“Money, it's a gas”

In a time when worthwhile lawmakers ought to bring people together, we find the opposite: lawmakers selling their honor and their reputations to clutch yet more dollars. “Data shows lawmakers secured millions in small-business aid meant for [the US] Paycheck Protection Program.”

[US] Businesses and organizations linked to lawmakers and congressional caucuses received at least US$11 million.
At least nine lawmakers and three congressional caucuses have ties to organizations that took millions of dollars in aid from a small-business loans program that was designed to help companies avert layoffs during the pandemic….
In total, companies linked to lawmakers and congressional caucuses have received at least $11 million in aid from the federal program that Congress created to help small businesses. Overall, 650,000 businesses and nonprofits received assistance under the $670 billion program.

This money-grubbing as “unemployed Americans struggle with losing health care….”  (4:34 mins)

What is it about money that makes people … crazy?
Pink Floyd weighs in

Money, get away
Get a good job with good pay and you're okay
Money, it's a gas
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash…
Money, get back
I'm all right Jack keep your hands off of my stack
Money, it's a hit
Don't give me that do goody good bullshit

Listen to Pink Floyd, “Money”  (4:36 mins)

Dire Straits offers another view: “Money for Nothing”:
Disclaimer: this music uses terms considered socially objectionable but keep in mind the point of view. These lyrics represent someone who resents earning a living with hard physical labor while someone else makes a lucrative living playing a guitar:

We got to move refrigerators, we got to move color TVs…”
…The little faggot got his own jet airplane,
the little faggot, he’s a millionaire…
I shoulda learned to play the guitar/
I shoulda learn to play them drums…
Get your Money for nothing, get your chicks for free…

Listen: “Money for Nothing”  (8:22 mins)

***

We interrupt this gloom to offer… hope.
An American view: “Yes, America is suffering needlessly. That may save us.”
A South African view: Sixteen weeks of Lockdown, with time on your hands and a ban on alcohol?
Ideas to explore your creativity:
Pineapple beer.
In the seven weeks of lockdown, the demand for pineapple has skyrocketed so much so that it’s made headlines, with prices at a record high.
Boozy apple cider. With a simple recipe, minimal equipment and a surplus of apples you can make a delicious sparkling apple cider that'll be ready to drink in a day or so.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Cold nights, cold mornings – and, in between, wonderfully warm, sunny, dry days. Today’s high was 77F/25C. Coming from California with cold, wet winters, KZN winter days are a treat – well, except for the fire hazard potential of tinder-dry vegetation. Mid-winter, and I apply sunscreen when I work in the garden.
Today’s gardening included:

• Chatting to the seedlings in the cold frame as I removed the overnight protective covers and checked their progress. So far, so good.
• Planting the remainder of purple bearded iris tubers harvested from other sections of the garden.
• Sewing seeds – beets, onions, parsley, rocket, zucchini - in the newly constructed garden boxes.
• Adding another batch of “fresh” kitchen waste to the compost pile (link).
• Noticing the large troop of monkeys had returned to the neighborhood after several days’ absence. Increasing monkey hunger drives increasing monkey risk taking. They snack boldly in the bird feeder and pay little attention to barking dogs.

***

Despite someone threatening my life, I (try to) avoid preoccupation with my safety and focus on vigilance coupled with joie de vivre.
While I (try to) gauge day-to-day safety, I also continue to walk around the residential area for exercise.
The newly hired private security company is confident they’ll find my harasser.
I’m skeptical.
As long as his mother remains a domestic worker in this household – and my mother shields her – we’ve little chance of locating him.
So, each night, I check potential hiding places in my living quarters: an unused fireplace, an unused stairwell. I ensure doors and burglar-guards are locked, that my pepper spray canister is near at hand, and that my claw hammer lies on the floor next to my bed. (Yes, I’ve heard that, in an attack, such a weapon is more likely to be used against me than used by me. But, hey, let a woman fantasize.)

Today, as I exited the security gate for my walk, coincidentally, a security patrol vehicle parked on a grass verge across the road.
I approached the driver and his partner, introduced myself, pointed out that I lived here, and thanked them for their protection.
I’m relieved we switched security companies.

Happy World Emoji Day

July 17 is World Emoji Day - the unofficial "global celebration of emoji.”

It’s fitting for Lockdown, at least for we relatively benign users who, 1) can afford a computer, cell phone, or tablet, 2) have time to hunker over keypads, and 3) use emojis to express our thoughts.
(The less benign among us, express conspiracy theories – or commit cybercrimes, “now more profitable than the drug trade”.)

News blues…

World Emoji Day led me to research computer use worldwide … and that led to fascinating stats and fun facts.

© Internet World Stats

Click to enlarge

As of March 2020, Planet Earth hosts 7.8 billion people using - according to SCMO  - more than:
- 2 billion computers, including servers, desktops, and laptops
- 5 billion smartphones
- 1 billion tablets (any brand and size, excluding smartphones).
Fun fact: It took more than 200,000 years of human history for the world's population to reach 1 billion, and only 200 years more to reach 7 billion.)
Surprising fun fact: Africa hosts more Internet users than North America: 11.5 percent compared to 7.6 percent for US and Canada combined. Asia has more than 50 percent of the world’s Internet users.
Fun fact: In 2019, the average selling price of personal computers was US$632/ ZAR10,428 to US$733/ ZAR12,0950.

Affordability

© Average Salary Survey.

Average salaries in South Africa.

Click to enlarge

How do people afford computers, cell phones, and tablets around the world?
An FYI on income-related definitions in US (using the current rate of exchange of approximately US$1.00 = ZAR16.50.)
Having lived in California for two thirds of my life I understand how the relative ease of American life can lull one into complacency. One may, for example, disagree or out of sync with The System – mainstream politics, philosophy and worldview (capitalism and exceptionalism, The American Dream, etc.) – yet create a comfortable, materially sufficient life.
Much of what goes on in the urban US is, however, based upon income, and in which region or state one resides.
Income-related terms and definitions:
Lower-middle class: A family earning between $30,000 and $50,000 per year.
Middle-class: A family earning between $50,000 and $100,000 per year.
Upper-middle class: a three-person family with an annual income between $100,000 and $350,000.
“Rich”: earning more than $350,000 per year.
One half, 49.98 percent, of all income in the US is earned by households with an income over $100,000.
Before the pandemic, the US average income was $53,482/year; the annual median personal income, $31,099/year.
Regional location affects material wealth, too. For example, homes in Houston, Texas are more affordable per square foot than homes in San Francisco; one can buy twice as much house in Houston.
In practice, a family of two adults and two children in San Francisco needs to earn $148,440/year, or $12,370/month, to purchase a home and live “comfortably.” (“Comfortably” is a malleable term. I live “comfortably” on a 36-foot houseboat and earn way less $12,370/month.)
The hourly income you need to afford rent around the US.

Food for thought

Source: World Bank and IMF

Click to enlarge

.

Katharina Buchholz writes in, “Continental Shift: The World’s Biggest Economies Over Time”:

According to data from the World Bank and IMF, Asian countries are expected to make up most of the top 5 countries in the world by size of GDP in 2024, relegating European economic powerhouses to lower ranks.
China's economic growth has been steep since the 1990s, while India and Indonesia have even more recently entered the top 10 of the biggest economies in the world and are expected to reach ranks 3 and 5 by 2024. Japan, an established economy, is expected to cling on to rank 4 in 2024, while Russia will rise to rank 6.
Asia’s burgeoning middle class is one of the reasons for the continental shift in GDP. While China has been the posterchild of market growth in the 21st century so far, the country is expected to tackle an ageing population further down the line, which will put a damper on consumption. Indonesia, together with the Philippines and Malaysia, are expected to grow their labor forces significantly in the years to come, contributing to a rise in average disposable incomes, according to the World Economic Forum.

***

Ready for a change of pace?
The Lincoln Project: Where we read excerpts from our favorite book: Mary Trump's Too Much and Never Enough.
Story hour, Episode 1  (1:30 mins)
Story hour, Episode 2  (1:30 mins)

Mary Trump’s tell-all book had sold a staggering 950,000 copies by the end of its first day on sale, publisher Simon & Schuster said Thursday. This includes pre-sales, as well as e-books and audiobooks, is a new record for Simon & Schuster. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I stumbled upon World Emoji Day while seeking offbeat emojis to txt/sms an American friend who loathes emojis.
He's a talented photographer so perhaps emojis offend his photographic gifts/ talents?
As a ceramic sculptor,  I find emojis “fun” and, more importantly, expressive. Perhaps I’m not talented enough as a sculptor to know any better?
At any rate, locked down in SA while he’s staying-at-home in New Mexico, we’re developing another facet to our friendship: emoji bugging.
I bug him by emphasizing emojis in my txts/sms and he responds in unexpected – usually humorous – ways.
During a pandemic, it’s the little things that make the heart grow fonder.

I talk almost every day to another close American friend, a professorial-type and masterful “mansplainer.”
Mansplaining defined: the explanation of something by a man, typically to a woman, in a manner regarded as condescending or patronizing. Sarah Cooper demos  (3:00 mins)

My friend’s mansplaining is not meant as condescending or patronizing. Indeed, he’s one of the most “feminist” men I know. Moreover, as one of two adored sons in a family that prized and praised intellect, he grew up with regular parental pats on the head for demonstrating his intellectual prowess.
Yet, he does not understand how his over-detailed explanations could be perceived as mansplaining.
Ironically, he’s explained to me how he is not mansplaining.
Then I wised up.
In the past, when he’d talk over me, I’d respond by rolling my eyes, shutting my mouth, and – like a good girl – let him finish what he was saying.
Now, when he talks over me, rather than cramping my innards with stress, griping, or feeling annoyed, I talk… and talk… and talk – right over him.
The challenge? It takes a long time for him to hear me.
I must either repeat what I’m saying (I find that boring) or make up words associated with what I’m saying and blab, blab, blab - until he “hears” me.

It’s femsponding to mansplaining.
It works.
No one feels chastised or diminished.
And I get to finish a sentence.
I recommend it.

Doin’ the numbahs!

Whither Covid-19? Another end-of-week wrap-up of global numbers:
July 16 – 13,558,000 worldwide: confirmed infections; 585,000 deaths
     July 9 - worldwide: 12,041,500 confirmed infections; 549,470 deaths
July 16 - US: 3,500.000 confirmed infections; 138,000 deaths
     July 9 – US: 3,054,800 infections; 132,300 deaths
July 16 - SA: 311,050 confirmed infections; 4,460 deaths
     July 9 - SA: 224,665 infections; 3,602 deaths

Eerie that, I begin my initial tally of the numbers in the morning. Mere hours later, when I post, the numbers of confirmed infections have increased substantially.
This week, South Africa is 8th on the Johns Hopkins list of countries with the highest number of confirmed infections. Topping the charts, the US remains “Numbah one!”; 2 Brazil, catching up fast; 3 India; 4 Russia; 5 Peru; 6 Chile; 7 Mexico; 8 South Africa.
Note: except for China, all BRICS countries listed. (BRICS = Brazil, Russia, India, China, and SA.)

Map of cases in SA
as of Wednesday, 15 July.
Click to enlarge.

Snapshot of US infections map, 28 May to 27 June 2020.

***

CO2 in Earth's atmosphere nearing levels of 15m years ago

Last time CO2 was at similar level temperatures were 3C to 4C hotter and sea levels were 20 metres higher
The amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere is approaching a level not seen in 15m years and perhaps never previously experienced by a hominoid, according to the authors of a study.
At pre-lockdown rates of increase, within five years atmospheric CO2 will pass 427 parts per million, which was the probable peak of the mid-Pliocene warming period 3.3m years ago, when temperatures were 3C to 4C hotter and sea levels were 20 metres higher than today. 

***

Not a lover of winter, I’ve been (obsessively) following sunrise and sunset times over the past month with an eye toward spring and summer:
July 1 : sunrise: 6:53am; sunset: 5:11pm
July 8 : sunrise: 6:52am; sunset: 5:13 pm
July 16: sunrise: 6:50am; sunset: 5:17 pm
This morning, however - almost a month after the winter solstice – a half inch of frost covered the ground - and remained until close to 10:30a.m.
At noon, I removed an inch-thick sheet of ice from a birdbath. My plastic watering can was solid with ice, too.

News blues…

Daily Maverick webinar: “A Critical Conversation with Gauteng Health MEC Dr Bandile Masuku” – hosted by Mark Heywood.
Takeaways:

• SA has not yet reached the peak. SA has highest numbers in Africa and recoveries are lagging. Many sufferers have mild symptoms, so far.
• Gauteng always expected to have the highest numbers; it has 25 percent of SA population, and many densely populated areas, and highly mobile populations.
• Expect to see “gaps in terms of beds and resources” after mid- to the end of July as we head into August and September.
• Hotspots in Gauteng: hotspots change; high density areas; informal settlements; Central Biz Districts; retail and industry. Mining was low, then interprovincial travel seemed to bring spikes as well as steady increases;
• Regarding prevention: 100 percent taxi ridership a good idea?
• Evidence indicates ventilation and social distancing and wearing a mask good – drivers are at most risk (as in taxi all the time); highly mobile population suggests transmission not as quick (but controversial)
• Differences in opinion between politicians and medical professionals.
• A bed is a bed: whether in public or private sector – how to direct the flow of patient traffic is the issue. Bed management teams work with EMS to prevent EMS having to drive around looking for beds; learning from Western Cape experience.
• Is a bed without oxygen sufficient? What’s the oxygen supply situation now?
• Confident about major supplier of oxygen (Afrox?) – redirecting from industries to health care system. Storage has been worked out. Beds must have the capacity for oxygen. Most of critically ill must be seen in hospitals. Others can be stepped down to a field hospital.
• Patient transport? Enough ambulances?
• We do have enough ambulances. We have a framework to use all vehicles. Trying to manage beds and quick response system to address bed shortages.
• Health care personnel and human resources?
• Learning how to manage it, burnout, etc. Have a recruiting system database to manage to employ/pay people.
• How to increase personnel capacity for second wave and longer term, highly skilled posts?
• Have a plan for 4 new med schools for long term.
• Have enough money? Cuts to health budget?
• System must be able to run sustainably and cost effectively – prevention is best. Reengineer system over long-term toward prevention. Reprioritizing… but may still not be enough in long term therefore prevention is key. Integration also key – old and new ways of doing medicine.
• Balance is key – not absolutes. Create space for opening up economy and industry.
• Response can’t just be a government responsibility. What about shared planning between public and private and governance structures?
• Provincial Command Council. Command Center – with above stakeholders (civil society, NGOs, social mobilizing, etc.)
• Quality of care? Nurses appear not fully aware of regulations; long queues expose people to infection;
• Working on this; limitations of personnel and infrastructure; fear of infection is a factor;
• Trying to bring consistency and improve as we go forward.
• Listening to people with hands-on experience, modeling, politicians stay out of patient and clinical decisions; M&MMs = morbidity and mortality meetings;
• Alcohol? Difficult matter – need a balance but currently alcohol trauma is rife and not sustainable under circumstances; ciggies? No health benefit from alcohol and ciggies – too much damage from these items.
  

Conclusions:

• Civil society is willing to mobilize why not work with people?
• The matter is how formally to do it? Trying to work with groups but Lockdown stymied this. We need to broaden our scope.
• We (civil society) needs to continue to our part to keep burden low on health care workers.
• Foreign nationals will not be turned away from care in SA – it’s a fundamental human right.

***

Comedienne Sarah Cooper’s Trump voice-over: How to immigration policy  (0:54 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Despite the freezing temperatures, the seedlings in the cold frame/greenhouse appear to thrive. Late yesterday, I covered them with sacking then dropped over them the sheet of heavy plastic that constitutes the “greenhouse.”
So far, so good. I spot germinating peas, beans, beets, onions, cilantro seedlings….

***

An all’s well that ends well story: Noon today, I noticed five men trailing down then cutting across the winter-dry hillside east of this house.
Apprehensive - home invasions are common, and invaders perpetrate significant violence against residents - I watched the group disappear around the hill. Then, a hubbub: dogs barking, people shouting, car horns honking.
Soon after, one man ran back up the hill, accompanied by what looked from a distance like a dog.
Three men followed, also running. A fifth man trailed.
I called a neighbor to offer help – call police, security, etc.
Help wasn’t needed.
Apparently, an ewe belonging to one of the men had abandoned its lamb and wandered away from the kraal.
The men had come to claim the ewe – and carried the lamb with them to induce the ewe to return to the flock.
What I’d imagined a dog had been the ewe.
The men regroup, laughed, and chatted happily as they disappeared up and over the hill.

***

Stages 1 and 2 load shedding LINK today. No electricity from noon to 2:00p.m. and from 6pm to 10pm tonight.
Router goes down so no Internet access, no cell phone reception; no lights, no ‘fridge. Security cameras and laser beams run off battery back-up.
It takes an additional 15 or more minutes for the router to reconnect to the ISP after power comes back.
Sigh.
(And, yes, indeed, I’m privileged to have electricity, a router, a cell phone, a ‘fridge… Doesn’t mean load shedding isn’t inconvenient or frustrating. Sorry.)
How do hospitals, clinics, and health centers cope?

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Ignorance is bliss?

Sprinkled amid the word salad spouted by GW Bush’s then-secretary of state, Donald Rumsfeld was this gem: “… we don’t know we don’t know...” 
Coronavirus unknowns:

Back in March, Professor Francois Balloux, chair in computational biology at University College London, said that for an epidemiologist, the two biggest unknowns are the virus’s ability (or not) to adapt to the seasons and the immunity (if any) it gives those who are infected and recover…. We don't know to what extent Covid-19 transmission will be seasonal. And We don’t know if Covid-19 infection induces long-lasting immunity.” 

Back in May, Business Insider South Africa reported, “What we do know is that the coronavirus apparently emerged in China as early as mid-November and has now reached more than 185 countries….” See the list of Business Insider’s unknowns.
In the same month, Reuters published another set of unknowns …. 

Naturally, human beings, being human, fill the gaps between the known knowns and the unknown unknowns with wishful thinking, myths, and conspiracy theories. Medical News recently explored some of the most predominant.

News blues...

Tick-tock for TikTok?

US Vice President Mike Pence has cast his one, lidless eye on to TikTok. The Chinese-owned social media app was included by Pence in the list of companies facing potential bans by the US. Washington was concerned Chinese telecommunications company Huawei and "perhaps even TikTok" present a real threat to privacy and security of Americans. If he banned TikTok, Pence might just have instantly galvanised the Gen-Z vote against his administration this year. 

Huh. Might this have anything to do with TikTok also being a place where young people (Sarah Cooper, et al.) express and share their disillusionment with Trump’s presidency?

• Sarah Cooper’s latest: How to AIDS vaccine. 
• Felipe Neto, a new funny commentator. Who’s the world’s worst leader at handling the pandemic? Easy. Donald Trump. Right?
• Well, as terrible as Mr. Trump is, Brazilian YouTube star, Felipe Neto, argues Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, is worse. (6:25 mins)

More ads from The Lincoln Project:

• Fauci  (1:32 mins)
• Law and Order  (1:02 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Circumstances – recent threats against my life - have me exploring the opposite of “ignorance is bliss,” that is, misery and disbelief - with a dash of fury.
I don’t like,but I accept that the world tends towards anti-female.
A 2010 report prepared by South Africa’s People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA) with the AIDS Legal Network (ALN) on behalf of the One in Nine Campaign and the Coalition for African Lesbians (CAL) states:

In South Africa violence against women has reached epidemic proportions, one of the highest rates in the world of countries collecting such data. It exists in millions of households, in every community, in every institution, in both public and private spaces. VAW cuts across race, class, ethnicity, religion and geographic location. 

The US is anti-female, but arguably not as profoundly anti-female as South Africa.
Americans know domestic violence is spiking under lockdown although the general public doesn’t know the details. Who bears witness to a hidden epidemic? 

Background: I grew up in a family that regularly practiced domestic violence. My role, the only girl sandwiched between two brothers and already outspoken, was Intervener-in-chief. I’d (try to) get between my battling parents and (try to) stop the battering.
At twelve years old, I begged my mother to “get a divorce.”
Decades later, I remember her response: “Mind your own business!”
Along with all the other gratuitous violence endemic in my homeland, is it any wonder I skedaddled as soon as skedaddling was an option?

I avoid violence, but I act against it when I encounter it and its perpetrators, from high ranking US military brass to low ranking drunks.
Male-on-female violence, from physical to verbal, is a horrible expression of anti-female sentiment. But anti-female sentiment is not only a male prerogative.
Females readily express anti-female sentiment.
Indeed, my mother is downplaying her long-term employee’s drunken son’s threats – and either not seeing or pretending not to see passive-aggression perpetrated against me by her long-term employee.
It’s both startling and, yes, somehow expected.
Apparently, my role, as a female, is to accept threats against my life, not take them too seriously, and to deny the possibility of danger.
I plan to explore this topic in future posts. Meanwhile, my experience, here and now, is "mind your own business” - all over again.

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