Women on Women’s Day

Our world is on the cusp on 20 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 infection.
The US is responsible for more than 25 percent of those cases (5.5 million confirmed). That’s more infections in the US than New Zealand has people (population: 4,886 million). Moreover, New Zealand has virtually eliminated Covid-19 with zero active cases. 
Iceland, too, has zero active cases. Iceland’s population is 364,000 so the US has “lost” the equivalent of half of Iceland’s population to Covid-19.
Reminder: New Zealand and Iceland have women as heads of government. Just sayin’….

According to new research, a record number of people are giving up their US citizenship.

Hmmm, perhaps these Americans have moved to New Zealand or Iceland.

News blues…

National Women's Day is celebrated annually in South Africa on 9 August. If that day falls on a Sunday – as it does this year – Monday is the public holiday. (Naturally, not all women will have a holiday – certainly not a paid holiday.)
According to Wikipedia, Women's Day

...commemorates the 1956 march of approximately 20,000 South African women to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to petition against the country's pass laws that required South Africans defined as "black" under The Population Registration Act to carry an internal passport, the “pass.” The pass allowed the maintenance of population segregation, controlled urbanisation, and managed migrant labour during apartheid.
The first National Women's Day was celebrated on 9 August 1995. In 2006, a reenactment of the march was staged for its 50th anniversary, with many of the 1956 march veterans.

International Women’s Day is celebrated around the world on 8 March. Not to knock it, but I recall IWD as a burden when I was a young mother in the US. It meant I – and other working mothers – had to find and pay for babysitters to care for our children so we could work to earn money to support our children. 

Ironic that a day meant to recognize women was not geared in practice to recognize mothers. That is, heavy on intention, light on practicalities.

***

President Ramaphosa delivered the keynote address for national Women’s Day  under the global campaign themed “Generation Equality: Realizing women’s rights for an equal future.” (Ramaphosa’s segment begins at 53:27 mins. My opinion of his address? Heavy on intention, light on practicalities.)

***

Daily Maverick webinar, “The Inside Track: A Critical Conversation with Advocate Shamila Batohi.” 

Daily Maverick Associate Editor Ferial Haffajee in conversation with National Prosecuting Authority Advocate Shamila Batohi, the National Director of Public Prosecutions, on gender-based violence and the war on women. Batohi also talks about her experience as a woman leader within the National Prosecuting Authority.

An eye-opening fact- and statistic-based conversation about South Africa’s criminal justice system and how it affects violence against the country’s women and children.
Takeaways:

• Gender-based violence (GBV) is, essentially, a war on this country’s women.
• 82,726 cases of gender-based violence from 2017 through 2018
• Rape has increased by 1.4 percent. (Only 1 in 9 rapes is actually reported.)
• What is going on in our country when the levels of violence against women and children is so high?
• 70 to 80 percent conviction rate – but based on number of cases that come to court, not the number of reported cases (only 10 percent are reported). It is the detection rate that is under-reported.
• Everybody in the justice system needs training in the holistic system’s view rather than one or two segments of the whole.
• Huge challenges, including how to deal with forensic evidence What values are we teaching out children and young people when they can violate respect for other human beings?
• National registers in the works for violations against women and children – but perhaps not enough being done at the level of preventation.
• Prevention and better detection required.
• Value system is off in this country; custom, patriarchy, and entitlement plays big roles in attitudes towards women, too.
• Alcohol plays a huge role; Ban on alcohol due to pandemic reduced gender-based and domestic violence.
• Admits there are “serious problems” within SAPS (corruption, lack of training, responses, and attitudes to women complainants, etc., “system fails many women.” (Personal view: Backstory on GBV in this house.)
• NPA looking to understand lens through which we view these issues and developing a policy about how to deal with them.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Monkeys become bolder by the day. They’ve moved from the garden’s perimeter fence into the garden and close to the house. The “watch” dogs are too comfy in their toasty beds to rouse themselves.
My experiment to discourage monkeys with rubber snakes failed. 
Now I’m researching how to discourage them via smell and taste. I’m weighing the … ethics … of this recipe:

To keep vervet monkeys away, mix 1/3 cup flower, 2 tablespoons red chili powder and two tablespoons powdered mustard and sprinkle around the garden. If you want to spray it, add 4 cups of water and some vinegar. Even just sprinkling vegetables with pepper will deter monkeys from eating them.

The ethics involved? Monkeys do what monkeys do… moreover, they do it well: feed themselves and their young. Punishing them with chili and mustard powder feels… unethical. Isn’t it illogical to feed wild birds (mostly doves) but not feed wild monkeys? (I’m not for feeding monkeys – that’s also discouraged by wildlife experts – just pointing out well-meaning but faulty logic.)
Another recipe:

Sprinkle Jeyes Fluid inside, on the outside or around refuse bins and bags. Refuse skips covered with shade cloth and treated with Jeyes Fluid will deter vervets. 5. Use nylon bird or hail netting over and around vegetable, strawberry and other produce gardens to keep them out.

I’ll skip the Jeyes Fluid - a strong disinfectant. (Back in the day, my grandfather dipped his cows with diluted Jeyes Fluid to kill ticks.)
Netting might work. But it takes only one persistent monkey breeching the netting to destroy weeks of gardening effort.

Continental divides

The recent battering of the World Health Organization’s reputation  does not nullify its important research – echoed by many other reputable organizations and individuals. Its warnings about urbanization is particularly apt:

Urbanization is process of global scale changing the social and environmental landscape on every continent. Urbanization is a result of population migration from rural areas in addition to natural urban demographic growth. In 2007, the world’s population living in towns and cities surpassed 50% for the first time in history and this proportion is growing. Rapid, unplanned and unsustainable patterns of urban development are making developing cities focal points for many emerging environment and health hazards. As urban populations grow, the quality of global and local ecosystems, and the urban environment, will play an increasingly important role in public health with respect to issues ranging from solid waste disposal, provision of safe water and sanitation, and injury prevention, to the interface between urban poverty, environment and health. 

We, the people, have been warned. 

Will we rouse ourselves enough to force a change in direction, from unfettered consumption to sustainability?

New blues…

This Ridley Olive turtle
screen saver graces my laptop.
Click to enlarge.

The good: More than 10,000 baby Olive Ridley turtles were released into the sea off the Indonesian island of Bali - part of conservationists’ attempts to boost the population of a vulnerable species and promote environmental protection.
The turtles, just a few inches long, scurried over the black sand and pebbles as the tide splashed over them. 

The bad: Under a new “self-reliant India” plan, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, will boost the economy post-Covid-19 and reduce costly imports, [by opening] 40 new coalfields for commercial mining in some of India’s most ecologically sensitive forests. 

Among them are four huge blocks of 420,000 acres of forest in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, which sit above an estimated 5bn tonnes of coal…. [This pits] a rich and biodiverse Indian forest, indigenous people, ancient trees, elephants and sloths against the might of bulldozers, trucks and hydraulic jacks, fighting with a single purpose: the extraction of coal. 

The ugly: While more than 160,000 Americans are dead, unemployment has soared to levels not seen since the Great Depression...

federal payments to laid-off workers have expired with millions more facing possible eviction, and coronavirus cases continue to spike nationwide, Congress and the White House are mired in their ancient, all-consuming gridlock.
Two weeks of closed-door talks … failed to lead to a breakthrough on a new coronavirus relief package. [Democrats and Republicans] remained hundreds of billions of dollars apart on overall spending for the new package, and even more important, were separated by a huge ideological chasm over what role the government should play at this point in the calamity. 

***

The Lincoln Project’s Steve Schmidt on Trumps hot mic moment and strong words on Trumps Golf Club press briefing  (12:15 mins)
Meidas Touch: Vote out Racism  (1:47 mins)
Trump Rant: Axios Interview, “I want a Do Over with more charts and graphs and no Jonathan Swan!  (7:48 mins)
Don Winslow Films: Consequences For Trump  (2:19 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Granadilla, aka passion fruit, is a fruit native to southern Brazil through Paraguay and northern Argentina. It flourishes in lower altitude KwaZulu Natal; so far, I’ve had no luck growing it in the Midlands. Two weeks ago, I purchased a dozen purple fruit and waited for them to wrinkle and harden – evidence they’d ripened enough to eat. Then I made granadilla curd, a buttery, egg-yolk-rich, sweet/sour treat. 
It turned out well. I plan to bake granadilla bars – think lemon bars with seeds – although it’s a tossup if there’ll be enough curd left after the many spoonsful I snack on in the meantime.
Granadilla curd requires only the yolk of eggs. I beat the leftover egg whites and baked an impromptu veggie frittata: zucchini (“baby marrow”), onion, sweet pepper, garlic, parsley, olive oil, Swiss and Romano cheese.
Many ingredients I use in California are difficult to find in KZN: fish sauce - available sporadically. Mexican ingredients and spices (I’d kill for tortillas, a softshell taco, salsa verde, refried beans, a frozen margarita…).
On the other hand, Indian cuisine spans both countries – with the South African variety far cheaper. For example, a samosa in California costs from 5 to 7 US dollars - equivalent to 80 to 150 rand! Slightly less plump KZN samosas costs 18 to 20 rand each – that’s 1 to 1.20 dollars).
No melktert or koeksisters in California. No lacey cookies in KZN.

*** 

As a child I had a one-on-one relationship with Jacko, a pet vervet monkey. These days, my relationship with vervet monkeys is hands off and communal. The local troop comprises about three dozen monkeys I address collectively as “monkeys ... monksters … monkilizers….”
I continue to appreciate their antics when they negotiate the garden perimeter, raid the bird feeder, and balance precariously on overhead wires.
My relationship with this primate community, however, is becoming more nuanced and complex as they uproot – destroy – seedlings, most recently snap peas and pole beans.
Local gardeners familiar with monkey business advise not transplanting my veggies into the dedicated veggie garden I’ve created. Rather, they suggest transplanting seedlings among decorative garden plants.
I’m not adverse, but it means rethinking an approach I assumed already settled.
Accordingly, I scanned the winter-dry garden for segments of garden capable of disguising veggies from monkeys.
A dry palm stump offered potential for climbing peas and beans. I donned my sunhat and gardening gloves and began removing the dry vegetation around the base of the stump.
Within a minute, dozens of small black ants swarmed over and bit into my hands and arms.
This encounter with South African ants was less vicious than a past encounter with Texas fire ants.
Outside the Crawford, Texas property of then-president George Bush, as we protested his administration’s war policies in Afghanistan and Iraq, I’d unwittingly pitched my tent on a colony of fire ants.
Those ants can bite – and their bites burn for days!
That day lives on in infamy!

Dear Diary

Dear Diary: This Is My Life in Quarantine / under Lockdown
Sensing that they’re living through a historic moment, many people are journaling [and blogging] to create a keepsake of life during the pandemic. The time we’re living through will one day become history. This is always true, of course, but the coronavirus pandemic has, perhaps more than any other event in living memory, made people hyperaware that their present will be remembered in the future. And this new, strange sensation has compelled many to capture the moment for posterity. 

Thank you for being on board here. If the mood strikes, comment below and I'll share your thoughts and experiences….

New blues…

“Sh**hole country,” anyone?
Irony of ironies: America shut its southern border to South Americans while Canadians shut their southern border to Americans.
I’ll dare to say it: “What goes around, comes around.” Or, rats clinging aboard ship….

Since March, the U.S.-Canada border has been closed to all but essential traffic in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus. But Americans being Americans, they are flouting the new regulations in the pursuit of their usual summer fun.
“Canadian border patrol has effectively prevented caravans of Americans” from crossing the border. Most are arriving by sailboats and luxury yachts.
Those crossing the border have often told officials that they are heading to Alaska to circumvent the new regulations. …
One reason Americans are being spotted is that Canadian boaters are using technology to monitor them. With the requirement that all passenger boats have to be equipped with tracking devices to help prevent weather-related accidents, anyone with an internet connection can monitor border-crossings and identify vessels by type and country of origin. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

During a recent visit to Karkloof Conservancy,  I spotted wattled cranes flying over the hide (aka “blind”), but they settled in a field out of reach of my camera lens.
Karkloof Conservancy hides were built by local farmers, foresters and landowners to provide visitor safe access to the region’s biodiversity. Posters decorating the hides’ interior whet the appetite of novice crane-seekers. 

View posters: 

Poster wattled crane
Click to read.

Poster blue crane
Click to read.

Poster grey crowned crane
Click to read.

I will return to the Conservancy in anticipation of a close encounter with a crane, any crane. 

After all, recent visitors shot gorgeous video of wattled cranes at the Conservancy (0:33 mins). If they saw wattled cranes, so can I. Hope spring eternal.
Wattled cranes bring to mind the thousands of sandhill cranes that migrate to California’s Sacramento Delta each winter.  I hear them from my houseboat and a 10-minute walk reveals vast flocks grazing and nesting.
Not a hardcore “birder,” my motto is, shoot first, ask questions later. I’m frequently unsure of what birds I’ve captured on camera. Can you identify those at the bottom of the page, Spying on garden creatures?

Exemplars of absurdism

“I recently thumbed through “The Plague,” to see if Albert Camus had intuited anything about the rhythms of human suffering in conditions of fear, disease and constraint. Naturally, he had. It was on April 16 that Dr. Rieux first felt the squish of a dead rat beneath his feet on his landing; it was in mid-August that the plague “had swallowed up everything and everyone,” with the prevailing emotion being “the sense of exile and of deprivation, with all the crosscurrents of revolt and fear set up by these.” Those returning from quarantine started setting fire to their homes, convinced the plague had settled into their walls."

We’ve hit a pandemic wall: New records show that Americans are suffering from record levels of mental distress. 

Healthy futures anyone?

I recently “had my say” on South Africa’s Nuclear Regulation Act. Take a look and, if South African, have your say. 
South Africa taking on another nuke power station is, well, an exemplar of absurdism. Why purchase – with the country’s demonstrably corrupt tender system and little technical knowhow – a power system that provides mountains of toxic waste?
No nuclear waste has ever been successfully (sustainably) managed anywhere in the world.
Why nuke power in an era when the world must go in a sustainable direction?

African prosperity will not come by it being shackled to the outdated dirty energy infrastructure of the past. Rather than trudging behind in the 50-year-old footsteps of European countries, Africa needs to leapfrog to the clean, cheap and renewable technologies of the future. This is how Africa will catch up with its global neighbours. Africa is blessed with more sun, wind and geothermal energy than anywhere else on the planet, but that fact does not help the GWPF or the coal industry.
Not only are wind and solar increasingly becoming the cheapest forms of new electricity across the globe, but they are also inherently more agile and versatile than grid-reliant fossil fuels. Pastoralists in remote parts of Africa in need of electricity will not be served waiting for hulking great power grids to be built, cutting a swathe across Africa’s precious natural landscape. They would be better off with solar mini-grids and wind turbines supplying energy exactly where it is needed most.  

***

Mauritius environment minister Kavy Ramano and fishing minister Sudheer Maudhoo concur, “We are in an environmental crisis situation… This is the first time that we are faced with a catastrophe of this kind and we are insufficiently equipped to handle this problem.” 

The problem? A breach in the vessel MV Wakashio, carrying 200 tonnes of diesel and 3,800 tonnes of bunker fuel.

The ministers said all attempts to stabilise the ship had failed because of rough seas and efforts to pump out the oil had also failed. Ecologists fear the ship could break up, which would cause an even greater leak and inflict potentially catastrophic damage on the island’s coastline. The country depends on its seas for food and for tourism, boasting some of the finest coral reefs in the world.

It’s not rocket science: We the Critters of this planet all depend on our oceans. (Way back in May 2010, Greg Moses wrote “Oil Wars come home to roost."  It’s more relevant than ever. )
What can you do? Start small with an easy-to-accomplish step:
Call on world leaders to protect Antarctica and deliver the largest act of ocean protection in history. Only one Antarctica 

*** 

A line from the movie, “Cry, the Beloved Country, about apartheid South Africa: “In South Africa, the law and justice are distant relatives – and they haven’t been on speaking terms for decades.” 

Update that for this moment and substitute the law and justice with Trump and responsible leadership. Trump is a dangerous clown but he is merely the current instrument with which American right-wing politicians hammer home their philosophy expressed by Grover Norquist: “I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”
And right-wing Republicans accuse “The Left” of anarchism? 

It's a complex history with a simple plot line: subjegate The People by impoverishing them, taking away possibilites of health care, decent and affordable education, minimum wage....
How the pandemic defeated America. 

This is not a blanket condemnation of all Republicans. The Lincoln Project, for example, is made up of Republicans of a different feather (at least during this season of Trump disasters).
Republican Vets Against Trump  (1:00 mins)
Meidas Touch:
Leave Me A Loan: Trump's PPP Scandal Exposed (1:16 mins)
Trump Hoaxed America  (1:00 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Overnight temperatures dropped to 2C/ 36F – that means below zero in our valley wetlands. And that means, ice in my watering can this morning. In anticipation of freezing temperatures, last night I wrapped vulnerable plants.
I watch the days getting longer by mere seconds, longing for the return of spring and summer. This time last month, the sun rose at 6:53am and set at 5:12am; today, it rose at 6:37am and will set at 5:29. Getting there, slowly but surely.

***

The latest threat to healthy seedlings and flourishing vegetable gardens?
Monkeys.
I discovered the hard way – solid evidence – that monkeys, curious rather than malicious, pluck seedlings out the ground and toss ‘em. 

I’d be less chagrined if monkeys ate seedlings – it’s winter and they’re hungry.
But, wanton destruction?
Exemplars of absurdism.