News blues…
 |
| Bheki Cele, SA Minister of Police, under his signature Trilby hat. Image: Esa Alexander |
Bheki Cele, Minister of Police, looks like a man who loves his work and has fun doing it. Yesterday, he warned creative South Africans about the sale of alcohol during Lockdown Level 3:
The non-sale of alcohol is the non-sale of alcohol - do not put alcohol in teapots in your restaurants or in bottles ... We know your tricks, don’t invite the police to come and check whether there is really Rooibos [tea] in there or there is something else in the teapot.Further advice from Cele >>
***
More pithy advice from the front lines of the Battle against Covid:“Some of us will die, but those left behind should continue the fight… Your chances of survival when arriving at a hospital will decided whether you are admitted to ICU or receive oxygen.”
***
Eskom may have stumbled upon a load shedding schedule that least annoys South Africans: coincide load shedding with curfew. Perhaps it’s the intense heat of the last few days, but electricity supply has been unreliable and We the People find ourselves suddenly in the dark. Electricity simply goes off – and comes back on – and goes off – and comes back on… Surely this defies the intention behind a schedule?
Yesterday, we learned at 3pm of a load shedding event from 22:00 to 5:00, aka 10pm to 5am.
Curfew extends from 21:00 to 6:00 for all medical, security, and essential workers.
Has Eskom hit upon perfect timing?
Perhaps Bheki Cele – and his Trilby – is working with Eskom to persuade South Africans to adhere to curfew? Stay home and drink Rooibos tea?
Healthy planet, anyone?
… and yet another climate-change-related crisis, this one a fatal freshwater skin disease in dolphins:Dolphins are increasingly dying slow, painful deaths from skin lesions likened to severe burns as a result of exposure to fresh water, exacerbated by the climate crisis.
Researchers in the US and Australia have defined for the first time an emerging “freshwater skin disease” reported in coastal dolphin populations in the US, South America and Australia.
While cetaceans can survive in fresh water for short periods, sudden and prolonged exposure – such as when an animal becomes trapped, or the salinity of their habitat is affected by heavy rainfall – has been found to cause a form of dermatitis.
This progresses into ulcers and lesions that can affect up to 70% of the animal’s surface area, with the severity of a third-degree burn.
“Their skin is just as sensitive as ours, and possibly even more so – it would be incredibly painful,” says Dr Nahiid Stephens, a veterinary pathologist at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, and co-author of the paper published in Scientific Reports journal.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
It’s been a long day of waiting for news on my mother’s health.She underwent surgery to insert a metal pin into the neck of her femur (where upper leg bone fits into hip socket). The surgeon reported that all went well, and she could be returned to the Care Center as soon as today, tomorrow at the latest. All depends upon the negative result of Covid test. (The test was conducted on Monday, the day of her injury, and we’re still awaiting results.)
I’d be happy with delayed results keeping her in the hospital another day. I know, theoretically, that hospitals are the best dispensers of assorted infections, but they’re also not the Care Center where my mother is comfortable enough to complain ad nauseum. In hospital, a new environment, she’d have to work up the nerve to complain. Every day of her not complaining is a day of healing.
***
Jessica, The Dog, is depressed. Her pleasure at returning to the house, her old stomping-sniffing-roly-poly ground, has been accompanied by what looks like depression. She spent all day yesterday – 34C/95F temperature – in a part of the garden she once resorted to only when she was miffed or depressed. Jessica is a dog sensitive to human – and dog – moods and emotions. As with many creatures with high degrees of sensitivity, Jessica shares - perhaps over-shares - her own emotionality.
She is, however, slowly settling.
I’ve decided – and the Care Center agrees – that Jessica should stay at the house until my mother is mobile enough for Jessica to return there. To all adhering to the philosophy of Common Sense, my mom is recovering from a fall and surgery and is in no shape to get out of bed to feed and walk the dog. Alas, there’s my mother’s version of reality: “Of course I can take care of Jessica. I want her back!” She’ll be unhappy without me!”
I dread telling my mother of this decision. Perhaps I should try to manipulate her into thinking she made the decision?
Manipulation is not in my comfort zone. I tend to take the direct approach – usually to my detriment. But I'm desperate. Perhaps, if I rose to the occasion I'd learn a new skill? Learning to manipulate also may increase my own psychological range.
At the very least, it would break the monotony of Lockdown.
