Evidentiary knowledge empowers

Following the news every day is simultaneously exhausting and empowering. Last night I reviewed my go-to Covid-19 Dashboard of choice, Johns Hopkins CSSE, for total numbers of confirmed cases around the world. They were such that I assumed numbers would reach 10 million by end-of-day Sunday.

News blues…

Alas, this morning’s review revises my assumption. We’re on track to reach 10 million by the end-of-day today.
Amid much confusion and dark obfuscation, rays of scientific evidence emerge to empower the Average Joe/Josephine.
Symptoms, as we’ve learned, can appear anywhere between 2 to 14 days after exposure. The list of possible symptoms, however, has expanded and may include:

• Fever or chills
• Cough
• Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
• Fatigue
• Muscle or body aches
• Headache
• New loss of taste or smell
• Sore throat
• Congestion or runny nose
• Nausea or vomiting
• Diarrhea

This list, from Yale Medicine,  does not include all possible symptoms.

• In the US, look to the CDC for updates on symptoms  as it learns more about COVID-19.
• In South Africa, look to the COVID-19 Corona Virus
• South African Resource Portal.

***

An HIV/AIDS specialist discovers similarities — and differences — to COVID-19.

A few recent studies on the effects of HIV and SARS-CoV-2 indicate that they do have some similarities. Shanghai-based researchers provided evidence that SARS-CoV-2 can infect T lymphocytes, the same cells targeted by HIV. Other researchers have documented that individuals with severe COVID-19 may exhibit lymphopenia, or an atypically low number of lymphocytes in the blood. Likewise, HIV infection results in this abnormality, eventually causing the immunosuppression associated with AIDS. But these findings should not cause us to assume that SARS-CoV-2 is like HIV.

What can you do? Dr. Mark Smolinski, infectious disease physician and president of Ending Pandemics offers his perspective:

As a public health physician, I know the SARS-CoV-2 virus doesn’t care that we are all going a little stir crazy sheltering in place. Coronavirus lays in wait to move from one person to another, as the percentage of people with asymptomatic infection is quite high. My chances of getting infected, therefore, are not solely based on my actions, but are also impacted by the behaviors of those around me. This is why I am both disappointed by the seemingly nonchalant actions of those without masks, and sad that I know it will mean the pandemic will continue to cause illness and death. …
You wear a mask to protect others, and others wear a mask to protect you. Wearing a mask is a true sign of respect for others; it is not an impingement on one’s freedom as many have claimed. Wearing a mask tells the person you pass on the street, share an aisle with in the supermarket, or march along side at a peaceful protest, that you respect them as a fellow human.

Hear, hear, Dr Smolinkski!

***

Follow the cuckoos  and on (ahem!)
Twitter: @BirdingBeijing.

Now for something completely different: the Mongolia Cuckoo Project – Birding Beijing 北京观鸟 

From 4-8 June 2019, five cuckoos – one Oriental Cuckoo and four Common Cuckoos – were fitted with transmitters around Khurkh Bird Banding Center in northern Mongolia. The birds have been named by local schools who will follow “their” birds to learn about the migration route and wintering grounds of these iconic birds.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

According to Web MD, that paragon of online diagnosis, an obsession is “a persistent disturbing preoccupation…. Symptoms start small, and to the obsessed, can [do!] seem like normal behavior. They are unwanted and repetitive thoughts, urges, or images that don't go away.”
I’m not sure about “unwanted”: I quite like my array of growing obsessions encouraged by 14 weeks (and counting) of Lockdown. (I sound like friends who defend their addiction to, say, cigarettes: “I can give ‘em up any time I like, but I choose not to….”)
Lockdown provides ample time to evolve one’s obsessions. Mine come and go. For example, I still admire my cell phone’s Last Charge Level graphs, but I no longer capture screen shots. Nor do I hanker to capture screen shots. I’ve moved on.

Two pigtails suit this young trendsetter.
I'm opting for one pigtail - for now.

Now, with hair salons shut and my hair still growing, I’m perfecting the “Hair Flare.” Inspired by a favorite 4-year-old’s style, I tie a pigtail left of my forehead then fan it out.
I’m also improving the flare with the addition of colored ribbon.
Testing it out in public has, so far, been neither a hit nor a miss. No one has admired nor ridiculed it.
Who knows? I may start a trend.
Then again, my 4-year-old inspiration looked shocked when I explained the Hair Flare derived from her hairstyle.
I like to believe she was shocked that, at four, she was a trend setter rather than shock that she ever looked as crazy as I do with the Hair Flare.

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Don’t need no stinkin’ mask!

News blues…

June 13 Tweet from Dr Jerome Adams, US surgeon general:

Just a reminder - wearing a face covering is a small inconvenience that provides big benefits, and gives us our best chance for an effective and lasting reopening of America. If everyone does their part to slow the spread, then everyone wins.

Dr Adams sounds like a logical and rational man who may not have factored in that not everyone wants to win if winnng means knuckling down and wearing a mask.
That segment of Americans – spurred on by, and including, the president – resist advice on basic hygiene during a pandemic.
Comedians Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart recently highlighted  this “politicization of basic hygiene” – wearing a mask – and noted that the mask has become a symbol of political tyranny: “The Covid Burqa”, “the garb of the authoritarian”, “the new swastika armband”, “the don’t tread on me snake….”
Trump is the happy head of the “don’t tread on me snake” that

…continues to refuse to wear a face mask in public, even as polls show a majority of Americans say they should be used to prevent the spread of the virus. Even as some of Trump's political aides quietly assert he would score political points by wearing a mask - like Vice President Mike Pence did on Thursday in Ohio - Trump hasn't shown signs of budging.
"He will never change on the mask. He doesn't want that picture," one White House official said. "He knows masks are important, but he doesn't want that image or to admit he is wrong."  

A group of Trump-supporting Floridians spoke…

at a heated public hearing [and] attacked county commissioners as “communist dictators” who follow “the devil’s laws” as they [commissioners] prepared to vote on a mandate for wearing face masks in public.
During public comments before the unanimous vote in favor of the mask requirement on Tuesday, a majority of speakers opposed the move…some denied that masks were effective against spreading COVID-19 and accused officials of playing God, violating the Constitution and threatening freedom and lives by imposing the measure.
One speaker threatened to perform a citizen’s arrests on the officials for going “against the freedom of choice.”
“Every single one of you that’s obeying the devil’s laws are going to be arrested. And you are going to be arrested for crimes against humanity,” the woman declared.
“Every single one of you has a smirk behind that little mask, but every single one of you are going to get punished by God. You cannot escape God ... not even with the mask or 6 feet.”
The woman touched on several other theories, including a suggestion that the public officials could be part of a “deep state” of rogue officials. [This woman is an equal opportunity blamer. She included the devil, 5G, Bill Gates, Hillary Clinton, and "the pedophiles."]
Another woman told commissioners, “I want to know who is getting paid off and where is the mandate coming from.”
“Well, guess what, the riots are spreading, too!” she continued. “And what the hell are we going to do about that? We’re going to arrest patriots for not wearing a mask? That’s what you want?”
She concluded her remarks: “And I say Trump 2020!”

***

“Trump 2020” is looking less and less likely as anti-Trump Republicans organize to defeat the President in November.

A group called "Right Side PAC" … will focus on targeting voters  in battleground states like Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin [and on] data, targeting and turnout … [and] will work to turn out "that group of Republicans who feels that Donald Trump is an existential threat to the country and this party."
"We're going to make people feel comfortable with the correction option -- pulling the lever for Joe Biden this year…."

The Lincoln Project’s most recent ad,  “Mattis,” states, "Democracy is under threat, and people who care about it must summon the will, the discipline, and the solidarity to defend it. At stake are the freedom, health, and dignity of people everywhere."

The Project’s point of view is shared by more than 500 former world leaders and Novel Laureates who signed an open letter claiming authoritarian governments across the globe are using the pandemic crisis to silence critics.

The letter, organized by the Stockholm-based Institute for Democracy and published Thursday, highlights that in the wake of the crisis, both authoritarian and democratically-elected governments the world over have used emergency powers to arrest protestors and sidestep democratic norms.
The letter warns: "Authoritarian regimes, not surprisingly, are using the crisis to silence critics and tighten their political grip. But even some democratically-elected governments are fighting the pandemic by amassing emergency powers that restrict human rights and enhance state surveillance without regard to legal constraints, parliamentary oversight, or timeframes for the restoration of constitutional order.
"Parliaments are being sidelined, journalists are being arrested and harassed, minorities are being scapegoated, and the most vulnerable sectors of the population face alarming new dangers as the economic lockdowns ravage the very fabric of societies everywhere."
Since the pandemic began, dozens of countries have introduced emergency declarations and more than 100 have brought in measures that affect public assembly, such as protests against the state, according to the International Center for Non-Profit Law's Covid-19 Civic Freedom Tracker. Their cited examples range from restricting access of public information to arresting citizens for "provocative" posts on social media.
…the letter's chief warning is that countries with strong democratic traditions could use the pandemic to introduce extraordinary measures that in the long run become ordinary, doing permanent damage to global democracy.
"Authoritarians around the world see the Covid-19 crisis as a new political battleground in their fight to stigmatize democracy as feeble and reverse its dramatic gains of the past few decades."
"Now is the time when all of us must stand up for democracy. We need to make it clear to everyone what is at stake and that we will not allow leaders with authoritarian tendencies to use this or other crises to increase their power and decrease our rights," said Kevin Casas-Zamora, Secretary-General of IDEA and former Second Vice-President of Costa Rica.
The letter says that "Repression will not help to control the pandemic," and that "Silencing free speech, jailing peaceful dissenters, suppressing legislative oversight, and indefinitely canceling elections all do nothing to protect public health."
"Democracy is under threat, and people who care about it must summon the will, the discipline, and the solidarity to defend it. At stake are the freedom, health, and dignity of people everywhere."

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Many glorious moments basking in the sun during these winter days. Step out of the sun, though, and brrrr, the temperature drops.
My evolving morning routine includes eating breakfast while sitting in the bright sunshine.
Tortoise-like, I take time-outs during the day to warm up in the sun.

Today, as I weeded, a flock of chatty weaver birds alit in a nearby tree. I continued weeding and they continued chatting.
Then, I became aware of the beauty of the moment, that I was part of a miraculous environment, birds, an infinite reality.
I stopped weeding to savor the sensation.
The birds stopped chatting.
It was as if my state of being – attentive listening – communicated with the birds and they held their collective breath to see what I’d do.
I relaxed into the silence.
Soon, the birds started chatting again. I’d been accepted.
Made my day.

***

A plethora of repat flights offered
Health Alert: Announcing Upcoming Repatriation Flights – U.S. Embassy Pretoria, South Africa (June 25, 2020)
Event: The South African Ministry of Health has confirmed 111,796 cases of COVID-19 within its borders.
Announcing Multiple Upcoming Repatriation Flights
We have been notified of multiple upcoming special commercial repatriation flights operated by Lufthansa, KLM, Emirates, Turkish Airlines, and Ethiopian Airlines.
Flight information:
DATE DEPARTURE ARRIVAL AIRLINE
27 June 2020 Cape Town (CPT) Frankfurt (FRA) Lufthansa
27 June 2020 Cape Town (CPT) Amsterdam (AMS) KLM
28 June 2020 Johannesburg (JNB) Amsterdam (AMS) KLM
28 June 2020 Johannesburg (JNB) Dubai (DXB) Emirates
30 June 2020 Johannesburg (JNB) Dubai (DXB) Emirates
01 July 2020 Johannesburg (JNB) Addis Ababa (ADD) Ethiopian Airlines
02 July 2020 Johannesburg (JNB) Istanbul (IST) Turkish Airlines
04 July 2020 Cape Town (CPT) Amsterdam (AMS) KLM
05 July 2020 Johannesburg (JNB) Amsterdam (AMS) KLM
11 July 2020 Cape Town (CPT) Amsterdam (AMS) KLM
12 July 2020 Johannesburg (JNB) Amsterdam (AMS) KLM
Interested passengers must book their tickets directly with the airlines' local ticket office or using the below contact information:

• Ethiopian Airlines by contacting: SouthAfricaSalesTeam@ethiopianairlines.com
• Lufthansa by contacting: Jnbmarketing@dlh.de
• Emirates must be booked directly with the Emirates Johannesburg office, by contacting eksa@emirates.com and completing a required booking form
• Turkish Airlines by contacting: cptmarketing@thy.com
• KLM by contacting:
  Website: You can book your ticket through our website www.klm.co.za by searching for a one-way trip and specific date. The calendar view will not display them. Please book only for the flights on these dates and flight numbers.
  Call centre: Our sales and Service Centre can be contacted to book a flight, via phone: +27 (0)10 205 0100 or +27(0)10 205 0101, daily between 09:00 –16:00. Payment can only be made with credit card. If you have an existing booking with Air France or KLM you can use it to (partially) pay for this flight.
  Additional Information: During the booking process a link will be given to fill in a web form. You need to fill in the form for each passenger in your reservation. It is mandatory to fill in this web form. In case you missed the link in your booking process, you can find it here: https://www.klm.com/travel/za_en/customer_support/repatriation_flights.htm.
• SAA also has a repatriation portal where you may register your interest in potential future repatriation flights.

Please Note:
·Passengers will be responsible for travel to their final destination in the United States from the arrival airport listed above.

• These flights are open to U.S. citizens, Lawful Permanent Residents, and visa holders who have received DHA approval to depart South Africa. (Noting that visa holders will not be allowed to transit the EU.)
• Passengers will be responsible for finding transportation to the required assembly point, which will be communicated by the airlines prior to the flight departure.
• Travel permission letters for U.S. citizens and green card holders are not required unless you will be crossing provinces to arrive at the assembly point. If and only if you must cross a provincial border to join this repatriation flight, please write SAEvacuation@state.gov requesting a travel letter. Include your name, passport or green card number, current address, and flight confirmation.
• For any questions regarding availability, cost, baggage allowance, or other flight details, please contact the airlines directly.

I may register on SAA’s repatriation portal. I hesitate to expose myself to bureaucracy that might reel out of control. I’m not particularly thrilled about travelling SAA, nor having to find a way to Johannesburg (why no flights originating in Durban?) nor of landing on the east coast or Chicago when my destination is San Francisco.
Moreover, I won’t leave before July 14 – my mother’s 87th birthday.
Am I settling in here? Putting down roots?

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Mindboggling numbers

Each week I ponder whether to post coronavirus statistics on the last day of the week or on the first day of the next week.
This week’s numbers of infections and death around the world are rising so precipitously it feels appropriate to examine them, understand them, do our best not to contribute to further rise – and begin a new week fresh and hopeful….
Week 13’s numbers… compared with Week 12’s:

• June 25 - worldwide: 9,409,000 confirmed infections; 482,190 deaths
  June 19 - worldwide: 8,489,000 confirmed infections; 454,007 deaths
• June 25 - US: 2,381,540 infections; 121,980 deaths
  June 19 - US: 2,191,100 confirmed infections; 118,435 deaths
• June 25 - SA: 111,800 confirmed infections; 2,205 deaths
  June 19 - SA: 83,890 confirmed infections; 1,737 deaths

News blues…

• Global report on numbers. 
• South Africa sees its biggest ever single-day increase, a total of 111,796 includes more than 5,800 cases reported in the past 24 hours 
• As the US records highest one-day total in coronavirus cases since April...

...the president and Feds Set To Cut Coronavirus Testing Funds As COVID-19 Cases Soar COVID-19 testing centers across five states are set to lose federal funding next week after the Trump administration decided not to extend the program that established them.
As a result, 13 testing sites across Colorado (1), Illinois (2), New Jersey (2), Pennsylvania (1) and Texas (7) will likely close if those states are unable to replace the necessary funding.
... Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir confirmed that the program that originally funded 41 such sites across 48 states would end next week… [as] part of a planned transition to “more efficient and effective testing sites,” noting that the original end date had already been postponed once.

“All 13 sites were provided an extra 30 days from the original transition date in May,” Giroir said, “and I personally spoke with Governors from all 5 states involved, and/or their leadership designees, who agreed that it was the appropriate time to transition out of the original 13 sites and into the thousands of new testing options.”

And Trump?
Trump is not just in denial but also indifferent to an unfolding American tragedy

... the best President Donald Trump cares to offer the thousands more Americans projected to shortly die of Covid-19 is the unsubstantiated prospect of a "beautiful surprise."
The US just hit its third highest ever peak of new coronavirus cases, multiple states are registering their own daily records and three are now taking the extraordinary step of imposing quarantines for citizens from pandemic hotspots. The world's most powerful nation lacks a coherent national strategy to meet another cresting viral crisis, the capacity or even the willingness to take steps that might stop it.
It is also led by a man who is suggesting by his actions and attitudes that he doesn't care that much about the unfolding tragedy.
Trump, who has previously predicted a "miracle" would occur or the virus would just disappear in the warmer weather, again declared falsely Wednesday that the danger had passed -- even with the nation racing towards another deadly summit of infection.

The weirdest thing?
According to a Reuters poll  37 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of this health crisis.
How can 37 out of every 100 Americans approve?
Mindboggling.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

It’s tough to sustain vigilance against an unseen, mysterious, and, yes, controversial virus. It appears vast numbers of people cannot grasp the concept of a pandemic or its wide-ranging implications.
Confused, contradictory messaging (Trump) – or too little messaging/too many messengers (Ramaphosa and Dlamini Zuma) – doesn’t help.
Add a dash of WhatsApp misinformation and voilà! People fill the gaps in their knowledge with wishful thinking.
After my quick walk-for-exercise around the neighborhood today, I dropped by a neighbor’s house. She displayed a WhatsApp message listing more than a dozen schools, malls, and business in Pietermaritzburg that had shut their doors due to a spike in infections in that city.

Graph shows 9 out of 10 Internet
users in South Africa are
active on WhatsApp Click to enlarge

That WhatsApp is the messaging app-of-choice for 9 out of 10 South African mobile phone users does not mean WhatsApp info is accurate.
Back home, I researched the data and found that, yes, indeed, Pietermaritzburg (a 15- to 20-minute drive away) is:

… on high alert following a dramatic rise in the number of reported coronavirus infections across the city… Since last week, cases have been reported in at least five schools, shopping and retail outlets, city hall, and the electricity department in Havelock Road. A local magistrate, Mumsy Boikhutso, who tested positive for coronavirus, this week succumbed to Covid-19.
KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health’s Ntokozo Maphisa … called on the community not to be careless and to follow all the protocols of social distancing, wearing masks, sanitising and staying at home if possible.
“Covid-19 is a pandemic affecting the whole world … we must accept that this virus is with us… It is now up to us to follow the rules that are in place. We must think of ourselves and our loved ones. Let us not be careless.”

Amen, Maphisa.
Friends, let’s be careful out there.

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To jest or not to jest…

So, is Trump kidding or not kidding when he said he’d had directed his administration to slow coronavirus testing in the United States?
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump was “speaking only in jest”…
Trump later said he was “semi-joking”….

Anyone looking for guidance from the White House on avoiding the coronavirus is on her or his own. Good luck out there and, y’know, all that stuff….

MeidasTouch (“because truth is golden”) presents their view: “Trump kills US.”

News blues…

Things are not going well in South Africa – and we don’t even have a Trump confusing issues.

Eastern Cape “Premier Oscar Mabuyane said on Monday 22 June that 15,751 people in the Eastern Cape had tested positive for the coronavirus. With 8,035 people having recovered that left 7,716 active cases and 285 deaths.
The province’s biggest metro, Nelson Mandela Bay, had 4,706 positive cases, of whom 2,116 had recovered and 86 deaths.
…“The current doubling rate is 10 days and this will get shorter. Hospitals are already turning people away because there are no beds.”
Eastern Cape Department of Health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said the main driver of infections in the metro remains poor adherence to precautionary measures like washing hands, wearing a mask in public and maintaining personal distance.
He said they had managed to reduce the testing backlog in the province and now had a turnaround time of between 48 and 72 hours. Last month it was between 14 and 21 days.

***
Daily Maverick webinar, “Two Minutes to Midnight: Will Cyril Ramaphosa's ANC survive?”
Host Ferial Haffajee in discussion with author Dr Oscar Van Heerden

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

My daily walk around the neighborhood is circumscribed by reality.
Since a woman walking alone is a target for mugging, I repeatedly walk the same circular route away from main thoroughfares. I also carry an impressive wooden knobkerrie walking stick and pepper spray.
Walking the same way, the same routine, in the same fashion each day quickly becomes tedious.
The same dogs bark.
I greet the dogs the same way: “Hello, Curly Tail”… “Woof, woof, woof, doglets” … “Oh, what a big barks you have!” ….
One section of this repetitive walk passes a yard with two boxers. The alpha dog works himself into a frenzy as I pass his territory. When his companion boxer joins in the fun, the alpha attacks it. Yesterday’s attack was particularly vicious: the younger dog was savaged as long as I remained in sight.
The message came across loud and clear: dastardly human, watch me savage my pal and pretend it’s you!
An experience not for the faint hearted.
Today, instead of walking the neighborhood, I returned to loping around the garden: around the pond (no goldfish), up and down one set of stairs, down and up another set of stairs, around the apple tree, past the compost pile… and repeat – for forty minutes.
After that, I returned to revamping the section of garden where I’d recently removed the canna plants.
I recycled bearded iris tubers and replanted them in what I hope will be another small garden with purple bearded iris.
I also recycled several logs that have been beautifully hollowed out by ants. I’ll fill the logs’ nooks and crannies with soil and create organic planters perfect for small succulents.
It’s essential, during Lockdown, to keep busy, plan, implement, exercise. And remind yourself that, this, too, shall pass.
But, oh. When?

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Silver linings

The Africa Medical Supplies Platform is coming!
Ubuntu in action.
The AMSP is designed to unlock access to supplies across the continent and save money for African countries suffering high rates of viral infection.
I hope it works.
President Ramaphosa calls it a “silver lining… the glue that is going to bind the continent together.”

“The one-stop shop [will] give the continent a fairer chance in the international scramble for Covid-19 test kits, protective equipment and any vaccines that emerge.” 

Finally, a scramble for Africa by Africans for Africans.

News blues…

Trump, post Tulsa rally.
Click to enlarge.

Portrait of a man beaten - at least, a man temporarily beaten.
Trump, being Trump, will find a way to rebound and reframe and re-rally.
For now, though, even his tie has come undone.
As mentioned yesterday, I’m not a fan but I recognize compassion when I feel it.
Watch the 3 short video memes in this article – set to appropriate music - and tell me you don’t feel a flicker of pity for The Donald as the memes multiply….

Is Donald Trump finally paying “a direct, personal price for his pandemic denial - the possible shelving of the thing he cares about most, the raucous rallies that defined his political rise and are crucial to his reelection hopes”? 

We’ll see.

Sara Cooper passes comment on Trump’s Tulsa turmoil with her latest voice over: How to empty seat. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I’m not a person who shies from “speaking truth to power” – no matter the power. I’m not very successful at it – no eponymous not-for-profit organization, few interviews on “mainstream media”, little to no income generated from freelance writing, radio show short-lived – four years (Raising Sand Radio), conned by my book publisher, etc., etc.
Moreover, I’m an equal opportunity speaker: I alienate friends and colleagues on the Left and foes on the Right, and on multiple continents, too. (I’m not boasting. I wish I had better control of the conduit between my outrage and my emotional intelligence.)
Overall, though, I’m not someone who gives up. It’s odd, therefore, to find myself locked up in Lockdown, inside looking out.
I follow the rules: maintain social distance, wear a mask, wash my hands, and stay home.
I read online news. I participate in webinars. I read WhatsApp messages from a small circle of friends (one of whom, after I requested that she discern truth from conspiracy theories, deleted me from her group).
While I talk regularly on the phone to friends and family in the US – who follow virus-related safety precautions, stay home, and work online via Zoom - I’m without face-to-face friends.
Nevertheless, I’m relatively cozy: nourished, warm enough, safe enough.
“Out there”: hunger stalks, cold weather unavoidable, and, too often, shelter and security inadequate. Accordingly, I donate small amounts of funds to a local non-profit that provides food and essentials to children and families. It all feels – is – insufficient in the face of reality.

One day a week, I learn from our public-taxi-commuting gardener about the effects of lockdown on him, his family, and residents of his “location.”
(FYI: “Location” usually describes an underdeveloped sub-urban residential area. “Township” denotes larger residential communities built on the periphery of towns and cities that may/may not offer electricity, septic tanks, garbage/rubbish disposal service. “Informal settlements” describes shacks cobbled together on land residents have no legal claim to/occupy illegally and offer no amenities other than what is carried in/out.)
The gardener reports that, to date, no one he knows has contracted Covid-19, that, of those residents who had jobs before lockdown, many still have jobs waiting for them and, for now, income/handouts from those jobs. (I’m happy to hear it although I suspect this is unusual.)

With infections surging in South Africa, I reduced our gardener’s working/commuting days to reduce the risk of contagion for my 87-year-old mother and her two health-compromised, live-in domestic workers (one diabetic, one asthmatic).
I found him another day job in the neighborhood. I offered to place a classified ad in the local newspaper seeking yet another day of work, if needed. He declined: his current schedule suits.
Last week, after work, I sent him home with an assortment of groceries: chicken, rice, apples, spinach, potatoes etc., and chocolate brownies for his two kids.
It’s awkward purchasing groceries across culinary cultures. Would his family like chicken feet or chicken thighs? Canned beans or unprocessed samp? Chocolate cookies or garish pink coconut-sprinkled puff balls?
Whether more to Euro-American than Zula taste buds, he carried the groceries in two ordinary store bags.
This week, I played it safe and gave him one 12.5 kg bag of mealie/maize meal, a Zulu staple.
He asked for a black bin liner.
As I handed it over, he explained the opaque bin liner disguises the contents resulting in fewer strangers hitting him up for food.

***

I’ve two more opportunities to flee and fly:

Opportunity 1: Health Alert: Announcing June 27 Repatriation Flight on Lufthansa – U.S. Embassy Pretoria, South Africa.
Event:  The South African Ministry of Health has confirmed [then] 83,890 cases of COVID-19 within its borders.
Announcing June 27 Lufthansa Flight
We have been notified of a special commercial repatriation flight operated by Lufthansa from Cape Town to Frankfurt and onward connecting destinations on Saturday, June 27, 2020.
Flight information:

• Potential passengers must book their tickets directly with Lufthansa. To make a booking please visit: www.lufthansa.com. Seats are subject to availability and sales close on 21 June 2020.
• IMPORTANT: You must select “ONE WAY” when making you booking online, as this a special repatriation flight and not a regular commercial flight. Only once you have made a confirmed booking for this repatriation flight, you must complete the attached Passenger Information excel document and return this to Lufthansa via the following email: Jnbmarketing@dlh.de
• The flight will depart from Cape Town to Frankfurt, Germany and connecting destinations.
• Passengers will be responsible for travel to their final destination in the United States.
• Once the flight has been closed for sale, all passengers who have purchased a ticket will receive information about the assembly point. This will be provided by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany.
• Passengers will be responsible for finding transportation to the required assembly point. The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany will issue you with a letter which allows passengers to travel to the assembly point. Thereafter, all passengers will be transported from the assembly point to Cape Town International Airport by bus. Please note that you may not travel directly to the airport yourself.
• For any questions regarding availability, cost, baggage allowance, or other flight details, please contact Lufthansa directly.

Opportunity 2: Health Alert: Announcing June 28 Repatriation Flight on Ethiopian Airlines – U.S. Embassy Pretoria, South Africa
Event: The South African Ministry of Health has confirmed 101,590 cases of COVID-19 within its borders.
We have been notified of a special commercial repatriation flight operated by Ethiopian Airlines to Chicago, United States on Sunday, June 28.
Flight information:

• Interested passengers must book their tickets directly with Ethiopian Airlines by contacting SouthAfricaSalesTeam@ethiopianairlines.com.
• The flight will depart from Johannesburg and then Cape Town on Sunday, June 28 before proceeding to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and onward to Chicago O’Hare International Airport, United States.
• Passengers will be responsible for travel to their final destination in the United States from Chicago O’Hare.
• This flight is open to U.S. citizens, Lawful Permanent Residents, and visa holders who have received DHA approval to depart South Africa.
• Passengers will be responsible for finding transportation to the required assembly point, which will be communicated by Ethiopian Airways prior to the flight departure.
• Travel permission letters for U.S. citizens and green card holders are not required unless you will be crossing provinces to arrive at the assembly point. If you must cross a provincial border to join this repatriation flight, please write to SAEvacuation@state.gov requesting a travel letter. Include your name, passport or greencard number, current address, and flight confirmation.
• For any questions regarding availability, cost, baggage allowance, or other flight details, please contact Ethiopian Airlines directly.
  ...

U.S. Mission Repatriation EffortsIf you would like to depart South Africa, we highly recommend you avail yourself of any available opportunity, even if it is not your desired flight route. We cannot guarantee frequency of special repatriation, nor can we guarantee that previously scheduled commercial flights will depart as planned. We do not have further information about when regular international commercial flights will resume.
To date, over 30 repatriation flights have departed to the United States in coordination with airlines and friendly mission partners since the government lockdown, returning over 1500 U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and visa holders to the United States. For questions about other potential upcoming repatriation opportunities, please contact the airlines directly for details.…

Despite my personal drawbacks and the public health situation, I’m mentally-emotionally unable to depart.
Certainly, travel restrictions affect my decision – how do I make my way to Cape Town? Or Johannesburg? – but restrictions hamper only if I allow them to hamper.
Rather, I appear to have accepted/intuited that I’ll remain here until the expected surge – August? September? – has receded.
In other words, the conduit between my brain and my emotional intelligence has presented a solution I can live with – at least psychologically.
Yet, I must figure out how to vote in the US presidential election, 3 November.
Silver linings, indeed.

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Capitalizing on capitalism

The planet is on the cusp of 9 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 with almost half a million dead.
A month or two ago such numbers seemed wildly unlikely.
Now? Not so much.
As confirmed cases keep multiplying - South Africa heads towards 100,000, Brazil 1.1 million, and the US 2.3 million – we humans adjust, albeit reluctantly. Some adjust by increasing their humanity to fellow humans. Others adjust by increasing their net worth.
Back in 1981, Pink Floyd’s music alluded to the power of money over the human psyche:

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

(Listen to “Money”  - 6:29 mins)

Maybe I’m full of “that do goody good bullshit” but… I’m still shocked by revelations that nursing homes are evicting frail, poor/low income elderly humans in favor of elderly humans who bring in more … money.

… in America, nursing homes have come to symbolize the deadly destruction of the coronavirus crisis. More than 51,000 residents and employees of nursing homes and long-term care facilities have died, representing more than 40 percent of the total death toll in the United States.
But even as they have been ravaged, nursing homes … are taking on coronavirus-stricken patients to ease the burden on overwhelmed hospitals — and, at times, to bolster their bottom lines.
… They are kicking out old and disabled residents — among the people most susceptible to the coronavirus — and shunting them into homeless shelters, rundown motels, and other unsafe facilities…
Many of the evictions, known as involuntary discharges, appear to violate federal rules that require nursing homes to place residents in safe locations and to provide them with at least 30 days’ notice before forcing them to leave.
… Medicare often pays for short-term rehabilitation stints; Medicaid covers longer-term stays for poor people.
Nursing homes have long had a financial incentive to evict Medicaid patients in favor of those who pay through private insurance or Medicare, which reimburses nursing homes at a much higher rate than Medicaid.
RC Kendrick, an 88-year-old with dementia, was living at Lakeview Terrace [where his] family had placed him there to make sure he got round-the-clock care after his condition deteriorated and he began disappearing for days at a time.
But on April 6, the nursing home deposited Mr. Kendrick at an unregulated boardinghouse — without bothering to inform his family. Less than 24 hours later, Mr. Kendrick was wandering the city alone.
… According to three Lakeview employees, Mr. Kendrick’s ouster came as the nursing home was telling staff members to try to clear out less-profitable residents to make room for a new class of customers who would generate more revenue: patients with Covid-19.

News blues…

Trump held a re-election campaign rally – and nobody came!
Trump claimed a million people would show up at the venue that has a capacity of 19,000. Only 6,200 showed up.
Naturally, he and his team blame the media, “thugs” aka protesters, this, that, and the next thing.
Turns out, he was punked by savvy teenagers. 

The Lincoln Project quickly responded to the failed rally:

Donald Trump kicked off his re-launch in Tulsa. And, like the man himself, it was a disaster, and much smaller than he promised.
But, as soon as he started talking, he did exactly what we thought he would do: lie, praise the Confederacy, and then lie some more.
Every time Trump opens his mouth, we need to be there to hit back with the truth.
What a failure.
He's losing.
We can see it in the polls, and now Donald Trump can see it in his own crowds: His numbers are shrinking.
He can’t deliver on COVID-19 testing. And now he can’t even deliver crowds.
Millions are turning away from Trump….

Watch the ad, Shrinking (0:45 mins)

I admit that I am not only not a Trump fan but I am the opposite of a fan, something Merriam Webster defines “nonadmirer”, “belittler”, “carper”, “critic”, and “detractor.”
I’d accept “nonadmirer” and “critic” but my lack of fan-dom is more complicated than simply pasting the correct term on my feelings.
I also harbor a smidgen of compassion for The Donald.
His narcissism combined with his craving to be loved means he’s both where he wants to be – the center of attention – and where he hates to be – publicly lampooned around the world.
For a world class narcissist, this is psychological torment.
I agree with Trump’s former friend, Howard Stern, SiriusXM radio host, who claimed during an interview with Steven Colbert, that Donald Trump didn’t really want to be president.

“I firmly believe that Donald did not want to run for president, I don’t think it was serious…. I knew him. He had a great life at Mar-a-Lago. He was running around town. He played golf. He had a good time.”
Stern said Trump was trying to negotiate more money from NBC for “The Apprentice” and ran for president as a tactic to get a raise.

Ouch. Instead of The Apprentice and a hefty raise, Trump’s known as Ass, Buffoon, Bully, Bunker Boy, Clown - and at least 25 other names.

I’ve a solution: Trump should feign a heart attack and give up the presidency – out of the goodness of his heart, of course.
A fake/ faux heart attack would earn him sympathy rather than antipathy. From his palatial sick bed he could Tweet how it’s not his fault that he can no longer carry the world upon his shoulders, how unfair it is that the American People are deprived of his bigly deal-making skills, how he’ll MAGA from the 100th floor of Trump Tower or his Mar-a-Largo suite….
A faux heart attack would solve Trump’s president problem – and the world’s Trump problem.
It’s a win/win for the world and a zero/sum game for Trump.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

My soft spot for vervet monkeys comes from a childhood with a young male vervet as a pet. Jacko went everywhere with me and my brothers – for long hikes and horse rides in the veldt (grasslands), swimming, bathing, sleeping….
The closest I come to befriending the monkeys in this neighborhood is admiring them and talking to them as they pass.
Once largely considered vermin in South Africa, vervets are protected by national and provincial conservation legislation and national animal protection legislation. They’ve been on the Cites (Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species) list since 1974 although were only declared "protected" in September 2004.
Injuring or killing vervet monkeys is a jail-able offence. That does not mean, unfortunately, that people do not harm them. (This 3-egged monkey lost a hind leg to accident, trap, or injury)

A troop of at least 37 vervet monkeys visited the garden today, in dribs and drabs – some raided the avocado tree and some the bird feeder while others dashed to-and-fro along the aerial electrical cable (amazing how they use their tails to balance on the narrow cable).
Winter is in full swing and monkeys are hungry. Feeding them is not an option: they become more dependent, more of a nuisance, more likely to become aggressive towards other species and humans, and more likely to be injured or killed by irate humans.
Moreover, wild monkeys are highly susceptible to diseases from human hands and can die from bacteria transferred from a human hand that has no ill effect on the human.
Feeding creates a dangerous dependency on humans that diminishes the monkeys’ survival abilities.
Contrary to the stereotype, bananas are not the preferred food of monkeys in the wild. Bananas, especially those containing pesticides, can be upsetting to the monkeys’ delicate digestive system and cause serious dental problems that can lead to eventual death.
Feeding interferes with the monkeys’ natural habits and upsets the balance of lives centered on eating wild fruits, seeds, small animals, and insects.
Most interestingly, monkeys need to travel an average of 17 kilometers each day to be in good physical condition. If they know that food is available in a particular location, they will not leave that area.

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Smart, at last!

Happy Father’s Day and happy solstice!

News blues…

In South Africa, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said that in the past 24 hours, “the cumulative number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in South Africa is 92,681. The mortality rate is 2 percent.”
These numbers are alarming – particularly as South Africans, like Americans, appear to have decided the risk of contracting the virus is more welcome than suffering further lockdown tedium.
The people of Tulsa, Oklahoma, however, displayed unexpected wisdom and didn’t budge from home.
After weeks of controversy about Trump’s first campaign rally to take place in months “and held against the advice of Trump’s own coronavirus task force, which had urged White House officials to nix the event amid fears it might spread coronavirus,” Americans elected to watch it on TV.
Perhaps it was the message that:

“potential rallygoers would participate in the event at their own risk [or that the] registration page for the rally included “a legal disclaimer that said attendees could not sue Trump or his campaign if they found themselves infected with COVID-19” [or that] the Trump campaign confirmed that at least six Trump rally staffers [had] tested positive for the coronavirus [and were]...immediately quarantined.”  

Whatever kept you home (an expected audience of 925,000!) We the People salute you!
I paraphrase Martin Luther King, Jr.: Smart, smart at last, thank the gods, you’re getting smart at last!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Focusing on something other than lockdown continues to challenge. With domestic conundrums waking me each day with tense neck and shoulders muscles and tension headaches, I’m running out of new obsessions. (“Symptoms of Lockdown Fever.”)
The change to cold weather has subdued my garden and garden pond obsessions (goldfish are hiding; pond weed paths now covered with cypress needles; canna plants eradicated, cat’s claw eradication ongoing).
Alas, like nature, human brains abhor a vacuum, so this human brain is revisiting ideas for remodeling Otter Pop, my pontoon houseboat.
Currently, alone and unvisited, Otter Pop docks in a small marina on the San Joaquin River in California’s Sacramento Delta.
Until January, when I departed the US, I’d maintained the boat, the outboard motor, a deck garden with pots of basil, tomatoes, and parsley, and several hummingbirds that dropped by to sip at the feeder hanging off the bow.
On this winter solstice, I long for Otter Pop, summer temperatures (upper 30s, even low 40s C / 90s into 100s F), birds and otters and fish, fellow mariners, glorious sunrises and sunsets, even the islands of invasive water hyacinth that float through the marina's channel.
Instead, I’m cold, locked down, and isolated
All is not dismal, however: I’ve begun a virtual remodel of Otter Pop.
I’m researching materials with which to upgrade the deck – exterior and interior, how to clean two pontoons, or who I could hire to de-foul and maintain the pontoons, if necessary.
Besides overall maintainance, I plan to enlarge the “head” – the shower/toilet space – replace the too-small kitchen sink, and insulate interior walls with spray-on foam insulation.
Not sure when I’ll board Otter Pop again, but when I do, I’ll have plans aplenty.

Click to enlarge.
(c) Susan Galleymore
Jabula Arts

Sculpture on my mind.
Last week I mentioned my interest in returning to work in clay, or clay-like material.  The experiment conducted with cement/peat didn’t work: the mixed material is too soft and requires too much set up time.
The yen to work clay, however, hasn’t diminished.
As I figure out my next move on how to satisfy this yen, I revisit past sculptures, a handful of which exhibited in the San Francisco Bay Area (Link to my Heedlessness series. )
This series grew out of meditating upon a line of Rumi poetry: "Heedlessness is a pillar that sustains our world, my friend.”
Apt, no?

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