News blues…
We start a new week – in South Africa lockdown weeks begin on Fridays – with the US experiencing “roughly one coronavirus-related death every 27 seconds.” This, after, Mike Pence, US vice president and chair of the Coronavirus Task Force wrote a summer Op Ed for the Wall Street Journal:The media has tried to scare the American people every step of the way, and predictions of a second wave are no different. The truth is, whatever the media says, our whole-of-America approach has been a success.A lot can happen between now and 20 January, 2021 when Trump et al, depart the White House and escape responsibility for the botched systems we know they're leaving behind (most recently, knee-capping the CDC; a massive breech of national security data . These are some of what we know. What don't we know about yet?)
We’ve slowed the spread, we’ve cared for the most vulnerable, we’ve saved lives, we’ve created a solid foundation for whatever challenges we may face in the future.
***
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, stricken with Covid at the White House, retracts his anti-mask advice and urges Americans to wear masks: “I was wrong!” (1:00 mins) ***
Meanwhile, California nears zero capacity in its intensive care units as COVID-19 cases continue to surge. As of Thursday morning, there was just 3% ICU capacity statewide, the California Department of Public Health revealed on its statewide metrics database. ***
In South Africa, 24,000 have now died from Covid-19, with 9,100 new cases in 24 hours.Healthy planet, anyone?
There’s a tendency for (some) humans to believe that if we just left alone the “natural” world, it would “fix” itself. The problem of “just letting nature get on with” and returning it to its pristine roots? There is no such thing as “pristine roots.” The natural world is in a state of ongoing unfolding. (You know, kind of like you are in a state of ongoing unfolding, too….…the problem with “just letting nature get on with it” is twofold: first, ecological succession takes a long time. And second, [countries and] Britain now contains so many invasive plant and animal species that we may never get the resulting forests we hope for through a policy of benign neglect. In other words, some management will always be required…Read “Letters: Restoring forests needs both nature and nurture” >>
If we want to maximise biodiversity in our wild spaces, we need to consider what grows there, and what food webs and habitats are built and supported. There is no guarantee that nature, unassisted, will arrive at a desired outcome.
An excellent read for a challenging view of nature and nurture is Charles Mann’s 2005 book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus.
Out walking Jessica (the dog) yesterday, I spotted a legavan/ legawaan/rock monitor lizard.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
It ran from the Care Center parking lot into the reeds lining the shore of nearby Robin Pond.
Jessica, luckily, did not spot it. Had she spotted it, it’s likely she’d chase after it, barking. Barking is a no no at the Care Center. Chasing critters and barking is a double whammy no no. Last week, she barked and chased a warthog family – with an audience of lawn bowlers and the driver of a vehicle that stopped just before it struck the belligerent dog.
Yes, I am supposed to leash the dog and I do if people are around. She caught me off guard that time as we were heading back home, and I was not vigilant.
Moreover, softy me sometimes allows her off leash so she can sniff at leisure and roll (“roly poly”) on the grass. She is, after all, confined to the Care Center. She doesn’t get out much, and rarely has a chance to bark at anything, never mind critters as deserving (in her mind) of a good bark as a warthog family.
The Care Center inhabitant of the Care Center I’m most concerned about is, of course, Mother Dearest. She’s maintaining her complain-a-thon: she hates the place, she’ll call her lawyer to get her out (he can’t), when will her grandson rescue her (he won’t), and where are her peas (in the fridge outside her door).
Yesterday, I responded to her with a human version of a dog’s bark: “The country – the world – is in lockdown. You’d be well advised to take it day-by-day for the next several weeks. Change the channel in your mind to find something nurturing for yourself because no one is going anywhere while the pandemic rages. With 75 million people infected around the world, and 7 to 10 thousand South Africans infected per day, no one, not even Jesus, will move you anywhere right now.
Like Jessica, if pressed, my bark is worse than my bite.
Jessica, luckily, did not spot it. Had she spotted it, it’s likely she’d chase after it, barking. Barking is a no no at the Care Center. Chasing critters and barking is a double whammy no no. Last week, she barked and chased a warthog family – with an audience of lawn bowlers and the driver of a vehicle that stopped just before it struck the belligerent dog.
Yes, I am supposed to leash the dog and I do if people are around. She caught me off guard that time as we were heading back home, and I was not vigilant.
Moreover, softy me sometimes allows her off leash so she can sniff at leisure and roll (“roly poly”) on the grass. She is, after all, confined to the Care Center. She doesn’t get out much, and rarely has a chance to bark at anything, never mind critters as deserving (in her mind) of a good bark as a warthog family.
The Care Center inhabitant of the Care Center I’m most concerned about is, of course, Mother Dearest. She’s maintaining her complain-a-thon: she hates the place, she’ll call her lawyer to get her out (he can’t), when will her grandson rescue her (he won’t), and where are her peas (in the fridge outside her door).
Yesterday, I responded to her with a human version of a dog’s bark: “The country – the world – is in lockdown. You’d be well advised to take it day-by-day for the next several weeks. Change the channel in your mind to find something nurturing for yourself because no one is going anywhere while the pandemic rages. With 75 million people infected around the world, and 7 to 10 thousand South Africans infected per day, no one, not even Jesus, will move you anywhere right now.
Like Jessica, if pressed, my bark is worse than my bite.
