“If we could hold that down … so we have between 100 and 200,000, we all together have done a very good job.”
Trump moved the target again last week, predicting a maximum of 60,000 Americans would fall victim to the disease … “We did the right thing, because if we didn’t do it you would have had a million people, a million and a half people, maybe 2 million people dead… Now, we’re going toward 50, I’m hearing, or 60,000 people.”
- ‘We’ve Tested More Than Every Country Combined.’
A shortage of COVID-19 tests [is]… ultimately costing the health care system precious time. … Trump declared that “anybody that needs a test gets a test.” Dr. Anthony Fauci… contradicted the president…describing “the lack of available tests as an ongoing failure.”
Trump also promised “…individuals to be able to drive up and be swabbed without having to leave your car.” … [and that] “Google was “very quickly” developing a website for checking symptoms and locating testing sites. Instead, Google issued “a statement that said the website was in “early development”….
“We had a chance to contain this outbreak, but we didn’t,” Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, told ABC News.
“And as a result of that testing failure, over 60,000 Americans are dead and our economy has been shut down. It didn’t have to be this way.”
- There’s Plenty Of PPE For Health Care Workers
“We have masks. We have everything,” said the prez. … Pressed …about widespread accounts from health care workers of personal protective equipment shortages, Trump declared them to be “fake news.”
With dire shortages of vital supplies – protective N95 masks, gloves, gowns and face shields - health care workers have resorted to wearing trash bags or Yankees rain ponchos as gowns. In many places, doctors, nurses and other workers reuse masks that are supposed to be thrown away after a single use. In others, personnel are forced to use substandard equipment, like surgical masks that provide little protection compared to N95 masks. Health care workers are even staging GoFundMe campaigns to buy the supplies their employers aren’t providing. Some medical personnel have even been fired for speaking out against unsafe working conditions.
- A Coronavirus Vaccine Is ‘Very Close’
Feb 25: “We’re very close to a vaccine.”But, never fear, Jared Kushner is on the job. He summed it up and declared victory. “The federal government rose to the challenge. This is a great success story.”
Feb 26: “We’re rapidly developing a vaccine,”
Feb 27: “The vaccine is coming along well.”
Vaccines typically take years to develop and test and there’s always a chance that one is never developed. Dr Fauci dispelled “the president’s nonsense. A vaccine, he said … would take at least 18 months”….[and] offered a somewhat more optimistic assessment of the progress of developing a coronavirus vaccine: Immunizations could be available as soon as January. Eleven months actually would be a fast deployment for a vaccine preventing a virus that was only discovered last winter… In fact, we’ve never successfully created a vaccine for other coronaviruses.
News blues
According to the Guardian, “Trump is handling coronavirus so badly, he almost makes [Boris] Johnson look good.”We don’t need to wait for a full statistical analysis to know that Johnson has not been the worst world leader in this crisis, because we can declare a winner in that contest right now.
Each day Britons wake up to ever more jaw-dropping news from across the Atlantic. Last week, it was Donald Trump advising Americans to inject bleach. On Friday, it was his claim to have seen evidence that coronavirus was developed in a Wuhan laboratory, a claim denied by his own director of national intelligence. The shocking images of protesters wielding assault weapons storming into the state assembly in Michigan on Thursday night are hardly a surprise, given that Trump himself was tweeting “Liberate Michigan!” a matter of days ago, cheering on those who are demanding their states defy the advice of Trump’s own White House and prematurely end the lockdown that has so far proved to be the only way to stop the virus.
However bad Boris Johnson and his government of conspicuously few talents is … they can at least show a modicum of human empathy for those who’ve lost loved ones, a feat that continues to elude Trump. They have at least – eventually – united behind a coherent “stay home” message, rather than undermining that advice at every turn. They are not hawking quack cures and endorsing deranged conspiracy theories. They do not seem willing to countenance mass death in the insane belief that it will help them win an election.
It’s a low bar, but these are low times.
Going mobile?
My scheduled departure date is May 19. So far, at least half my trip – London to San Francisco - has been cancelled. Even if the first half - Johannesburg to London - isn’t cancelled, current Lockdown Level 4 rules prevent me crossing provincial borders prevents me travelling to Johannesburg.I missed the US Consulate’s deadline issued for its “last/final” repatriation flight to the US. I received another email yesterday:
We have been notified of Embassy of Qatar-coordinated repatriation flights to Doha in the coming weeks. It is not confirmed as a certainty; however, we are collecting information on prospective travelers to provide to the Qatar Embassy in the event the flights are approved.Hmmmm. Good news is "It is our understanding that travel between provinces will be permitted next week and thus no travel letter is needed."
Flight information:
- These flights will depart from Johannesburg only and will land in Doha. You must make your own onward arrangements from Doha; you will not be able to stay in Doha – only transit is allowed at this time.
- You will be responsible for finding your own transportation to either the Johannesburg airport or to a required staging area (if applicable); we are not aware of any domestic flights at this time.
- It is our understanding that travel between provinces will be permitted next week and thus no travel letter is needed.
- Currently, we do not have any further information on baggage allowances, flight cost, or specific flight times/final dates. We also do not know if business class seats will be available.
My choice? Stay here with garden, lawns, critters, and mental health discomforts… or sit in Doha airport until I can book a flight from Doha to California?
Is this Hobson’s Choice, Morton’s Fork, or Buridan’s Ass?
Hobson’s Choice: A free choice in which only one option is offered; i.e., “take it or leave it”.
Morton’s Fork: A a choice between two equally unpleasant alternatives… or two lines of reasoning that lead to the same unpleasant conclusion. It is analogous to the expression, “between the devil and the deep blue sea,” and “between a rock and a hard place”.
Buridan’s Ass is an illustration of a paradox in philosophy in the conception of free will. It refers to a hypothetical situation wherein an ass is placed precisely midway between a stack of hay and a pail of water. Since the paradox assumes the ass will always go to whichever is closer, it will die of both hunger and thirst since it cannot make any rational decision to choose one over the other. The paradox is named after the 14th century French philosopher Jean Buridan, whose philosophy of moral determinism it satirizes. (Thanks Kennon-Green.)
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
David, artist and friend based in New Mexico, posts Stare, the world’s longest-living blog. This weekly/“weakly” notes:The coronavirus is killing people faster than the living can cremate or bury them. …the solution [is] obvious: reusable, composting caskets. That would get rid of the backlog of bodies and provide fertilizer to help with the upcoming food shortages.If humans weren’t so finicky about death and dying, David’s idea could work. It aligns with Lockdown Level 4’s stipulation not to travel to attend funerals.
Perhaps it needs more fleshing (ahem!) out.
How about simply slipping bodies – with or without coffins - into compost piles? Or stuffing bodies without coffins into garden sink holes? If charity begins at home, my garden sink hole has room to stuff bodies. Moreover, if my suspicious are correct, bodies would quickly be recycled by my sink hole’s debris-consuming dragon…
(Hmmm, talking about mental health…)
Day 37 - Saturday May 2 - Saturday at the (YouTube) movies
Tired of fighting your ever-present family members for a spot on the sofa to watch TV reruns? Ready for an interlude? Microwave up the popcorn, here’s…The Lincoln Project:
Forced Retirement | Dystopia | Fox and Friends
Intermission (go refill popcorn and soda)
Brought to you by Republicans for the Rule of Law:Donald Trump: Unfit. Unwell. Unacceptable | Everybody Should Be Able to Vote Safely
…from Randy Rainbow
All about his base | A spoonful of Clorox | That Don! | Randy Rainbow - pro-Cuomo |
| Scene from Coneheads - prescient? |
Coneheads: Trailer 1 | Coneheads: Trailer 2
Credits:
The Lincoln Project is an American political action committee formed in late 2019 by several prominent Republicans with the goal of preventing the reelection of Donald Trump in 2020.
The Lincoln Project holds accountable those who would violate their oaths to the Constitution and would put others before Americans.
Republicans for the Rule of Law is the principal initiative of the conservative, anti-Donald Trump political group Defending Democracy Together, founded by Bill Kristol, Mona Charen, Linda Chavez, Sarah Longwell, and Andy Zwick in 2019.
These life-long Republicans, dedicated to defending the institutions of our republic and upholding the rule of law, are fighting to ensure laws apply equally to everyone, from the average citizen to the president of the United States. The group believes in fidelity to the Constitution, transparency, and the truth
(The small print: I am NOT a Republican - nor a Democrat. Rather, I’m astonished that Republicans like these two groups ARE THE ONLY MEMBERS OF POWERFUL ELITES publicly calling for sanity in an insane time. Looking at you, Democrats!)
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
The lawn calls. I’m mowing today.Plus, I plan to carry my camera outside the fence near the stream.
Who knows what wildlife lurks out there?
Day 36, Friday May 1 – May Day Mayday!
“Mayday” is used around the world to radio distress calls. Londoner Frederick Mockford, came up with the word because “mayday" sounds like the French word m'aider, “help me”.
USA is the only country in the world that does not officially recognize workers by celebrating May Day on 1 May. This, despite the holiday commemorating the Haymarket Riot of 1886, in Chicago (Illinois, USA!).
Given the pandemic, no May Day 1st celebration this year would make sense. Yet, in Donald Trump’s upside-down world, he’s using the Defense Production Act to force meat-packing facilities to remain open...and expose workers to Covid-19. (Then again, he loves his hamberders! )
Moreover, he and his sidekick enabler Mitch McConnell “support limiting the liabilities of employers who order their employees back to work so that they can’t get sued if their employees get sick.”
Mayday for workers, indeed!
Still in upside-down world, pro-Trump group plans to hold car rallies to “drive for freedom” and protest against pandemic lockdown measures and stay-at-home orders.
Why? Because
Today, “a few” consists of:
3,274,750 confirmed cases of Covid-19 around the world, 1,097,035 of which are in the US – the highest rate in the world.
Global deaths at 233,795 with US deaths at 63,905.
I’m positively giddy! At last I can, again, spend hours online obsessing over the news!
…evidence of a drop in underwater noise pollution has led experts to predict the [pandemic] crisis may be good news for whales and other sea mammals.
David Barclay… examined sound power – a way of measuring “loudness” from two sites, one inland and one farther offshore…[and] found a significant drop in noise from both.
Birds enjoy a quieter world, too. But the long-term for wildlife looks bleak.
The biggest assessment of global insect abundances to date shows a worrying drop of almost 25% in the last 30 years, with accelerating declines in Europe that shocked scientists.
The vast illegal wildlife trade and humanity’s excessive intrusion into nature is to blame for the coronavirus pandemic, according to a leading US scientist who says, “this is not nature’s revenge, we did it to ourselves”.
25 April 2020: 415.88 ppm
This time last year: 413.71 ppm
10 years ago: 393.25 ppm
Pre-industrial base: 280
Safe level: 350
Source: NOAA-ESRL
“The garden seduces me,” he say. “I’ll get out there at 9am and next thing I know it’s 7pm … gardening takes your mind off things. Everybody should have a garden to cultivate.”
Lockdown hasn’t been the challenge I’d expected because of the garden. Days zip by even when Internet access doesn’t distract.
As I’ve stated many times, I’m paying more attention to details previously taken for granted.
USA is the only country in the world that does not officially recognize workers by celebrating May Day on 1 May. This, despite the holiday commemorating the Haymarket Riot of 1886, in Chicago (Illinois, USA!).
Given the pandemic, no May Day 1st celebration this year would make sense. Yet, in Donald Trump’s upside-down world, he’s using the Defense Production Act to force meat-packing facilities to remain open...and expose workers to Covid-19. (Then again, he loves his hamberders! )
Moreover, he and his sidekick enabler Mitch McConnell “support limiting the liabilities of employers who order their employees back to work so that they can’t get sued if their employees get sick.”
Mayday for workers, indeed!
Still in upside-down world, pro-Trump group plans to hold car rallies to “drive for freedom” and protest against pandemic lockdown measures and stay-at-home orders.
Why? Because
"America cannot destroy the lives and dreams of the majority to protect a few. The cure cannot be more dangerous than the disease. We risk losing who we are as a nation by completely shutting down the country and the economy."
Today, “a few” consists of:
3,274,750 confirmed cases of Covid-19 around the world, 1,097,035 of which are in the US – the highest rate in the world.
Global deaths at 233,795 with US deaths at 63,905.
***
At 3:43am this morning I discovered a reactivated Internet. I’m positively giddy! At last I can, again, spend hours online obsessing over the news!
News blues
Sea mammals……evidence of a drop in underwater noise pollution has led experts to predict the [pandemic] crisis may be good news for whales and other sea mammals.
David Barclay… examined sound power – a way of measuring “loudness” from two sites, one inland and one farther offshore…[and] found a significant drop in noise from both.
“Generally, we know underwater noise …has effects on marine mammals….There has been a consistent drop in noise since 1 January… up to 1 April.”…. Economic data…showed a drop of around 20% in exports and imports over the same period, he said.Birds…
… The reduction in ship traffic in the ocean, which Barclay compares to a “giant human experiment”, has had scientists racing to find out the effect on marine life.
“We are facing a moment of truth,” said Michelle Fournet, a marine acoustician at Cornell University, who studies humpback whales in south-east Alaska. “We have an opportunity to listen – and that opportunity to listen will not appear again in our lifetime.”
Birds enjoy a quieter world, too. But the long-term for wildlife looks bleak.
Nikki Williams, head of campaigns at the Wildlife Trusts, said: “The current crisis means nature is losing out, because many organisations are having to scale back important work caring for special places, which they usually do with the vital help of thousands of volunteers.”Insects…
… valuable habitats … need continual management to ensure they do not turn back into scrub….{Nevertheless] “One noticeable phenomenon of late has been the daily chorus of birdsong…. [T]he current lack of noise might indeed be helping singing birds to be heard by potential mates and rivals, thus increasing their breeding success.
Mathew Frith, of the London Wildlife Trust, said: “Many of our birds, such as the robin, wren, chiffchaff, skylark and meadow pipit, nest on or close to the ground, and so are easily flushed by dogs. With parks so much quieter than usual, these species may do well this spring.”
The RSPB also notes that the lack of people visiting the seaside will help shore-nesting species such as little terns and ringed plovers, which are especially prone to being disturbed by holidaymakers.
The biggest assessment of global insect abundances to date shows a worrying drop of almost 25% in the last 30 years, with accelerating declines in Europe that shocked scientists.
The analysis combined 166 long-term surveys from almost 1,700 sites and found that some species were bucking the overall downward trend. In particular, freshwater insects have been increasing by 11% each decade following action to clean up polluted rivers and lakes. However, this group represent only about 10% of insect species and do not pollinate crops.Humans...
Researchers said insects remained critically understudied in many regions, with little or no data from South America, south Asia and Africa. Rapid destruction of wild habitats in these places for farming and urbanisation is likely to be significantly reducing insect populations, they said.
Insects are by far the most varied and abundant animals, outweighing humanity by 17 times, and are essential to the ecosystems humanity depends upon. They pollinate plants, are food for other creatures and recycle nature’s waste.
The previous largest assessment, based on 73 studies, led scientists to warn of “catastrophic consequences for the survival of mankind” if insect losses were not halted. Its estimated rate of decline was more than double that in the new study. Other experts estimate 50% of insects have been lost in the last 50 years.
The research, published in the journal Science, also examined how the rate of loss was changing over time. “Europe seems to be getting worse now – that is striking and shocking. But why that is, we don’t know,” said van Klink. In North America, the declines are flattening off, but at a low level.
…“we know from our results that the expansion of cities is bad for insects because every place used to be more natural habitat… This is happening in east Asia and Africa at a rapid rate. In South America, there is the destruction of the Amazon. There’s absolutely no question this is bad for insects and all the other animals there. But we just don’t have the data.”
Losses of insects are driven by habitat destruction, pesticides and light pollution. The impact of the climate crisis was not clear in the research, despite obvious local examples.
Van Klink…highlighted another study showing that rising carbon dioxide levels are reducing the nutrients in plants and significantly cutting grasshopper abundances on prairies in Kansas, US. ”That is absolutely shocking, because that could be happening all over the world.”
“We definitely have a lot of reason for concern, but I don’t think it’s too late…we can reverse these trends.”
The vast illegal wildlife trade and humanity’s excessive intrusion into nature is to blame for the coronavirus pandemic, according to a leading US scientist who says, “this is not nature’s revenge, we did it to ourselves”.
Scientists are discovering two to four new viruses are created every year as a result of human infringement on the natural world, and any one of those could turn into a pandemic, according to Thomas Lovejoy, who coined the term “biological diversity” in 1980 and is often referred to as the godfather of biodiversity.Air…
“This pandemic is the consequence of our persistent and excessive intrusion in nature and the vast illegal wildlife trade, and in particular, the wildlife markets, the wet markets, of south Asia and bush meat markets of Africa… It’s pretty obvious, it was just a matter of time before something like this was going to happen,” said Lovejoy, a senior fellow at the United Nations Foundation and professor of environment science at George Mason University.
His comments were made to mark the release of a report by the Center for American Progress arguing that the US should step up efforts to combat the wildlife trade to help confront pandemics.
Wet markets are traditional markets selling live animals (farmed and wild) as well as fresh fruit, vegetables and fish, often in unhygienic conditions. They are found all over Africa and Asia, providing sustenance for hundreds of millions of people. The wet market in Wuhan believed to be the source of Covid-19 contained a number of wild animals, including foxes, rats, squirrels, wolf pups and salamanders.
Lovejoy said separating wild animals from farmed animals in markets would significantly lower the risk of disease transmission. This is because there would be fewer new species for viruses to latch on to. “[Domesticated animals] can acquire these viruses, but if that’s all there was in the market, it would really lower the probability of a leak from a wild animal to a domesticated animal.”
“The name of the game is reducing certain amounts of activity so the probability of that kind of leap becomes small enough that it’s inconsequential. The big difficulty is that if you just shut them down – which in many ways would be the ideal thing – they will be topped up with black markets, and that’s even harder to deal with because it’s clandestine.”
The pandemic will cost the global economy $1trillion this year, according to the World Economic Forum, with vulnerable communities impacted the most, and nearly half of all jobs in Africa could be lost.
Lovejoy said, “This is not nature’s revenge, we did it to ourselves. The solution is to have a much more respectful approach to nature, which includes dealing with climate change and all the rest.”
Leonardo Setti and his team at the University of Bologna in Italy have detected coronavirus in particles of air pollution. They’re investigating “if the virus could be carried more widely by air pollution…. Two other research groups have suggested air pollution particles could help coronavirus travel further in the air.Setti’s team suggests higher levels of particle pollution could explain higher rates of infection in parts of northern Italy before a lockdown was imposed. …The region is one of the most polluted in Europe.…Previous studies have shown that air pollution particles do harbour microbes and that pollution is likely to have carried the viruses causing bird flu, measles and foot-and-mouth disease over considerable distances.The potential role of air pollution particles is linked to the broader question of how the coronavirus is transmitted. Large virus-laden droplets from infected people’s coughs and sneezes fall to the ground within a metre or two. But much smaller droplets, less than 5 microns in diameter, can remain in the air for minutes to hours and travel further.Experts are not sure whether these tiny airborne droplets can cause coronavirus infections, though they know the 2003 Sars coronavirus was spread in the air and that the new virus can remain viable for hours in tiny droplets.But researchers say the importance of potential airborne transmission, and the possible boosting role of pollution particles, mean it must not be ruled out without evidence.Prof Jonathan Reid at Bristol University in the UK is researching airborne transmission of coronavirus. “It is perhaps not surprising that while suspended in air, the small droplets could combine with background urban particles and be carried around.”He said the virus had been detected in tiny droplets collected indoors in China.Setti said tiny droplets between 0.1 and 1 micron may travel further when coalesced with pollution particles up to 10 microns than on their own. This is because the combined particle is larger and less dense than the droplet and can remain buoyed by the air for longer. … The pollution particle is like a micro-airplane and the passengers are the droplets.”
Reverse these numbers…
Atmospheric CO2 weekly readings from Mauna Loa, Hawaii (part per million) on25 April 2020: 415.88 ppm
This time last year: 413.71 ppm
10 years ago: 393.25 ppm
Pre-industrial base: 280
Safe level: 350
Source: NOAA-ESRL
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Meet Ron Finley, my new hero, aka LA’s “gangsta gardener”.“The garden seduces me,” he say. “I’ll get out there at 9am and next thing I know it’s 7pm … gardening takes your mind off things. Everybody should have a garden to cultivate.”
[F]or Finley, gardening isn’t about producing the perfect floral pom-pom, it’s about growing people. Planting is his unusual form of protest, and having a garden stuffed full of beautiful plants and vegetables is a byproduct of that.Like Finley, I’ve found gardening a joy any time and during lockdown it's a joyful lifesaver. Even mowing the lawn - which I did again today. Happy to report it's getting easier.
To many, this will seem a surprising way to rebel, but Finley lives in what he calls a “food prison”. South Central Los Angeles is a predominantly black and Latino neighbourhood known for liquor stores, vacant lots, drive-throughs and drive-bys. Due to its favourable climate this should be the market garden of America but home-grown produce is an alien concept to many.
Lockdown hasn’t been the challenge I’d expected because of the garden. Days zip by even when Internet access doesn’t distract.
As I’ve stated many times, I’m paying more attention to details previously taken for granted.
The pandemic is a mixed blessing, but it is also a blessing….
Under normal circumstances, I’d pack up my laptop and relocate to a local café where Internet access comes with a cup of coffee and a cream scone.
Under pandemic conditions, cafés are closed – and I’m counting hours and minutes on fingers and toes.
Internet withdrawal. Forced by circumstances to refrain from Trump bashing.
But bashing is Trump’s bread and butter. Who is his latest victim?
Is Dr Fauci still around?
Dr Birx?
What's Bheki Cele up to?
Has Jared saved the world yet?
Enquiring minds want to know.
Yesterday, one live-in domestic worker reported a member of her extended family had died quickly and unexpectedly. She had no details about the cause of death. New lockdown rules mandate no travelling to attend funerals.
Wrapped in worry, I barely noticed two early bird hahdidahs catching early worms on the lawn.
Pandemic consciousness has elevated the once-ordinary to the now-extraordinary and I leaped for my camera. Clumsily, I snuck to the window…and alarmed both hahdidahs.
They took off to settle on the lower lawn.
I crept outside, checked my gumboots for spiders before pulling them on, set the camera to video, and filmed … recording only distinctive hahdidah cries and tail feathers.
Thanks to lockdown, I’m reminded that life lives – and I’m part of it.
My mother buys bulk packaged giblets from a big-box store to feed her dogs.
Giblet procurement, once easy, has become increasingly difficult. Giblets are an affordable food for financially stressed, hungry humans.
Before she was advised to stop driving, my mother purchased, every three months, dozens of packs of frozen giblets she stored in two dedicated chest freezers. She also purchased a case of six 2-liter bottles of her favorite wine. She transported these in her economy-size Toyota Yaris hatchback, along with three dogs she delivered, and picked up afterwards, to “their favorite groomer.” (One was Scruffy: blind in one eye, deaf, emitting a one-tone bark every 7 to 9 seconds. Yes, I timed him.)
Giblet and wine purchasing, and doggie delivery/pick up became tasks of Dutiful Daughter. At first, this enterprise appealed to my sense of the ridiculous and I made several runs.
Then I balked.
Forty-five minutes driving a Yaris chock-a-block with frozen food, a case of wine, 3 uncaged dogs, and my mother in the passenger seat in a country with among the world’s highest rates of road fatalities?
No. No. And no.
I retrieved my mother’s decades-old made-in-China Chana bakkie (pick-up) and, before returning to California, made one last wine-and-giblet run. Side trip to the doggie groomer not included.
My wonderful liveaboard California lifestyle reminded me how much I enjoyed life and, by my January return to South Africa, I’d decided against further death-defying giblet-jaunts in the Chinese Chana.
But, big question: with giblet supplies running low in the chest freezers, where to buy more?
Lockdown complicates the giblet hunt
The big-box store's online shop sells and delivers only non-perishables.
The local butchery (“too expensive,” says my mother) sells only gizzards, no giblets, nor can they locate any.
The local grocery store sells only Pet Mince.
My mother explains that her dogs (IMHO, all “pavement specials” that is, mongrels) “don’t like” gizzards or Pet Mince.
My internal conversation? “Tough shit. These days, people eat giblets. Let the damned dogs sacrifice!”
Nevertheless, Dutiful Daughter drives to the veterinary clinic to purchase salve for a dog’s skin irritation. I asked the receptionist if she knew where to purchase giblets.
Miraculously, she had a friend with “pure breed dogs” that eat only giblets.
Back home, I called this friend and, yes, indeed, she could recommend a butcher who specializes in “halal and other odd things like giblets.”
Location of his butchery? “Little Lagos.”
Four roosted atop a distant electrical pylon.
Hadidah ibis frequently roost on the pylons bordering this property. Woolly neck storks occasionally roost there, too. I’ve never spotted Egyptian Geese on this pylon.
Enquiring minds
Do Egyptian Geese boycott the closer pylon? Or, have hahdidahs somehow insulted Egyptian Geese and created a rift? Vice versa?
Does pecking order decree different roosting spots for different birds?
Do birds of a feather flock together to intimidate birds of a different feather?
The wonderful sound of dozens of wings whirring overhead draws my attention to the communication between those aloft and those earthbound.
With his birds flying in high circles, the sedentary human below waves a black flag.
Then, the human lays down the flag, and, slowly, perhaps reluctantly, the birds return to the coop.
How did this language develop? Which came first: the egg or the flag?
Perhaps lockdown will gift me an opportunity to inquire into the ways of bird and man.
Meanwhile, the mysteries of not knowing….
I try to insist my mother eat a daily serving of vegetables and a fruit/yogurt/olive oil-based smoothie. Insisting works less than half the time.
The domestic workers cook for themselves – and for the gardener when he’s here.
I cook for myself and recycle what I can, from coffee grounds - sprinkled on acidic-soil-loving roses, avocado trees, hydrangeas – to food waste.
I carried out the fortnightly composting today, starting with repacking the sink hole with garden clippings. This hole has an endless capacity for garden debris – unless it’s home to a garden-debris-consuming dragon?
After the sink hole, I moved Stage 3 material – mature compost – into the garden. I moved Stage 2 material – almost composted food scraps - into Stage 3. Then I moved Stage 1 material - fresh food waste – into the Stage 2 receptacle, and covered and wired it shut, out of reach of curious monkeys and hungry scavengers.
Finally, I weeded the entire area to discourage seeding of black jacks and invasive khaki weeds.
Another successful lockdown completed - two days sans Internet - with sanity intact.
Week 5: Day 35 - Thursday April 30 - Chomping at the 'net
Twenty-four more hours without Internet.Under normal circumstances, I’d pack up my laptop and relocate to a local café where Internet access comes with a cup of coffee and a cream scone.
Under pandemic conditions, cafés are closed – and I’m counting hours and minutes on fingers and toes.
Internet withdrawal. Forced by circumstances to refrain from Trump bashing.
But bashing is Trump’s bread and butter. Who is his latest victim?
Is Dr Fauci still around?
Dr Birx?
What's Bheki Cele up to?
Has Jared saved the world yet?
Enquiring minds want to know.
***
Scan of my cell phone reports 4,546 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in South Africa (and increase of 185) with 88 deaths; 168,643 tests performed.
***
Laptop open, I sipped my morning coffee and ponder the pandemic. Yesterday, one live-in domestic worker reported a member of her extended family had died quickly and unexpectedly. She had no details about the cause of death. New lockdown rules mandate no travelling to attend funerals.
Wrapped in worry, I barely noticed two early bird hahdidahs catching early worms on the lawn.
Pandemic consciousness has elevated the once-ordinary to the now-extraordinary and I leaped for my camera. Clumsily, I snuck to the window…and alarmed both hahdidahs.
They took off to settle on the lower lawn.
I crept outside, checked my gumboots for spiders before pulling them on, set the camera to video, and filmed … recording only distinctive hahdidah cries and tail feathers.
Thanks to lockdown, I’m reminded that life lives – and I’m part of it.
A saga of giblets
Giblets are what’s left of chicken carcasses after removing the choice bits – breasts, thighs, drumsticks, etc.My mother buys bulk packaged giblets from a big-box store to feed her dogs.
Giblet procurement, once easy, has become increasingly difficult. Giblets are an affordable food for financially stressed, hungry humans.
Before she was advised to stop driving, my mother purchased, every three months, dozens of packs of frozen giblets she stored in two dedicated chest freezers. She also purchased a case of six 2-liter bottles of her favorite wine. She transported these in her economy-size Toyota Yaris hatchback, along with three dogs she delivered, and picked up afterwards, to “their favorite groomer.” (One was Scruffy: blind in one eye, deaf, emitting a one-tone bark every 7 to 9 seconds. Yes, I timed him.)
Giblet and wine purchasing, and doggie delivery/pick up became tasks of Dutiful Daughter. At first, this enterprise appealed to my sense of the ridiculous and I made several runs.
Then I balked.
Forty-five minutes driving a Yaris chock-a-block with frozen food, a case of wine, 3 uncaged dogs, and my mother in the passenger seat in a country with among the world’s highest rates of road fatalities?
No. No. And no.
I retrieved my mother’s decades-old made-in-China Chana bakkie (pick-up) and, before returning to California, made one last wine-and-giblet run. Side trip to the doggie groomer not included.
My wonderful liveaboard California lifestyle reminded me how much I enjoyed life and, by my January return to South Africa, I’d decided against further death-defying giblet-jaunts in the Chinese Chana.
But, big question: with giblet supplies running low in the chest freezers, where to buy more?
Lockdown complicates the giblet hunt
The big-box store's online shop sells and delivers only non-perishables.
The local butchery (“too expensive,” says my mother) sells only gizzards, no giblets, nor can they locate any.
The local grocery store sells only Pet Mince.
My mother explains that her dogs (IMHO, all “pavement specials” that is, mongrels) “don’t like” gizzards or Pet Mince.
My internal conversation? “Tough shit. These days, people eat giblets. Let the damned dogs sacrifice!”
Nevertheless, Dutiful Daughter drives to the veterinary clinic to purchase salve for a dog’s skin irritation. I asked the receptionist if she knew where to purchase giblets.
Miraculously, she had a friend with “pure breed dogs” that eat only giblets.
Back home, I called this friend and, yes, indeed, she could recommend a butcher who specializes in “halal and other odd things like giblets.”
Location of his butchery? “Little Lagos.”
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
The distinctive breathless quacking and hissing of Egyptian Geese had me scanning the area with binoculars.Four roosted atop a distant electrical pylon.
Hadidah ibis frequently roost on the pylons bordering this property. Woolly neck storks occasionally roost there, too. I’ve never spotted Egyptian Geese on this pylon.
Enquiring minds
Do Egyptian Geese boycott the closer pylon? Or, have hahdidahs somehow insulted Egyptian Geese and created a rift? Vice versa?
Does pecking order decree different roosting spots for different birds?
Do birds of a feather flock together to intimidate birds of a different feather?
***
Lockdown gifts humans with time, and my neighbor spends his racing pigeons. The wonderful sound of dozens of wings whirring overhead draws my attention to the communication between those aloft and those earthbound.
With his birds flying in high circles, the sedentary human below waves a black flag.
Then, the human lays down the flag, and, slowly, perhaps reluctantly, the birds return to the coop.
How did this language develop? Which came first: the egg or the flag?
Perhaps lockdown will gift me an opportunity to inquire into the ways of bird and man.
Meanwhile, the mysteries of not knowing….
***
I suspect when I’m afloat on my houseboat, my mother convinces the domestic workers to provide only her preferred cuisine: multiple snacks of Rooibos tea and Romany Cream biscuits and Jungle Oats for lunch and dinner. I try to insist my mother eat a daily serving of vegetables and a fruit/yogurt/olive oil-based smoothie. Insisting works less than half the time.
The domestic workers cook for themselves – and for the gardener when he’s here.
I cook for myself and recycle what I can, from coffee grounds - sprinkled on acidic-soil-loving roses, avocado trees, hydrangeas – to food waste.
I carried out the fortnightly composting today, starting with repacking the sink hole with garden clippings. This hole has an endless capacity for garden debris – unless it’s home to a garden-debris-consuming dragon?
After the sink hole, I moved Stage 3 material – mature compost – into the garden. I moved Stage 2 material – almost composted food scraps - into Stage 3. Then I moved Stage 1 material - fresh food waste – into the Stage 2 receptacle, and covered and wired it shut, out of reach of curious monkeys and hungry scavengers.
Finally, I weeded the entire area to discourage seeding of black jacks and invasive khaki weeds.
Another successful lockdown completed - two days sans Internet - with sanity intact.
Day 34 - Wednesday April 29 - No 'net, no posts!
Catching up on late post for Wednesday April 29
Yesterday, Monday April 27, was Freedom Day in South Africa.
Under normal conditions, Freedom Day is a public holiday to celebrate and commemorate the first post-apartheid elections held on April 27, 1994.
Freedom Day during Level 5 Lockdown seems like an oxymoron.
Perhaps it’s the public holiday…or Midlands weather – cold and wet – or the Lockdown Blues… or Trump Fatigue…or that we've blown passed 3 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 - one third of which are in the US ....that makes today’s post shorter than usual.
Before closing, this US state-by-state guideline may help you plan your day.
Regarding my homestate of California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state is not prepared "to open up large sectors of our society" but made the first modification to the state's stay-at-home order with the resumption of "essential" surgeries.
Perfect for plants, fine for fish, dismal for dogs, and lousy for lockdownees….
These days, even his handlers urge him away from the podium.
They fail, however, to confiscate his cell phone. Over the weekend he went on a Tweet tirade
“Out, damned spot,” says Lady Macbeth as she washes invisible blood from her hands. “Out, I say! - One: two: why, then, 'tis time to do't. Hell is murky! ...afeared? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?”
In this scene, Shakespeare communicates Lady Macbeth’s internal attitude to her despicable actions brought on by overweening ambition. And to abuse of power by the powerful.
Lady Macbeth’s conscience still flickered.
The Donald’s? Not so much.
He wallows in abusing his power . Moreover, he proudly tells the world that his decisions come from his “gut” and his “very, very large brain.”
Do you see either gut or large brain at work in this clip of Trump promoting the injection of disinfectant into the human body?
The clip shows me a desperately deluded individual aiming to go down in history as The Guy with the Definitive Cure.
As this gaff becomes a universal meme, The Donald is back-pedaling, claiming, “It was sarcasm.” (Sheesh, can’t you take a joke?)
Sarcasm?
During a pandemic that has, to date, killed upward of 50,000 Americans?
Astoundingly, some diehard Trumpies believe him.
Kudos to the 100+ Maryland residents who’d like to believe him but decided to ask actual experts before following the deadly advice.
Of the “big problem” in Trump’s response, former Trump officials say:
Then there are the pesky Americans (gotta be Democrats and socialists) who left a pile of newspaper-stuffed body bags outside Trump’s D.C. hotel.
Their message? “Most of the country believes in science….”
Music soothes ... and, during a pandemic, can lighten the load. The firefighter (left) gets it. He's playing his trumpet to lighten the load for residents locked down in Quito, Ecuador. Enjoy these, too:
Detergent suds in the stream appear in the garden pond a few times a month.
Someone in the ‘hood is doing what residents near Howick Falls do: use public waterways to wash laundry.
I’m almost certain they’re not pin-tailed whydah.
The whydah is a handsome bird – at least with his seasonal breeding plumage, as shown below.
The seasonal appearance of his tail must boost his confidence because, during this time, he chases, pecks, and bullies his feathered colleagues.
After his tail feathers drop off, he turns back into a small black and white bird… and the bully becomes the bullied.
From possible money laundering to loans coming due, life’s going to get interesting for the guy who too often gets away with bad chit!
Those of us who follow the prez, know he’s up to his orange hair in various money schemes.
Now We the People (at least, those of us who care) discover that Trump owes tens of millions to the Bank of China – and the loan is coming due:
Usually not a head-in-sand kind of person, I admit existential pain kept me from looking too closely at the toll of ongoing poaching, hunting, and trafficking of wild animal and the devastation of our communal oceans.
Last week I joined the Daily Maverick webinar, Earth Day: Nature and Societal Reset in the Age of Covid-19. Presenter Linda Tucker clued me into what was happening with lion bones … and lions, and tigers, and bears….
It ain’t pretty.
Serendipitously, soon after the webinar, I received an email from Dear South Africa, a policy shaping outreach organization to which I subscribe. Dear South Africa encourages citizen participation in governmental propositions. (If you are South African, sign up )
This time, it asked citizens: Do you support the draft amendment to the Meat Safety Act?
I read the information then, not one to hold back, I responded:
Who knows if easing will make much of a difference in the here and now. Long term, however, lockdown has gifted me with the time to truly notice the ongoing lives around me: birds, bugs, fish, fowl, primates, plants. I noticed and appreciated these lives before but this time around, the joy of just sitting, listening, and watching has been a luxury.
This frog (Common Striped River Frog?) popped out the pond and posed for me.
I titled it, "Pond Creature Takes a Breather."
Far away in Florida, endangered sea turtles agree that Covid-19 has an upside.
They're taking a breather, too.
Monkey dream
I dreamed an ill neighborhood monkey placed herself in my care.
I wrapped the wild creature in a blanket and felt her furry forehead for fever.
We stared into one another’s eyes...and we saw one another. Fellow creatures.
The dream ended there but the feelings evoked have not ended. I hope they don’t.
I’ve re-dedicated to following the knowledge with which I’ve been gifted. Oh, the existential pain will be there, but my personal pain is nothing compared to that foisted upon our living planet by thuggery, greed, and ignorance.
World confirmed cases: 2,709,408
US confirmed cases: 869,172
SA confirmed cases: 3,953
Week 1: Monday March 30
World confirmed cases: 735,560
US confirmed cases: 143,055
SA confirmed cases: 1,280
This stimulates apparently asymptomatic people in the “gen pop” to claim non-specific illnesses they suffered in September and October to have been Covid-19. (“Gen pop”: my lockdown appropriation of the prison term for “general population”)
Handy COVID Toes as clue:
Dermatologists say looking at a person’s feet may be a handy way of seeing if someone has the coronavirus.
Otherwise asymptomatic people are reporting the presence of painful purplish lesions on their toes.
“Jessica,” I told one dog late yesterday afternoon, “should I carry the camera?”
Jessica didn’t answer and, as I passed the study, I decided, “Nah, I’ve carried it around all day without much success….”
How wrong I was.
After 11 days with sighting nary a goldfish fin, I saw four healthy goldfish!
I dashed inside for the camera while assuming the fish would flee. Just in case, I grabbed the sack of fish food, too.
A thrill a minute: the fish were still visible!
Tossing fish food, I shot this short (unedited) video segment…
Hardly camera shy, the goldfish flitted back and forth, their bright colors flashing.
Perhaps, tomorrow when I try to cajole them out with more fish food, I’ll toss in several fish-sized water-camo colored cloaks, too.
Wearing water-camo cloaks over their gorgeous goldfish bodies and fins might disguise them from hungry kingfishers….
Remember Trump saying, "[Hydroxychloroquine has] been out there for a long time. Try it. What have you got to lose? I hope they use it."
He added, "I may take it. I have to ask my doctors."
Needless to say, the self-confessed germophobe neither asked his doctors nor took it.
Trump was 100 percent correct when he said about the drug for treating coronavirus. “I think it could be a game changer.”
Game changer, indeed.
For weeks Dr. Fauci has stressed the lack of scientific evidence to back up any potential treatment, and this new document, which includes the expertise of more than a dozen federal agencies and professional groups, underscores his reasoning.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced Missouri is suing the Chinese government and other top institutions for the role they played in the coronavirus pandemic and the effects it has had on the state:
But then, Donald Trump, Bidnessman, has decades of experience suing various people and entities. An analysis by USA Today published in June 2016 found that over the previous three decades, Donald Trump and his businesses have been involved in 3,500 legal cases in U.S. federal and state courts, an unprecedented number. (A partial list )
Remember the last go-round of truthiness about dolphins in Venice’s canals turned out to be false and/or wishful thinking.
Yesterday afternoon, monkelizers lavishly repaid my attention after I chased half dozen raiding the birdfeeder. Two young’uns skittered into trees then along telephone wires! It’s moments like these I long for camera-in-hand.
Alas, nothing but delightful memories of two balanced, upright, and fast monkeys negotiating a trapeze.
An online Presidency Statement published midday declared:
As an American (and a control freak), this apparent lack of attention to detail is disorienting - and provokes impatience. (Isn't an announcement of some sort in order?)
As a South African I know something will happen sometime….
I console myself imagining the monumental arm wrestling, deal-making, and all-out-war going on behind the scenes. Let’s hope Ramaphosa prevails over the Zuma-istas.
His failure to do so doesn’t bear thinking about ….
Early to rise, early to bed; I fell asleep waiting.
Early this morning, I listened to President Ramaphosa addresses Nation on additional COVID-19 measures (23 mins. It aired at 9:00pm-ish).
Summary: Coronavirus budget is ZAR500 billion. Read details.
Make donations if, where, and how you can….
I cannot guarantee these organizations but... (Currency conversion: US$1.00 = ZAR18.50)
The Donald ain’t gonna like it. Since Trump cannot take an iota of criticism – including the trying-to-be-kind kind – Piers Morgan can bid goodbye to that friendship.
First stop, the store whose goods I prefer. It’s further from the house and, after lockdown, driving there offered exhilarating adventure. Free at last! Free at last!
Traffic was light, no roadblocks, less than a quarter of the store’s parking lot occupied.
The usual spritz of disinfectant upon entering the store, a handful of steri-wipes to disinfect hands and shopping cart handles. Well-stocked produce section, well-stocked shelves. Alas, no fruitcake in the bakery – “tomorrow” the baker promised. I'd be nuts to return tomorrow just for fruitcake, so I’ll do without.
As I made my way to my car carrying my bag of groceries, a tired-looking man propped against a barrier asked for money. I had no cash and told him so. His look of dejection was such that I dug into my mother’s purse and handed him some of her cash. He thanked me and explained that, if it was just him, he’d be okay, but he had kids to feed and “that makes life very hard.”
I don’t know if his story is true or if that's his hustle. Nor do I care. A pandemic is not the time to interrogate a person in need before handing over a sum of money that barely covers a meal and a drink.
Next stop, the store whose goods my mother prefers.
I chatted with the checkout clerk, asked how she was doing. “It’s hard,” she said.
I never learned her name but she shared that she lives in crowded Mpophemeni Township where “many, many people have lost their jobs.” She knew of “no sickness [from the virus but] many people are hungry because they have no money to buy food.”
As we agreed “the president was doing a good job,” we locked eyes - and teared up.
“It will get better,” I said. She agreed.
Then she went on to check out the next customer while I went off to my life, through a security gate and into a house with garden – and lawns - behind a security fence.
Let’s honor healthcare workers in Colorado with the courage of their convictions.
Protesters calling for an end to Stay-at-Home orders faced obdurate health careworkers who didn’t give an inch. Hooray!
Not to get bogged down in ideology but … in America, buzzwords “free” and “freedom” too often are used to batter thoughtfulness and to deny intellectual complexity and human capacity.
What would this woman hanging out the window of her RAM 1500 SUV (retail price -US$80K to US$90K / ZAR1,440K to ZAR1,620K) say about other, equally valid ways of expressing “free” and “freedom”? (The healthcare workers right not to be abused, for example?)
What about rapper Joey Bada$$’s musical version of Land of the Free? Joey's expression of creativity coupled with his point of view would, I’d bet, horrify that irate RAM passenger, protester, and Freedom-lover to the extent that she’d denigrate and diminish Bada$$’s right to freedom of expression.
Noam Chomsky’s view might addle her brain (it does mine…).
Living as a humane human is complex. Is negotiating humane humanity way too complex for too many of us humans?
Serendipitously, an email from the US Embassy in Pretoria arrived with news: “The repatriation flights organized by the U.S. government have departed and no further U.S. government-coordinated flights are planned.” But:
Worse news than that Bill Gates is trying to infiltrate my body with evil?
The message came from someone I consider a good friend and seemingly mentally balanced.
Is this a sign of pandemic stir-craziness? Or are hidden gems of my friend's personality shining through?
Neighborhood monkeys stimulated today’s header and theme.
The American term, “bidness” defines a street hustle, a shady and mostly illegal business venture, and all things opposed to a legitimate business.
Oversight chafes Bidnessman Donald J Trump, always has, always will.
He’s a fella with a murky past - and murkiness is his best pal...
He quickly removed the federally appointed inspector general,
Glen Fine, from monitoring the first US$2 trillion coronavirus “relief” package, put in his own guy, ("suitably experienced") Environmental Protection Agency inspector general, then neutralized him, saying, he, Trump would oversee the effort.
There’s nothing like mounds of apparently free money to stimulate giant clusterf**ks – and the goldrush is on.
This starter list could stimulate you to learn more about the greatest heist in history. Search using any terms you like to uncover more Trump-related corruption … and prepare yourself best you can. It's gonna be a long, hard slog to get out of the mess we're in - a lot will fall on people least able to withstand the fallout….
Talent will shine in the darkest of times. Thanks, Michael Gene Sullivan
This morning, monkey grunts and squeals welcomed the rising sun.
Through the burglar guards surrounding my dwelling, I captured two short vid clips (forgive the lack of editing).
I’ll keep trying for shots of young monkeys enjoying life. I’d love to share how young’uns aim for a nearby tree, leap into the air, grasp what looks like a mere frond of another tree, and gracefully bounce from tree to tree with the greatest of ease.
Trees as alive with monkeys as a flees infesting a dog’s coat.
Meanwhile, lions and other wild animals relax in South Africa golf club during lockdown.
Enjoy your day.
My day includes The Revenge of the Lawn (Richard Brautigan).
Sunday. Formidable Mother Nature has given me permission to rest.
I’m pulling a mask (homemade) over my brain for one day… after a brief scan of more awful news from around our suffering planet:
Global confirmed infections: 2,329,655
Global confirmed dead: 160,721
US confirmed infections: 735,086
Next closest number of confirmed infections: Spain with 194,416
I donned waders and climbed into the pond to clear out the ubiquitous spear-like leaves of the yucca aloifolia.
Turns out this plant is indigenous, not to South Africa, but to the US Atlantic and Gulf Coasts.
While in the pond, I thinned pond weed, plucked another batch of the pest invasive lilies, and checked for goldfish. Nine days... and I’ve spotted not one.
Hope springs eternal.
Mother Nature smiled.
Yesterday’s post introduced the Lincoln Project - tagline: Dedicated Americans Protecting Democracy.
(Read We are Republicans; We want Trump Defeated)
Last night, MSNBC’s Ari Melber interviewed Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt for an astonishingly hard-hitting 9-minute overview of Baghdad Don’s three-plus years in office.
Baghdad Bob, Americans remember, was the infamous Iraqi denialist and spinmeister during the US invasion of Iraq.
Truth in advertising: I identify as neither Republican nor Democrat. Nevertheless, I’ve waited for Americans, any Americans, to quit the handwringing about Trump and actually do something constructive about removing him from office.
That he’s finally offended a cohort of powerful Republicans enough to act is icing/frosting on the (fruit)cake of irony.
Take heed, though.
Trump supporters a la Tea party protest across the country against stay-at-home orders.
Isn’t that like demanding your own personalized dose of Covid-19?
Of this photo Steve Schmidt tweeted,
Best not to count chickens though. Trumpist Republicans in Congress will pull out all the stops to corrupt the November election, from disenfranchising voters, to refusing mail-in ballots despite the pandemic, and everything in-between.
Despite “whackjobbery”, Trump’s approval numbers sag further each day. (Still, 40+ percent approval?) See Pollster Nate Silver’s polling data.
They’ll do what they can do to prepare.
You do what you can, too: stay home/ shelter in place, wash your hands, socially distance, wear a mask (and disinfect it regularly).
Who’d a thunk grocery shopping provided entertainment and diversion?
I’ve started a cold – I hope it’s a cold! – so I hurriedly fulfilled the shopping list while noting more-than-bare but less-than-full shelves of fresh fruit and veggies. Other shelves were full. Cigarettes unavailable. Liquor store shut. (Funny how lockdown stimulates a longing for a rum and soda with mint and ginger… or a gin and tonic ….)
Apparently, food shortages loom:
Fall/autumn is early. Winters at this elevation feature plant-killing frost so I’m preparing by spreading grass clippings around plants, distributing rich soil coughed up by moles, and composting leaves and pond weed.
I’m making the most of lockdown – even enjoying it. Gardens are treasure troves of new discoveries.
Remember Scruffy, the blind-in-one-eye, totally deaf dog who barks every 7 to 9 seconds?
Today, Scruffy’s several-hour long barkathon ended after my mother - the dog lover – intervened.
“Scruffy,” she told me, “can’t climb stairs anymore.” She followed this pronouncement in her inimitable style of telling rather than asking. “Someone will have to carry him up and down the stairs.”
Hmmm, I'm the Someone who leads end-of-day dog walkies around the garden.
Someone’s exercise regime just added a component: weight (and) resistance.
Forgive me, Conrad and Coppola for riffing off Heart of Darkness/”Apocalypse Now”….
South Africa’s efforts against the coronavirus pandemic have been noted as “world class.”
United States federal government’s efforts?
Not so much.
The eloquent victims: 671,000-plus confirmed infected and close to 40,000 dead Americans. The United States host more than three percent of the global infected (2,158,250) and more than two percent of the global dead (145,533).
Six months ago, who’da thunk it?
Cosmic irony? Donald J Trump dismissing people from “sh**hole countries” not “like Norway”.
To some, even bad news is good news and no news is bad news. It isn’t news that Jared and Ivanka (Javanka) are clueless and self-centered.
So, what’s news? Not that Trump never learns from his mistakes. Nevertheless, it is mind-boggling that he learned nothing from his first round of impeachment. Legal minds, all greater than mine, plus uber-smart Neal Katyal point out the Trump’s defunding of WHO is an impeachable offense. (Yesterday’s post discussed WHO in some detail). Moreover, it’s the same category of offence that impeached him for his withholding funds from Ukraine.
Former Republican Party members named on by-line of this Washington Post op-ed created the Lincoln Project to defeat Trump at November’s election. (FYI: George Conway is spouse to Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway.)
In the op-ed, the group states,
PS: I'm not sure milquetoast Joe Biden is the guy to do it. Hypersmart Elizabeth Warren could do it, but she's too scary smart - and too female - to too many Americans to be allowed the opportunity.
Perhaps efficient performance a la Ramaphosa et al, will trickle down, too.
South Africa’s state and provincial bureaucracies sorely need trickle down efficiency – and competence. So does my bank….
After four years of online banking and occassional use of the Instant Cash feature, suddenly I couldn’t use it to pay the gardener. Lockdown means the gardener shouldn’t have to depart his township and run the gauntlet of police roadblocks to and from his house to collect his pay. After several failed attempts, I used precious airtime funds to call the bank. I learned that my years of paying bills online hadn't happened, indeed, that I have no online payment rights.
Why? No one knows?
The outcome? The gardener must wait up to seven days for the bank to activate/reactivate my online payment rights. The 25-minute call consumed all my airtime. Since mine is the only phone in the house that works (more on that in an upcoming post), I must run the gauntlet of police roadblocks to purchase more airtime.
Is Kafka reaching for his pen from beyond his grave?
Goodbye Week 3, hello Week 4 of Lockdown.
Transition to the weekend with this photo of a “ladybug” (in US)/ “ladybird” (in SA) feeding on black aphids cultivated by ants on a young lemon tree.
Today was initially scheduled to mark the end lockdown. We're going another two weeks, until end of April. Then what?
My mother’s house nestles in a shallow valley with lush trees and undergrowth. It’s lovely but it offer lousy Internet and wi-fi connectivity.
My first visit here – 2014 – was maddeningly frustrating. It reminded me of the early days of the Internet - before many of us had been spoiled by technology!
I’d hoped connectivity would improve over the following year. Instead, a visiting ISP technician explained that the “height of the trees blocked the signal.”
I took to visiting a local café where I confined my Internet use to an hour a day.
Competition between businesses to provide customer service isn’t much of a thing here, at least in this part of the province. Apparently, neighborhoods are divided into sectors with one ISPs “owning” the right to provide services to all residences in that sector. Residents are hostages to the efficiency and professionalism of their neighborhood’s ISP.
After three years I found an ISP that provides most of my needs. Until recently, I paid for 20G per month but used far less. Pandemic anxiety switched that around and, these days, I regularly run out of bandwidth! I “topped up” another 10G mid-month, then used that up by 27 May. I had two options: 1) pay for another 10G (for the remaining two days of the month), or 2) wait until 1 May.
I opted to wait.
Internet withdrawal is nasty!
Imagine being stranded on a tiny desert island with an active and curious brain, no access to online library e-books, no cellphone, and no intelligent friends.
Add pandemic lockdown anxiety, only Clorox at hand, Donald J Trump making decisions – and you get an inkling of my Internet withdrawal!
Thoughts on pandemic
Much news these days about stir-crazy people contravening stay-at-home/shelter-in-place orders. Unless one is directly impacted, it’s easy to assume the pandemic is relatively under control.
A trip outside quickly shows pandemic anxiety is alive and well, and that nothing virus-related is under control.
A week since my last foray into town, this week I planned a trip to: fill my mom’s monthly pharmacy scrip; convince the vet to sell meds for my mom’s dog’s skin irritation without bringing the dog in for examination; purchase hardware store items; purchase a new tire (tyre in SA) for my mother’s car; find a technician willing to troubleshoot my mother’s Telkom wireless landline phone. (She’s been incommunicado for 3 weeks.) Plus, a big ask of local police: permission for the gardener to return to work at least one day a week.
I phoned some places before I set off.
A clerk at the hardware store answered – good sign: the store was open – and he explained that only essential businesses – plumbers, electricians, etc., – could purchase. He added stores would be fined up ZAR30,000 (US$1,700) for contravening this rule.
Since I had him on the line, I asked if he knew whether the local tire repair shop was open. (Front passenger tire has slow leak that I’ve had repaired three times in the last three years. Time for a new one.) Alas, only emergency tire repair service is available.)
Backstory: My mom has been advised not to drive but…stubborn … she drives when she decides a dog needs veterinary care. Scary truth: when I’m not here, my mother is the only person in the house who can drive. (This is one feature of my mother’s puzzling decision not only not to downsize for retirement, but to burden herself, her family, and her domestic workers with a large house and garden, too many dogs, etc.)
My first week back this year, I drove my mother, one domestic worker and an assortment of dogs to the vet four times – for minor issues such as skin irritation.
Following that, I drove my mother and a domestic worker to the vet to euthanize two elderly and ill dogs, 2) drove solo to pick up two fancy urns with dog cremains, 3) drove solo again to pick up two fancy urns with dog cremains that hadn’t arrived according to the first schedule.
When it comes to dogs and vets, I thank the gods for lockdown!
***
I’m delighted by simply wiping the dust off my vehicle, strapping on the seatbelt, and exiting the security gate.
I’m thrilled with having a valid reason to experience life outside the security fence.
Potholes, once objects of frustration and derision, now warm my heart – like running into a long-lost friend.
Full parking lots at mini malls present an opportunity to ponder human behavior. Are those shoppers really shopping? Or are they enjoying liberation? Maybe I should escape more often?
At the vet's clinic, I bought two bottles of dog skin irritation muti (Zulu word for medicinal concoctions cooked up by songoma/”witchdoctors”).
While we waited for the vet to agree to dispense meds without seeing the actual dog, the receptionist and I agreed that, yes, indeed, people locked down in houses have unrealistic views of what’s going on “out there” until they visit “out there”.
Lockdown underplays the potential threat from coronavirus. We agreed that the elderly and frail seem least willing/able to grasp the concept of lockdown.
By the way, I noticed the skin muti cost about the same as “the kit” of injector pens for whose purchase I’d felt soundly berated.
My quest to ask police permission for the gardener to travel failed utterly.
I handed over the letter describing our household’s need for a strong male to perform certain tasks for a frail 87-year-old.
The officer’s refusal wasn’t adamant. Rather, she looked at me as if I’d asked her to become president of the United States: bemused.
(After I returned home, I contacted the neighbor who’d described another frail 87-year-old’s success requesting the same of the police. I learned that after police received that woman’s letter, they visited her home to confirm her need. Hmmm, I double police visiting here would result in permission.)
My visit to the police station had an unexpected bright side. Angels’ Care, a center that feeds and supports underprivileged children, is located right across the street.
Last week, I’d tried, unsuccessfully, to donate funds online to Angels’ Care. Seeing the facility right there felt like divine intervention. I
dropped by, explained my online experience, and the office admins cleared a path to successful donation.
dropped by, explained my online experience, and the office admins cleared a path to successful donation.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Humans who live in the cushy west routinely discard items that could easily be reused/recycled/composted.
I grew up on rural KZN before the widespread use and abuse of plastic, before municipal services, at a time when precious water was pumped from a stream and stored in tanks; when septic tanks were common; when food waste was fed to pigs or composted; when only refuse that couldn’t be recycle was burned in burn pits.
I’m grateful for running water, electricity (unless Eskom is load-shedding!), and flushing toilets - although my houseboat hosts a composting toilet.
Convinced the contemporary world is wasteful, I try to conserve. I carry my own shopping bags and complain to grocery store managers about frivolous use of plastic containers.
Do I sound like a stuffy ideological puritan?
I’m not but I try to act on my belief that mindless cycles of consumption and dumping threatens people and planet.
My latest pro-compost action?
Recycling that soft pond weed I’ve described in earlier posts and making a footpath through long grass.
Background:
Swamp cypress grow in wetlands and send up aerial roots that act as secondary lungs when the area is flooded. Grass and weeds also grow think and fast under these beautiful trees. The combination of lush grass, weeds, and aerial roots create tripping hazards. Bushwhacking the area is difficult but not impossible – at least for the gardener. The bushwacker contraption is too heavy for me. To cope while he’s away, I laid a footpath made of pond weed and clumps of invasive waterlilies.
***
First thing in the morning, after I step outside, I check my gumboots for spiders before pulling them on, strap on my camera, and call the dogs for a walk around the garden.
Two of seven dogs accompany me (the rest hunker on beds under blankets). I carry a big stick while walking and wave it in front of me as I apologize to spiders for breaking the webs they spun overnight.
This wards off spider bites and furthers my reputation as Neighborhood Crazy Lady.
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| Pond weed path. |
Day 33 - Tuesday April 28 - Free Freedom?
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| Ten facts about Freedom Day |
Under normal conditions, Freedom Day is a public holiday to celebrate and commemorate the first post-apartheid elections held on April 27, 1994.
Freedom Day during Level 5 Lockdown seems like an oxymoron.
Perhaps it’s the public holiday…or Midlands weather – cold and wet – or the Lockdown Blues… or Trump Fatigue…or that we've blown passed 3 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 - one third of which are in the US ....that makes today’s post shorter than usual.
Before closing, this US state-by-state guideline may help you plan your day.
Regarding my homestate of California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state is not prepared "to open up large sectors of our society" but made the first modification to the state's stay-at-home order with the resumption of "essential" surgeries.
“Tumors, heart valves, the need for people to get the kind of care they deserve," Newsom said. "If it’s delayed, it becomes acute. This fundamentally is a health issue.You go, Gav!
The guidelines became effective immediately.
Meanwhile, San Diego announced April 24 that beaches could reopen for various forms of exercise beginning at sunrise on April 27. Boardwalks, piers, and parking lots remained closed; gatherings were still banned and beachgoers should maintain social distancing and wear a face covering, the city said.
On a bright note
Glow-the-dark/bioluminescence of swimming dolphins…Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Cold, wet, rain… forecast is the same for tomorrow.Perfect for plants, fine for fish, dismal for dogs, and lousy for lockdownees….
Day 32 - Monday April 27 "Not worth the time and effort"
World: 2,971,669 confirmed cases; 206,542 deaths
US: 965,910 confirmed cases; 55,000 deaths
Favorable front page news coverage and high ratings have been The Donald’s obsession for decades.
Massaging tabloid coverage of his shenanigans with women, business dealings, and lifestyle - along with his “reality” show "The Apprentice" - likely contributed to his election.
Massaging tabloid coverage of his shenanigans with women, business dealings, and lifestyle - along with his “reality” show "The Apprentice" - likely contributed to his election.
A first-class narcissist, he adores coverage.
His disastrous comments on injecting disinfectant into the human body, however, may be his Waterloo.
Then again, this is Trump. Who knows what else his “very, large brain” cooks up before the election?
His disastrous comments on injecting disinfectant into the human body, however, may be his Waterloo.
Then again, this is Trump. Who knows what else his “very, large brain” cooks up before the election?
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| Click to enlarge. |
They fail, however, to confiscate his cell phone. Over the weekend he went on a Tweet tirade
… against the media Sunday, slamming a days-old story about his lax work habits and even bashing his usual favorite Fox News, calling for an “alternative.”Trump also called on reporters who wrote about Russia’s interference in the U.S. presidential election to return their “Noble” prizes. There are no Noble prizes for reported stories, nor are there Nobel Prizes. There are Pulitzer Prizes for journalism; there is a Nobel Prize for literature. That particular three-tweet rant about Noble prizes subsequently vanished. ...
Hours later, Trump called his comments “sarcasm” — insisting he meant to say “Noble” prizes all along (even though he had earlier called on the “Noble Committee” to rescind the awards).Trump’s 10-tweet media attack (as of Sunday evening) first scorched The New York Times for what he called its “phony story” Thursday reporting that he often doesn’t arrive in the Oval Office until noon after spending the morning watching TV news — and enjoys eating Diet Coke and French fries.He called himself the “hardest-working president in history,” who hasn’t left the White House in “many months,” apparently forgetting a campaign rally just last month.
One can almost feel sorry for a narcissist of his caliber to fail this spectacularly while the entire world watches.
Back on Day 27, April 22, after his former friend Piers Morgan critiqued Trump’s (and Boris Johnson’s) woeful leadership in a time of crisis, I predicted “Piers Morgan can bid goodbye to that friendship.”
Simultaneously, The Lincoln Project, and Republicans for the Rule of Law (prominent Republican groups) regularly release ad spots condemning the president, members of his administration, and other prominent Republicans.
The next six months will be fascinating - if we survive Covid-19 pandemic.
Trump won’t be physically removed from office – “Not worth the time and effort.”
His coterie of thugs, yes men, and Republican toadies, if wise, would limit his public announcements (including Tweets).
His coterie of thugs, yes men, and Republican toadies, if wise, would limit his public announcements (including Tweets).
After all, with Trump at the helm, they’ve succeeded in shrinking government – a decades-long goal. All that’s left is to drown it in the bathtub. That, they may accomplish before the election.
That’s terrible for the world, but powerful Republicans daily display how little “the world” matters to them.
That’s terrible for the world, but powerful Republicans daily display how little “the world” matters to them.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Cold and wet enough today to pull my winter faux-sheepskin jacket from storage. While temps drop in SA (F: 61/53; C:15/12) spring gears up in California (F: 85/55; C29/18).
Alas, with no camera at hand, I missed shooting a red-chested cuckoo with its distinctive call: “Piet-my-vrou”. (Listen to its call) Onomatopoeia anyone? Incidentally, Piet-my-vrou is the bird’s Afrikaans name.
No recent goldfish sightings – but now I know they’re there….
Day 31 - Sunday April 26 "Out, Damned Spot!"
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| What'll he push next? Don't hurry him - he could get it right (...Nah! Unlikely) (Click to enlarge) |
In this scene, Shakespeare communicates Lady Macbeth’s internal attitude to her despicable actions brought on by overweening ambition. And to abuse of power by the powerful.
Lady Macbeth’s conscience still flickered.
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| Click to enlarge. |
The Donald’s? Not so much.
He wallows in abusing his power . Moreover, he proudly tells the world that his decisions come from his “gut” and his “very, very large brain.”
Do you see either gut or large brain at work in this clip of Trump promoting the injection of disinfectant into the human body?
The clip shows me a desperately deluded individual aiming to go down in history as The Guy with the Definitive Cure.
As this gaff becomes a universal meme, The Donald is back-pedaling, claiming, “It was sarcasm.” (Sheesh, can’t you take a joke?)
Sarcasm?
During a pandemic that has, to date, killed upward of 50,000 Americans?
Astoundingly, some diehard Trumpies believe him.
Kudos to the 100+ Maryland residents who’d like to believe him but decided to ask actual experts before following the deadly advice.
Of the “big problem” in Trump’s response, former Trump officials say:
…he is not relying much on data but instead is using what he’s previously called “his very, very large brain.” At a briefing in mid-April, he pointed to his head when asked the metrics he would use to decide when to reopen the economy.
… Asked whether Trump is a different person because of the virus, Anthony Scaramucci, Trump’s short-lived communications director, said: “No way. This guy hasn’t changed one iota.” [He added] “There’s only one thing that he’s concerned about and you know what that is? It’s TRUMP,” … spelling out the letters for effect. “When he does a news search,... [he] doesn’t search ‘USA,’ he searches ‘TRUMP.”The Mooch got that right.
Then there are the pesky Americans (gotta be Democrats and socialists) who left a pile of newspaper-stuffed body bags outside Trump’s D.C. hotel.
Their message? “Most of the country believes in science….”
***
Listening pleasure
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| Click to enlarge |
- Randy Rainbow with A Spoonful of Clorox
- Goodwill Ambassador Angélique Kidjo’s pandemic take on Miriam Makeba’s famous song ‘Pata Pata
- Below: Song of Frogs after Rain – I recorded this after a heavy rainfall that flooded the garden and wetlands next door.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
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| Click to enlarge |
Detergent suds in the stream appear in the garden pond a few times a month.
Someone in the ‘hood is doing what residents near Howick Falls do: use public waterways to wash laundry.
***
I’ve tried, unsuccessfully, to photograph a pair of long tailed birds flying into a yellowwood tree in the garden. They could be widowbirds, shown left.
I’m almost certain they’re not pin-tailed whydah.
The whydah is a handsome bird – at least with his seasonal breeding plumage, as shown below.
The seasonal appearance of his tail must boost his confidence because, during this time, he chases, pecks, and bullies his feathered colleagues.After his tail feathers drop off, he turns back into a small black and white bird… and the bully becomes the bullied.
Day 30 - Saturday April 25 Meaty Issues
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| (c) Progressive Charleston click to enlarge. |
China’s Calling
Trump might have small paws, but when it comes to grasping money, they reach around the world.From possible money laundering to loans coming due, life’s going to get interesting for the guy who too often gets away with bad chit!
Those of us who follow the prez, know he’s up to his orange hair in various money schemes.
Now We the People (at least, those of us who care) discover that Trump owes tens of millions to the Bank of China – and the loan is coming due:
In 2012, his real estate partner refinanced one of Trump’s most prized New York buildings for almost $1 billion. The debt includes $211 million from the state-owned Bank of China — its first loan of this kind in the U.S. — which matures in the middle of what could be Trump’s second term.Second term? Nah, he’s not getting another shot at that, is he? The question is, how will he squirm out of this one? And, how deeply will he implicate all of us?
The meat of it
Increasing evidence suggests climate change, decreasing natural environments, and pandemics go hand in hand. Fossil fuels subsidies are in the mix, too. So are your individual actions....Usually not a head-in-sand kind of person, I admit existential pain kept me from looking too closely at the toll of ongoing poaching, hunting, and trafficking of wild animal and the devastation of our communal oceans.
Last week I joined the Daily Maverick webinar, Earth Day: Nature and Societal Reset in the Age of Covid-19. Presenter Linda Tucker clued me into what was happening with lion bones … and lions, and tigers, and bears….
It ain’t pretty.
Serendipitously, soon after the webinar, I received an email from Dear South Africa, a policy shaping outreach organization to which I subscribe. Dear South Africa encourages citizen participation in governmental propositions. (If you are South African, sign up )
This time, it asked citizens: Do you support the draft amendment to the Meat Safety Act?
I read the information then, not one to hold back, I responded:
No, I do not support the draft amendment to the Meat Safety Act.You can get involved and share your view on the Meat Safety Act
Never in my wildest nightmares did I consider humans to be as short-sighted, greedy, thuggish, and self-centered as this amendment shows them to be. Instead of domesticating and/or eating and/or otherwise consuming wild creatures, we humans should be doing our best to conserve them and the natural lands that SUPPORT THEM AND US IN THE LONG TERM. If its an issue of money, FAR MORE MONEY CAN BE MADE CONSERVING RATHER THAN KILLLING. Wake me up, someone. This nightmare must end!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Next week, lockdown will ease from Level 5 to Level 4.Who knows if easing will make much of a difference in the here and now. Long term, however, lockdown has gifted me with the time to truly notice the ongoing lives around me: birds, bugs, fish, fowl, primates, plants. I noticed and appreciated these lives before but this time around, the joy of just sitting, listening, and watching has been a luxury.
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| Pond Creature Takes a Breather Click to enlarge |
I titled it, "Pond Creature Takes a Breather."
Far away in Florida, endangered sea turtles agree that Covid-19 has an upside.
They're taking a breather, too.
Monkey dream
I dreamed an ill neighborhood monkey placed herself in my care.
I wrapped the wild creature in a blanket and felt her furry forehead for fever.
We stared into one another’s eyes...and we saw one another. Fellow creatures.
The dream ended there but the feelings evoked have not ended. I hope they don’t.
I’ve re-dedicated to following the knowledge with which I’ve been gifted. Oh, the existential pain will be there, but my personal pain is nothing compared to that foisted upon our living planet by thuggery, greed, and ignorance.
Day 29 - Friday April 24 - Lockdown eased - slightly
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| (C) Taylor Jones click to enlarge |
Review of numbers
Week 5 – Friday April 24World confirmed cases: 2,709,408
US confirmed cases: 869,172
SA confirmed cases: 3,953
Week 1: Monday March 30
World confirmed cases: 735,560
US confirmed cases: 143,055
SA confirmed cases: 1,280
President Ramaphosa eases Lockdown – slightly
SA's strict national lockdown will be partially relaxed from next week Friday, 1 May.Ramaphosa said SA would follow a risk-adjusted approach to the return of economic activity. The need to limit the spread of the coronavirus would be balanced with the need to get people back to work.Summary of Levels 1 - 5
He said five different levels would determine the severity of the lockdown from May 1, with five being a hard lockdown and one being almost completely lifted.
“COVID Toes”
Science and health professionals suggest coronavirus may have been present in communities long before first cases were diagnosed.This stimulates apparently asymptomatic people in the “gen pop” to claim non-specific illnesses they suffered in September and October to have been Covid-19. (“Gen pop”: my lockdown appropriation of the prison term for “general population”)
Handy COVID Toes as clue:
Otherwise asymptomatic people are reporting the presence of painful purplish lesions on their toes.
“COVID toes” are “typically painful to touch and could have a hot burning sensation…. This is a manifestation that occurs early on in the disease, meaning you have this first, then you progress. Sometimes this might be your first clue that they have COVID when they don’t have any other symptoms.” For some people, “COVID toes” disappear without showing up with any other symptoms after a week or so, while others come down with serious respiratory problems.
Almost…
I almost pulled off a whole post without a stinging critique of The Donald. But… humor won out. Enjoy this video: Vote Him AwayMeanwhile, back at the ranch…
Lockdown has me talking to myself and to dogs.“Jessica,” I told one dog late yesterday afternoon, “should I carry the camera?”
Jessica didn’t answer and, as I passed the study, I decided, “Nah, I’ve carried it around all day without much success….”
How wrong I was.
After 11 days with sighting nary a goldfish fin, I saw four healthy goldfish!
I dashed inside for the camera while assuming the fish would flee. Just in case, I grabbed the sack of fish food, too.
A thrill a minute: the fish were still visible!
Tossing fish food, I shot this short (unedited) video segment…
Hardly camera shy, the goldfish flitted back and forth, their bright colors flashing.
Perhaps, tomorrow when I try to cajole them out with more fish food, I’ll toss in several fish-sized water-camo colored cloaks, too.
Wearing water-camo cloaks over their gorgeous goldfish bodies and fins might disguise them from hungry kingfishers….
Week 4: Day 28 Thursday April 23 - “Try it. What have you got to lose?”
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| Click to enlarge |
Remember Trump saying, "[Hydroxychloroquine has] been out there for a long time. Try it. What have you got to lose? I hope they use it."
He added, "I may take it. I have to ask my doctors."
Needless to say, the self-confessed germophobe neither asked his doctors nor took it.
Trump was 100 percent correct when he said about the drug for treating coronavirus. “I think it could be a game changer.”
Game changer, indeed.
Experimenting on American servicemen?
Trump oversaw (by doing nothing contrary) dosing military veterans in U.S. veterans’ hospitals.Researchers reported there were more deaths among those given hydroxychloroquine versus standard care.
The nationwide study was not a rigorous experiment. But with 368 patients, it’s the largest look so far of hydroxychloroquine … The study was posted on an online site for researchers …[who] analyzed medical records of 368 male veterans hospitalized with confirmed coronavirus infection at [VA] medical centers who died or were discharged by April 11.
About 28% who were given hydroxychloroquine plus usual care died, versus 11% of those getting routine care alone. …
Science? Who needs it?
The federal agency led by Dr. Anthony Fauci issued guidelines on Tuesday that stated there is no proven drug for treating coronavirus patients…. Fauci has repeatedly pushed back at the president’s enthusiasm over the malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, sometimes disagreeing in public with Mr. Trump.For weeks Dr. Fauci has stressed the lack of scientific evidence to back up any potential treatment, and this new document, which includes the expertise of more than a dozen federal agencies and professional groups, underscores his reasoning.
Wednesday's most stunning development, a top administration official working on a vaccine claimed he was ousted after resisting efforts to push unproven drugs promoted by President Donald Trump and his conservative media cheerleaders as "game changer" treatments.Feelin’ safe yet?
That news was followed by a bewilderingly inconsistent White House briefing. Conflicting messages on when to reboot the economy, the need for testing and the possibility of a resurgence of the virus combined with Trump's effort to suppress facts that jar with his insistence that the end of a nightmare likely to last many more months is near.
In another bizarre twist, Trump produced Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to walk back his remarks that the coronavirus challenge could be more difficult in the fall.
Trump claimed that Redfield had been "totally misquoted" by the media. But under questioning from reporters, Redfield confirmed that he had in fact made the remarks that angered Trump."I'm accurately quoted in The Washington Post," [Redfield] conceded, as Trump countered that the headline was wrong. It accurately described Redfield warning that if a coronavirus resurgence came at the same time as the flu season, hospitals could be overwhelmed.
The President also openly clashed with his top public health officials on the likelihood of the virus returning for another assault in the fall -- saying only "embers" of disease were likely that could be easily put out.
When all else fails, sue!
Americans fallback option is… to sue.Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced Missouri is suing the Chinese government and other top institutions for the role they played in the coronavirus pandemic and the effects it has had on the state:
Chinese authorities deceived the public, suppressed crucial information, arrested whistleblowers, denied human-to-human transmission in the face of mounting evidence, destroyed critical medical research, permitted millions of people to be exposed to the virus, and even hoarded personal protective equipment—thus causing a global pandemic that was unnecessary and preventable."Huh. The Trump administration could be sued for the same reasons, no?
The lawsuit alleges that while the Chinese medical community had indications of human-to-human transmission of the virus, they did not inform the World Health Organization when they first reported the outbreak.
It also alleges Chinese leaders did little to curb spread of the virus, still allowing thousands of people to travel to and out of Wuhan.
But then, Donald Trump, Bidnessman, has decades of experience suing various people and entities. An analysis by USA Today published in June 2016 found that over the previous three decades, Donald Trump and his businesses have been involved in 3,500 legal cases in U.S. federal and state courts, an unprecedented number. (A partial list )
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Jellyfish in Venice Canals? Déjà vu all over again? Is this true truth or false truthiness?Remember the last go-round of truthiness about dolphins in Venice’s canals turned out to be false and/or wishful thinking.
Lockdown laughs
I manage lockdown by mowing lawns, gardening, blogging and writing, following news and webinars, cooking and cleaning, spying on and photographing garden critters, walking dogs around the garden while waving a large stick to break spiderwebs (learned behavior after too many spider bites). I’m beyond worrying about what neighbors think when I yell greetings to monkey visitors, “Monkeys! Munksters! Monkelizers!” |
| I imagined a monkey mishap like this cat mishap on a telephone wire. Click to enlarge |
Alas, nothing but delightful memories of two balanced, upright, and fast monkeys negotiating a trapeze.
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| Advice to monkeys from squirrels click to enlarge |
Day 27 - Wednesday April 22 - Ramaphosa's Announcement
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| Courtesy Zapiro Click to enlarge |
President Cyril Ramaphosa will address the nation this evening – Tuesday, 21 April 2020 – on additional economic and social relief measures that form part of the national response to the global health crisis.
The President’s address flows from recent deliberations at Cabinet, the National Coronavirus Command Council, the President’s Coordinating Council, and the National Economic Development and Labour Council, among others. The speech will be broadcast on radio and television and will be streamed live.Later in the day, readers were prepped, again:
The Presidency will in the course of the day announce the time for the President’s address.7:30 pm ...and still no schedule for the annoucement.
As an American (and a control freak), this apparent lack of attention to detail is disorienting - and provokes impatience. (Isn't an announcement of some sort in order?)
As a South African I know something will happen sometime….
I console myself imagining the monumental arm wrestling, deal-making, and all-out-war going on behind the scenes. Let’s hope Ramaphosa prevails over the Zuma-istas.
His failure to do so doesn’t bear thinking about ….
Early to rise, early to bed; I fell asleep waiting.
Early this morning, I listened to President Ramaphosa addresses Nation on additional COVID-19 measures (23 mins. It aired at 9:00pm-ish).
Summary: Coronavirus budget is ZAR500 billion. Read details.
Make donations if, where, and how you can….
I cannot guarantee these organizations but... (Currency conversion: US$1.00 = ZAR18.50)
- eMedia Covid 19 Relief Fund
- Angels' Care (feeding and teaching children)
- Action in Isolation (feeding and teaching children)
- Love Howick (supporting and teaching skills)
- African Spirit (food and veggies)
***
US media outlets appear unable to stop Donald Trumps using their media platforms to campaign for reelection. I'm cutting back on harping about his terrible performance. Even his friends criticise him now. Here's Piers Morgan on US television agreeing that The Donald (and Boris Johnson) woefully fail at leadership in a time of crisis.The Donald ain’t gonna like it. Since Trump cannot take an iota of criticism – including the trying-to-be-kind kind – Piers Morgan can bid goodbye to that friendship.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Big day out yesterday: grocery shopping.First stop, the store whose goods I prefer. It’s further from the house and, after lockdown, driving there offered exhilarating adventure. Free at last! Free at last!
Traffic was light, no roadblocks, less than a quarter of the store’s parking lot occupied.
The usual spritz of disinfectant upon entering the store, a handful of steri-wipes to disinfect hands and shopping cart handles. Well-stocked produce section, well-stocked shelves. Alas, no fruitcake in the bakery – “tomorrow” the baker promised. I'd be nuts to return tomorrow just for fruitcake, so I’ll do without.
As I made my way to my car carrying my bag of groceries, a tired-looking man propped against a barrier asked for money. I had no cash and told him so. His look of dejection was such that I dug into my mother’s purse and handed him some of her cash. He thanked me and explained that, if it was just him, he’d be okay, but he had kids to feed and “that makes life very hard.”
I don’t know if his story is true or if that's his hustle. Nor do I care. A pandemic is not the time to interrogate a person in need before handing over a sum of money that barely covers a meal and a drink.
Next stop, the store whose goods my mother prefers.
I chatted with the checkout clerk, asked how she was doing. “It’s hard,” she said.
I never learned her name but she shared that she lives in crowded Mpophemeni Township where “many, many people have lost their jobs.” She knew of “no sickness [from the virus but] many people are hungry because they have no money to buy food.”
As we agreed “the president was doing a good job,” we locked eyes - and teared up.
“It will get better,” I said. She agreed.
Then she went on to check out the next customer while I went off to my life, through a security gate and into a house with garden – and lawns - behind a security fence.
Day 26 - Tuesday April 21 - Land of the Free (to infect yourself and others)
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| REUTERS/ALYSON MCCLARAN Health care workers stand in the street in counter-protest to hundreds of people who gathered at the state Capitol to demand the stay-at-home order be lifted in Denver. Click to enlarge. |
Protesters calling for an end to Stay-at-Home orders faced obdurate health careworkers who didn’t give an inch. Hooray!
Not to get bogged down in ideology but … in America, buzzwords “free” and “freedom” too often are used to batter thoughtfulness and to deny intellectual complexity and human capacity.
What would this woman hanging out the window of her RAM 1500 SUV (retail price -US$80K to US$90K / ZAR1,440K to ZAR1,620K) say about other, equally valid ways of expressing “free” and “freedom”? (The healthcare workers right not to be abused, for example?)
What about rapper Joey Bada$$’s musical version of Land of the Free? Joey's expression of creativity coupled with his point of view would, I’d bet, horrify that irate RAM passenger, protester, and Freedom-lover to the extent that she’d denigrate and diminish Bada$$’s right to freedom of expression.
Noam Chomsky’s view might addle her brain (it does mine…).
Living as a humane human is complex. Is negotiating humane humanity way too complex for too many of us humans?
Cancelled!
The second leg of next month's return flight from London to San Francisco was cancelled. No news about the first leg. If it’s not cancelled, I could choose to sit at Heathrow until another flight to California is scheduled. How long could that be?Serendipitously, an email from the US Embassy in Pretoria arrived with news: “The repatriation flights organized by the U.S. government have departed and no further U.S. government-coordinated flights are planned.” But:
The High Commission of Canada in South Africa has notified the embassy of a planned repatriation flight that will depart Johannesburg on Friday, April 24 for London Heathrow Airport (via a stop in Cape Town to pick up additional passengers), and will allow U.S. citizens to join the flight, if space permits.
The email continues:I’m tempted. But sit at Heathrow for the foreseeable future? Cheapest fish and chips cost £25 pounds there…and its ordered online from your table. On the trip to South Africa, crowds of people vying for fish and chips meant I couldn't get a table. I imagine that won't be a problem this time given how few passengers are transiting. Come to think of it, it's likely the restuarant would be shut, too.
• This flight ends in London, U.K. and it will be up to you to book any onward flight. Neither the U.S. government nor the Canadian High Commission can assist with booking onward flights from London.
• You must be eligible to enter the United Kingdom to participate in this flight. The U.S. Mission to South Africa is unable to advise the United Kingdom’s entry eligibility criteria.
• The cost of the flight must be paid directly to the Canadian High Commission in order to reserve your seat. The estimated cost for the flight is $1,600 CAD (US$1,138/ ZAR20,484) for economy and $3,050 CAD (US$ 2,170/ZAR 40,771) for business class; however, this is subject to change.
• Seat allotment and boarding is at the discretion of the Canadian High Commission, not the U.S. Mission to South Africa.
• You must be eligible to enter the United Kingdom to participate in this flight. The U.S. Mission to South Africa is unable to advise the United Kingdom’s entry eligibility criteria. Please visit the country information page on travel.state.gov for guidance.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
A WhatsApp voice message arrived today about Microsoft Patent 060606/Body interfaced digital currency. I noticed the semi-disguised 666 mark-of-the-beast in the patent number, listened to the first 30 seconds to ascertain I had the gist of where the 3-minute long harangue of whackadoodle-itude was headed, then deleted it. |
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Worse news than that Bill Gates is trying to infiltrate my body with evil?
The message came from someone I consider a good friend and seemingly mentally balanced.
Is this a sign of pandemic stir-craziness? Or are hidden gems of my friend's personality shining through?
Day 25 - Monday April 20 - Monkey Bidness
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The American term, “bidness” defines a street hustle, a shady and mostly illegal business venture, and all things opposed to a legitimate business.
Oversight chafes Bidnessman Donald J Trump, always has, always will.
He’s a fella with a murky past - and murkiness is his best pal...
He quickly removed the federally appointed inspector general,
Glen Fine, from monitoring the first US$2 trillion coronavirus “relief” package, put in his own guy, ("suitably experienced") Environmental Protection Agency inspector general, then neutralized him, saying, he, Trump would oversee the effort.
There’s nothing like mounds of apparently free money to stimulate giant clusterf**ks – and the goldrush is on.
This starter list could stimulate you to learn more about the greatest heist in history. Search using any terms you like to uncover more Trump-related corruption … and prepare yourself best you can. It's gonna be a long, hard slog to get out of the mess we're in - a lot will fall on people least able to withstand the fallout….
- There’s No Real Oversight of the $2 Trillion Coronavirus Relief Law
- Trump team’s use of big insurer to dispense recovery funds comes under scrutiny
- Big Pharma Prepares to Profit from Coronavirus
- The $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill was just the beginning of a Washington lobbying bonanza — but lobbyists are rushing to get a piece of the action in case it evaporates with a cratering economy.
- Corruption has crippled SA's capacity to fight coronavirus, lives will be lost
Amuse-bouche
A single, bite-sized palette-freshening hors d'œuvre to rid the taste of corruption.Talent will shine in the darkest of times. Thanks, Michael Gene Sullivan
Meanwhile, back at the ranch...
Neighborhood monkeys aggressively prepare for winter. Late afternoon yesterday, as I mowed the lawn – again – mature monkeys oversaw the tree-swinging antics of young monkeys. I’m not sure where monkeys usually sleep but last night, unusually, monkey grunts and squeals continued until after dark.This morning, monkey grunts and squeals welcomed the rising sun.
Through the burglar guards surrounding my dwelling, I captured two short vid clips (forgive the lack of editing).
I’ll keep trying for shots of young monkeys enjoying life. I’d love to share how young’uns aim for a nearby tree, leap into the air, grasp what looks like a mere frond of another tree, and gracefully bounce from tree to tree with the greatest of ease.
Trees as alive with monkeys as a flees infesting a dog’s coat.
Meanwhile, lions and other wild animals relax in South Africa golf club during lockdown.
Enjoy your day.
My day includes The Revenge of the Lawn (Richard Brautigan).
Day 24 - Sunday April 18 - (un)Comfortably Numb
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| Courtesy Tom Janssen Click to enlarge |
I’m pulling a mask (homemade) over my brain for one day… after a brief scan of more awful news from around our suffering planet:
- Hunger Protests and looting have broken out around South Africa.
- U.S. Food Supply Chain Is Strained as Virus Spreads
- Coronavirus broke the global food supply chain. It may never recover
Together, at Home
Then there's Together, at Home, the effort by Global Citizen to recognize healthcare workers, support stay-at-home and lockdown orders/requests, and to come together as one people across the globe.
Latest research on virus
- Antibody study suggests coronavirus is far more widespread than previously thought
- Coronavirus: five months on, what scientists now know about Covid-19
- The coronavirus outbreak is part of the climate change crisis
Global confirmed infections: 2,329,655
Global confirmed dead: 160,721
US confirmed infections: 735,086
Next closest number of confirmed infections: Spain with 194,416
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Turns out this plant is indigenous, not to South Africa, but to the US Atlantic and Gulf Coasts.
While in the pond, I thinned pond weed, plucked another batch of the pest invasive lilies, and checked for goldfish. Nine days... and I’ve spotted not one.
Hope springs eternal.
Mother Nature smiled.
Day 23 - Saturday April 18
Whackjobbery!
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(Read We are Republicans; We want Trump Defeated)
Last night, MSNBC’s Ari Melber interviewed Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt for an astonishingly hard-hitting 9-minute overview of Baghdad Don’s three-plus years in office.
Baghdad Bob, Americans remember, was the infamous Iraqi denialist and spinmeister during the US invasion of Iraq.
Truth in advertising: I identify as neither Republican nor Democrat. Nevertheless, I’ve waited for Americans, any Americans, to quit the handwringing about Trump and actually do something constructive about removing him from office.
That he’s finally offended a cohort of powerful Republicans enough to act is icing/frosting on the (fruit)cake of irony.
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Trump supporters a la Tea party protest across the country against stay-at-home orders.
Isn’t that like demanding your own personalized dose of Covid-19?
Of this photo Steve Schmidt tweeted,
this Josh Bickel of Columbus Dispatch [Ohio] photo is worthy of a Pulitzer. It absolutely and perfectly captures the whackjobbery of Trumpism and the grievance of people who have surrendered any vestige of common sense or normalcy to the altar of freak show politics and the dogmas of political cultism.Only 199 more days of Trump’s reign….
Best not to count chickens though. Trumpist Republicans in Congress will pull out all the stops to corrupt the November election, from disenfranchising voters, to refusing mail-in ballots despite the pandemic, and everything in-between.
Despite “whackjobbery”, Trump’s approval numbers sag further each day. (Still, 40+ percent approval?) See Pollster Nate Silver’s polling data.
***
South Africa’s select team on the pandemic functions at a high level …and insists on truth: South Africa, they agree, cannot escape the worst of the epidemic. This is because "it is a completely new virus, there is no vaccine, we have no immunity and it affects white and black, old and young… everyone".They’ll do what they can do to prepare.
You do what you can, too: stay home/ shelter in place, wash your hands, socially distance, wear a mask (and disinfect it regularly).
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
I dashed out to the store early this morning to replenish our pantry.Who’d a thunk grocery shopping provided entertainment and diversion?
I’ve started a cold – I hope it’s a cold! – so I hurriedly fulfilled the shopping list while noting more-than-bare but less-than-full shelves of fresh fruit and veggies. Other shelves were full. Cigarettes unavailable. Liquor store shut. (Funny how lockdown stimulates a longing for a rum and soda with mint and ginger… or a gin and tonic ….)
Apparently, food shortages loom:
Concerns are rising that South Africa will experience a sharp increase in crime and social unrest as desperation over food supplies spills into streets and shops around the country. According to a senior police official, who briefed News24 over concerns raised during high-level government meetings this week, it was only a matter of time before protests and looting erupted on an unmanageable scale.
***
Back home, behind the security fences and gates, I prep the garden for winter. Fall/autumn is early. Winters at this elevation feature plant-killing frost so I’m preparing by spreading grass clippings around plants, distributing rich soil coughed up by moles, and composting leaves and pond weed.
I’m making the most of lockdown – even enjoying it. Gardens are treasure troves of new discoveries.
Remember Scruffy, the blind-in-one-eye, totally deaf dog who barks every 7 to 9 seconds?
Today, Scruffy’s several-hour long barkathon ended after my mother - the dog lover – intervened.
“Scruffy,” she told me, “can’t climb stairs anymore.” She followed this pronouncement in her inimitable style of telling rather than asking. “Someone will have to carry him up and down the stairs.”
Hmmm, I'm the Someone who leads end-of-day dog walkies around the garden.
Someone’s exercise regime just added a component: weight (and) resistance.
Day 21, Friday April 16 - Oh, the irony, the irony
South Africa’s efforts against the coronavirus pandemic have been noted as “world class.”
United States federal government’s efforts?
Not so much.
The eloquent victims: 671,000-plus confirmed infected and close to 40,000 dead Americans. The United States host more than three percent of the global infected (2,158,250) and more than two percent of the global dead (145,533).
Six months ago, who’da thunk it?
Cosmic irony? Donald J Trump dismissing people from “sh**hole countries” not “like Norway”.
To some, even bad news is good news and no news is bad news. It isn’t news that Jared and Ivanka (Javanka) are clueless and self-centered.
So, what’s news? Not that Trump never learns from his mistakes. Nevertheless, it is mind-boggling that he learned nothing from his first round of impeachment. Legal minds, all greater than mine, plus uber-smart Neal Katyal point out the Trump’s defunding of WHO is an impeachable offense. (Yesterday’s post discussed WHO in some detail). Moreover, it’s the same category of offence that impeached him for his withholding funds from Ukraine.
Only 200 more days of Trump’s reign….
In the op-ed, the group states,
Publicly supporting a Democratic nominee for president is a first for all of us. We are in extraordinary time, and we have chosen to put country over party – and former VP Joe Biden is the candidate who we believe will do the same.Steve Schmidt said on MSNBC last night,
The Republican Party that we all belong to, that we fought for, is dead. It’s a remnant of the past. It’s not coming back. It’s been utterly corrupted by Donald Trump and Trumpism and that is bad for the country… We’re in the middle of the defining event in American Life in our lifetime…. It will take an act of monumental leadership to pull this country back together, to unite it, to heal it, and to lead a recovery that will be difficult to come out of… Joe Biden is the guy to do it.Note: I’d link to the op-ed, but the Washington Post has a paywall. It’s not Fake News but Natural Selection Due to Capitalism.
PS: I'm not sure milquetoast Joe Biden is the guy to do it. Hypersmart Elizabeth Warren could do it, but she's too scary smart - and too female - to too many Americans to be allowed the opportunity.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
I’m impressed with how President Ramaphosa and his team of experts handle the growing pandemic. They deserve recognition for their “world class” levels of performance.Perhaps efficient performance a la Ramaphosa et al, will trickle down, too.
South Africa’s state and provincial bureaucracies sorely need trickle down efficiency – and competence. So does my bank….
After four years of online banking and occassional use of the Instant Cash feature, suddenly I couldn’t use it to pay the gardener. Lockdown means the gardener shouldn’t have to depart his township and run the gauntlet of police roadblocks to and from his house to collect his pay. After several failed attempts, I used precious airtime funds to call the bank. I learned that my years of paying bills online hadn't happened, indeed, that I have no online payment rights.
Why? No one knows?
The outcome? The gardener must wait up to seven days for the bank to activate/reactivate my online payment rights. The 25-minute call consumed all my airtime. Since mine is the only phone in the house that works (more on that in an upcoming post), I must run the gauntlet of police roadblocks to purchase more airtime.
Is Kafka reaching for his pen from beyond his grave?
Goodbye Week 3, hello Week 4 of Lockdown.
Week 3: Day 20 - Wednesday April 15 - You can't make this stuff up - Part 2
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| (c) Mike Luckovich |
Global confirmed cases of Covid-19 infection beyond two million, 640,000 plus in US alone.
The US economy is in shambles, the global economy is following suit.
But fear not. The poster children for nepotism are on the case as Trump appoints Javanka to Council to Reopen America.
After several hours of giddy optimism about demonstrably good South African leadership on the pandemic (read yesterday’s post), I made the mistake of continuing to track news from around the world.
Congo’s news sobered me up.
Another Ebola outbreak in the eastern city of Beni as cases of Covid-19 erupt around the country. With more than 2,000 deaths from Ebola in the past 18 months, hand washing and social distancing is entrenched among Congolese. As they do their rounds, community health workers educate about coronavirus by word of mouth but fears mount.
Five-plus million Congolese and millions more people around the world depend on support from World Health Organization. The same WHO that Prez Trump/US is threatening to defund to the tune of US$237 million in assessed fees, plus US$656 million in voluntary contributions. Voluntary contributions are “earmarked for programs including polio eradication, health and nutrition services, vaccine-preventable diseases, tuberculosis, HIV — and preventing and controlling outbreaks.”
WHO works around the world, including South Africa. (What WHO does.)
Makes more sense to me to trim US military budget - Fiscal Year 2019, approximately $693 billion (US$693,058,000,000 or ZAR12,952,333,401,010,91) – and concentrate on life and health instead of oppression and death. But then, I’m anti-war not pro-business and that makes all the difference.
Moreover, the great irony is Trump defunding the WHO is largly designed to deflect scrutiny of his own administration's slow response to the outbreak. That's Trump the Businessman for ya!
Other women, actual leaders with, y'know, actual qualifications and stuff, are doing a disproportionately great job at handling the pandemic. So why aren't there more of them?
California is warming up. Yesterday’s temperature along San Joaquin River, in Sacramento Delta, where I dock my houseboat, was 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26.6 C).
Cliff swallows likely are arriving from South America to rest and nest (one couple nests above my boat’s pontoons). Hummingbirds are wondering where I am and why I’m not filling their damned feeders.
I miss it.
On top of all his miscommunication, false starts, repeated mistakes, false information, and butt-saving messaging, Donald J. Trump decided to delay, even further, mailing Americans coronavirus-related stimulus checks.
Why?
So checks can be printed with his name.
Twitter users ripped that action.
Then, as if punishing Americans wasn't enough, he went on to punish the whole damned planet: Trump Defunds World Health Organization In the Middle of a Global Pandemic
He attacked the WHO for its delayed response and unwillingness to confront China … without acknowledging that he’s guilty of the exact same things.
Week 2, Day 8 Friday April 3 post suggested someone step up to Trump at a podium, switch off his mic, and escort him offstage. No one in his orbit is brave enough to do that. The US Constitution, however, provides a direct and effective measure: The Twenty-fifth Amendment (Amendment XXV).
Congress determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.
Right now, the House of Representatives is majority Democrat while the Senate is majority Republican. Republicans support Trump, no matter what. This means more hopeless partisan division and inaction… while humans die by the thousands.
Postscript: Concerned Americans frown with consternation at VP Pence becoming P.
I’ve frowned, too. Mr. Pence showed little ability as governor of Indiana to make decisions based on peoples’ health needs and currently shows particularly sycophantic obeisance to Trump.
I’m certain he’d dump the obeisance and jump at a chance at the presidency. He’d do better than Trump in that role – at least through the end of this disastrous administration. (That I’d ever suggest Pence step into the presidential role shows the level of Trump-induced calamity.)
As long as no one in government implements the amendment, Americans will continue to die while Trump hogs the mic.
Roman Emperor Nero, meanwhile, grins with delight: finally, history will ignore his fiddling while Rome burned. Donald J Trump has become history’s biggest bungler.
Monday April 13’s “public engagement with experts” Prof Abdul Karim, SA Health Ministry’s Zweli Mkhize, and others laid out strategies to confront South Africa’s coronavirus challenges.
The first five to seven minutes of MP Mkhize’s introduction covered the latest numbers - tests, confirmed infections, deaths - and how numbers are generated. Except for 15-minutes of bad audio for two call-in experts, the conference (more than two hours long) was informative and a pleasure to watch. Great going South Africans!
Prof Karim’s take-aways regarding personal protection, in order of importance:
1) Wash hands
2) Social distancing
3) If you wear a mask – non-medical, cotton masks are fine for laypeople - remove it very carefully. Touching inside the mask could distribute virus and contaminate. Disinfect in hot water.
Days dragging by?
Daily Maverick’s Webinars make lockdown more bearable.
Link and listen to yesterday’s Climate Crisis in the time of Covid-19 webinar, with Mary Robinson and Kumi Naidoo, hosted by Rebecca Davis.
Link and listen to today's Covid-19: The Status of the Pandemic in Lockdown Week 3.
Maverick Citizen Editor Mark Heywood with health experts Professor Wolfgang Preiser and Dr Indira Govender.
Takeaways:
Trajectory of the virus in South Africa:
Prof Preiser: there will have to be measured relaxation of lockdown rules; we’re behind the curve with the worst yet to come; some habits will have to change for good.
Dr Govender: this is long term challenge with no return to “normal”… we can’t go back to overcrowding … and we need contingency plans to quickly contain Covid-19 hot spots as they crop up.
Sign up for tomorrow's webinars, Thursday 16 April at 12 pm. FutureNow: Face the Covid Reset. Daily Maverick Associate Editor Ferial Haffajee in conversation with John Sanei discusses life after the Covid-19 pandemic. Register here (If you register then miss the live webinar, you’ll be emailed a link to watch later.)
Coincidentally, her sister passed through a different roadblock early in the day and on foot. She was detained and spent hours sheltering from the rain in a police vehicle. She was released, unharmed, at 4pm, the beginning of afternoon commute.
It was déjà vu all over again. The same dogs barked in the same gardens – passing the chore of barking to the set of dogs in the next garden as I passed. The same glorious plants bloomed. Few neighbors in sight.
Last year, a friend and I walked regularly in the neighborhood. Then a pair of young thugs hijacked, assaulted, and robbed my friend's elderly husband as he walked. He recovered but we lost our nerve.
No truly “fair and balanced” person can watch the president of the United States and not worry. Check out this April 14 press briefing and this one, “Presidential authority is total” ...
Methinks the prez doth protest too much. He’s losing whatever marbles he had, he’s on the ropes (talking of ropes, Florida deems wrestling “essential business.”)
Be afraid. Be very afraid. The Trump/Moscow Mitch duo hath cometh – and hath bamboozled.
It’s a formidable opponent for generous-spirited people everywhere.
Last year’s veggie garden presented both the up- and downside of fertility.
Upside: already rich soil, amended with rich compost, and potatoes, onions, and squash volunteer with gusto. Initially, starter plants - tomatoes, spinach (chard in California), strawberries, thyme, oregano, basil, and Thai basil - appear willing to flourish.
Downside:
The enthusiasm of beans, peas, and lettuce is quickly dampened by uMswenya. Cutworms.
California’s dry summers, wet winters, and clayey soil present few opportunities to understand cutworms. Sow bugs, yes: similar color and shape and, like cutworms, they roll/curl.
KZN’s wet, hot, humid summers present perfect umswenya conditions. Add beans, peas, dill, lettuce, rhubarb… and the gross, juicy pests thrive just below soil surface. They demolish emerging sprouts and stems leaving only tiny scattered flecks of green.
I engineered seedling collars out of discarded toilet roll tubes cut in half. Unfortunately, collaring constrains plants and they grow spindly.
My revenge? Popping unswenya.
This year, only volunteer squash survived cutworms. Instead, they fell victim to marauding monkeys.
Takeaways? 1) How do farmers cope? 2) Do creatures like umswenya and monkeys account for Africa’s incredibly rich, fecund soils not developing as the world’s breadbasket?
Divebombing and sucking mosquitos are annoying but manageable. I dab smelly, homemade cannabis oil on the bites. (Lockdown means not worrying about wafting cannabis aroma.)
Alas, the manufacturer and dispenser who supplied me last year has moved on. I’m not sure how to replenish my supply but I’m using what remains, mostly on spider bites.
Despite consistently checking for spiders inside gum boots, shoes, waders, and outside gear, spiders express their displeasure at my presence. This year, they’ve dined on my right calf, left foot, sternum, and left wrist. The latest assault left a large red splotch with two tiny, raised bite marks on my right front hip.
If I don’t scratch, the angry red bumps disappear after eight to ten days of generous dabbing.
The odd thing? Unlike mosquitos, I’ve never actually caught a spider in the act, nor even found one on my person.
Why blame spiders? Couldn’t aliens from another planet be conducting experiments?
Well, I encounter spiders and evidence of spiders: on plants, on walls, and webs slung between plants and anywhere I walk.
When I encounter aliens, it’ll be time for me to burst out of lockdown, damn the consequences.
A positive note: finally snagged a shot of a dragonfly near the pond. (Still no sign of goldfish.)
This nationalist slogan takes on new meaning as the United States really is number one.
We're sitting on top of the world: 558,590 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus, and numbers still growing.
David Bowie* has a song for that… “This is not America” – except it is. This is America in the Age of Trump.
(Left) The cover of Rolling Stone Magazine's May issue. “The President and the Plague” outlines the last 5 months.
Of moles and mowing
For now, I’m declaring lawn mowing “finished and klaar.”
I’ve had it with maneuvering a mower designed for genteel lawns over hardy Kikuyu Grass and between ever-increasing numbers of mole hills.
It’s tough to learn anything about moles from moles.
Humans opine that moles spend their time in four-hour shifts, divided between sleeping and searching for food (earthworms, grubs, and other small earth dwellers).
Online conspiracy theorists say nothing about whether moles use clocks, watches, or cellphones to tell the time, but they confidently assert that moles love to eat Juicy Fruit gum (and that it's best to buy Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit in bulk packages from Costco).
They also argue about whether 1) gum should be chewed or unchewed when placed in the mole tunnels, and/or 2) to use a knife and cutting board to cut up fresh (unchewed) gum into tiny squares, smaller than the period at the end of a sentence. Theoretically, moles eat the gum that “gums up” their insides, causing them to die of constipation or some other horrible digestive problem.
That sounds like American moles...and American consipiracy theorists.
All’s I know about KZN moles in this garden is that they’re mathematically fastidious (note the almost straight lines; perhaps they use an app on their cellphones?).
Based on the formal/biological names of most of the KZN creatures I’ve researched to-date, I’d guess this mole species is something like Common Brown Garden Mole.
At any rate, no creature, Common or not, deserves to die of gummed up insides, constipation, or digestive problems.
Moreover, I've discovered I prefer moles to lawns.
Read Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3
Australia’s prime minister urged stay-at-home back in March and again, yesterday, for Easter.
Aussies appear to have overcome the national urge to buy up and hoard the country’s toilet paper supply. Perhaps they’ve sublimated fear into something constructively home-centric: baking toilet paper cakes.
What comes next? The Great Australian Toilet Paper Bakeoff?
Turns out, daily blogging quickly becomes debilitating.
World news depresses. Trumpeting Trump’s lack of leadership, self-centeredness, and greed depresses. (I barely can watch him on YouTube; why is he allowed to campaign at “press conference” microphones?)
Gardening: me mowing the lawns is the garden equivalent of me cutting my child’s hair: clumpy and uneven. I seek out and murder invasive cat’s claw sprouts. I fill sinkholes. I collect and redistribute rich topsoil ejected from mole tunnels.
Exercise: I stretch, skip rope, run up and down stairs. It’s better than nothing but nothing like swimming and walking.
I watch mother sew cotton masks for the household and neighbors.
Spying reveals creatures sleep in on Easter Sunday. I haven’t spotted a goldfish in six days.
Yes, my position under lockdown is one of privilege, certainly more privileged than the majority of South Africans. Case in point: as I drafted this post, the gardener phoned. A family man with two young kids living in Mpophemeni Township, he had been scheduled to return to work this week. After we extended his stay away, I asked the status of the township. No infections that he knows of but life, he said, is “bad.” Crowded, anxious, bored, and, I’m sure, dangerous as people with incomes fall prey to people without incomes. (Last year, I asked if he grew veggies in his yard. He laughed, “Too many goats.” Goats and cattle trump people in Mpophemeni, and have priority right of way.)
Imagine if governments and people around the world mobilized for climate change with just one percent of the effort expended on fighting Covid-19 infection.
Louis Armstrong sang it: “What a Wonderful World.”
Worldwide: 1,698,416 confirmed cases; 102,764 deaths
US has the highest number of infections: 501,419; 18,586 deaths
SA: 2,003 confirmed cases; 24 deaths
(*Compare this afternoon's numbers, below.)
History and the lesson of the 1918 influenza pandemic:
Tell the damn truth: “The government lied. They lied about everything”: A historian on what went wrong in 1918.
The US president is incapable of telling the truth. He’s failing, and Americans are paying.
I push through the fourth or fifth segment of this garden’s fast-growing, thick, Kikuyu lawn and realize the first segment is still growing… In other words, there’s no end to this!
President Ramaphosa’s lockdown extension, now thorough the end of April, means I must redouble my efforts to maintain sanity.
Carrying an old-style camera around the garden helps. And patience. After waiting for what felt like an hour for this crab to perform for a video clip, I gave up and shot stills.
Note to wildlife photographers: I salute your patience and dedication.
Research shows this damselfly is Africallagma sapphirinum, the sapphire bluet, a species in the family Coenagrionidae. Endemic to South Africa, its natural habitat is ponds and lakes with floating aquatic plants. Guess where I saw it? Yes, posed on a floating aquatic plant.
I'm impatient for the day this garden reveals some long-mourned endangered species. So far, while extraordinary anyway, most of the critters I've stumbled upon have been of the "Common" variety.
(Visit Photo Album for more photos ...)
Worldwide: 1,701,718 confirmed cases; 102,867 deaths
US has the highest number of infections: 501,615
SA: 2,003 confirmed cases; 24 deaths (i.e., no updates)
Like fellow South Africans, I expected this daily grind of lockdown would end next week. Alas, last night President Ramaphosa extended it to end of April.
From the macrocosm point of view - health and welfare – of course Ramaphosa is right. The threat and the potential effects of a rampaging viral infection in this country are horrendous. The potential of infection in townships and, worse, in informal settlements beggars belief. Take a look at just one informal settlement and multiply that by hundreds and you get the picture.
Here in the microcosm? Small scale crazy making. I’ve got it good. This household consists of my fragile mother, two live-in domestic workers, and seven dogs. Marauding monkeys drop by now and again. Hungry kingfishers occasionally snack on easy-to-see-easy-to-skewer goldfish.
Nevertheless, crazy-making territory lurks between what was - walking and swimming several days a week – to what is: in-place stretching, running up and down 10 steps, skipping rope, and mowing the never-ending lawn. Crazy-making lurks in the little things, too: the one-eyed, peeing everywhere, deaf mutt (aptly named Scruffy) who barks every seven to nine seconds throughout the day; the need not to snap at housemates; truncated phone conversations with intelligent friends and family in faraway, chaotic United States.
On the plus side, spending time in the garden is a gift. (More on that below.)
Back in 2005, a doctor stuck up a conversation with a 75-year-old Texas farmer. Eventually the topic turned to Trump and his role as GOP Nominee for President.
The farmer said, “Well, as I see it, Donald Trump is like a 'Post Tortoise'.”
Unfamiliar with the term, the doctor asked what was a 'post tortoise'.
The farmer said, "When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a tortoise balanced on top, that's a post tortoise."
Seeing the puzzled look on the doctor's face, the farmer explained. "You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he's up there, he's elevated beyond his ability to function, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put him up there to begin with."
Such is the chaos in the United States these days that American citizens decline US Embassy repatriation offers. One young woman in Lebanon explained that it's “safer” in Beirut.
I delayed repatriation for similar reasons. (See Week 2, Day 11, Monday April 6, “Fly the coop?”)
I removed mounds of the diaphanous pond weed again today. I last thinned this weed on Week 1, Day 3, March 29.
Another 20 days of lockdown.
I’m due to depart May 19. Will I? That is one question.
Another question: what shape will I be in when I do depart?
And will I have another 14 days of quarantine/self-isolation in California?
On the same day in South Africa, 18 confirmed deaths and 1,845 confirmed cases*:
782, Gauteng, 3 deaths
495, Western Cape, 3 deaths
354, KwaZulu-Natal, 9 deaths
88, Free State, 3 deaths
15, North West
21, Mpumalanga
21, Limpopo
45, Eastern Cape
13, Northern Cape
11, Unallocated
* numbers from News24.com
Of 197 countries and regions, 184 have (are admitting to) confirmed cases of Covid-19 infections.
Watching these guys in casual clothes sitting in their home studies – with poor sound quality, poor delivery, scripts not as scripted as usual, and missing laugh tracks makes me ... sad.
But then there’s only so much comedy to be made while tens of thousands of people suffer and Trump hogs the spotlight to deliver “truthiness.”
The con man cometh…
Not only is he “great” and “perfect,” America’s snake oil salesman president is now “America’s cheerleader.”
Remember back in 2015 when Trump, running for Republican presidential candidate, would flog Trump Organization products – steaks, bottled water, vodka, and Trump magazine?
Nowadays, he’s effectively taken over the Republican Party, dismissed anyone who showed effectiveness, expertise, competency, and dedication to government service and replaced them with… himself and his coterie.
It's amazing how much lying, incompetence, and passing the buck Americans will put up with.
Michelle Cottle sounds amazed, too. On the New York Times editorial board, she writes, “Drop the Curtain on the Trump Follies: Why does the nation need to be subjected to the president’s daily carnival of misinformation, preening and political venom?”
A sprinkling of the latest gems from his coterie of supporters:
Each day this week, I’ve tackled another section of the large lawn here in KZN. I’m only half finished. The mower cuts out every seven to nine minutes or more frequently when it encounters thick grass. Pulling the rope to reignite the engine is developing the muscles in my right arm and my back. This will help when (if!) I return to my houseboat. I’ll be able to start up the 15 hp outboard motor on my gadabout dingy in no time at all!
Pandemics have happened before. With luck, and caution, we’ll survive this one, too.
I watch the goings on in both of my beloved countries with a heavy heart. On days like this, music soothes.
The great Arlo Guthrie reminds us of Louisiana burdened by coronavirus with his classic City of New Orleans (music video with great imagery)
And the late, great Hugh Masekela reminds us of SA’s complex legacy: Stimela (the coal train)
Tomorrow is another day under lockdown.
I’ll likely have more to say than I want to share today.
Stay safe…and enjoy the Critters now in their new home.
Worldwide: 1,347,895 cases; 74,808 deaths; 284,805 recoveries
US: 368,245
SA: 1,686
According to BBC World News, Turkmenistan (population 4,948,000) has no reported cases of Covid-19 infections. It that because Turkmen people are super healthy, have antibodies or immunity for some unknown but scientific reason, or because President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow has ordered the repression of actual infection numbers?
All, some, or none of the above?
I bring this up because usage stats indicate someone in Turkmenistan follows this blog. To that person I say, stay in touch, comment, we’re rooting for you, your compatriots, and your country’s safe passage through this pandemic.
Tracking world news gives me the impression there’s a change in the existential flow of the pandemic, at least in how humans perceive and report its flow.
Last week, panic reigned as infection and death tolls rose: China, Italy, Spain, the US, South Africa….
People (and dogs) around the globe reacted with shock, denial, and fear to numbers of confirmed cases, deaths, and recoveries, to the lack of equipment and leadership, unsure of what to know, what to do, and how to do it.
This week, it appears New York state’s astronomical infection numbers may be leveling, that people around the world understand we’re in this for the long haul.
Not to say ease up on social distancing, wearing masks, washing hands… It could be the reality of the pandemic is “normalizing” or that, by its nature, lockdown means difficulty gauging what’s going on “out there”, in one’s neighborhood, village, town, informal settlement.
Am I simply projecting my personal, relatively safe, behind a high security fence experience? Comment and let us know what’s what in your part of the world.
In KZN, Kikuyu Grass grows, and grows, and grows. Named after Kenya’s Kikuyu people, this grass is native to tropical eastern Africa and was brought to South Africa as a lawn and pasture grass. Kikuyu shares some characteristics with dreaded Bermuda Grass that also grows, and grows, particularly in the American south.
Listed on the US federal noxious list, Kikuyu Grass can only be shipped to certain states and counties. In California, shipment is restricted.
Today, this aggressive invader of pastures, crop land, and moist natural areas is found throughout KZN.
All five lawns here are taking advantage of the gardener's absence for the duration of lockdown, .
High-maintenance expanses of grass don’t appeal to me. The few times I’ve had a garden, I’ve dug up grass and planted veggies and herbs.
Don’t misunderstand: grasses are fascinating. Look at these spectacular African grasses shot before lockdown.
I ponder, why lawns? Why the initial and ongoing expense, the noise, the air pollution, the fossil fuel consumption that lasts as long as the mower?
Meanwhile, lawns grow.
I’ve never power mowed but I understand the basics of mowing: pull the rope to ignite the engine, push the mower over grass, sweep up and compost clippings.
Pulling the rope was tough. The motor grunted but didn’t start. After several failed attempts, I powered up my laptop and found an online user manual.
Primer Buttons are key.
I located the mower’s primer button, prodded it three times, pulled the rope again. More grunts but no ignition. Repeated primer button action. Repeated rope pulling. Finally, ignition.
Mowing is hard labor. Noisy.
Long, thick grass makes mowers stall. Restarting mowers gets easier with practice.
The smell of cut grass almost dominates the smell of the combustion engine.
With one of five lawns mowed, I swept up and spread clippings over garden beds to compost.
Tomorrow, I’ll tackle the next lawn.
Staying busy during lockdown is hard labor, too.
End of day numbers:
Worldwide: 1,362,936 cases; 76,373 deaths; 292,188 recoveries
US: 368,449
SA: 1,686
Life during lockdown is “a personal nightmare” for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
It’s tough for control freaks, too. My control freak-ism was a good fit in the “real world as an Internet producer/project manager/consultant for large corporate clients. An orientation towards detail while managing creative and development teams, budgets, and timelines is a plus.
It’s not such a good fit for life under lockdown. (Detect the … whiff … of impatience in my posts about inefficiency and incompetence? Chalk it up to this.)
Control freaks like to know what’s going on and lockdown doesn’t share much. News is either redundant or focused on macrocosms, not the microcosm of what’s happening in my ‘hood. Madding.
California Gov Newsom called a stay-at-home weeks ago – and that decision has slowed down contagion in that state.
Texas Gov Greg Abbott isn't calling it a stay-at-home order. But he's telling Texans to stay at home. Huh?
My loved ones in Texas are both medical professionals working in the same hospital near Houston. They have three small children at home. Schools are closed. Childcare is challenging.
Infection rates in Texas are climbing.
25 February: 58 cases;
25 March: 1,119 cases;
4 April: 6,566 (124 deaths)
(Since we're doing the numbers: wordlwide infections at 1, 288, 375; US: 337, 933)
The option to cut and run while I still can poses a psychological dilemma: How do I depart for California and leave a frail (though stubborn) mother without support?
It also poses a physical conundrum: how do I get to California?
The US Embassy in Pretoria, offering Repatriation Flights for Americans interested in returning to the US, states the:
Quite the pesticide paranoid back then, I wore a mask, a hat, latex gloves, gumboots, and coveralls. (Fashion forward forerunner of what people around the world soon may be wearing to discourage invasive coronavirus?)
Now, I’m saving the N95 masks to deploy if anyone in this household is infected. (Or, a la Donald Trump, I sell them to the highest bidder on the “free market. )
Meanwhile, homemade cotton masks will do. I recycled a coral colored pillowcase into bandana size and, when necessary, carry it in the pocket of my shirt/coverall-protection. (I remove and scrub/disinfect these items on returning home.)
I carry my passport/ID and international driver’s license in my backpack, too.
I like to cook with quality ingredients that I find more consistently in a store four miles from home than in the store one mile from home.
My mom’s shopping list targets items in the closer store. This means shopping at both stores.
After covering three-and-three-quarters of the four miles I ran into a police-manned quasi-roadblock. No problem. With far fewer vehicles on the road, police simply waved drivers to slow down and allowed us to pass without stopping.
The mini-mall parking lot, designed for about 200 vehicles, hosted less than a dozen. No parking attendants. (These “independent contractors” or gig workers support themselves on tips they earn – if they’re lucky – by guiding drivers into and out of parking spots.)
Store attendants greeted shoppers with a spritz of disinfectant and free sani-wipes.
Posted signs apologized for lack of fresh produce – no garlic, ginger, limes; plenty of apples and bananas - but store shelves were otherwise well-stocked.
After ten days at home I was delighted to chat with strangers. I commiserated with the produce manager about “tough times,” laughed at the air-time vendor’s joke about the airtime online system being down - he said, "it’s dead but at least I’m not!” - and I hurried back to the safety of my vehicle.
Police roadblock was gone when I drove to the second grocery store.
The second shopping experience was similar: shoppers spritzed on entry, generally well-stocked shelves, produce somewhat diminished – no spinach or cabbage but plenty of garlic and ginger, lemons instead of limes, bananas.
Online airtime sales system still down.
At checkout a stranger sighed aloud and expressed a longing for a cigarette.
“May not be the best time to give up,” I said.
“I'm not giving up. I’ve ten cigarettes left and I can’t buy anymore. Stores and petrol stations are not allowed to sell cigarettes or alcohol. Government says smoking makes people more susceptible to complications from the virus.”
Ouch.
But tobacco companies are fighting back. I predict they’ll win.
Meanwhile, Murphy’s Law: what can go wrong will go wrong.
The charger cable for my iPhone is malfunctioning. I’ve fiddle with it, cleaned the ports, prayed…
I can’t live without a phone. Who can these days?
Looks like a quick trip to the local (only) computer store is my next infection-defying adventure. That is, if that store is open for business.
Many retailer websites indicate they’re open but calls to stores go unanswered.
We “detail-oriented” struggle with this store-owner's lack of attention to detail….
The US economy is in shambles, the global economy is following suit.
But fear not. The poster children for nepotism are on the case as Trump appoints Javanka to Council to Reopen America.
After several hours of giddy optimism about demonstrably good South African leadership on the pandemic (read yesterday’s post), I made the mistake of continuing to track news from around the world.
Congo’s news sobered me up.
Another Ebola outbreak in the eastern city of Beni as cases of Covid-19 erupt around the country. With more than 2,000 deaths from Ebola in the past 18 months, hand washing and social distancing is entrenched among Congolese. As they do their rounds, community health workers educate about coronavirus by word of mouth but fears mount.
Five-plus million Congolese and millions more people around the world depend on support from World Health Organization. The same WHO that Prez Trump/US is threatening to defund to the tune of US$237 million in assessed fees, plus US$656 million in voluntary contributions. Voluntary contributions are “earmarked for programs including polio eradication, health and nutrition services, vaccine-preventable diseases, tuberculosis, HIV — and preventing and controlling outbreaks.”
WHO works around the world, including South Africa. (What WHO does.)
Makes more sense to me to trim US military budget - Fiscal Year 2019, approximately $693 billion (US$693,058,000,000 or ZAR12,952,333,401,010,91) – and concentrate on life and health instead of oppression and death. But then, I’m anti-war not pro-business and that makes all the difference.
Moreover, the great irony is Trump defunding the WHO is largly designed to deflect scrutiny of his own administration's slow response to the outbreak. That's Trump the Businessman for ya!
Other women, actual leaders with, y'know, actual qualifications and stuff, are doing a disproportionately great job at handling the pandemic. So why aren't there more of them?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Earlier this week, I mentioned an autumn chill in the air. That’s borne out by two photos of … snow dusting the Drakensburg. |
| Drakensberg from Rosetta (click to enlarge) |
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| Drakensberg from Kamberg (click to enlarge) |
Cliff swallows likely are arriving from South America to rest and nest (one couple nests above my boat’s pontoons). Hummingbirds are wondering where I am and why I’m not filling their damned feeders.
I miss it.
Day 20, Wednesday April 15 - You can’t make this stuff up
Why?
So checks can be printed with his name.
Twitter users ripped that action.
Then, as if punishing Americans wasn't enough, he went on to punish the whole damned planet: Trump Defunds World Health Organization In the Middle of a Global Pandemic
He attacked the WHO for its delayed response and unwillingness to confront China … without acknowledging that he’s guilty of the exact same things.
Week 2, Day 8 Friday April 3 post suggested someone step up to Trump at a podium, switch off his mic, and escort him offstage. No one in his orbit is brave enough to do that. The US Constitution, however, provides a direct and effective measure: The Twenty-fifth Amendment (Amendment XXV).
Amendment XXV summarized: If the President becomes unable/unfit to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President becomes the President. This can happen for a short while, if the President is sick or disabled …or permanently.Sticking point?
Congress determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.
Right now, the House of Representatives is majority Democrat while the Senate is majority Republican. Republicans support Trump, no matter what. This means more hopeless partisan division and inaction… while humans die by the thousands.
Postscript: Concerned Americans frown with consternation at VP Pence becoming P.
I’ve frowned, too. Mr. Pence showed little ability as governor of Indiana to make decisions based on peoples’ health needs and currently shows particularly sycophantic obeisance to Trump.
I’m certain he’d dump the obeisance and jump at a chance at the presidency. He’d do better than Trump in that role – at least through the end of this disastrous administration. (That I’d ever suggest Pence step into the presidential role shows the level of Trump-induced calamity.)
As long as no one in government implements the amendment, Americans will continue to die while Trump hogs the mic.
Roman Emperor Nero, meanwhile, grins with delight: finally, history will ignore his fiddling while Rome burned. Donald J Trump has become history’s biggest bungler.
Lockdown works in South Africa
Hooray for South African leaders taking control of the pandemic.Monday April 13’s “public engagement with experts” Prof Abdul Karim, SA Health Ministry’s Zweli Mkhize, and others laid out strategies to confront South Africa’s coronavirus challenges.
The first five to seven minutes of MP Mkhize’s introduction covered the latest numbers - tests, confirmed infections, deaths - and how numbers are generated. Except for 15-minutes of bad audio for two call-in experts, the conference (more than two hours long) was informative and a pleasure to watch. Great going South Africans!
Prof Karim’s take-aways regarding personal protection, in order of importance:
1) Wash hands
2) Social distancing
3) If you wear a mask – non-medical, cotton masks are fine for laypeople - remove it very carefully. Touching inside the mask could distribute virus and contaminate. Disinfect in hot water.
Webinars to the rescue!
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| Courtesy Zapiro. click to enlarge. |
Daily Maverick’s Webinars make lockdown more bearable.
Link and listen to yesterday’s Climate Crisis in the time of Covid-19 webinar, with Mary Robinson and Kumi Naidoo, hosted by Rebecca Davis.
Link and listen to today's Covid-19: The Status of the Pandemic in Lockdown Week 3.
Maverick Citizen Editor Mark Heywood with health experts Professor Wolfgang Preiser and Dr Indira Govender.
Takeaways:
- high confidence that SA’s confirmed numbers of infections are accurate BUT it’s about who gets tested and when testing occurs.
- To avoid overwhelming the health systems, SA is going to have to create parallel health services specifically for Covid-19 – or risk infecting non Covid-19 cases with the virus. (It hasn’t hit the rural areas – yet!)
Trajectory of the virus in South Africa:
Prof Preiser: there will have to be measured relaxation of lockdown rules; we’re behind the curve with the worst yet to come; some habits will have to change for good.
Dr Govender: this is long term challenge with no return to “normal”… we can’t go back to overcrowding … and we need contingency plans to quickly contain Covid-19 hot spots as they crop up.
Sign up for tomorrow's webinars, Thursday 16 April at 12 pm. FutureNow: Face the Covid Reset. Daily Maverick Associate Editor Ferial Haffajee in conversation with John Sanei discusses life after the Covid-19 pandemic. Register here (If you register then miss the live webinar, you’ll be emailed a link to watch later.)
***
Word from the urban streets
A domestic worker required emergency dental care at a Pietermaritzburg clinic, 22kms away. She departed early, traveled in a public taxi, and passed through roadblocks by indicating her swollen jaw.Coincidentally, her sister passed through a different roadblock early in the day and on foot. She was detained and spent hours sheltering from the rain in a police vehicle. She was released, unharmed, at 4pm, the beginning of afternoon commute.
Meanwhile back at the ranch…
Risking police roadblocks in this small rural neighborhood, I stepped outside the gate today: my first walk in 18 days. I delivered to elderly neighbors masks my mother had sewed. How to make a maskIt was déjà vu all over again. The same dogs barked in the same gardens – passing the chore of barking to the set of dogs in the next garden as I passed. The same glorious plants bloomed. Few neighbors in sight.
Last year, a friend and I walked regularly in the neighborhood. Then a pair of young thugs hijacked, assaulted, and robbed my friend's elderly husband as he walked. He recovered but we lost our nerve.
Day 19, Tuesday April 14 - Question of the Day: Whither Democracy?
Methinks the prez doth protest too much. He’s losing whatever marbles he had, he’s on the ropes (talking of ropes, Florida deems wrestling “essential business.”)
Be afraid. Be very afraid. The Trump/Moscow Mitch duo hath cometh – and hath bamboozled.
It’s a formidable opponent for generous-spirited people everywhere.
Jailbirds flying the coop?
Paul Manafort, set for release from Rikers prison in November 2024, seeks early release citing risk from coronavirus.- Ditto, Bernie Madoff, 81-year-old financial fraud schemester par excellence.
- Ditto, Michael Avenatti, convicted extortionist, busily working himself out of jail for 90 days. The Trump nemesis faces two more criminal trials.
- If I was a betting woman, I’d bet Harvey Weinstein is leveraging the coronavirus pandemic, too. And Bill Cosby. Cushy mansion/house arrest, instead?
- No ruling has been issued on a similar motion from twenty-eight-year-old Reality Winner, former intelligence analyst. Given the politics, I’d bet Winner, “leaker”/ whistleblower of a top-secret report on Russian election interference, is refused. She’s sentenced to prison for more than five years…and I’d bet she serves ‘em all.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
I’ve alluded to KZN’s astonishingly fertile soil, that I can pluck a stem and push it into the earth and, pronto, it sprouts.Last year’s veggie garden presented both the up- and downside of fertility.
Upside: already rich soil, amended with rich compost, and potatoes, onions, and squash volunteer with gusto. Initially, starter plants - tomatoes, spinach (chard in California), strawberries, thyme, oregano, basil, and Thai basil - appear willing to flourish.
Downside:
California’s dry summers, wet winters, and clayey soil present few opportunities to understand cutworms. Sow bugs, yes: similar color and shape and, like cutworms, they roll/curl.
KZN’s wet, hot, humid summers present perfect umswenya conditions. Add beans, peas, dill, lettuce, rhubarb… and the gross, juicy pests thrive just below soil surface. They demolish emerging sprouts and stems leaving only tiny scattered flecks of green.
I engineered seedling collars out of discarded toilet roll tubes cut in half. Unfortunately, collaring constrains plants and they grow spindly.
My revenge? Popping unswenya.
This year, only volunteer squash survived cutworms. Instead, they fell victim to marauding monkeys.
Takeaways? 1) How do farmers cope? 2) Do creatures like umswenya and monkeys account for Africa’s incredibly rich, fecund soils not developing as the world’s breadbasket?
***
I’m the only South African I know who sleeps (or admits to sleeping) under a mosquito net.Divebombing and sucking mosquitos are annoying but manageable. I dab smelly, homemade cannabis oil on the bites. (Lockdown means not worrying about wafting cannabis aroma.)
Alas, the manufacturer and dispenser who supplied me last year has moved on. I’m not sure how to replenish my supply but I’m using what remains, mostly on spider bites.
Despite consistently checking for spiders inside gum boots, shoes, waders, and outside gear, spiders express their displeasure at my presence. This year, they’ve dined on my right calf, left foot, sternum, and left wrist. The latest assault left a large red splotch with two tiny, raised bite marks on my right front hip.
If I don’t scratch, the angry red bumps disappear after eight to ten days of generous dabbing.
The odd thing? Unlike mosquitos, I’ve never actually caught a spider in the act, nor even found one on my person.
Why blame spiders? Couldn’t aliens from another planet be conducting experiments?
Well, I encounter spiders and evidence of spiders: on plants, on walls, and webs slung between plants and anywhere I walk.
When I encounter aliens, it’ll be time for me to burst out of lockdown, damn the consequences.
Day 18 - Monday, April 13 - USA! USA! USA is number one!
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We're sitting on top of the world: 558,590 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus, and numbers still growing.
David Bowie* has a song for that… “This is not America” – except it is. This is America in the Age of Trump.
(Left) The cover of Rolling Stone Magazine's May issue. “The President and the Plague” outlines the last 5 months.
Coping in a time of crisis
- Is there anybody out there?
- People dress up to take out trash to enliven their self-isolation
- Volunteering to help those self-isolating
- Stay sane and Let’s Dance
Okay, Boomer*
Born on the trailing end of Boomer Gen, I grew up in rural KZN and missed much of the US 60s culture and all of its nuance. Nevertheless, last night, to change my headspace from depressing Age of Trump news, I slipped down the YouTube rabbit hole and listened to ye good ole days classic rock:- Pink Floyd: Another Brick in the Wall
- Jefferson Starship: White Rabbit
- Jefferson Airplane: White Rabbit
- Jimi Hendrix: Hey Joe
- Joe Cocker: Help from my Friends (Woodstock) and Whiter Shade of Pale
- Rolling Stones: Sympathy for the Devil
- David Bowie: Heroes
- Janis Joplin: Ball and Chain (Monterey)
- Bob Dylan: Knocking on Heavens Door and his big existential questions, Blowing in the wind
Meanwhile, back at the ranch
Goldfish spotting: with no flick of goldfish fin or tail in six days I conclude fish are under lockdown, too. For, even the most dedicated kingfisher couldn’t pluck nine goldfish from a weed-and-lily-filled pond in six days. Could it?Of moles and mowing
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| A different section of lawn but moles with similar mathematical inclinations? |
I’ve had it with maneuvering a mower designed for genteel lawns over hardy Kikuyu Grass and between ever-increasing numbers of mole hills.
It’s tough to learn anything about moles from moles.
Humans opine that moles spend their time in four-hour shifts, divided between sleeping and searching for food (earthworms, grubs, and other small earth dwellers).
Online conspiracy theorists say nothing about whether moles use clocks, watches, or cellphones to tell the time, but they confidently assert that moles love to eat Juicy Fruit gum (and that it's best to buy Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit in bulk packages from Costco).
They also argue about whether 1) gum should be chewed or unchewed when placed in the mole tunnels, and/or 2) to use a knife and cutting board to cut up fresh (unchewed) gum into tiny squares, smaller than the period at the end of a sentence. Theoretically, moles eat the gum that “gums up” their insides, causing them to die of constipation or some other horrible digestive problem.
That sounds like American moles...and American consipiracy theorists.
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| Conspiracy theorist's view of moles. (Looking for Juicy Fruit?) |
All’s I know about KZN moles in this garden is that they’re mathematically fastidious (note the almost straight lines; perhaps they use an app on their cellphones?).
Based on the formal/biological names of most of the KZN creatures I’ve researched to-date, I’d guess this mole species is something like Common Brown Garden Mole.
At any rate, no creature, Common or not, deserves to die of gummed up insides, constipation, or digestive problems.
Moreover, I've discovered I prefer moles to lawns.
Read Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3
Day 17, Sunday April 12
Australia’s prime minister urged stay-at-home back in March and again, yesterday, for Easter.Aussies appear to have overcome the national urge to buy up and hoard the country’s toilet paper supply. Perhaps they’ve sublimated fear into something constructively home-centric: baking toilet paper cakes.
What comes next? The Great Australian Toilet Paper Bakeoff?
Easter Sun-day-of-Rest-and-Reflection
Back on March 27, first day of lockdown in South Africa, blogging a post a day for three weeks looked feasible. My daily routine already included reading world news, writing, gardening, exercising, visiting my mother, walking the dogs, and spying on garden creatures. Adding a post-a-day would keep insanity away. Wouldn’t it?Turns out, daily blogging quickly becomes debilitating.
World news depresses. Trumpeting Trump’s lack of leadership, self-centeredness, and greed depresses. (I barely can watch him on YouTube; why is he allowed to campaign at “press conference” microphones?)
Gardening: me mowing the lawns is the garden equivalent of me cutting my child’s hair: clumpy and uneven. I seek out and murder invasive cat’s claw sprouts. I fill sinkholes. I collect and redistribute rich topsoil ejected from mole tunnels.
Exercise: I stretch, skip rope, run up and down stairs. It’s better than nothing but nothing like swimming and walking.
I watch mother sew cotton masks for the household and neighbors.
Spying reveals creatures sleep in on Easter Sunday. I haven’t spotted a goldfish in six days.
Yes, my position under lockdown is one of privilege, certainly more privileged than the majority of South Africans. Case in point: as I drafted this post, the gardener phoned. A family man with two young kids living in Mpophemeni Township, he had been scheduled to return to work this week. After we extended his stay away, I asked the status of the township. No infections that he knows of but life, he said, is “bad.” Crowded, anxious, bored, and, I’m sure, dangerous as people with incomes fall prey to people without incomes. (Last year, I asked if he grew veggies in his yard. He laughed, “Too many goats.” Goats and cattle trump people in Mpophemeni, and have priority right of way.)
***
Fewer vehicles on roads mean air is cleaner around the world. Moreover, a study reveals “pre-existing conditions that increase the risk of death for COVID-19 are the same diseases that are affected by long-term exposure to air pollution.”Imagine if governments and people around the world mobilized for climate change with just one percent of the effort expended on fighting Covid-19 infection.
Louis Armstrong sang it: “What a Wonderful World.”
Day 16, Saturday April 11 - Easter notice outside a church: Jesus rode an ass into Jerusalem. Keep yours at home …
Why stay home? This morning’s numbers from Johns Hopkins might convince:*Worldwide: 1,698,416 confirmed cases; 102,764 deaths
US has the highest number of infections: 501,419; 18,586 deaths
SA: 2,003 confirmed cases; 24 deaths
(*Compare this afternoon's numbers, below.)
History and the lesson of the 1918 influenza pandemic:
The US president is incapable of telling the truth. He’s failing, and Americans are paying.
What’s going on out there?
The good news- Kerala response: How an Indian state successfully fought and contained the deadly coronavirus
- Thai newborns getting face masks
- South Africa: SANDF and police’s violent Easter gift to Masiphumelele
- Pakistan: Pakistan doctors beaten by police as they despair of 'untreatable' pandemic
Let’s hear it for women
- Kansas Governor Sues GOP Leaders For Subverting Order Limiting Church Meetings
- She came to the rescue during the Great Depression. Her work is still aiding jobless Americans
- On March 27, Trump attributed his own broken promises about ventilator production to General Motors, now headed by a woman unworthy of even a last name: “Always a mess with Mary B…
- And then there's "That woman in Michigan…”
- “Fifty Democratic congresswomen have signed a scathing open letter that calls out President Donald Trump over his “continuing derogation of women” in his rhetoric and policies.”
Meanwhile back at the ranch…
Shocking observation from a reluctant mower of lawns: grass keeps growing!I push through the fourth or fifth segment of this garden’s fast-growing, thick, Kikuyu lawn and realize the first segment is still growing… In other words, there’s no end to this!
President Ramaphosa’s lockdown extension, now thorough the end of April, means I must redouble my efforts to maintain sanity.
Carrying an old-style camera around the garden helps. And patience. After waiting for what felt like an hour for this crab to perform for a video clip, I gave up and shot stills.
Note to wildlife photographers: I salute your patience and dedication.
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| click to enlarge. |
(Visit Photo Album for more photos ...)
***
Six hours after I presented the numbers above, they have increased:Worldwide: 1,701,718 confirmed cases; 102,867 deaths
US has the highest number of infections: 501,615
SA: 2,003 confirmed cases; 24 deaths (i.e., no updates)
Day 15, Friday April 10
Like fellow South Africans, I expected this daily grind of lockdown would end next week. Alas, last night President Ramaphosa extended it to end of April.
From the macrocosm point of view - health and welfare – of course Ramaphosa is right. The threat and the potential effects of a rampaging viral infection in this country are horrendous. The potential of infection in townships and, worse, in informal settlements beggars belief. Take a look at just one informal settlement and multiply that by hundreds and you get the picture.
Here in the microcosm? Small scale crazy making. I’ve got it good. This household consists of my fragile mother, two live-in domestic workers, and seven dogs. Marauding monkeys drop by now and again. Hungry kingfishers occasionally snack on easy-to-see-easy-to-skewer goldfish.
Nevertheless, crazy-making territory lurks between what was - walking and swimming several days a week – to what is: in-place stretching, running up and down 10 steps, skipping rope, and mowing the never-ending lawn. Crazy-making lurks in the little things, too: the one-eyed, peeing everywhere, deaf mutt (aptly named Scruffy) who barks every seven to nine seconds throughout the day; the need not to snap at housemates; truncated phone conversations with intelligent friends and family in faraway, chaotic United States.
On the plus side, spending time in the garden is a gift. (More on that below.)
***
'Post Tortoise'
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| Courtesy Daily Kos |
Back in 2005, a doctor stuck up a conversation with a 75-year-old Texas farmer. Eventually the topic turned to Trump and his role as GOP Nominee for President.
The farmer said, “Well, as I see it, Donald Trump is like a 'Post Tortoise'.”
Unfamiliar with the term, the doctor asked what was a 'post tortoise'.
The farmer said, "When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a tortoise balanced on top, that's a post tortoise."
Seeing the puzzled look on the doctor's face, the farmer explained. "You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he's up there, he's elevated beyond his ability to function, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put him up there to begin with."
Such is the chaos in the United States these days that American citizens decline US Embassy repatriation offers. One young woman in Lebanon explained that it's “safer” in Beirut.
I delayed repatriation for similar reasons. (See Week 2, Day 11, Monday April 6, “Fly the coop?”)
Meanwhile, back at the ranch
Today, I spread yesterday’s grass clipping around sections of garden. It’s the beginning of autumn/fall here – one feels the coming-of-winter “nip in the air” – so time to start prepping plants and mulching anyway.I removed mounds of the diaphanous pond weed again today. I last thinned this weed on Week 1, Day 3, March 29.
Another 20 days of lockdown.
I’m due to depart May 19. Will I? That is one question.
Another question: what shape will I be in when I do depart?
And will I have another 14 days of quarantine/self-isolation in California?
Week 2: Day 14 – Thursday April 9
Numbers as per MSNBC News, 4:03 pm April 8 |
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782, Gauteng, 3 deaths
495, Western Cape, 3 deaths
354, KwaZulu-Natal, 9 deaths
88, Free State, 3 deaths
15, North West
21, Mpumalanga
21, Limpopo
45, Eastern Cape
13, Northern Cape
11, Unallocated
* numbers from News24.com
Of 197 countries and regions, 184 have (are admitting to) confirmed cases of Covid-19 infections.
***
Usually a fan of late-night comedian-delivered news, I’ve not watched my staple comedians - Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, John Oliver, Trevor Noah, or Jimmy Kimmel - for weeks. Watching these guys in casual clothes sitting in their home studies – with poor sound quality, poor delivery, scripts not as scripted as usual, and missing laugh tracks makes me ... sad.
But then there’s only so much comedy to be made while tens of thousands of people suffer and Trump hogs the spotlight to deliver “truthiness.”
The con man cometh…
and overstays his welcome
Not only is he “great” and “perfect,” America’s snake oil salesman president is now “America’s cheerleader.”Remember back in 2015 when Trump, running for Republican presidential candidate, would flog Trump Organization products – steaks, bottled water, vodka, and Trump magazine?
Nowadays, he’s effectively taken over the Republican Party, dismissed anyone who showed effectiveness, expertise, competency, and dedication to government service and replaced them with… himself and his coterie.It's amazing how much lying, incompetence, and passing the buck Americans will put up with.
Michelle Cottle sounds amazed, too. On the New York Times editorial board, she writes, “Drop the Curtain on the Trump Follies: Why does the nation need to be subjected to the president’s daily carnival of misinformation, preening and political venom?”
A sprinkling of the latest gems from his coterie of supporters:
- “…they were on their last legs anyway…. ”
- “True Christians do not mind dying of coronavirus…”
- Only .33 percent (i.e., less than 1 percent) of promised 3.5 billion N95 masks distributed to states…
Meanwhile…
Here is KZN Midlands, lockdown is getting lax. Five days ago, during my first trip outside, streets and stores were almost empty. Yesterday, out for medication and iPhone charger cable, there were many vehicles on the road and in mini mall parking lots. Today’s foray for lawn mower petrol looked as if lockdown was over.… back at the ranch
For someone who spent twenty years in California gardening in pots on a small condo patio and now lives and gardens on a houseboat, mowing a large lawn is an eye-opener.Each day this week, I’ve tackled another section of the large lawn here in KZN. I’m only half finished. The mower cuts out every seven to nine minutes or more frequently when it encounters thick grass. Pulling the rope to reignite the engine is developing the muscles in my right arm and my back. This will help when (if!) I return to my houseboat. I’ll be able to start up the 15 hp outboard motor on my gadabout dingy in no time at all!
Day 13 – Wednesday April 8 - Lockdown fever has set in!
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Pandemics have happened before. With luck, and caution, we’ll survive this one, too.
I watch the goings on in both of my beloved countries with a heavy heart. On days like this, music soothes.
The great Arlo Guthrie reminds us of Louisiana burdened by coronavirus with his classic City of New Orleans (music video with great imagery)
And the late, great Hugh Masekela reminds us of SA’s complex legacy: Stimela (the coal train)
Tomorrow is another day under lockdown.
I’ll likely have more to say than I want to share today.
Stay safe…and enjoy the Critters now in their new home.
Day 12 – Tuesday April 7
Numbers early TuesdayWorldwide: 1,347,895 cases; 74,808 deaths; 284,805 recoveries
US: 368,245
SA: 1,686
According to BBC World News, Turkmenistan (population 4,948,000) has no reported cases of Covid-19 infections. It that because Turkmen people are super healthy, have antibodies or immunity for some unknown but scientific reason, or because President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow has ordered the repression of actual infection numbers?
All, some, or none of the above?
I bring this up because usage stats indicate someone in Turkmenistan follows this blog. To that person I say, stay in touch, comment, we’re rooting for you, your compatriots, and your country’s safe passage through this pandemic.
Tracking world news gives me the impression there’s a change in the existential flow of the pandemic, at least in how humans perceive and report its flow.
Last week, panic reigned as infection and death tolls rose: China, Italy, Spain, the US, South Africa….
People (and dogs) around the globe reacted with shock, denial, and fear to numbers of confirmed cases, deaths, and recoveries, to the lack of equipment and leadership, unsure of what to know, what to do, and how to do it. This week, it appears New York state’s astronomical infection numbers may be leveling, that people around the world understand we’re in this for the long haul.
Not to say ease up on social distancing, wearing masks, washing hands… It could be the reality of the pandemic is “normalizing” or that, by its nature, lockdown means difficulty gauging what’s going on “out there”, in one’s neighborhood, village, town, informal settlement.
Am I simply projecting my personal, relatively safe, behind a high security fence experience? Comment and let us know what’s what in your part of the world.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Listed on the US federal noxious list, Kikuyu Grass can only be shipped to certain states and counties. In California, shipment is restricted.
Today, this aggressive invader of pastures, crop land, and moist natural areas is found throughout KZN.
All five lawns here are taking advantage of the gardener's absence for the duration of lockdown, .
High-maintenance expanses of grass don’t appeal to me. The few times I’ve had a garden, I’ve dug up grass and planted veggies and herbs.
Don’t misunderstand: grasses are fascinating. Look at these spectacular African grasses shot before lockdown.
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I ponder, why lawns? Why the initial and ongoing expense, the noise, the air pollution, the fossil fuel consumption that lasts as long as the mower?
Meanwhile, lawns grow.
I’ve never power mowed but I understand the basics of mowing: pull the rope to ignite the engine, push the mower over grass, sweep up and compost clippings.
Pulling the rope was tough. The motor grunted but didn’t start. After several failed attempts, I powered up my laptop and found an online user manual.
Primer Buttons are key.
I located the mower’s primer button, prodded it three times, pulled the rope again. More grunts but no ignition. Repeated primer button action. Repeated rope pulling. Finally, ignition.
Mowing is hard labor. Noisy.
Long, thick grass makes mowers stall. Restarting mowers gets easier with practice.
The smell of cut grass almost dominates the smell of the combustion engine.
With one of five lawns mowed, I swept up and spread clippings over garden beds to compost.
Tomorrow, I’ll tackle the next lawn.
Staying busy during lockdown is hard labor, too.
End of day numbers:
Worldwide: 1,362,936 cases; 76,373 deaths; 292,188 recoveries
US: 368,449
SA: 1,686
Day 11 – Monday April 6
It’s tough for control freaks, too. My control freak-ism was a good fit in the “real world as an Internet producer/project manager/consultant for large corporate clients. An orientation towards detail while managing creative and development teams, budgets, and timelines is a plus.
It’s not such a good fit for life under lockdown. (Detect the … whiff … of impatience in my posts about inefficiency and incompetence? Chalk it up to this.)
Control freaks like to know what’s going on and lockdown doesn’t share much. News is either redundant or focused on macrocosms, not the microcosm of what’s happening in my ‘hood. Madding.
Fly the coop?
Almost all the people I love and care about live in the US, either California – my home state – or Texas.California Gov Newsom called a stay-at-home weeks ago – and that decision has slowed down contagion in that state.
Texas Gov Greg Abbott isn't calling it a stay-at-home order. But he's telling Texans to stay at home. Huh?
My loved ones in Texas are both medical professionals working in the same hospital near Houston. They have three small children at home. Schools are closed. Childcare is challenging.
Infection rates in Texas are climbing.
25 February: 58 cases;
25 March: 1,119 cases;
4 April: 6,566 (124 deaths)
(Since we're doing the numbers: wordlwide infections at 1, 288, 375; US: 337, 933)
The option to cut and run while I still can poses a psychological dilemma: How do I depart for California and leave a frail (though stubborn) mother without support?
It also poses a physical conundrum: how do I get to California?
The US Embassy in Pretoria, offering Repatriation Flights for Americans interested in returning to the US, states the:
current round of repatriation flights being planned may be the last. If you wish to repatriate … travel now or be prepared wait until commercial flights resume in the future. We are not able to say when commercial flights will resume or if the South African lockdown will be extended.Then come the kickers:
Evacuation flights are not free-of-charge and are, in fact, frequently more expensive than currently available commercial travel; you will be required to sign a promissory note guaranteeing future payment to the U.S. Government if you travel on a charter flight.I’ve still time to apply but the window is closing….
1. If an opportunity to return presents itself, it could be through either commercial means or a chartered flight. You should also be aware that this option may be more expensive than a normal discounted airfare. We do not have a specific cost estimate.
2. Any repatriation flight(s) from South Africa to the United States of America can only depart from O.R Tambo airport in Johannesburg, Cape Town International, and King Shaka airport in Durban per Government of South Africa regulations relating to the “Lockdown.” Once specific flight details are confirmed, we will communicate those to you with instructions on how to book the travel. You will need to make your own way to the designated assembly point. (My emphasis in bold or italic.)
3. You will be responsible for onward travel from the arrival location … most likely be somewhere on the east coast.
(Do they mean the east coast that is currently one of the hottest petri dishes for infection? With commercial domestic flights curtailed in the US, how do I travel (non-stop?) the 3,000 miles from east to west? Do I hang out in the “east coast” airport while organizing a flight? Aren’t US airports overcrowded, infection-incubators?)
4. We are committed to facilitating the return of all U.S. citizens who wish to return. Depending on your personal/financial situation and support network in South Africa, sheltering in place may be an option; however, you should be prepared to do so for an undetermined amount of time.
(No one can say how long, of course, but for us control freaks this is, well, less than a nightmare but more than a serious dilemma.)
5. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a Global Level 3 Travel Notice meaning you would be asked to self-quarantine for 14 days upon return to the United States.
Life-threatening adventures: grocery shopping
Five unused N95 masks remain in this house from last year when I, usually militantly anti-herbicide-use, used herbicide to discourage invasive cat’s claw vine.Quite the pesticide paranoid back then, I wore a mask, a hat, latex gloves, gumboots, and coveralls. (Fashion forward forerunner of what people around the world soon may be wearing to discourage invasive coronavirus?)
Now, I’m saving the N95 masks to deploy if anyone in this household is infected. (Or, a la Donald Trump, I sell them to the highest bidder on the “free market. )
Meanwhile, homemade cotton masks will do. I recycled a coral colored pillowcase into bandana size and, when necessary, carry it in the pocket of my shirt/coverall-protection. (I remove and scrub/disinfect these items on returning home.)
I carry my passport/ID and international driver’s license in my backpack, too.
I like to cook with quality ingredients that I find more consistently in a store four miles from home than in the store one mile from home.
My mom’s shopping list targets items in the closer store. This means shopping at both stores.
After covering three-and-three-quarters of the four miles I ran into a police-manned quasi-roadblock. No problem. With far fewer vehicles on the road, police simply waved drivers to slow down and allowed us to pass without stopping.
The mini-mall parking lot, designed for about 200 vehicles, hosted less than a dozen. No parking attendants. (These “independent contractors” or gig workers support themselves on tips they earn – if they’re lucky – by guiding drivers into and out of parking spots.)
Store attendants greeted shoppers with a spritz of disinfectant and free sani-wipes.
Posted signs apologized for lack of fresh produce – no garlic, ginger, limes; plenty of apples and bananas - but store shelves were otherwise well-stocked.
After ten days at home I was delighted to chat with strangers. I commiserated with the produce manager about “tough times,” laughed at the air-time vendor’s joke about the airtime online system being down - he said, "it’s dead but at least I’m not!” - and I hurried back to the safety of my vehicle.
Police roadblock was gone when I drove to the second grocery store.
The second shopping experience was similar: shoppers spritzed on entry, generally well-stocked shelves, produce somewhat diminished – no spinach or cabbage but plenty of garlic and ginger, lemons instead of limes, bananas.
Online airtime sales system still down.
At checkout a stranger sighed aloud and expressed a longing for a cigarette.
“May not be the best time to give up,” I said.
“I'm not giving up. I’ve ten cigarettes left and I can’t buy anymore. Stores and petrol stations are not allowed to sell cigarettes or alcohol. Government says smoking makes people more susceptible to complications from the virus.”
Ouch.
But tobacco companies are fighting back. I predict they’ll win.
Meanwhile, Murphy’s Law: what can go wrong will go wrong.
The charger cable for my iPhone is malfunctioning. I’ve fiddle with it, cleaned the ports, prayed…
I can’t live without a phone. Who can these days?
Looks like a quick trip to the local (only) computer store is my next infection-defying adventure. That is, if that store is open for business.
Many retailer websites indicate they’re open but calls to stores go unanswered.
We “detail-oriented” struggle with this store-owner's lack of attention to detail….
Day 10 – Sunday April 5
After 10 days of lockdown, the trending topic on social media is...going stir-crazy.
Daily Maverick offers solutions.
The garage was the delivery room. I searched through jars of odds and ends, bit and pieces, bits and bobs, and put aside potentially useful items. Paint offerings were minimal with ninety-nine percent Rustoleum, designed for metal, not wood. A tube of red acrylic was useful. I’d purchased it to con monkeys about snakes. (It didn't work.)
Alas, the current US administration has a woefully (though proudly) under-educated man at its helm. Donald J Trump is more likely to undermine and disparage rather than support government officials who are more knowledgeable than he.
Spoiler alert: jump to minute 25 in the documentary and hear how city of Philadelphia’s health board...
New York state’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, fast becoming hero to Americans who appreciate knowhow, clarity, and a hands-on attitude, demonstrates these characteristics based on experience working crises for past US administrations. In an interview Cuomo says,
Cuomo doesn’t say it explicitly so I will: agencies are trying to perform but they are hamstrung by lack of knowhow, clarity, and little to no hands-on experience, at least none that the current president will respect, accept, and act on.
The documentary concludes:
History counts. Knowing history matters.
What might seem draconian by today’s standards, was effective when San Franciscans faced the 1918 flu pandemic. Mask became mandatory, with people fined or jailed for disregarding the directive. It worked.
If Trump knew anything about history, anything at all about the 1918 pandemic, he would not (well, it’s Trump, he should not) have said in a recent briefing, “This is so contagious. Nobody's ever seen anything like this, where large groups of people all of a sudden, just by being in the presence of somebody, have it.”
Instead, all his public statements to date underplay Covid-19’s potential. Too many governors still follow his direction not to order stay-at-home protections. (Not, thank the gods, independent-thinking Governors Newsom and Inslee of California and Washington. There, lockdown-lite reigns (in comparison to South Africa) with a measurable impact through expanded testing and fewer new infections.)
Now Jared Kusher – Trump’s one size fits all fix-it guy, from digital media stratist, senior White House advisor overseeing criminal justice, authoring a “peace” plan in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - is overseeing pandemic...and Jared Kushner Is Going to Get Us All Killed
I reached my capacity long ago to watch Donald Trump founder through way-too-long, rambling, made for reality-showman TV addresses. Sometimes, I imagine someone reaching out, turning off his mic, and leading him offstage (wrapped in a white straitjacket would be nice but not worth the extra wait time).
Nobody deserves Trump-levels of incompetence from the world’s most powerful nation.
Worldwide:
937,567 confirmed
47,256 deaths
194,311 recovered
A cartoon to lighten the mood:
Midnight tonight marks one week since lockdown began in South Africa. If I’m fraying at the seams after one week, what will next week bring?
Fraying happens in a household with one stubborn 87-year-old, her two resistant, middle-aged, live-in domestic workers, and seven obese dogs. I’m the only vehicle-driver and the only news-follower. I feel isolated the pressure is on, I’m isolated, and I’m not handling it well.
Today, in this household, the willfully ignorant have the upper hand.
I take heart in others “out there” succumbing to pressure, too:
Ominous fraying at the seam?
I understand the desire to put one’s head in the sand (the pandemic “…is not very nice, is it?”), to try to control an out-of-control situation with wishful thinking.
South Africa’s leaders try to address the “intentional” spreading of fake news and conspiracies but how to prove “intentional.”
Extremists see themselves as normal people un/lucky enough to hold the “real, only truth” that “everyone” would believe if only…
Today’s target of threats in the US is truth-teller Anthony Fauci - to Receive Enhanced Personal Security.
Donald Trump is to United States what Jacob Zuma was to South Africa…except, you know, Trump had a rich daddy who gave him millions of dollars plus offered good US universities the chance to educate the man. (Those universities failed as Trump is immune to ideas outside his own head.) Zuma was fatherless and had a third-grade education. Zuma’s gone (sort of) and Trump’s on his way out. These kindred spirits will leave lasting legacies. Meanwhile, Trevor Noah nailed it in 2015.
As the numbers of those infected heads toward 900,000, and close to 43,000 dead, a couple of news articles:
and in California,
Photo courtesy of African Snakebite Institute that explains this ...
Soon, almost one million people around the globe will be confirmed as infected with an evolving virus.
Meanwhile, in this corner of KwaZulu Natal… well, hell, those million are “out there, “don’t’ affect us,” for “in this household, we’re special.”
Can you tell I’m frustrated and angry today?
My 87-year old mother, on whose behalf I’m in SA, pays no attention to the news. She spends her days watching TV but nothing informative … unless one considers reruns of reruns of CBS-Reality’s shows Judge Judy, Repo, Hardcore Pawnand Dog the Bounty Hunter informative.
Her comment about the pandemic? “That’s not very nice, is it?”
No, indeed.
But’s there always music.
Listen to two classic Butterfiedl Blues Band pieces that describe my feelings today:
Turns out there’s a growing music genre:
Pandemic Blues (Burst My Bubble)
Pandemic Blues (Keep your ass out the coffin…)
Pandemic Blues – Waiting for News to Come in
Search for more on YouTube…
Worldwide: 786,228 confirmed cases; 37,820 deaths; 166,041 recovered.
Recent data from China implies patients confirmed with Covid-19 and tested negative upon recovery are, inexplicably, testing positive again.
The evolution of novel coronavirus continues unabated as humans play catch up.
Last night, "real" president Cyril Ramaphosa updated the nation on the pandemic.
President Trump, on the other hand, confines his television appearances to Fox News, and specifically to sycophant Sean Hannity (Trump’s go to ”news” guy.) This, so Trump controls the narrative and placates the Fox News audience that appears to fully believe everything the TV outlet spouts. On Fox News, Trump is guaranteed no hard questions and no pushback. Undermining health experts, bashing critics, wishful thinking, untruths (Comedian Stephen Colbert calls it “truthiness.”) That’s what passes for presidential leadership in the US these days.
But all it not lost. New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, regularly demonstrates strong leadership as his state is the current epicenter for the virus. In the past, Gov Cuomo has been described as bullying and controlling but he’s modified those characteristics and stepping up to lead in a way the country needs and appreciates. If you have time – who doesn’t these days? – Google his name and compare his handling of the pandemic to that of Donald J. Trump.
Back in SA…
Troubling news about SA security forces – official, and unofficial? – over-zealously plying their mandate.
Was it that “gorgeous” kingfisher that preyed upon this fishy fella?
King of the fishers, indeed.
After that, it’s time to face day four of lockdown.
The mathematically inclined mole further extended his tunnel.
Two mature strelitzia plants (Bird of Paradise) have overgrown their sections of the garden. Prior to lockdown, I’d tasked the gardener with thinning one plant. Driving to the local SPCA nursery to donate the clippings(sales help the SPCA’s mission), the gardener grumbled about how difficult strelitzia is to remove. After lockdown, I started thinning the second strelitzia and discovered it is, indeed, difficult.
The diameter of this plant’s base is about 18 inches. Consider the depth of its root system about 18 to 20 inches and you understand the challenge.
Oh well, with 17 more days of lockdown, I’ve plenty of time…
Meanwhile, on the pandemic front, confirmed cases of infection:
SA: 1,280
CA: “more than 3,082”
US: 143,055
World: 735,560
And, let's end today's post with another look at capitalism at work:
I focused, first, on the garden and a mole with exceptional skill at tunneling across the lawn in a straight line.
I’ve been following her/his trajectory for several days.
Who said there are no straight lines in nature?
Next, garbed in waders, I pruned and examined the blooming freshwater weed in the pond.
It grows with none of the tenacity of the invasive water lilies with root systems that cling to rocks. Instead, the weed is almost delicate. Its tendrils are soft, netlike, almost diaphanous. Judging by feel, the plant roots in soft silt but balloons up and out to float over the roots in blossoming green clouds. I gather arms full and check it for living creatures – baby crabs and frogs and fingerling fish – that I return to the water. I pile the weed on the pond’s banks. The outer surface darkens as it dries although the inside remains green and damp for several days. I will compost the bulk of this weed but have begun laying it directly onto the garden. It makes an excellent layer upon which to lay soil. My expectation is that the fluffy weed layer will, over time, dry and become dense yet still a breathable material in which to embed plants.
An unexpected benefit of lockdown is time to in-dwell, to listen to one’s head and heart, to host creative thoughts, perhaps implement them.
With the gardener on paid leave, I’m running various composting trials. Besides the above pond weed composting experiment, I’m experimenting with discarded limbs of pruned vines.
Generally, I’m prejudiced against growing vines willy nilly up walls, over other plants, and over fences. I’m puzzled as to why someone would spend money erecting security fences around a property then grow vines up those fences. Sure, vines are “pretty” while security fences with loops of razor wire are not. But in an insecure land, security fences offer… well, security. Covering a security fence with vines undermine the job of the fence. Doesn’t it? Since I believe it does, I regularly discourage fast-growing vines from growing over loops of razor wire.
South African standard operating procedure (SOP) to dispose of garden clippings, rubbish, and unwanted debris is to burn it. Aware of environmental pollutants and hazards, it’s not my SOP and, wth the gardener away, I’m free to experiment with alternatives to burning. Accordingly, after I pruned the vines that cover the security fence, I stuffed the discarded vines into a small sinkhole that repeatedly forms between the natural stream and the garden pond. I suspect this sinkhole was never properly fixed. Temporary solutions such as filling the sinkhole with soil don’t work as soil is quickly washed away.
Vine cuttings to the rescue. Jamming armfuls of cuttings into the sinkhole is also a temporary fix but one that fertilizes the soil. There’s a fifty/fifty chance on the vines sprouting and it remains to be seen whether the vines can overcome the dense packing. A couple of weeks is all it will take.
Logging onto the Internet generated a dreaded message: “no internet connection.” Unfortunately, this is a too-frequent message. I phoned the owner of the small business ISP. As usual his voice message explained office hours as Monday through Friday, 9 to 5.
Murphy’s Law: my internet connection woes happen on weekends. I left a message anyway.
What’s App and Facebook are the social media apps of choice in South Africa. I hear none of the antipathy many Californians direct towards Facebook. Here, the attitude is, It’s free. What invasion of privacy?
So, when in South Africa, I do as South Africans do. But, by day 2, I’ve reached my limit…or, as South Africans say, “I’m gatvol.”
What’s App Covid-19-related messages fill my inbox. Friends declare these come from epidemiologists, health workers, journalists, politicians. But, too many come from conspiracy theorists, and other nuts: health nuts with outlandish cures, religious nuts, and anti-vaxer nuts. Enough already!
Please, cease and desist with the panic-driven images and video clips of miles-long SADF convoys, soppy, funny, or clearly false “facts”, conspiracy theories, and “thoughts and prayers” from assorted belief-systems.
I’ll titrate my exposure. ..once my Internet access reconnects!
At the end of a quiet day -- fewer vehicles and fewer pedestrians passed by - a refreshing story about Venice, Italy. A month ago, that city’s canals were filled with sediment stirred up by assorted boats and ships. Strict shelter in place orders see fewer water craft with the result of sediment settling and water in the canals clearing. Italians can see fish again, even dolphins. ** Amid the horrors of the pandemic, life goes on.
Imagine, while human beings the world over shelter at home, the planet’s wild animals can go out and about with less fear of hunters, traffickers, and other human predators.
** Turns out this if "fake news." Read Day 8 post for further info.
This, following an announcement earlier in the week by ANC’s President Cyril Ramaphosa. The announcement was unequivocal, clear, to the point. It was, indeed, presidential, unlike that of the president of the United States, the other country I live in.
Why does every statement Donald J. Trump makes on the pandemic sound equivocal, muddy, rambling, undermining, and contradictory?
Five hours into the lockdown, early morning of March 27, I awoke to the sounds of workers talking as they walked past our house in this semi-rural neighborhood in the Midlands. A dirt road curves uphill to commercial greenhouses, a poultry farm, a private school, and a handful of other businesses on “small holdings” (properties of up to 50 acres). Vehicle traffic was about the same as usual in the morning. It petered out during the day then picked up again during late afternoon. Lockdown rules allow travel to /from work between 5am to 9am and from 4pm to 6pm.
The days prior to the lockdown had been filled with anxiety-provoking last-minute errands: purchasing food, thinking through what items I’d forgotten (a standby battery for the property’s security system, ink cartridges for the printer...). With everything apparently done, it was, frankly, a relief to stay home. There’d been a last-minute glitch when a live-in domestic worker with chronic diabetes mentioned she had an appointment at the hospital “next week.” Typically, she spends all day a month at the state-run hospital waiting for her 15-minute appointment. Since a hospital is the last place for a non-infected person to be during a pandemic, I hurried into the local town and approached a pharmacy to ask that they fill the scrip. Thankfully, the pharmacist did so, all except the “pen” – used to administer medication directly into the body. He was out of those kits, but he arranged for me to pick it up at another pharmacy. Located in an area crowded with people, taxi ranks, buses, that pharmacy had a line of customers looped around the tight parking lot and into the street. Social distancing was impossible. I drove home where, I discovered, the domestic worker had enough medication to last three more weeks.
The previous week, I’d laid off the three-day-a week, at will gardener, with full pay. This, as his daily taxi 8-mile commute to and from Mpophomeni Township risked exposing him – and, by extension, my fragile, 87-year-old mother – to infection. Best he shelter in his home with his family until the all-clear.
After breakfast, I donned waders and entered the natural pond. Gardening is a pleasure and watching and learning about critters that live in a large pond extends that pleasure. A fast-growing freshwater weed recently bloomed in the pond. The fish and other critters appear to appreciate it but I’m concerned it might soon fill every nook and cranny in the pond – as the invasive lilies species has in the past. I’ll compost the weed.
In contrast to California’s clay-like soil, KwaZula Natal’s soil is rich and fecund. If I push a cutting into this soil it sprouts within the week. Capitalizing on this feature, I’ve planted three varieties of indigenous salvia in a rockery.
I happened to catch a snipped of local TV news (My mother refuses to watch the news, even under current extraordinary circumstances, preferring “reality” shows.) The segment showed travelers at airports, departing South Africa for their homes. For a long moment I longed to join them and head back to California, to my kids, grandkids, and friends.
Why, I wondered, am I here, in South Africa?
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Sunday is a day of rest so I’ll not comment much on the plan of Human Settlements minister to evacuate Gauteng townships.
Is that plan meant to show “look, we’re doing something in a time of crisis” or is it actually meant to protect people from viral infection?
I don’t have any big ideas of how to address South Africa’s crisis of townships’ and informal settlements’ lack of water, lack of sewer systems, lack of trash collection but the solution ain’t gonna happen now that a pandemic rages.
The exciting ANC promise of 25 years ago of “one million homes built in ten years” has become a butt of jokes: “ten homes not built in a million years.” But that’s a topic for another day.
On the tenth day of lockdown day, I, unlike millions of South African compatriots, can sit quietly on the bank of a garden pond, admire dragonflies and damselflies, butterflies and birds, plant and pond life, and calm my version of stir-crazy.
I ponder the garden pond as a metaphor for life. It flows. It’s multicultural: host indigenous and exotic; offers its secrets to the persistent and respectful…
Contemplation is good.
So is birthing Critters.
A Critter is conceived when wind blows down dry palm fronds. I trim then gestate the fronds. Labor day arrives when I’m ready to birth a critter.
Here are today’s quintuplets before birth. (Note a pair of well-weathered twins that arrived last year and are due for a check-up).
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| Click to enlarge. |
Rustoleum is not water-based so, for easy cleanup, I substituted cotton balls, bits of palm fronds, and fingers (in latex gloves) for paint brushes.
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| Click to enlarge. |
Welcome critters! Today, you look garish but subjected to time, sun, rain, frost, and visiting insects, weathering will reveal your unique characteristics.
Day 9 – Saturday April 4
Unintentionally guilty
Concluding Day 2’s post, I linked to an article about renewed visibility of fish and dolphins in Venice’s canals. Waxing gleeful about wild animals taking advantage of lockdown / stay-at-home orders to reclaim territory, I rejoiced that, “Amid the horrors of the pandemic, life goes on.”
Amid the horrors of pandemic, lies go on, too.
Even as “Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco,” National Geographic debunks the story of Venetian fish and dolphins….
I, intentional critic of intentional fake stories, have become an unintentional ought-to-be-criticized disseminator of fake news.
Fraying at the seams during lockdown could be partially responsible – I want wild animals to re-inhabit the few wild places left. But fraying at the seams is a temporary mood. Lies, (are they still lies if inadvertent?) take on a life of their own, and mess with peoples’ worldviews. Purposefully breeding mistrust is an existential attack on one’s worldview.
Lies and propaganda – updated as “fake news” and “alternative facts” - have been around for eons. Moreover, shaking up one’s worldview is not always a bad thing. (Worldviews ought to change, grow, and evolve - organically. Coherence and integration are key.)
Intentionally lying about the clarity of Venice’s canals isn’t a vicious lie but why do it?
One answer? Click bait. Online clicks “monetize.” Monetary gain breeds more click bait.
One answer? Click bait. Online clicks “monetize.” Monetary gain breeds more click bait.
So, readers, mea culpa. I still want to believe that wild animals can reclaim territory lost to human encroachment. The good news is that some have. Or, is this fake news, too?
Back at the ranch…
Staying current on the fast-moving news during lockdown takes its toll. I’m taking the weekend off from sharing numbers of infected and dead. (Check them here if you have the heart. )
I choose the garden where birds twitter and flit, butterflies, too. Water bugs pock the surface of the pond. Breezes soothe.
Later yesterday, the neighborhood’s troop of vervet monkeys livened up things.
Their ritual harassment begins with raiding our bird feeders. The cacophony of barking dogs sends monkeys scrabbling across the metal roof of the carport, and along fence perimeter into the neighbors’ garden. He keeps eight diminutive chihuahuas indoors – out of monkeys’ clutch – so monkeys have free reign to terrorize his chickens and his bird aviaries. Then they raid neighborhood orchards, take one bite of a piece of fruit (avocados in season), and toss. Take another piece of fruit….
This is a variant of reclaiming territory. 
Talking about monkeys...
Thanks to New York Daily News
Day 8 – Friday April 3
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| Courtesy of the Washington Post |
Photo essay:
25 aerial photos of San Francisco under lockdownSobering
This historical documentary of the Spanish/Swine Flu Pandemic of 1918 ought to be compulsory viewing for every person across the globe who enters, or is about to enter, government service.Alas, the current US administration has a woefully (though proudly) under-educated man at its helm. Donald J Trump is more likely to undermine and disparage rather than support government officials who are more knowledgeable than he.
Spoiler alert: jump to minute 25 in the documentary and hear how city of Philadelphia’s health board...
didn’t want people to panic [so] … downplayed the severity of the disease. After the death of several sailors and civilians, the health board confidently declared the disease had reached its zenith and was already on the decline.Déjà vu, all over again.
It hadn’t even gotten started.
At the same time, the federal government was desperate for more bonds to fund the war…. Philadelphia was ready to hold the Liberty Loan Parade to sell war bonds. Public health boards begged the city to delay the parade, terrified that the outbreak would become an epidemic. The city government ignored them. On September 28, hundreds of thousands of people jammed into the downtown streets to watch the parade. In the huddled crowd, all crushed together, it only took a few coughing, sneezing people to launch the epidemic.
Within 76 hours… the city’s 31 hospitals had run out of bed space… In some cases, the sick were laid on the floor, next to dying patients. Once a patient died, the body would be taken away and a new patient lifted into the same bed….
Doctors and nurses were dropping from the flu. They were desperate for help. People with no medical training volunteered. Physicians and nurses came out of retirement…. First year medical students were put in charge of an entire floor of a hospital…”
New York state’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, fast becoming hero to Americans who appreciate knowhow, clarity, and a hands-on attitude, demonstrates these characteristics based on experience working crises for past US administrations. In an interview Cuomo says,
This is a full-blown, nation-wide crisis where government has to work. This is not abstract, it’s not theoretical, we’re not talking about policies. You have to make government operate and you have to make it operate in a way it never did. You have to take those hospitals and make them work in a way they never have. You have to produce those supplies. You have to find those gowns, find those masks. You have to have those ventilators. You have to move patients back and forth and not just on a flow chart… If government doesn’t work, people will die who didn’t have to die. [It’s a] shift, from conceptual – wouldn’t it be a great idea if government did this - to the exact opposite where this is all practical…all real… all experience … all competence and capacity. … [Today,] you see these government agencies … trying to perform the way government is supposed to perform.
Cuomo doesn’t say it explicitly so I will: agencies are trying to perform but they are hamstrung by lack of knowhow, clarity, and little to no hands-on experience, at least none that the current president will respect, accept, and act on.
On the medical front, Dr Sanja Gupta concurs, saying, of:Let me reiterate: the historical documentary, above, or something comparable, should be mandatory watching for all government officials.
the places [in US] that are having the worst results now in terms of fatality rates, what drove up those fatality rates was strain on the medical system. They weren’t ready even though they could see what was happening in other places around the world… [Today, we] need a national stay-at-home order. That’s what was done in countries that finally started to turn this around. We’re not there yet.
The documentary concludes:
So could it happen again? Yes, it could. As [Johns Hopkins’ Donald] Burke said, “When it comes to the probability of a pandemic of flu, I think everyone would say, ‘It’s not if, it’s when.’… The 2009 flu …showed us that response matters a great deal. In fact, the way we respond to the next epidemic could mean the difference between life, or death.Indeed.
History counts. Knowing history matters.
What might seem draconian by today’s standards, was effective when San Franciscans faced the 1918 flu pandemic. Mask became mandatory, with people fined or jailed for disregarding the directive. It worked.
If Trump knew anything about history, anything at all about the 1918 pandemic, he would not (well, it’s Trump, he should not) have said in a recent briefing, “This is so contagious. Nobody's ever seen anything like this, where large groups of people all of a sudden, just by being in the presence of somebody, have it.”
Instead, all his public statements to date underplay Covid-19’s potential. Too many governors still follow his direction not to order stay-at-home protections. (Not, thank the gods, independent-thinking Governors Newsom and Inslee of California and Washington. There, lockdown-lite reigns (in comparison to South Africa) with a measurable impact through expanded testing and fewer new infections.)
Now Jared Kusher – Trump’s one size fits all fix-it guy, from digital media stratist, senior White House advisor overseeing criminal justice, authoring a “peace” plan in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - is overseeing pandemic...and Jared Kushner Is Going to Get Us All Killed
I reached my capacity long ago to watch Donald Trump founder through way-too-long, rambling, made for reality-showman TV addresses. Sometimes, I imagine someone reaching out, turning off his mic, and leading him offstage (wrapped in a white straitjacket would be nice but not worth the extra wait time).
Nobody deserves Trump-levels of incompetence from the world’s most powerful nation.
Week 1: Day 7 – Thursday April 2
Globally, we’re approaching one million confirmed infections, time to again mark the beginning and end of day numbers. (Recall that I’m in southern hemisphere – season is “autumn”/fall here – and 9 hours ahead of my California compatriots.Worldwide:
937,567 confirmed
47,256 deaths
194,311 recovered
A cartoon to lighten the mood:
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| April fool! |
Fraying happens in a household with one stubborn 87-year-old, her two resistant, middle-aged, live-in domestic workers, and seven obese dogs. I’m the only vehicle-driver and the only news-follower. I feel isolated the pressure is on, I’m isolated, and I’m not handling it well.
Today, in this household, the willfully ignorant have the upper hand.
I take heart in others “out there” succumbing to pressure, too:
- Singing stops in Italy as fear and social unrest mount.
- Of ‘Covidivorces’ and ‘Coronababies’: Life During a Lockdown
Ominous fraying at the seam?
- South African police fire rubber bullets at shoppers amid lockdown
- South Africa gathered homeless people into a sports stadium. Here too, coronavirus divides rich from poor
I understand the desire to put one’s head in the sand (the pandemic “…is not very nice, is it?”), to try to control an out-of-control situation with wishful thinking.
South Africa’s leaders try to address the “intentional” spreading of fake news and conspiracies but how to prove “intentional.”
Extremists see themselves as normal people un/lucky enough to hold the “real, only truth” that “everyone” would believe if only…
Today’s target of threats in the US is truth-teller Anthony Fauci - to Receive Enhanced Personal Security.
Bad intentions, bad policies
Then there is the cruel human tendency intentionally to exploit dire situations to gain more power.- How populist leaders exploit pandemics
- Israel’s Netanyahu Accused of Exploiting Virus Crisis
- US ignores calls to suspend Venezuela and Iran sanctions amid coronavirus pandemic
- Trump Administration Pushes Huge Environmental Rollbacks in the Midst of a Pandemic
- Poor and vulnerable hardest hit by pandemic in Spain
Day 6 – Tuesday April 1
Six days of reading this pandemic blog will have alerted you that President Donald J Trump is not high on my list of competent leaders. It’s not like I recently changed my mind about him. I agreed with South Africa’s multi-talented comedian Trevor Noah way back in October 2015.Donald Trump is to United States what Jacob Zuma was to South Africa…except, you know, Trump had a rich daddy who gave him millions of dollars plus offered good US universities the chance to educate the man. (Those universities failed as Trump is immune to ideas outside his own head.) Zuma was fatherless and had a third-grade education. Zuma’s gone (sort of) and Trump’s on his way out. These kindred spirits will leave lasting legacies. Meanwhile, Trevor Noah nailed it in 2015.
As the numbers of those infected heads toward 900,000, and close to 43,000 dead, a couple of news articles:
- Coronavirus relief package could help Trump, Kushner businesses
- Looking for truth, not truthiness
- Viral outbreak: Fake news spreads in SA in tandem with Covid-19
and in California,
- Bend it like the Bay Area: Doctors see flatter curve after 2 weeks of social isolation
- Life During Pandemic: Roads Empty, Tourist Spots Deserted, Schools Closed
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Late afternoon yesterday, I watched a svelte snake sleek from the pond. Internet search revealed it to be a nonvenomous common brown water snake (Lycodonomorphus rufulus).
Photo courtesy of African Snakebite Institute that explains this ...
gentle, harmless snake is by far the most common water snake in southern Africa…found from Cape Town in the south, along the wet east coast of South Africa and inland as far as Gauteng, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe. Its natural habitat is water margins, where it shelters under leaves and logs. It emerges at night to hunt frogs and sometimes rodents. ... active at night and swims well…often seen hunting along shaded streams during the day…. a powerful constrictor and feeds on frogs, tadpoles, fish and occasionally nestling rodents.”Hmmm, does it eat goldfish, too?
Lockdown – rooms for error
As usual, humans prefer to make their own rules when it suits their purposes. Habit has a lot to do with it. Too many people can’t cope with change, others won’t try to adapt to the need for change.Soon, almost one million people around the globe will be confirmed as infected with an evolving virus.
Meanwhile, in this corner of KwaZulu Natal… well, hell, those million are “out there, “don’t’ affect us,” for “in this household, we’re special.”
Can you tell I’m frustrated and angry today?
My 87-year old mother, on whose behalf I’m in SA, pays no attention to the news. She spends her days watching TV but nothing informative … unless one considers reruns of reruns of CBS-Reality’s shows Judge Judy, Repo, Hardcore Pawnand Dog the Bounty Hunter informative.
Her comment about the pandemic? “That’s not very nice, is it?”
No, indeed.
But’s there always music.
Listen to two classic Butterfiedl Blues Band pieces that describe my feelings today:
Turns out there’s a growing music genre:
Pandemic Blues (Burst My Bubble)
Pandemic Blues (Keep your ass out the coffin…)
Pandemic Blues – Waiting for News to Come in
Search for more on YouTube…
Day 5 – Monday March 31
Let’s start and end today’s post with gross numbers:Worldwide: 786,228 confirmed cases; 37,820 deaths; 166,041 recovered.
Recent data from China implies patients confirmed with Covid-19 and tested negative upon recovery are, inexplicably, testing positive again.
The evolution of novel coronavirus continues unabated as humans play catch up.
Leadership
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| Courtesy Guardian News |
Last night, "real" president Cyril Ramaphosa updated the nation on the pandemic.
President Trump, on the other hand, confines his television appearances to Fox News, and specifically to sycophant Sean Hannity (Trump’s go to ”news” guy.) This, so Trump controls the narrative and placates the Fox News audience that appears to fully believe everything the TV outlet spouts. On Fox News, Trump is guaranteed no hard questions and no pushback. Undermining health experts, bashing critics, wishful thinking, untruths (Comedian Stephen Colbert calls it “truthiness.”) That’s what passes for presidential leadership in the US these days.
But all it not lost. New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, regularly demonstrates strong leadership as his state is the current epicenter for the virus. In the past, Gov Cuomo has been described as bullying and controlling but he’s modified those characteristics and stepping up to lead in a way the country needs and appreciates. If you have time – who doesn’t these days? – Google his name and compare his handling of the pandemic to that of Donald J. Trump.
Back in SA…
Troubling news about SA security forces – official, and unofficial? – over-zealously plying their mandate.
- Lockdown: They’re riding around the country hunting the poor and vulnerable
- Security forces are waging war on our constitutional democracy
Nature: red in fin and fur
Yesterday afternoon, after waxing effusive about the “gorgeous kingfisher” visiting the garden, one of my mother’s seven dogs was rolling suspiciously gleeful on a stinking tidbit on the lawn. I wrestled the dog away from a muddle on intestines and tissue, noting an orangey color among the pink and gray. Closer look revealed the grisly remains of a goldfish. (Backstory: I’m emotionally attached to ten – now eight- goldfish I recently introduced into the pond.)Was it that “gorgeous” kingfisher that preyed upon this fishy fella?
King of the fishers, indeed.
Day 4 – Monday March 30
Each morning, I breathe deeply, glory in my sturdy lungs, check for anomalies – any tenderness? Nope – another deep breath, long exhalation. And vow to do my best to keep them sturdy.After that, it’s time to face day four of lockdown.
Garden
Last night’s boisterous thunderstorm stirred up pond sediment. Fish, frogs, and crabs are lying low but birds, including the gorgeous kingfisher, are energetic and chatty. Of all the world’s places I’ve visited, South Africa tops the list for bird life. I awaken to several different wild birds calling. This morning hadidahs (Ibis)headed the cacophony (listen). California has birds, lots of 'em, but nothing like this.
The mathematically inclined mole further extended his tunnel.
Two mature strelitzia plants (Bird of Paradise) have overgrown their sections of the garden. Prior to lockdown, I’d tasked the gardener with thinning one plant. Driving to the local SPCA nursery to donate the clippings(sales help the SPCA’s mission), the gardener grumbled about how difficult strelitzia is to remove. After lockdown, I started thinning the second strelitzia and discovered it is, indeed, difficult.
The diameter of this plant’s base is about 18 inches. Consider the depth of its root system about 18 to 20 inches and you understand the challenge.
Oh well, with 17 more days of lockdown, I’ve plenty of time…
Meanwhile, on the pandemic front, confirmed cases of infection:
SA: 1,280
CA: “more than 3,082”
US: 143,055
World: 735,560
And, let's end today's post with another look at capitalism at work:
Day 3 – Sunday March 29
Twenty-four hours with no internet. Anxiety-provoking (what if something major happened?) but well-timed: I was burned out on tracking global numbers of confirmed cases, the dead, and the dying.
I focused, first, on the garden and a mole with exceptional skill at tunneling across the lawn in a straight line.
I’ve been following her/his trajectory for several days.
Who said there are no straight lines in nature?
It grows with none of the tenacity of the invasive water lilies with root systems that cling to rocks. Instead, the weed is almost delicate. Its tendrils are soft, netlike, almost diaphanous. Judging by feel, the plant roots in soft silt but balloons up and out to float over the roots in blossoming green clouds. I gather arms full and check it for living creatures – baby crabs and frogs and fingerling fish – that I return to the water. I pile the weed on the pond’s banks. The outer surface darkens as it dries although the inside remains green and damp for several days. I will compost the bulk of this weed but have begun laying it directly onto the garden. It makes an excellent layer upon which to lay soil. My expectation is that the fluffy weed layer will, over time, dry and become dense yet still a breathable material in which to embed plants.
An unexpected benefit of lockdown is time to in-dwell, to listen to one’s head and heart, to host creative thoughts, perhaps implement them.
With the gardener on paid leave, I’m running various composting trials. Besides the above pond weed composting experiment, I’m experimenting with discarded limbs of pruned vines.
Generally, I’m prejudiced against growing vines willy nilly up walls, over other plants, and over fences. I’m puzzled as to why someone would spend money erecting security fences around a property then grow vines up those fences. Sure, vines are “pretty” while security fences with loops of razor wire are not. But in an insecure land, security fences offer… well, security. Covering a security fence with vines undermine the job of the fence. Doesn’t it? Since I believe it does, I regularly discourage fast-growing vines from growing over loops of razor wire.
South African standard operating procedure (SOP) to dispose of garden clippings, rubbish, and unwanted debris is to burn it. Aware of environmental pollutants and hazards, it’s not my SOP and, wth the gardener away, I’m free to experiment with alternatives to burning. Accordingly, after I pruned the vines that cover the security fence, I stuffed the discarded vines into a small sinkhole that repeatedly forms between the natural stream and the garden pond. I suspect this sinkhole was never properly fixed. Temporary solutions such as filling the sinkhole with soil don’t work as soil is quickly washed away.
Vine cuttings to the rescue. Jamming armfuls of cuttings into the sinkhole is also a temporary fix but one that fertilizes the soil. There’s a fifty/fifty chance on the vines sprouting and it remains to be seen whether the vines can overcome the dense packing. A couple of weeks is all it will take.
Day 2 – Saturday March 28
During breakfast of coffee, cereal with milk, raisins, and fresh grapes (enjoy it while stocks last) I chalked up the sniffling, coughing, and extra mucous in my throat to 1) fear and paranoia, 2) milk, a well-known mucous generator.Logging onto the Internet generated a dreaded message: “no internet connection.” Unfortunately, this is a too-frequent message. I phoned the owner of the small business ISP. As usual his voice message explained office hours as Monday through Friday, 9 to 5.
Murphy’s Law: my internet connection woes happen on weekends. I left a message anyway.
What’s App and Facebook are the social media apps of choice in South Africa. I hear none of the antipathy many Californians direct towards Facebook. Here, the attitude is, It’s free. What invasion of privacy?
So, when in South Africa, I do as South Africans do. But, by day 2, I’ve reached my limit…or, as South Africans say, “I’m gatvol.”
What’s App Covid-19-related messages fill my inbox. Friends declare these come from epidemiologists, health workers, journalists, politicians. But, too many come from conspiracy theorists, and other nuts: health nuts with outlandish cures, religious nuts, and anti-vaxer nuts. Enough already!
Please, cease and desist with the panic-driven images and video clips of miles-long SADF convoys, soppy, funny, or clearly false “facts”, conspiracy theories, and “thoughts and prayers” from assorted belief-systems.
I’ll titrate my exposure. ..once my Internet access reconnects!
At the end of a quiet day -- fewer vehicles and fewer pedestrians passed by - a refreshing story about Venice, Italy. A month ago, that city’s canals were filled with sediment stirred up by assorted boats and ships. Strict shelter in place orders see fewer water craft with the result of sediment settling and water in the canals clearing. Italians can see fish again, even dolphins. ** Amid the horrors of the pandemic, life goes on.
Imagine, while human beings the world over shelter at home, the planet’s wild animals can go out and about with less fear of hunters, traffickers, and other human predators.
** Turns out this if "fake news." Read Day 8 post for further info.
Day 1 – Friday March 27
Lockdown here in the Midlands and across South Africa began at midnight, March 26.This, following an announcement earlier in the week by ANC’s President Cyril Ramaphosa. The announcement was unequivocal, clear, to the point. It was, indeed, presidential, unlike that of the president of the United States, the other country I live in.
Why does every statement Donald J. Trump makes on the pandemic sound equivocal, muddy, rambling, undermining, and contradictory?
Five hours into the lockdown, early morning of March 27, I awoke to the sounds of workers talking as they walked past our house in this semi-rural neighborhood in the Midlands. A dirt road curves uphill to commercial greenhouses, a poultry farm, a private school, and a handful of other businesses on “small holdings” (properties of up to 50 acres). Vehicle traffic was about the same as usual in the morning. It petered out during the day then picked up again during late afternoon. Lockdown rules allow travel to /from work between 5am to 9am and from 4pm to 6pm.
The days prior to the lockdown had been filled with anxiety-provoking last-minute errands: purchasing food, thinking through what items I’d forgotten (a standby battery for the property’s security system, ink cartridges for the printer...). With everything apparently done, it was, frankly, a relief to stay home. There’d been a last-minute glitch when a live-in domestic worker with chronic diabetes mentioned she had an appointment at the hospital “next week.” Typically, she spends all day a month at the state-run hospital waiting for her 15-minute appointment. Since a hospital is the last place for a non-infected person to be during a pandemic, I hurried into the local town and approached a pharmacy to ask that they fill the scrip. Thankfully, the pharmacist did so, all except the “pen” – used to administer medication directly into the body. He was out of those kits, but he arranged for me to pick it up at another pharmacy. Located in an area crowded with people, taxi ranks, buses, that pharmacy had a line of customers looped around the tight parking lot and into the street. Social distancing was impossible. I drove home where, I discovered, the domestic worker had enough medication to last three more weeks.
The previous week, I’d laid off the three-day-a week, at will gardener, with full pay. This, as his daily taxi 8-mile commute to and from Mpophomeni Township risked exposing him – and, by extension, my fragile, 87-year-old mother – to infection. Best he shelter in his home with his family until the all-clear.
After breakfast, I donned waders and entered the natural pond. Gardening is a pleasure and watching and learning about critters that live in a large pond extends that pleasure. A fast-growing freshwater weed recently bloomed in the pond. The fish and other critters appear to appreciate it but I’m concerned it might soon fill every nook and cranny in the pond – as the invasive lilies species has in the past. I’ll compost the weed.
In contrast to California’s clay-like soil, KwaZula Natal’s soil is rich and fecund. If I push a cutting into this soil it sprouts within the week. Capitalizing on this feature, I’ve planted three varieties of indigenous salvia in a rockery.
I happened to catch a snipped of local TV news (My mother refuses to watch the news, even under current extraordinary circumstances, preferring “reality” shows.) The segment showed travelers at airports, departing South Africa for their homes. For a long moment I longed to join them and head back to California, to my kids, grandkids, and friends.
Why, I wondered, am I here, in South Africa?
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