Easter Monday

News blues

Covid news roundup: Pfizer and BioNTech reported preliminary clinical data supporting use of their Covid-19 vaccine as a booster in children ages 5 to 11. And, one vaccine developer won marketing authorization in Europe while another faces a regulatory setback.
Read more >> 

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China’s strategy for managing their recent Covid outbreak in Shanghai, population more than 25 million, has been a tight locked down since last month; only last week did they begin to ease onerous restrictions.
The Biden administration eschews lockdowns while it continue its strategy of vaccinations, boosters and treatments… and urging a seemingly reluctant Congress to take up a multibillion-dollar funding package upon its return from recess.
Read more >> 

Our World in Data – global Covid tracker >> 

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On war…

Photo essay >> 

Healthy planet, anyone?

As I stepped into the bathtub last night the house plunged into darkness.
What to do?
First, wonder – not for the first time – if I have the fortitude to live in South Africa. Unlike thousands of others, I’m choosing to live here. Is that the wrong choice? Why am I choosing the inconvenience and the ineptitude that accompanies almost every facet of daily life here? 

After I donned my jammies, I tried to determine if the problem is local – confined to the house – or widespread. My recollection was that Escom called off loadshedding. Electrically power wi-fi doesn’t operate without power so accessing Escom’s loadshedding app with its schedule was out of the question. 

Shining my heavy-duty emergency light on the main distribution board, I ascertained no fuses had tripped. Rather, the whole neighborhood was dark.
Escom's just-in-time schedule - no warning - again.

However, Our World In Data’s fossil fuel energy tracker map presents interesting data on global electricity sources. 

 

Source: Our World In Data based on BP Statistical Review of World Energy & Ember.
© OurWorldInData/energy 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

A recent SMS offered easy-to-get money that may be an invitation to participate in money laundering.

Do you need a loan with a low interest of 5% which there is no credit check Blacklisted, Debt review and Court order are eligible and accepted. T & Cs applies… [sic]
1. PERSONAL LOANS
2. SECURED LOANS
3. INSTALLMENT LOANS
4. STUDENT LOANS
5. HOME LOANS
6. BUSINESS LOANS
7. PENSION LOANS
8. PAYDAY LOANS
Loan Amount From R5,000 up to R10 Million Interested kindly contact our South Africa branch for more details on how you can apply. [sic]
S.G RESERVE BANK LITHUANIA AFFILATED WITH SOUTH AFRICAN RESERVE BANK.

Info on how to contact sender included email address, phone, Whatsapp, and customer service numbers, along with another “call number”.
If I was desperate enough to apply for such a load would the S.G. Reserve Bank of Lithuania, affiliated with the SA Reserve Bank, give me precise measurements for the size hose to use to ensure efficient vacuuming of money out of / into my bank account?
“Bob’s story: During the Zuma years, a friend “Bob” – who speaks fluent isiZulu and is known to and liked by provincial chieftains who occasionally visited his country home - called an ambulance after the daughter of a KZN politician was involved in a vehicle accident.
Soon after, the woman’s father called Bob and asked for a bank account number into which to deposit a financial thank you. Caught between common sense (never share your bank account number with a politician) and local politics (don’t antagonize local chieftains) Bob reluctantly presented a seldom used bank account number. A day later, very large sums of money began to flow in and out of that account. Bob said nothing, did nothing, and never touched one penny of those funds. (FYI: One US penny is equivalent to 10 SA pennies.)
Corruption R Us?
As KZN residents suffer severe flooding, someone realistic recognizes the temptation presented by funds for flood victims. She or he determined that the SA Human Rights Commission will monitor the distribution of the SA government’s R1-billion emergency relief package. “The commission says it will ensure the resources reach those who need them most. The Public Protector will also send a team to make sure there is no maladministration or corruption.” .

Hmmm. Will this avert the usual money grabbing?

 
More worries that KZN disaster relief funds will be looted: report 

The corrupt recognize no boundaries and no need other than their own. Amid a global pandemic, for example, billions were stolen from funds to address Covid in Africa and South Africa. 
Indeed, SA health minister Zweli Mkhize, his ‘family friend’ and ex-private secretary pocketed Covid-19 cash via R82m Department of Health contracts. 
Amanpour and Company recently interviewed Frank Vogl, anti-corruption expert and author of The Enablers: How the West supports kleptocrats and corruption – endangering our democracy (18:00 mins).
An excerpt:

Isabel Dos Santos, the daughter of Angola’s former dictator, had a personal fortune of more than $2 billion; 40% of Angolans live on less than $20 a month. And Vladimir Putin has stolen so much from Russia and its citizens, that he — not Bezos, Musk, or Gates — may be the richest person alive. As Frank Vogl shows in his deeply researched and damning new book, laundering the dirty cash of kleptocrats into safe investments could not happen without the help of Western bankers, lawyers, accountants, and realtors – these are the enablers.

Read the review and buy the book >> 

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Yet more rain…
KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:19am
Sunset: 5:37pm

San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:29am
Sunset: 7:47pm

Do it anyway!

News blues…

President Ramaphosa on lockdown with restrictions eased: Booze & beaches are back as first vaccines arrive (6:12 mins)

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I Volunteered To Administer COVID-19 Vaccines. Here’s What I Saw During My Shift." 

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Coronavirus Pandemic’s Deadliest Month In U.S. Ends With Signs Of Progress. As the calendar turned to February, the number of Americans in the hospital with COVID-19 fell below 100,000 for the first time in two months. 

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The Lincoln Project Just like always  (0:55 mins)
Sarah Cooper I’m a lawyer for the Trump campaign  (1:07 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Working from home during Covid-19 has brought noise pollution close to home, whether it’s your partner making calls within earshot or grinding coffee during your Zoom interview. Now research suggests the animal kingdom is also disturbed by the noise of humans and our gadgets. As humans proliferate, we have penetrated deeper into wildlife habitats, creating a pervasive rise in environmental sound that not only directly affects the ability of animals to hear but indeed communicate. Emerging research suggests noise pollution, caused, for instance, by traffic, interferes with animal behaviour, including cognition and mating.

Read >>  “Human noise affects animal behaviour, studies show” 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

For those who think about psychology and culture and the how/why “we the people” got into the political mess we’re in – (wars, creeping fascism, political corruption, money as god, etc.) here’s something to chew upon: Joseph Heinrich’s book, The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous.
Atlantic Monthly’s review and an excerpt from it:

Given the nature of the project, it may be a surprise that Henrich aspires to preach humility, not pride. WEIRD people have a bad habit of universalizing from their own particularities. They think everyone thinks the way they do, and some of them (not all, of course) reinforce that assumption by studying themselves.
[and]
Given the nature of the project, it may be a surprise that Henrich aspires to preach humility, not pride. WEIRD people have a bad habit of universalizing from their own particularities. They think everyone thinks the way they do, and some of them (not all, of course) reinforce that assumption by studying themselves.
[and]
Democracy, the rule of law, and human rights “didn’t start with fancy intellectuals, philosophers, or theologians,” Henrich writes. “Instead, the ideas formed slowly, piece by piece, as regular Joes with more individualistic psychologies—be they monks, merchants, or artisans—began to form competing voluntary associations” and learned how to govern them. Toppling the accomplishments of Western civilization off their great-man platforms, he erases their claim to be monuments to rationality: Everything we think of as a cause of culture is really an effect of culture, including us.
[and]
It should be said, though, that Henrich can make a person feel pretty helpless, with his talk of populations being swept along by cultural riptides that move “outside conscious awareness.” Cultural evolutionary determinism may turn out to be as disempowering as all the other determinisms; a WEIRD reader may feel trapped inside her own prejudices. But perhaps some comfort lies in Henrich’s dazzling if not consistently plausible supply of unintended consequences.

Enough quotes from the review. Read the book. I download it, free, from my local online library. It is long but worth the effort. (I’ve an undergrad degree in intercultural communication and grad work in adult learning. My interest includes culture shock as “an adult learning experience.” Heinrich's theses make sense to me.)

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After my close call as a pedestrian earlier this week, I read the following news with glee:

Five former employees of the uMngeni licensing office in Howick, near Pietermaritzburg, will have their fate determined by the court on Wednesday when they appear on graft and corruption-related charges. 
[They] are set to appear in the Durban specialised commercial crimes court, where they will be sentenced for fraud cases after they assisted scores of motor vehicle learner’s licence applicants to pass their tests.

Could it be that the many drivers who were willing to run me over in the pedestrian crossing (I was following direction from the pedestrian lights) had purchased their licences?
Enquiring minds wanna know.

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I hope the following advice isn’t necessary for you in your life but…
If you ever find yourself in a similar situation – a very weak and fragile parent who’d once been robust and in a care center visit - that parent as much as you can. 

It’s hard. It’s scary. It’s heartbreaking. It’s certainly emotionally painful. 

But do it anyway.
Covid put a damper on visiting hours at the Care Center and, as of six weeks ago they shut down to all visitors although they allowed visitors only under certain conditions (dying, for example). 

Since they eased up recently and allow in one visitor per resident per day, I stiffen my spine and go every day at 10am, to see my mother folded over in the Laziboy chair. 

I sit next to her, talk to her and she knows I’m there, she hears me, she tries to respond. I offer sips of tea or water (through a syringe as she’s too weak to use a sippy cup). I catch her up on news of the dogs, the monkeys, the garden, the gardener, and on appropriate business dealings.
When I realized earlier this week that I couldn’t go on Tuesday (yesterday) I arranged for my brother to visit her. Yes, its a 25-minute drive for him, but he’s the love of her life and, surely, the effort is worth it? 

He agreed to go.
I called him yesterday afternoon to check in with him on the visit.
Turns out, he hadn’t visited. If I hadn’t called him, he wouldn’t have mentioned that salient fact. His excuse? Something about someone having to "go to Durban." (So? With 3 vehicles in his household, one wasn’t available? How many vehicles needed for a trip to Durban?)
He says he’ll visit today.
I know he’s reluctant to visit as it’s upsetting. But she’d prefer he visit than anyone else – aside from her grandson (who won’t even send her a WhatsApp audio message to say, “I love you. I’m thinking of you.”
My point? Yes, it’s difficult. 

But do it anyway!

Monkey Bidness

Click to enlarge

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….

• 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).


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