Push back…with humor and humanity

The Lincoln Project’s latest ad is Mourning in America.

Trump is attacking the Lincoln Project  – thereby raising public awareness (and approval) of the ad.
The Lincoln Project creators are thrilled with the president’s reaction. A fight on the front pages of news outlets, from Fox & Friends to websites, will benefit the project, not the president.

Live and let die
I appreciate the American sense of humor and irreverence, hallmarks of American culture.
Trump and his entourage hoped to assure the public that they had things under control when they created a photo-op at a N95 mask manufacturing plant in Phoenix, Arizona.
It did not go well.
Somebody or somebodies with an irreverent sense of humor coupled with courage, unmasked (ahem!) the contradiction of those in power abusing their power.
That somebody (soon to lose her/his job?) blasted on-topic music into the warehouse, including ‘Live and Let Die’.

Of this moment,[comedian] Jimmy Kimmel tweeted: “I can think of no better metaphor for this presidency than Donald Trump not wearing a face mask to a face mask factory while the song ‘Live and Let Die’ blares in the background.”

***

Cognitive dissonance
Locked down in my security-enhanced South African home-away-from-houseboat-home (docked in California’s Sacramento Delta), I ponder cognitive dissonance: the “state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.

With the current global tally of confirmed infections at more than 3.6 million, at least one third of which are in my adopted country, and more than a quarter of a million coronavirus-related deaths, it’s weird to feel … as if I’m doing nothing.
My mother and her helper make masks, most recently for children, that I deliver. I make small online donations. I purchase the household’s groceries and related chores “outside the wire.” We four lockdownees adhere, best we can, to level 4 lockdown rules.
Yet the planet’s catastrophe “outside” feels distant, far away.
There’s enormous suffering “out there.” The incompetent leadership “out there” is too often a feature, not a bug.
We, the People, face enormous odds. I’m doing my best… but couldn’t I do more? If so, what more?
I’m caring for my microcosm.
Why does that feel like not enough?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Day 41 feels like a day to take stock.
Today’s walk around the garden – waving the anti-spider-web stick – revealed:

• more weeds to pluck (check!) 
• a sink-hole to top up (check!) 
• a pond-weed path to tamp (check!) 
• flowers and bugs to photograph (check!), 
• dogs to walk and entertain (check!) 
• and an earth-bound freshwater crab with whom to chat (check!).

Now to tackle the tough stuff:
Attempting to sell real estate after South Africa’s financial status was downgraded to BB+ - 'non-investment grade speculative' or 'junk status' – seems like a fool’s errand. (BB+ signals to potential investors an increased risk that South Africa's government might not have enough money to pay back what it borrows.)
Attempting to sell real estate during a pandemic seems like a fool’s errand.
Attempting to explain these pertinent considerations to a stubborn 87-year-old resistant to change seems futile – more so as necessary change involves terminating her relationship with seven beloved dogs.

Bogged down by seeming futility in my physical yet emotionally isolating environment, I talk on the phone with American friends. Most recent topic of conversation includes the effect of emails from the US Consulate in South Africa.
Over the past week I’ve received three such emails. Each begins:

Event:  The South African Ministry of Health confirmed "xx" numbers of cases of COVID-19 within its borders. (Today "xx" = 7,572 - up 352 since yesterday.)

The email continues with information on how residents can return to the US. Most recently:

• Fly Qatar Air to Doha, Qatar … and find/purchase a ticket in Doha to complete the trip home.
• Fly SAA to Washington Dulles International and find/purchase a ticket to California. (I thought SAA was bankrupt.)

Independent of the Consulate, I found a direct flight with Turkish Airlines from Durban/Shaka to San Francisco with a stopover in Istanbul. (Turkey's rate of infection: 129,491 confirmed with 3,520 deaths.)
Flying an almost direct flight would be nice.
Masked.
Sanitized.
Socially distanced.

But… what about my mother? her dogs? her staff? her too-large house? her too-many lawns? her piles of useless household goods? her real property? her well-being….

Today, taking stock - internal therefore uncomfortably passive - feels like a good direction.


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Crisis: Danger? Or opportunity?

The Chinese word for "crisis" is composed of two Chinese characters signifying "danger" and "opportunity" respectively.
The crisis facing our multicultural planet is, indeed, both danger and opportunity.
One danger is the lack of effective US leadership.
One opportunity is that We, the People actually demand leadership that is honest, direct, unequivocal, humane, generous, and firm.
Let’s assume you and I agree (as does much of the planet) that Donald J Trump fulfils none of the above leadership traits.
Who, then, could lead us out of the current crisis?
Joe Biden? Not likely.
Joe Biden is a follower, not a leader.
Joe Biden has his schtick down pat: the folksy manner sold as a man of the people; the “I’ve been in politics all my life so trust me”; the grin designed to communicate “I’m just a friendly, honest guy”, etc., etc.

We, the People are in the political, socio-cultural, and psychological fix we’re in because of, not in spite of, long-term politicians like Joe Biden (and Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, “Moscow” Mitch McConnell, and, yes, Bill and Hilary Clinton, too).

I’ve shared in this blog the anti-Trump ads produced by The Lincoln Project and Republicans for the Rule of Law because it’s a first-time phenomenon. Four decades living in the US and I’ve never seen Republicans do anything like it.
But, remember, they’re still Republicans. Republicans concerned about the damage wrought by The Donald and his crew support Joe Biden because Joe’s manageable. Joe’s politics are Republican-Lite. Joe and Republicans can live with one another because they share the same values, politics, and, often, the same donor base.
Ol’ folksy Joe may bring Republicans and Democrats together “across the aisle” but that also brings business-as-usual politics.

I’m not just a crazy locked down lady running around her garden photographing bees and sharing crazy notions.
People “out there” share these crazy notions. Meet, for example, Nathan J. Robinson, and read his full article, “Democrats, You Really Do Not Want To Nominate Joe Biden”, excerpted here:

The reason many of us are so turned off by Joe Biden is that, over the course of a many-decade career in Washington, he has let us down on the key issues when it matters most. Joe Biden has shown himself to be fundamentally weak, unreliable, and dishonest. He gets taken advantage of by Republicans, and he seems more interested in making friends than advancing Democratic ideals. Biden, ultimately, is truly “just another politician”: a guy who will give you a warm smile and then sell you out behind closed doors, a person who will make terrible decisions and grubby deals and then cover them up with lies. He adopts a “middle class” image but sucks up to the rich and powerful, and has contempt for ordinary voters and their concerns. He’s a man with little integrity or moral character, whose choices in office have caused a lot of people a lot of harm.

So, what do “We the People” do?

How about dump Biden and...nominate Andrew Cuomo?

Right now, Cuomo is the proven, and now experienced, Coronavirus ‘fix it’ guy. He also happens to be the kind of control freak needed for this crisis (danger and opportunity).
Cuomo presents facts and figures in a way that a majority of people understand (including in whole thoughts and sentences - unlike the current White House incumbent).
Moreover, Cuomo delivers tough facts and figures in a lovely family-friendly style reminiscent of FDR’s Fireside Chats during the Great Depression.
Finally, Andrew Cuomo would likely either have Elizabeth Warren as his VP or ensure that her brain-power and know-how were put to work for the country.

Imagine! Competence. Efficiency. Brains. And delivery.
We, not just The People, but the whole damned planet at this time of great crisis, need a pair of qualified and humane leaders who could work well with other qualified and humane leaders.
Joe Biden? No!
Cuomo and Warren could do it… and would do it well.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Amid a global pandemic, my mother has decided, finally, to give up the excess baggage burdening her 87-year-old life. She’s agreed to forego seven dogs and their ongoing visits to vets and to forego the ongoing hunt for giblets. She's agreed to forego the too-large garden and too-numerous lawns with too-needy lawn care. She's agreed to end the long employment of two live-in domestic workers who happen, coincidentally, to have decided that Lockdown doesn’t apply to them so they can exit and enter the property at will, saying nothing to nobody.

After years of vehement denunciation of retirement facilities, my mother has decided that a move to a care-giving retirement facility might, after all, better suit her needs.
I’m thrilled with this decision.

Except…
Guess who will have to carry out all the tasks to fulfil the mission?
Guess who will have to search for new homes for utterly spoiled dogs during a time people are abandoning dogs they can no longer afford?
Guess who will have to find the retirement facility that meets her mother’s stringent conditions?
Guess who will have to sell excess personal property and prep the large seven-bedroom house for sale?
Guess who will have to work out legal and financial ramifications of laying off domestic workers with a 35-year work history?
Guess who will have to find and work with a local real estate agent to attempt to sell a house during a pandemic and Level 4 Lockdown?
Guess who will have to fend off the rest of the family who, suddenly, will become “concerned” with the new plan?

You got it.
Dutiful Daughter.

Ah, yes. Crisis: Danger? Or opportunity?

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Forty days and forty nights?

We're on the cusp of 40 days into the pandemic.
Periods of 40 days are significant in Earth’s creation stories.

• The book of Genesis states, “I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living thing I have made."
• After his baptism, Jesus was tempted by the devil for 40 days and nights in the Judaean Desert. Based on this, traditional Lent lasts for 40 days.
• Similar to Jesus, Buddha started his ministry fasting for 40 days and nights in the wilderness and was also tempted by evil spirits.
• Forty days was the period from the resurrection to the ascension of Jesus.
• According to some, Moses' life is divided into three 40-year segments: growing to adulthood, fleeing from Egypt; returning to Egypt to lead out his people.
• The 40th Day after death is a traditional memorial service in Islam with family gatherings, ceremonies and rituals in memory of the departed.

Forty days is also about how much staying at home people hoping to avoid Covid-19 can take before demanding “freedom” – even the freedom to suffocate in one’s own coronavirus-congested lungs.
About 40 days into the pandemic:

• Rifle-carrying Trumpies inside Michigan’s state legislature demanded freedom. 
• Conspiracy theorists protested stay-at-home orders claiming that COVID-19 is a hoax and a “dry run for communism.”
• Conservative and/or remote California counties defied stay-at-home orders.
• Californians crowded beaches.
• South African township dwellers rebelled.

Infections are growing in South Africa. Confirmed number of infections today: 6,783.
In Cape Town’s crowded townships such as Khayelitsha, Nyanga and Langa infections increased by up to 173 percent last week, and in some cases shot up by well over 20 percent a day.
The Western Cape now has about 45 percent of South Africa’s confirmed Covid-19 cases and deaths.
Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal townships are defying orders, too, saying lockdown is impossible.

I talked on the phone with our gardener, locked down in Mpophemeni Township with his wife and two young children.
“It’s terrible! Terrible!” he said. “Police driving up and down the road all the time. Go out the house to buy food and they stop you. Shouting, shouting, always shouting.”
The good news is he knows of no cases of infection in his part of the township. While his relationship to gardening is not passionate – gardening is just a job where he can arrive late, leave early, and eat well in-between – he sounded almost wistful for weeds.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

First Monday of the month and I drove into town to fill another prescription, drop off homemade cotton masks at a children’s center, and buy giblets for dogs.
Crowds of people lined the streets, particularly in a section of town lined with several banks. The crowd shown here, snapped as I drove past, is a fragment of the line along the street waiting for ATM service.
After I saw these crowds, I elected to drop off masks and buy giblets later in the week.

I spent the rest of the day eradicating pond weed then recycling it as another layer for my weed-smothering path under swamp cypress.


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White House: Home of the Whopper

By January 2020, Donald J Trump had made 16,241 verifiably false or misleading claims. With the pandemic offering him the opportunity to outdo his own record of whoppers, he’s excelling (for once).
A sampler of his recent whoppers:

• Maximum Of 60,000 Deaths

During a White House briefing March 29 in the Rose Garden, Trump referenced modeling that found there could be between 1.6 million and 2.2 million fatalities in the U.S. if no containment measures were taken.
“If we could hold that down … so we have between 100 and 200,000, we all together have done a very good job.”
Trump moved the target again last week, predicting a maximum of 60,000 Americans would fall victim to the disease … “We did the right thing, because if we didn’t do it you would have had a million people, a million and a half people, maybe 2 million people dead… Now, we’re going toward 50, I’m hearing, or 60,000 people.”

(May 3, US death toll is more than 65,000.)

• ‘We’ve Tested More Than Every Country Combined.’

A shortage of COVID-19 tests [is]… ultimately costing the health care system precious time. … Trump declared that “anybody that needs a test gets a test.” Dr. Anthony Fauci… contradicted the president…describing “the lack of available tests as an ongoing failure.”
Trump also promised “…individuals to be able to drive up and be swabbed without having to leave your car.” … [and that] “Google was “very quickly” developing a website for checking symptoms and locating testing sites. Instead, Google issued “a statement that said the website was in “early development”….
“We had a chance to contain this outbreak, but we didn’t,” Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, told ABC News.
“And as a result of that testing failure, over 60,000 Americans are dead and our economy has been shut down. It didn’t have to be this way.”

• There’s Plenty Of PPE For Health Care Workers

“We have masks. We have everything,” said the prez. … Pressed …about widespread accounts from health care workers of personal protective equipment shortages, Trump declared them to be “fake news.”
With dire shortages of vital supplies – protective N95 masks, gloves, gowns and face shields - health care workers have resorted to wearing trash bags or Yankees rain ponchos as gowns. In many places, doctors, nurses and other workers reuse masks that are supposed to be thrown away after a single use. In others, personnel are forced to use substandard equipment, like surgical masks that provide little protection compared to N95 masks. Health care workers are even staging GoFundMe campaigns to buy the supplies their employers aren’t providing. Some medical personnel have even been fired for speaking out against unsafe working conditions.

• A Coronavirus Vaccine Is ‘Very Close’

Feb 25: “We’re very close to a vaccine.”
Feb 26: “We’re rapidly developing a vaccine,”
Feb 27: “The vaccine is coming along well.”
Vaccines typically take years to develop and test and there’s always a chance that one is never developed. Dr Fauci dispelled “the president’s nonsense. A vaccine, he said … would take at least 18 months”….[and] offered a somewhat more optimistic assessment of the progress of developing a coronavirus vaccine: Immunizations could be available as soon as January. Eleven months actually would be a fast deployment for a vaccine preventing a virus that was only discovered last winter… In fact, we’ve never successfully created a vaccine for other coronaviruses.

But, never fear, Jared Kushner is on the job. He summed it up and declared victory. “The federal government rose to the challenge. This is a great success story.”

News blues

According to the Guardian, “Trump is handling coronavirus so badly, he almost makes [Boris] Johnson look good.”

We don’t need to wait for a full statistical analysis to know that Johnson has not been the worst world leader in this crisis, because we can declare a winner in that contest right now.
Each day Britons wake up to ever more jaw-dropping news from across the Atlantic. Last week, it was Donald Trump advising Americans to inject bleach. On Friday, it was his claim to have seen evidence that coronavirus was developed in a Wuhan laboratory, a claim denied by his own director of national intelligence. The shocking images of protesters wielding assault weapons storming into the state assembly in Michigan on Thursday night are hardly a surprise, given that Trump himself was tweeting “Liberate Michigan!” a matter of days ago, cheering on those who are demanding their states defy the advice of Trump’s own White House and prematurely end the lockdown that has so far proved to be the only way to stop the virus.
However bad Boris Johnson and his government of conspicuously few talents is … they can at least show a modicum of human empathy for those who’ve lost loved ones, a feat that continues to elude Trump. They have at least – eventually – united behind a coherent “stay home” message, rather than undermining that advice at every turn. They are not hawking quack cures and endorsing deranged conspiracy theories. They do not seem willing to countenance mass death in the insane belief that it will help them win an election.
It’s a low bar, but these are low times. 

Going mobile?

My scheduled departure date is May 19. So far, at least half my trip – London to San Francisco - has been cancelled. Even if the first half - Johannesburg to London - isn’t cancelled, current Lockdown Level 4 rules prevent me crossing provincial borders prevents me travelling to Johannesburg.
I missed the US Consulate’s deadline issued for its “last/final” repatriation flight to the US. I received another email yesterday:

We have been notified of Embassy of Qatar-coordinated repatriation flights to Doha in the coming weeks. It is not confirmed as a certainty; however, we are collecting information on prospective travelers to provide to the Qatar Embassy in the event the flights are approved.

Flight information:

• These flights will depart from Johannesburg only and will land in Doha. You must make your own onward arrangements from Doha; you will not be able to stay in Doha – only transit is allowed at this time.
• You will be responsible for finding your own transportation to either the Johannesburg airport or to a required staging area (if applicable); we are not aware of any domestic flights at this time.
• It is our understanding that travel between provinces will be permitted next week and thus no travel letter is needed.
• Currently, we do not have any further information on baggage allowances, flight cost, or specific flight times/final dates. We also do not know if business class seats will be available.

Hmmmm. Good news is "It is our understanding that travel between provinces will be permitted next week and thus no travel letter is needed."
My choice? Stay here with garden, lawns, critters, and mental health discomforts… or sit in Doha airport until I can book a flight from Doha to California?
Is this Hobson’s Choice, Morton’s Fork, or Buridan’s Ass?
Hobson’s Choice: A free choice in which only one option is offered; i.e., “take it or leave it”.
Morton’s Fork: A a choice between two equally unpleasant alternatives… or two lines of reasoning that lead to the same unpleasant conclusion. It is analogous to the expression, “between the devil and the deep blue sea,” and “between a rock and a hard place”.
Buridan’s Ass is an illustration of a paradox in philosophy in the conception of free will. It refers to a hypothetical situation wherein an ass is placed precisely midway between a stack of hay and a pail of water. Since the paradox assumes the ass will always go to whichever is closer, it will die of both hunger and thirst since it cannot make any rational decision to choose one over the other. The paradox is named after the 14th century French philosopher Jean Buridan, whose philosophy of moral determinism it satirizes. (Thanks Kennon-Green.)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

David, artist and friend based in New Mexico, posts Stare, the world’s longest-living blog.  This weekly/“weakly” notes:

The coronavirus is killing people faster than the living can cremate or bury them. …the solution [is] obvious: reusable, composting caskets. That would get rid of the backlog of bodies and provide fertilizer to help with the upcoming food shortages.

If humans weren’t so finicky about death and dying, David’s idea could work. It aligns with Lockdown Level 4’s stipulation not to travel to attend funerals.

Perhaps it needs more fleshing (ahem!) out.
How about simply slipping bodies – with or without coffins - into compost piles? Or stuffing bodies without coffins into garden sink holes? If charity begins at home, my garden sink hole has room to stuff bodies. Moreover, if my suspicious are correct, bodies would quickly be recycled by my sink hole’s debris-consuming dragon…

(Hmmm, talking about mental health…)

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See photos Spying on Garden Creatures 

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Saturday at the (You Tube) movies

Tired of fighting your ever-present family members for a spot on the sofa to watch TV reruns? Ready for an interlude? Microwave up the popcorn, here’s…
The Lincoln Project:
Forced Retirement    |   Dystopia   |   Fox and Friends

Intermission (go refill popcorn and soda)

Brought to you by Republicans for the Rule of Law:
Donald Trump: Unfit. Unwell. Unacceptable     |    Everybody Should Be Able to Vote Safely

…from Randy Rainbow

All about his base    |   A spoonful of Clorox    |   That Don!    |   Randy Rainbow - pro-Cuomo

Scene from Coneheads - prescient?

Keeping Santayana in mind - "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” – let’s remember 1993 – a kinder, gentler time…
Coneheads: Trailer 1   |  Coneheads: Trailer 2

Credits:
The Lincoln Project is an American political action committee formed in late 2019 by several prominent Republicans with the goal of preventing the reelection of Donald Trump in 2020.
The Lincoln Project holds accountable those who would violate their oaths to the Constitution and would put others before Americans.

Republicans for the Rule of Law is the principal initiative of the conservative, anti-Donald Trump political group Defending Democracy Together, founded by Bill Kristol, Mona Charen, Linda Chavez, Sarah Longwell, and Andy Zwick in 2019.
These life-long Republicans, dedicated to defending the institutions of our republic and upholding the rule of law, are fighting to ensure laws apply equally to everyone, from the average citizen to the president of the United States. The group believes in fidelity to the Constitution, transparency, and the truth

(The small print: I am NOT a Republican - nor a Democrat. Rather, I’m astonished that Republicans like these two groups ARE THE ONLY MEMBERS OF POWERFUL ELITES publicly calling for sanity in an insane time. Looking at you, Democrats!)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The lawn calls. I’m mowing today.
Plus, I plan to carry my camera outside the fence near the stream.
Who knows what wildlife lurks out there?

Read Week 1  | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4  |  Week 5

See photos Spying on Garden Creatures 

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May Day Mayday!

“Mayday” is used around the world to radio distress calls. Londoner Frederick Mockford, came up with the word because “mayday" sounds like the French word m'aider, “help me”.

USA is the only country in the world that does not officially recognize workers by celebrating May Day on 1 May. This, despite the holiday commemorating the Haymarket Riot of 1886, in Chicago (Illinois, USA!).
Given the pandemic, no May Day 1st celebration this year would make sense. Yet, in Donald Trump’s upside-down world, he’s using the Defense Production Act to force meat-packing facilities to remain open...and expose workers to Covid-19. (Then again, he loves his hamberders! )
Moreover, he and his sidekick enabler Mitch McConnell “support limiting the liabilities of employers who order their employees back to work so that they can’t get sued if their employees get sick.”
Mayday for workers, indeed!

Still in upside-down world, pro-Trump group plans to hold car rallies to “drive for freedom” and protest against pandemic lockdown measures and stay-at-home orders.
Why? Because

"America cannot destroy the lives and dreams of the majority to protect a few. The cure cannot be more dangerous than the disease. We risk losing who we are as a nation by completely shutting down the country and the economy."

Today, “a few” consists of:
3,274,750 confirmed cases of Covid-19 around the world, 1,097,035 of which are in the US – the highest rate in the world.
Global deaths at 233,795 with US deaths at 63,905.

***

At 3:43am this morning I discovered a reactivated Internet.
I’m positively giddy! At last I can, again, spend hours online obsessing over the news!

News blues

Sea mammals…
…evidence of a drop in underwater noise pollution has led experts to predict the [pandemic] crisis may be good news for whales and other sea mammals.
David Barclay… examined sound power – a way of measuring “loudness” from two sites, one inland and one farther offshore…[and] found a significant drop in noise from both.

“Generally, we know underwater noise …has effects on marine mammals….There has been a consistent drop in noise since 1 January… up to 1 April.”…. Economic data…showed a drop of around 20% in exports and imports over the same period, he said.
… The reduction in ship traffic in the ocean, which Barclay compares to a “giant human experiment”, has had scientists racing to find out the effect on marine life.
“We are facing a moment of truth,” said Michelle Fournet, a marine acoustician at Cornell University, who studies humpback whales in south-east Alaska. “We have an opportunity to listen – and that opportunity to listen will not appear again in our lifetime.”

Birds…
Birds enjoy a quieter world, too. But the long-term for wildlife looks bleak.

Nikki Williams, head of campaigns at the Wildlife Trusts, said: “The current crisis means nature is losing out, because many organisations are having to scale back important work caring for special places, which they usually do with the vital help of thousands of volunteers.”
… valuable habitats … need continual management to ensure they do not turn back into scrub….{Nevertheless] “One noticeable phenomenon of late has been the daily chorus of birdsong…. [T]he current lack of noise might indeed be helping singing birds to be heard by potential mates and rivals, thus increasing their breeding success.
Mathew Frith, of the London Wildlife Trust, said: “Many of our birds, such as the robin, wren, chiffchaff, skylark and meadow pipit, nest on or close to the ground, and so are easily flushed by dogs. With parks so much quieter than usual, these species may do well this spring.”
The RSPB also notes that the lack of people visiting the seaside will help shore-nesting species such as little terns and ringed plovers, which are especially prone to being disturbed by holidaymakers.

Insects…
The biggest assessment of global insect abundances to date shows a worrying drop of almost 25% in the last 30 years, with accelerating declines in Europe that shocked scientists.

The analysis combined 166 long-term surveys from almost 1,700 sites and found that some species were bucking the overall downward trend. In particular, freshwater insects have been increasing by 11% each decade following action to clean up polluted rivers and lakes. However, this group represent only about 10% of insect species and do not pollinate crops.
Researchers said insects remained critically understudied in many regions, with little or no data from South America, south Asia and Africa. Rapid destruction of wild habitats in these places for farming and urbanisation is likely to be significantly reducing insect populations, they said.
Insects are by far the most varied and abundant animals, outweighing humanity by 17 times, and are essential to the ecosystems humanity depends upon. They pollinate plants, are food for other creatures and recycle nature’s waste.
The previous largest assessment, based on 73 studies, led scientists to warn of “catastrophic consequences for the survival of mankind” if insect losses were not halted. Its estimated rate of decline was more than double that in the new study. Other experts estimate 50% of insects have been lost in the last 50 years.
The research, published in the journal Science, also examined how the rate of loss was changing over time. “Europe seems to be getting worse now – that is striking and shocking. But why that is, we don’t know,” said van Klink. In North America, the declines are flattening off, but at a low level.
…“we know from our results that the expansion of cities is bad for insects because every place used to be more natural habitat… This is happening in east Asia and Africa at a rapid rate. In South America, there is the destruction of the Amazon. There’s absolutely no question this is bad for insects and all the other animals there. But we just don’t have the data.”
Losses of insects are driven by habitat destruction, pesticides and light pollution. The impact of the climate crisis was not clear in the research, despite obvious local examples.
Van Klink…highlighted another study showing that rising carbon dioxide levels are reducing the nutrients in plants and significantly cutting grasshopper abundances on prairies in Kansas, US. ”That is absolutely shocking, because that could be happening all over the world.”
“We definitely have a lot of reason for concern, but I don’t think it’s too late…we can reverse these trends.”

Humans...
The vast illegal wildlife trade and humanity’s excessive intrusion into nature is to blame for the coronavirus pandemic, according to a leading US scientist who says, “this is not nature’s revenge, we did it to ourselves”.

Scientists are discovering two to four new viruses are created every year as a result of human infringement on the natural world, and any one of those could turn into a pandemic, according to Thomas Lovejoy, who coined the term “biological diversity” in 1980 and is often referred to as the godfather of biodiversity.
“This pandemic is the consequence of our persistent and excessive intrusion in nature and the vast illegal wildlife trade, and in particular, the wildlife markets, the wet markets, of south Asia and bush meat markets of Africa… It’s pretty obvious, it was just a matter of time before something like this was going to happen,” said Lovejoy, a senior fellow at the United Nations Foundation and professor of environment science at George Mason University.
His comments were made to mark the release of a report by the Center for American Progress arguing that the US should step up efforts to combat the wildlife trade to help confront pandemics.
Wet markets are traditional markets selling live animals (farmed and wild) as well as fresh fruit, vegetables and fish, often in unhygienic conditions. They are found all over Africa and Asia, providing sustenance for hundreds of millions of people. The wet market in Wuhan believed to be the source of Covid-19 contained a number of wild animals, including foxes, rats, squirrels, wolf pups and salamanders.
Lovejoy said separating wild animals from farmed animals in markets would significantly lower the risk of disease transmission. This is because there would be fewer new species for viruses to latch on to. “[Domesticated animals] can acquire these viruses, but if that’s all there was in the market, it would really lower the probability of a leak from a wild animal to a domesticated animal.”
“The name of the game is reducing certain amounts of activity so the probability of that kind of leap becomes small enough that it’s inconsequential. The big difficulty is that if you just shut them down – which in many ways would be the ideal thing – they will be topped up with black markets, and that’s even harder to deal with because it’s clandestine.”
The pandemic will cost the global economy $1trillion this year, according to the World Economic Forum, with vulnerable communities impacted the most, and nearly half of all jobs in Africa could be lost.
Lovejoy said, “This is not nature’s revenge, we did it to ourselves. The solution is to have a much more respectful approach to nature, which includes dealing with climate change and all the rest.”

Air…

Leonardo Setti and his team at the University of Bologna in Italy have detected coronavirus in particles of air pollution. They’re investigating “if the virus could be carried more widely by air pollution…. Two other research groups have suggested air pollution particles could help coronavirus travel further in the air.

Setti’s team suggests higher levels of particle pollution could explain higher rates of infection in parts of northern Italy before a lockdown was imposed. …The region is one of the most polluted in Europe.

…Previous studies have shown that air pollution particles do harbour microbes and that pollution is likely to have carried the viruses causing bird flu, measles and foot-and-mouth disease over considerable distances.

The potential role of air pollution particles is linked to the broader question of how the coronavirus is transmitted. Large virus-laden droplets from infected people’s coughs and sneezes fall to the ground within a metre or two. But much smaller droplets, less than 5 microns in diameter, can remain in the air for minutes to hours and travel further.

Experts are not sure whether these tiny airborne droplets can cause coronavirus infections, though they know the 2003 Sars coronavirus was spread in the air and that the new virus can remain viable for hours in tiny droplets.

But researchers say the importance of potential airborne transmission, and the possible boosting role of pollution particles, mean it must not be ruled out without evidence.

Prof Jonathan Reid at Bristol University in the UK is researching airborne transmission of coronavirus. “It is perhaps not surprising that while suspended in air, the small droplets could combine with background urban particles and be carried around.”

He said the virus had been detected in tiny droplets collected indoors in China.

Setti said tiny droplets between 0.1 and 1 micron may travel further when coalesced with pollution particles up to 10 microns than on their own. This is because the combined particle is larger and less dense than the droplet and can remain buoyed by the air for longer. … The pollution particle is like a micro-airplane and the passengers are the droplets.”

All agree “scientific research might take two or three years to confirm such findings.”

Reverse these numbers…

Atmospheric CO2 weekly readings from Mauna Loa, Hawaii (part per million) on
25 April 2020: 415.88 ppm
This time last year: 413.71 ppm
10 years ago: 393.25 ppm
Pre-industrial base: 280
Safe level: 350
Source: NOAA-ESRL

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Meet Ron Finley, my new hero, aka LA’s “gangsta gardener”.
“The garden seduces me,” he say. “I’ll get out there at 9am and next thing I know it’s 7pm … gardening takes your mind off things. Everybody should have a garden to cultivate.”

[F]or Finley, gardening isn’t about producing the perfect floral pom-pom, it’s about growing people. Planting is his unusual form of protest, and having a garden stuffed full of beautiful plants and vegetables is a byproduct of that.
To many, this will seem a surprising way to rebel, but Finley lives in what he calls a “food prison”. South Central Los Angeles is a predominantly black and Latino neighbourhood known for liquor stores, vacant lots, drive-throughs and drive-bys. Due to its favourable climate this should be the market garden of America but home-grown produce is an alien concept to many.

Like Finley, I’ve found gardening a joy any time and during lockdown it's a joyful lifesaver. Even mowing the lawn - which I did again today. Happy to report it's getting easier.
Lockdown hasn’t been the challenge I’d expected because of the garden. Days zip by even when Internet access doesn’t distract.
As I’ve stated many times, I’m paying more attention to details previously taken for granted. 

The pandemic is a mixed blessing, but it is also a blessing….

Read Week 1  | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4  |  Week 5

See photos Spying on Garden Creatures 

Watch Videos of Garden Creatures

Chomping at the ‘net

Twenty-four more hours without Internet.
Under normal circumstances, I’d pack up my laptop and relocate to a local café where Internet access comes with a cup of coffee and a cream scone.
Under pandemic conditions, cafés are closed – and I’m counting hours and minutes on fingers and toes.
Internet withdrawal. Forced by circumstances to refrain from Trump bashing.
But bashing is Trump’s bread and butter. Who is his latest victim?
Is Dr Fauci still around?
Dr Birx?
What's Bheki Cele up to?
Has Jared saved the world yet?
Enquiring minds want to know.

***

Scan of my cell phone reports 4,546 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in South Africa (and increase of 185) with 88 deaths; 168,643 tests performed.

***

Laptop open, I sipped my morning coffee and ponder the pandemic.
Yesterday, one live-in domestic worker reported a member of her extended family had died quickly and unexpectedly. She had no details about the cause of death. New lockdown rules mandate no travelling to attend funerals.

Wrapped in worry, I barely noticed two early bird hahdidahs catching early worms on the lawn.
Pandemic consciousness has elevated the once-ordinary to the now-extraordinary and I leaped for my camera. Clumsily, I snuck to the window…and alarmed both hahdidahs.
They took off to settle on the lower lawn.
I crept outside, checked my gumboots for spiders before pulling them on, set the camera to video, and filmed … recording only distinctive hahdidah cries and tail feathers.
Thanks to lockdown, I’m reminded that life lives – and I’m part of it.

***

A saga of giblets

Giblets are what’s left of chicken carcasses after removing the choice bits – breasts, thighs, drumsticks, etc.
My mother buys bulk packaged giblets from a big-box store to feed her dogs.
Giblet procurement, once easy, has become increasingly difficult. Giblets are an affordable food for financially stressed, hungry humans.

Before she was advised to stop driving, my mother purchased, every three months, dozens of packs of frozen giblets she stored in two dedicated chest freezers. She also purchased a case of six 2-liter bottles of her favorite wine. She transported these in her economy-size Toyota Yaris hatchback, along with three dogs she delivered, and picked up afterwards, to “their favorite groomer.” (One was Scruffy: blind in one eye, deaf, emitting a one-tone bark every 7 to 9 seconds. Yes, I timed him.)
Giblet and wine purchasing, and doggie delivery/pick up became tasks of Dutiful Daughter. At first, this enterprise appealed to my sense of the ridiculous and I made several runs.
Then I balked.
Forty-five minutes driving a Yaris chock-a-block with frozen food, a case of wine, 3 uncaged dogs, and my mother in the passenger seat in a country with among the world’s highest rates of road fatalities?
No. No. And no.

I retrieved my mother’s decades-old made-in-China Chana bakkie (pick-up) and, before returning to California, made one last wine-and-giblet run. Side trip to the doggie groomer not included.

My wonderful liveaboard California lifestyle reminded me how much I enjoyed life and, by my January return to South Africa, I’d decided against further death-defying giblet-jaunts in the Chinese Chana.
But, big question: with giblet supplies running low in the chest freezers, where to buy more?

Lockdown complicates the giblet hunt
The big-box store's online shop sells and delivers only non-perishables.
The local butchery (“too expensive,” says my mother) sells only gizzards, no giblets, nor can they locate any.
The local grocery store sells only Pet Mince.
My mother explains that her dogs (IMHO, all “pavement specials” that is, mongrels) “don’t like” gizzards or Pet Mince.
My internal conversation? “Tough shit. These days, people eat giblets. Let the damned dogs sacrifice!”
Nevertheless, Dutiful Daughter drives to the veterinary clinic to purchase salve for a dog’s skin irritation. I asked the receptionist if she knew where to purchase giblets.
Miraculously, she had a friend with “pure breed dogs” that eat only giblets.
Back home, I called this friend and, yes, indeed, she could recommend a butcher who specializes in “halal and other odd things like giblets.”
Location of his butchery? “Little Lagos.”

***

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The distinctive breathless quacking and hissing of Egyptian Geese had me scanning the area with binoculars.
Four roosted atop a distant electrical pylon.
Hadidah ibis frequently roost on the pylons bordering this property. Woolly neck storks occasionally roost there, too. I’ve never spotted Egyptian Geese on this pylon.

Enquiring minds
Do Egyptian Geese boycott the closer pylon? Or, have hahdidahs somehow insulted Egyptian Geese and created a rift? Vice versa?
Does pecking order decree different roosting spots for different birds?
Do birds of a feather flock together to intimidate birds of a different feather?

***

Lockdown gifts humans with time, and my neighbor spends his racing pigeons.
The wonderful sound of dozens of wings whirring overhead draws my attention to the communication between those aloft and those earthbound.
With his birds flying in high circles, the sedentary human below waves a black flag.
Then, the human lays down the flag, and, slowly, perhaps reluctantly, the birds return to the coop.
How did this language develop? Which came first: the egg or the flag?
Perhaps lockdown will gift me an opportunity to inquire into the ways of bird and man.
Meanwhile, the mysteries of not knowing….

***

I suspect when I’m afloat on my houseboat, my mother convinces the domestic workers to provide only her preferred cuisine: multiple snacks of Rooibos tea and Romany Cream biscuits and Jungle Oats for lunch and dinner.
I try to insist my mother eat a daily serving of vegetables and a fruit/yogurt/olive oil-based smoothie. Insisting works less than half the time.
The domestic workers cook for themselves – and for the gardener when he’s here.
I cook for myself and recycle what I can, from coffee grounds - sprinkled on acidic-soil-loving roses, avocado trees, hydrangeas – to food waste.
I carried out the fortnightly composting today, starting with repacking the sink hole with garden clippings. This hole has an endless capacity for garden debris – unless it’s home to a garden-debris-consuming dragon?

After the sink hole, I moved Stage 3 material – mature compost – into the garden. I moved Stage 2 material – almost composted food scraps - into Stage 3. Then I moved Stage 1 material - fresh food waste – into the Stage 2 receptacle, and covered and wired it shut, out of reach of curious monkeys and hungry scavengers.
Finally, I weeded the entire area to discourage seeding of black jacks and invasive khaki weeds.

Another successful lockdown completed - two days sans Internet - with sanity intact.

Read Week 1  | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4  |  Week 5

See photos Spying on Garden Creatures 

Watch Videos of Garden Creatures