Going viral

Within hours of British comedian Matt Lucas spoofing PM Boris Johnson’s recent public address, Lucas had 2.8 million views and 141,000+ likes on Twitter. One viewer stated, "This is actually clearer than what Johnson said."
To date, Boris Johnson’s address has garnered 49,000+ views and jokes about Lucas' message being easier to understand.
Hmmm, Johnson's fidgeting body language, rhetoric, and presentation didn’t quite nail what he attempted to emulate: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”

Whackjobery unchained…

Beware these discredited online vehicles of poopaganda* :

• The 26-minute “documentary,” Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind Covid-19 circulating online (not linking to it) “promotes a number of dangerous falsehoods, including that wearing a mask can make people sick” and that the novel coronavirus was purposefully created in a laboratory.
• Anything produced by American whackajob Alex Jones, and most recently, “BREAKING! President Trump Sidelines Fauci/Birx…”

*poopaganda – newly minted , quasi-genteel term (thanks, Andy) for virulent bull-s**t  “truthiness” masquerading as self-empowering info.

Whither lockdown?
The SA government has admitted to holding back information from the public on the Covid-19 pandemic, saying it is doing so to avoid panic.
What? Adults must be protected from the truth rather than be encouraged to face it and still act  responsibily? Patriarchy in action!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Another brief trip into the village today revealed people still jammed together in long lines waiting to access ATMs. This because of too-slow deliveries of the government-promised supplementary child-benefit payments. Anxious recipients must travel back-and-forth from home into town to check bank balances.
Addendum to yesterday’s post re official monthly child allowance:

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa recently announced a significant package of social and economic measures to address the fallout from the country’s COVID-19 lockdown. The package includes a R50 billion increase to the value of existing social grants, a new grant and delivery of food parcels to poor households. All will last for six months.

The supplementation of the grants raises the child social grant (paid to the caregivers of around 12.5 million children) to R740 per child in May 2020. From June to October 2020, child social grants will be decreased to their original amount (R440 per month) and caregivers will receive an additional R500 per month.
A payment increase per caregiver means that instead of a household with three children receiving an additional R1500 per month, they will only get an additional R500 – the same amount as a family with one child. This has been condemned by civil society groups and researchers who called for grant increases per child.
All other grants will be augmented by R250 per month for six months with a special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant of R350 per month for those who are not covered by other grants or the Unemployment Insurance Fund.
The COVID-19 lockdown has clarified the gaps and insufficiencies in South Africa’s social welfare system. The initial package of relief measures was aimed at supporting households by expanding the Unemployment Insurance Fund, but as economists have shown, about 45 percent of workers are not eligible for the fund.
Informal sector workers also do not qualify for Unemployment Insurance Fund, and only one in five receives income support through the child support grant. The shortfalls leave at least 8 million people without any form of direct income support.
The grant increases, alongside the new COVID-19 grant, will provide a necessary salve to poor households especially as direct food aid is weighed down by lethargic bureaucracies and accusations of corruption. (Read more.)

Question: Social grant increases may help keep millions from starvation but what happens when the immediate Covid-19 crisis abates?

Autumn/fall

Feeling the news blues?
The autumn/fall garden offers an antidote.

Swamp cypress leaves turning golden red.
Click to enlarge.

Leonotis Leonurus, aka  "lion's ear" and "wild dagga"
Click to enlarge

Autumn/fall succulent in flower
Click to enlarge

Read Week 1  | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4  |  Week 5   | Week 6   |   Week 7

See photos Spying on Garden Creatures     

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Damned if you do, damned if you don’t

As grumbling against lockdown gears up, the SA government admits to holding back information from the public on the Covid-19 pandemic, saying it is doing so to avoid panic.

Moreover, the ban on alcohol sales during the lockdown was meant to prevent drunken fights, reduce domestic violence, stop drunk driving, and eliminate weekend binge-drinking so prevalent across South Africa.
The ban was based up WHO data:

• Avoid alcohol or keep drinking to a minimum as alcohol weakens the immune system.
• Alcohol can cause acute respiratory distress.
• Drinking reduces a person’s ability to cope with infectious diseases
• Drinking also increases the risk of domestic violence and child abuse.

The ban on cigarettes was based on similar data.
Instead, these bans have created an underground market of rampant deals. In Pietermaritzburg, KZN,

“it’s not only dodgy characters indulging in the goods offered. Those supporting it are normally law-abiding citizens and many professional people. A Weekend Witness investigation conducted this week, revealed a “dial-a-fix” network on social media with door-to-door cigarette and alcohol deliveries.
It took four minutes and 28 seconds for news reporter to find cigarettes. 

A must see webinar

For no holds barred presentation of a handful of issues behind the “end lockdown” grumbling, I recommend Daily Maverick’s recent webinar, “The Inside Track: A Special Covid-19 Discussion.”  Hosted by DM’s Mark Heywood with Prof Shabir Madhi, M.B.B.C.H. (Wits), FCPaeds(SA), Ph.D., Professor of Vaccinology at the University of the Witwatersrand. Prof Mahdi is also co-founder and co-Director of the African Leadership Initiative for Vaccinology Expertise (ALIVE). More on Shabir Mahdi.

Biggest take away? South Africans must take personal responsibility to socially distance, wear masks, sanitize, sanitize, sanitize…
That’s great advice for anyone, not just South Africans. The implementation?
Well, we’d all live on a different Earth IF taking personal responsibility was easy.

I disagree with some points Prof Mahdi makes. (I was one vote of 22 percent webinar audience – 1,700+ - informally polled who thought Lockdown should continue.) Nevertheless, he’s clearly not a “political animal” and does not parse or hide his truth to avoid potential political fallout.
He states:

• Continuing lockdown will not stop the wave of community transmissions from hitting South Africa
• Continuing lockdown will prolong the collateral damage
• Current strategy causes more harm as people with other illnesses – TB, for example, the country’s biggest killer - battle to access basic medical tests. There has been a 50 percent reduction in tests for TB and diagnosis has been delayed.
• Current government response is “setting us up for greater mortality from non-Covid related illnesses”
• Hospitals are starting to see cases of malnutrition
• Children’s futures are being placed in jeopardy by keeping the schools closed (Data suggests healthy children (18 and under) with no other underlying health issues, run little risk of infection.)
• The country’s chances to fight the spread of community transmission has been damaged by imposing lockdown before South Africa was ready to do mass testing.
• Results of tests take up to two weeks to be released. This allows the number of contacts that must be traced to skyrocket and creates impossible workloads for health workers.

South Africans should be proud of the quality of the country’s expertise and the straight talk from some of its experts. Prof Mahdi is about as straight talking as they come.

For an example of politics, political animals, and political-speak in action: “The Four Men Responsible For America’s COVID-19 Test Disaster”

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Another brief trip into the village today… and, still, people jammed together in lines waiting to access ATMs. Apparently, the government-promised supplementary child-benefit payments are slow in coming. This means anxious parents traveling back-and-forth into town to check bank balances.
For the duration of lockdown, the official monthly allowance per child has increased ZAR500 (US$27), from the usual ZAR400 (US$22). Only the funds aren’t quickly being dispersed into accounts.
Housing, feeding, clothing, educating a child on the equivalent of US$50 per month – while lockdown last.
Imagine having to return to US$22/month at the end of lockdown.

Word-on-the-street reports a confirmed Covid-19 infection in a health care worker from a local hospital.

Read Week 1  | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4  |  Week 5   | Week 6   |   Week 7

See photos Spying on Garden Creatures     

Watch Videos of Garden Creatures

Mother’s Day under pandemic

Click to enlarge.

To mothers on Mother’s Day:

• Ode to Moms 
• The pandemic offers mothers something they’ll neve have again 

News blues…

Last thing last night, I checked Johns Hopkins site for latest numbers of confirmed Covid-19 cases. Sobering.
I expected by morning a number on or under 4 million. It’s worse: 4,025,175 - 32.5 percent of which are in the US.
Testing is the US’s latest political hot potato with Trump’s press spokesperson saying, “It’s ‘Nonsensical’ to Think Everyone Should Get a Coronavirus Test”.
Members of the Trump administration, meanwhile, are regularly tested. Two members have been confirmed with the infection and three are quarantined.
Numbers of confirmed cases in South Africa are rising too: 9,420 today, an increase of 525 overnight.

***

Former president Barack Obama, on a phone call with the Obama Alumni Association said:

“This election … coming … is so important because what we’re …battling is not just a particular individual or a political party… we’re fighting … long term trends … being selfish, being tribal, being divided and seeing others as an enemy. That has become a stronger impulse in American life… we’re seeing that internationally as well.”
“It’s part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty. It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mind-set — of ‘what’s in it for me’ and ‘to heck with everybody else’ - is operationalized in our government.”
Mr. Obama has adopted a public posture of muted disapproval of his successor during his post-presidency, although he has spoken out at moments calculated to have high impact. In the weeks before the 2018 midterm elections, Mr. Obama decried “crazy stuff” happening at the Justice Department under Mr. Trump and warned that “our democracy is at stake.”
He has told friends he is deeply concerned that Mr. Trump, despite his recent stumbles, will be able to successfully leverage the bully pulpit of the presidency….

On a lighter note, enjoy photo essays:

• California surf shimmers with bioluminescence
• 'Sitting at home seems wrong': NHS coronavirus volunteers – a photo essay
• Animals during the pandemic

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Click to enlarge.

After weeding the garden yesterday afternoon, I sat on the grass and relaxed in the warm autumn sun.
Scruffy – the half blind, fully deaf, pee-on-furniture-prone dog – sat with me.
Embraced by grass, trees, water, insects, birds, it is possible (though not easy) to clear one’s mind of worries, to enjoy being alive, despite lockdown to feel intimately part of the world.
Awareness heightens clarity, too.
In my world, acting fruitfully on decisions means getting things done, moving forward, making progress.
In my mother’s world these days, decisions are talking points, not plans of action. Fruitless planning, not implementation, is her end point. To date, every agreed upon plan to ensure her health and safety, and that of this household, has been jettisoned.
Do I have the required fortitude?

Click to enlarge.

I’ll take this dragonfly as a good omen.
My camera was inside the house when it settled on a twig. Expecting it gone when I rushed for the camera, there it was, still posing.

Thank you, dragonfly.





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Hope Spots

Donald Trump and the Trump Organization have a new scam: Trump-branded face masks.
Trump’s reelection campaign manager tweeted images Thursday of “Keep America Great”-branded and “Trump-Pence”-branded face masks. (I'll bet they're made in China, not in America. After all, MAGA, and all that....)

The irony was not lost on many Twitter users, who pointed out the president persistently dismissed the threat of the coronavirus, leading to a severe outbreak in the United States that has claimed more than 75,000 lives. The production of these promotional masks seems a particularly absurd move given the administration’s failure to help provide adequate personal protective equipment for health care workers and Trump’s own refusal to wear a mask at events despite safety guidelines. 

C’est la vie Trump! Irony is not his strong suite. Instead, up is down, down is up… lie, obfuscate, fire the truth-tellers – and make as much money as you can, while you can, wherever you can, however you can. Damn the logic, morality, or consequences.

News blues…

Another Trump snippet: CNN news anchor/presenter Chris Cuomo Reveals ‘Ugly’ Reason Why Donald Trump Downplays Coronavirus Testing. “It is dishonest and destructive and it is done by design.”

For Trump, it was all about hiding the truth about the pandemic, which has so far killed more than 73,000 people nationwide. The United States has more confirmed cases than any other country in the world.
“Testing is truth because numbers are truth, and they want you to believe that COVID is going away faster than it actually it is because they believe the longer it is real, the worse it is for Trump and the election,” said Cuomo, who himself recovered from the virus last month. “The politics of forcing reopening is as obvious as it is ugly.” 

Covid-19 lurks
It was a matter of time before the numbers of South Africa’s confirmed infections – and deaths - began to climb, and double.

Times Live reports SA's confirmed Covid-19 cases increased to 8,895, a single-day increase of 663. There were also 17 new deaths reported, taking the toll to 178.
These were the biggest single-day increases reported since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.

Of the deaths, nine were from the Western Cape, there were three each in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng, and two from KwaZulu-Natal.
The provincial breakdown of cases on Thursday [May 7] was provided as:
• Western Cape — 4,497;
• Gauteng — 1,851;
• KwaZulu-Natal — 1, 253;
• Eastern Cape — 989;
• Free State — 133;
• Mpumalanga — 60;
• Limpopo — 43;
• North West — 42; and
• Northern Cape — 27.

Are your spirits, like mine, sagging?

Tough to remain an optimistic realist in the face of our world-as-we-know-it falling apart.
Change is afoot.
Under the circumstances, however, do we have leadership capable of ensuring equitable and sustainable change?
Will the coming change make our planet better for the less-than-privileged majority, or tighten the grip of a vastly over-privileged minority?

The Swamp
Every US politician seeking higher office promises to drain The Swamp and “root out corruption” in Washington, D.C.
Donald J Trump promised that, too.
Today, The Swamp of Washington, D.C.,  is more, not less, corruption-and-disease-ridden.

The phrase drain the swamp originally referenced the literal removal of water, replete with disease-carrying mosquitos and Egyptian crocodiles from Italy’s Pontine marshes outside Rome.
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini introduced the phrase, “drenare la palude.”
The good news? That marsh was drained between 1932 and 1934.
Take away? If it suits them, even dictators can bring about positive change.
The Donald? Hmmmm, don’t hold your breath. Positive change ain't his concern or his bent.

***

Hope Spot
On this lovely Saturday, Day 44, let’s celebrate Mission Blue’s Hope Spots.
Hope Spots are places critical to the health of our planetary environment.
Scroll down on this page for a map showing Hope Spots around the world.

In 9:47 minutes, discover Hope Spot Spitsbergen Island, in the Svalbard Archipelago. The 2,000 people-strong settlement of Longyearbyen is the northernmost inhabited place on Earth.
Watch ice divers face one of the most extreme effects of global warming.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Previous posts indicated the US Consulate in South Africa’s flip-flops regarding repatriation flights.
With communication difficult in my part of rural KZN, I enlisted a friend in California to research the status of commercial airline service.
My generous friend phoned the Turkish Airline office in San Francisco. Persistence won out over listening to one dead-end voice mail after another and, imaginatively, my friend pressed the correct phone pad number for the Complaints line.
He talked to an actual and informed human being.
Yes, Turkish Airlines appears to offer sporadic commercial flights from Durban’s Shaka International. A flight is scheduled from Durban to San Francisco via Istanbul at the end of May. However, that flight is not confirmed. It depends on lockdown.
Best wait-and-see, until, at least, mid-June.

That news momentarily lifted my sagging spirits.
Then, alas, spirits sagged again at the Times news about the “biggest single-day increases reported since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country”….

Today, I’ll lift my spirits by creating a microcosmic Hope Spot: the garden and pond.


Read Week 1  | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4  |  Week 5   | Week 6   |   Week 7

See photos Spying on Garden Creatures     

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“We’ve been Zucked!”

Post for Wednesday May 6  references The Donald’s reactions to The Lincoln Project’s latest ad, Mourning in America.
The saga heats up…

News blues…

The Lincoln Project recent email to subscribers:

…we've been Zucked: Facebook is now censoring the ad that made Trump lose his mind.
You're not going to believe this — not much shocks me these days, but even I had to see it with my own eyes.
But now, less than 24 hours later — as if on cue — Facebook has slapped a "false" warning label on our video, telling its users to beware…
it's no secret that Facebook has stood by and done little to nothing as lie after lie — from the Liar-In-Chief himself — runs wild on their platform.
(Oh, and let's also not forget the conspiracy theories, foreign disinformation campaigns and negligence that got Mark Zuckerberg questioned by the United States Congress. )
But, this? This is an entirely different and dangerous kind of collusion.

But, is it an entirely different and dangerous kind of collusion?
We are talking here about Trump administration that has, over just three years, epitomize a “different and dangerous kind of collusion”.

Mark Zuckerberg’s trend toward colluding with Trump only increases over time.

“…Mark Zuckerberg and Donald Trump appear to have struck a “mutual assistance arrangement” that will help the US president “get re-elected”, referencing Facebook’s willingness to continue publishing political adverts. 

Unfortunately, words, any words, uttered by George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist, are attacked, reviled, and undermined – increasingly successfully – by US hard right, nationalists, fear mongers, and the gullible. Soros is the hard right’s bogeyman.

Trump/Zuckerberg “mutual assistance arrangement”

• January 2020: President Trump says Mark Zuckerberg running for president 'wouldn't be too frightening
• December 2019: Mark Zuckerberg says there was nothing shady about secret meeting with Trump 
• November 2019: Trump hosted Mark Zuckerberg for private White House dinner
• April 2019: Mark Zuckerberg says he's 'confident' about 2020 election

***

On a different note, one of humane public service, I highly recommend Daily Maverick’s free webinar “The Dual Epidemics: Looking at the overlapping and interweaving of HIV and Covid-19”, hosted by Mark Heywood.
Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, discusses the lessons from the HIV pandemic that are applicable to Covid-19, whether Covid-19 presents a threat to people living with HIV-AIDS, how the spread of Covid-19 will impact Africa, how a vaccine, once created, will reach everyone who needs it, and the lessons from HIV that are applicable to the response to Covid-19.

***

A combination of events had police tightening lockdown in the KZN city of Pietermaritzburg.
Today was the deadline for a six-day long once-off allowance for interprovincial travel. Judging by the crowds, too many people left that to the last minute.

According the provincial police commissioner, since 27 March, at least 18,000 people have been arrested for violating Covid-19 lockdown regulations.

Street scene from Pietermartizburg,
May 7 2020
Click to enlarge.

Roadblocks manned by the army and the Road Traffic Inspectorate are responding to a high volume of complaints about non-compliance.

I suspect Pensioners’ Day swelled the crowds, too. Every Tuesday and Thursday people over 60 years old get 5 percent discount off purchases.
Who wouldn’t risk Covid-19 for such a deal?

***

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I took a breath of freedom "outside the wire"* with a plan that was (I hope) lockdown compliant: seeking giblets for my mother’s dogs at the recommended butcher in “Little Lagos.”
Alas, dense crowds lined the street - no one could maintain social distance – and bringing home giblets to overfed dogs might be worth the risk of infection to some.
To me?
Not so much.

Back home, I noticed the dogs didn’t seem to mind I was giblet-free.
My mother explained their point of view: “They like Pet Mince now.”
What a relief! No dog would starve due to my selfish desire for safety!

While Pet Mince fills the dogs’ culinary breach for now, it does not mean I’m off the hook for locating a source of giblets.
Rather, it means I visit Little Lagos on non-Pensioners’ Day: Monday, Wednesday, or Friday.

(*The phrase "outside the wire" originated with US military troops locked down on military bases in Iraq during that disasterous invasion. Heavily armored troops went off base only to patrol local towns and villages. Their routes, the same day-after-day, made them frequent targets of attack.)

***

Yesterday I described an upcoming SAA repatriation flight to Dulles International in Washington, D.C. Today, I received an update from the US Consulate in South Africa:

Event:  The South African Ministry of Health confirmed 7,808 cases of COVID-19 within its borders.
South African Airways Flight
It was announced that South African Airways will be required to cease all operations on May 8. Unfortunately, due to that timeline, SAA informed us that they had to move their planned flight to the U.S. to repatriate South Africans to early this morning, making it impossible for us to put U.S. citizens on the outbound leg. We know this will be very disappointing news to many of you who had hoped to participate in this flight, as it is for all of us working to make it happen.
While we will continue to inform citizens of opportunities as they arise, we have no information on any other potential repatriation flights at this time.
 
We have no information on when commercial flights will resume.

This means that every repatriation flight mentioned in the last month by the US Consulate in South Africa has been cancelled.
A news snippet, however, might shed light.

The government [and public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan] is unhappy that SAA business rescue practitioners (BRPs) spent between R30m and R35m on American consultants, while it has not yet seen any plan to save the national carrier from total collapse.
Gordhan said the government also wanted the BRPs to reverse their decision to put a complete halt to all SAA flights on Friday, including planes that may be required to urgently repatriate South Africans stuck in foreign countries as the world battles the Covid-19 pandemic.
"What we've had in recent days is the announcement by the practitioners that all flights, repatriation or otherwise, will stop on May 8. … the department has had a discussion with the BRPs and there's now some indication of maybe some flexibility in this regard.

This is almost like the States. There, our fearless leader and his crew put out what appear to be definitive statements one day, contradict those statements the next day, then repeat the original statement on the third day.

To paraphrase the SAA flight captain, “Welcome to your flight. Nothing can go wrong… go wrong … go wrong….”


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“This is not my beautiful life…”

Click to enlarge.

 Tomorrow is the first day of Lockdown Week 7.

Forty-two days behind a security fence. Forty-two days with insufficient aerobic exercise. Forty-two days talking to dogs, monkeys, fish, birds, bugs, crabs, and plants…
How much more of this must a gal take?

Bad case scenario?
In 42 more days, this gal pines for the good old days of Lockdown Week 1 or 2… or 6!

News blues…

Dr. Tom Frieden, the former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, laid out "10 plain truths" about Covid-19 … at a House Appropriations Committee hearing on the pandemic response.
A summary of Frieden’s ten truths:

1. "It's really bad" in New York City
2. It's "just the beginning"
3. Data is a "very powerful weapon against this virus"
4. We need to "box the virus in"
5. We must find the balance
6. Protect the "frontline heroes"
7. Protect our most vulnerable people, too
8. Governments and private companies need to work together
9. We must not neglect non-Covid health issues
10. Preparedness is paramount

Read the details

***

One joy of statistics and mathematical formulae is their ability to ‘sanitize’ the human experience from the messy and unquantifiable psychological and emotional aspects.
Let’s try that:

Worldwide – Confirmed infections: 3,755,379; deaths: 263,831
US – Confirmed infections: 1,228,603; deaths: 73,000
SA – Confirmed infections: 7,808; deaths: 153
Turkey* – Confirmed infections: 131,744 deaths: 3,584

*Turkey listed as I may fly to California via Turkish Airlines via Istanbul.
My motto? Know the numbers and the risks.
Johns Hopkins University ranks Turkey seventh in the world for the number of confirmed infections although the actual toll, like everywhere else, is higher.
Is there a crew sanitizing the airport?

There is increasing evidence that the rise of highly infectious diseases is linked to the increasing destruction of, and human encroachment into, the natural environment. It behooves humans to understand – and mitigate – our destructive tendencies.
Start small. Understand the concentrations of carbon dioxide - CO2 – in our fragile atmosphere:

May 2, 2020: 416.82 part per million (ppm)
May 2, 2019: 414.45 ppm
10 years ago: 393.18 ppm
Pre-industrial base: 280ppm
Safe level: 350ppm

From Mauna Loa, Hawaii. Source: NOAA-ESRL 

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it?
Figure our what you, in your ecosystem “bubble”, can do to cut down on CO2 emissions, plastics, and non-recyclables.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I’m far from my houseboat home but I’m secure, nourished, with adequate privacy. Still… I’m ready to return to California.
I thought, briefly, about reserving a seat on a repatriation flight from South Africa to Doha, Qatar. Dates were posted, people booked flights, things looked good – except for the part about having to find one’s own way from Doha to California.
Then, last night, the US Consulate in South Africa issued a follow-up email:

Qatar Airways Flights
We have received notification from Qatar Airways that all flights scheduled for May 7 and beyond have been canceled. If you have already booked a seat with Qatar Airways, please contact the airline for a refund. We have no further information on whether other repatriation flights from Qatar will be available in the future.

What happened?
No one is saying…

Moreover, Americans trying to register for information on the SAA repatriation flight to Dulles, Washington D.C. get the message that the SAA website is “experiencing technical difficulties”:

“SAA has assured us that the site is up and functioning, however, they are experiencing significantly higher than expected demand.”

Hmmm, this reminds me of my experience with the Department of Home Affairs in Pietermaritzburg where I tried – for five years! - to get my passport. I’d presented my fingers for prints, smiled for the ID camera, and paid the fee.
After that?
Nothing.
I called to enquire about status and was told, “You didn’t pick up your document, so we sent it back to Pretoria.”
Finally, I went through the SA Embassy in Los Angeles.
I was issued a passport within six months.

Joke: the SAA flight captain welcomes passengers aboard the plane, “Shortly after takeoff, our flight crew will come around and take your cocktail orders. We look forward to getting you to your destination. Be assured nothing can go wrong… go wrong … go wrong….”

Plan for Day 42? Do a giblet run….


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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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