Day of rest

News blues…

Pandemic news is exhausting. A day of rest is in order – after a data-driven reality check. 

South Africa:
Confirmed Cases: 796 472
Confirmed Deaths: 21 289
Confirmed Recoveries: 716 444 

Source: Data courtesy of the Data Science for Social Impact Research Group at the University of Pretoria. Sourced from Department of Health Statements and NICD and Daily Maverick.

United States:

“I have federal agents that protect me. So they drive me to work, they stay here, they make sure that nobody tries to break in [to my home] and, as Steve Bannon would like, have someone behead me. I don’t socialise. It’s my wife and I and the federal agents." 
                                                        Dr Anthony Fauci 

                                                                                               
Source: Sources: State and county officials
Graphic: Jiachuan Wu / NBC News

Healthy planet, anyone?

Are Tides And Waves The Missing Piece Of The Green Energy Puzzle?  Solar and wind are energy powerhouses until the sky is dark or the air is still. An ancient source of energy — the tides — could soon offer a predictable alternative.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

While not recovered yet, I am recovering from 3 days of grim achiness. 

Another day of rest should perk me right up.

uyagula

Feel sick during this Covid pandemic and, naturally, one suspects the onset of Covid-19. Thursday evening my body began to ache – neck, back, hip joints, and a thumping headache. 

Friday morning, I reviewed the list of Covid symptoms. My temperature was normal, no sore throat, no fever, no chills, no fatigue, no dry cough. The only symptom was body ache. No Covid toes. Judging by the wonderful wafts of jasmine and yesterday, today, and tomorrow blossoms, my sense of smell wasn’t affected. I had not contracted i-coronavirus, but a simple case of uyagula (“ya-goola”/sick).

News blues…

Notoriously recalcitrant with facing Covid realities, people of the United States are facing lockdowns that other countries, South Africa, for example, implemented months ago.
Governor of my home state, California, Gavin Newsom, yesterday announced a Regional Stay Home Order, where all sectors other than retail and essential operations would be closed in regions of the State where less than 15 percent of ICU beds are available. 

Health Officers announced the San Francisco Bay Area will implement the Regional Stay Home Order earlier, stating that more aggressive action is necessary to slow the surge and prevent our local hospitals from being overwhelmed. The new restrictions will go into effect in Alameda County on Monday, December 7, at 12:01 am and remain in place until January 4, 2021.
Under the Regional Stay Home Order, all private gatherings are prohibited and the following sectors must close:
• Indoor and outdoor playgrounds
• Indoor recreational facilities
• Hair salons and barbershops
• Personal care services
• Museums, zoos, and aquariums
• Movie theaters
• Wineries
• Bars, breweries, and distilleries
• Family entertainment centers
• Cardrooms and satellite wagering
• Limited services
• Live audience sports
• Amusement parks
The following sectors will have additional modifications in addition to 100% masking and physical distancing:
• Outdoor recreational facilities: Allow outdoor operation only without any food, drink or alcohol sales. Additionally, overnight stays at campgrounds will not be permitted.
• Retail: Allow indoor operation at 20% capacity with entrance metering and no eating or drinking in the stores. Additionally, special hours should be instituted for seniors and others with chronic conditions or compromised immune systems.
• Shopping centers: Allow indoor operation at 20% capacity with entrance metering and no eating or drinking in the stores. Additionally, special hours should be instituted for seniors and others with chronic conditions or compromised immune systems.
• Hotels and lodging: Allow to open for critical infrastructure support only.
• Restaurants: Allow only for take-out, pick-up, or delivery.
• Offices: Allow remote only except for critical infrastructure sectors where remote working is not possible.
• Places of worship and political expression: Allow outdoor services only.
• Entertainment production including professional sports: Allow operation without live audiences. Additionally, testing protocol and “bubbles” are highly encouraged.
Finally, glimpses of sanity…

*** 

The Lincoln Project: 

Don’t go back  (0:25 mins)
Pulpit  (0:25 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

This is the year Americans learned how a food system reliant on industrial agriculture, near monopolies and exploited laborers breaks down. Just two months into the pandemic, the meat industry in the most powerful nation in the world was buckling.
Big questions: Can this food system be fixed?
Can farmers create a food system that works with the earth, not against it?

For all the consumer-facing, shrink-wrapped elegance of the modern food system, the pandemic has exposed its fragility.
Alongside the public health crisis, poverty and food insecurity have skyrocketed this year. As of July, 29 million Americans said they “sometimes or often” did not have enough to eat.
At the same time, Americans were confronted with images and stories of farmers forced to dump milk, destroy crops, and euthanize their livestock as processing facilities and restaurants shut down. 

***

It’s not just the food system. It’s all systems with profit-first motives.
The biggest petroleum corporation in the world, Exxon, faces $20 billion hit from 'epic failure' of a decade ago. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Today, I remain uyagula, but less achy, and slightly less headachy. Now I worry about what might happen if I contracted Covid. My travel health insurance ran out months ago and my US-based health insurance is valid only in the US. I’ve no backup health insurance. This would mean any serious ill health would require going into debt for private hospital care or, horrors, partaking of the free but notoriously poor government health system. (One is advised to bring one’s own sheets and blankets for a stint in state hospitals – and to carry them with you to the toilet. Leaving bedclothes on the bed, even briefly, runs the risk of returning to a bare bed, bedclothes stolen. 

Shaggy-dog story? 

Am I willing to risk it?

Presidential update

I continue to marvel at how President Ramaphosa addresses South Africans: respectfully, honestly, directly, without threats of violence or calls for mayhem. In the era of Trump, this is refreshing leadership.

News blues…

President Ramaphosa updated South Africans on the country’s response to the pandemic and laid out how we intend to cope over the next month.  (25:30 mins)
Summary:
President Ramaphosa began with heartfelt appreciation for South Africans who observed five days of mourning for those dead from Covid-19 and from gender-based violence (GBV)
His update on worldwide Covid numbers – SA has dropped on the list from 5th to 14th – included the realities of a resurgence of infections across the country that is exacting a heavy toll: 887,200 people infected since March, with a recovery rate 92%, and 21,803 deaths.
There’s a marked rise in new infections and more infected people in hospital. We went from 1,500 new cases per day, to 2,900 the last week of November to 4,400 new as of yesterday (December 2)
Three areas of the country suffering particularly:
Nelson Mandela Bay

Sarah Bartman area 

The Garden Route (due to the interprovincial movement of seasonal workers) 

Eastern and Western Cape showing an increase in deaths
Rise in transmission rates due to:

• interprovincial travel
• people gathering in large groups – and in poorly ventilated venues such as for funerals and “after tears” parties
• increases in alcohol-related trauma admissions to hospital that divert capacity of hospitals and hospital staff to cope with Covid. Many people are NOT wearing masks or practicing proper hygiene and social distancing

The main problem is that people are not complying with current restrictions and basic prevention measures
The plan to deal with the resurgence includes:

• Creating more capacity for hospitals
• Expanding public health
• Increasing awareness campaigns
• “Overall, however, we must change our behavior. The resurgence is like a bush fire: we must quickly extinguish flare ups before they develop into an inferno.”

In order to keep the economy open, we will implement measures: In Covid hotspots: we must track new cases day by day, increase the rates of testing, track positivity percentage, and deal with active hospital admissions, and track deaths

NCCC declares hotspots to practice new restrictions as of midnight:

• Curfew – 10 p to 4 am – no one outside residences, except essential workers
• Alcohol sold only between 10am and 6pm, Monday thru Thursday
• No consumption of alcohol in public spaces, including beaches and parks and in gatherings
• Restrictions on gatherings, including religious: no more than 100 indoors and 250 outdoors, and not to exceed 50 percent capacity anywhere
• All “after tears” gatherings prohibited
• We seek to take steps that are absolutely necessary. The summer season may go ahead in Eastern Cape with the risk adjusted plan approved, including:
• Strict adherence to health protocols, PPE, access to water
• NO initiation schools allowed for the interim in an effort to contain spread and save lives
• National State of Disaster extended to 15 January, 2021
• Level 1 remains throughout the country
• Everyone must play her/his part, respect rules, measures, and protocols; breaking rules will have consequences
• – Taxis: all passengers must wear masks
• Full compliance with curfews

Our only viable defense is vaccine
No one will be left behind
WHO global access to COVAX – countries shall pool resources to ensure equitable access
SA’s Solidarity Fund will make available ZAR327 million to procure vaccines
Currently there are three trails of candidate vaccines and we’re awaiting confirmation that they’re safe, effective, and suitable for South Africans
We, people, remain out own best protection:

• Through wearing a mask in public and staying safe
• Practicing social distancing
• avoiding gatherings
• Washing/sanitizing hands

The safety messages must sink in so download app (1 million downloads so far)
Avoid danger by avoiding complacency, particularly during coming festive season. This is a time for caution
Large gathering are super spreader events so take precautions to avoid spreading the virus
Let there be no relaxing on these measures and do not let down your guard with this coronavirus
Let us recommit ourselves to this fight for our lives, take steps now, stand together, and work together.

*** 

The Lincoln Project: 

On the Ballot  (0:59 mins)
Whispers III  (1:32 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

How Covid sowed the seeds of food security in Johannesburg
During South Africa’s strict lockdown, groups of activists decided to distribute parcels of vegetables as wells as seedlings and gardening materials to hundreds of vulnerable households. A photo essay… 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Covid careful Santa (“Father Christmas”) greeted me at the local grocery store.

Fatal “individualism”

Worldwide (Map) 
December 3 – 64,469,710 confirmed infections; 1,492,100 deaths
November 5 – 48,136,225 confirmed infections; 1,225,915 deaths
In 29 days, an increase of 16,333,485 confirmed infections and 266,185 deaths

US (Map)  
December 3 – 13,920,000 confirmed infections; 273,370 deaths
November 5 – 9,487,470 confirmed infections; 237,730 deaths
In 29 days, an increase of 4,432,530 confirmed infections and 35,640 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
December 3 – 796,475 confirmed infections; 21,710 deaths
November 5 – 730,500 confirmed infections; 19,585 deaths
In 29 days, an increase of 65,975 confirmed infections and 2,125 deaths

News blues…

A Brookings Institute survey of Americans asked about why they choose not to wear a mask to slow the transmission of coronavirus, finds “individualism” a key component of resistance:

 © National Panel Study of COVID-19 

… 40% of Americans who do not wear a mask say this is because it is “their right as an American to not wear a mask.” This modal response was followed by Americans who say they do not wear a mask “because it is uncomfortable” at 24%. The data reveals that a combined 64% of Americans believe that their right to not have to be inconvenienced by wearing a mask or scarf over their face is more important than reducing the probability of getting sick or infecting others.

Read the article: “American individualism is an obstacle to wider mask wearing” 

***

Further health-oriented Covid restrictions coming up in South Africa with the  health department recommending to the national coronavirus command council (NCCC) that the government:

• reduce the maximum size of indoor gatherings
• implement an earlier curfew overall 
• put in place a 10pm curfew in Covid-19 hotspots around the country 
• restrict alcohol sales from Monday to Thursday, and 
• declare bars and taverns close by 9pm.

Healthy planet, anyone?

For extended periods over the past two years, Eskom’s [South Africa’s parastatal electricity supply commission] Kendal Power Station has been found consistently exceeding particulate matter atmospheric emissions of up to 10 times the allowable limit.

Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Barbara Creecy has revealed that summons was served on Eskom on 27 November notifying it of the decision by the senior public prosecutor to pursue a criminal prosecution in respect of air pollution by Eskom’s Kendal Power Station. This includes a charge of supplying false and misleading information in reports prepared by management at Kendal Power Station to an Air Quality Officer, which is a criminal offence listed in Section 51(1)(g) of the Air Quality Act.

 ***

“…The state of the planet is broken," said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in a speech on Wednesday. He issued a searing indictment of humanity's "war" on the environment and urged everyone to prioritize "making peace with nature."

"We are facing a devastating pandemic, new heights of global heating, new lows of ecological degradation and new setbacks in our work towards global goals for more equitable, inclusive and sustainable development."
The UN chief laid out in stark terms the damage already done to the environment and warned that countries risked losing the opportunity afforded by the coronavirus pandemic to reset their priorities on climate change and environmental protections if they do not act now.
Guterres highlighted two authoritative new reports - one from the World Meteorological Organization  and the other from the United Nations Environment Programme  - "spell out how close we are to climate catastrophe…."

***

New Zealand declares a climate change emergency as Jacinda Ardern calls climate change “one of the greatest challenges of our time” and pledges carbon-neutral government by 2025.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Rain, rain, rain… and vegetation shooting up. Grass must be cut at least once a week, bamboo seemingly grows inches overnight, trees, flowers, weeds bloom thither and yon.
All this 29-degree-southern-hemisphere fecundity disorients a 38-degree-northern-hemisphere Californian….
I’m adjusting – and enjoying the adjustment.

Running on empty

Events around the world, from dire coronavirus realities, including lack of responsible mitigation efforts, to ongoing revelations of Trump & Co corruptions and grift, humans are running on empty. 

News blues…

South African nurses say they are emotionally and physically drained as they battle on the Covid-19 frontline.

Sister Lama Peega, who works at Carletonville district hospital on the West Rand, said, “Some among us fell along the way. We buried them because of Covid-19.”
She said they also faced a challenge of nurses being off from work because they tested positive for Covid-19 and were required to isolate for 14 days. “The burden on those who were at the frontline became even greater. We had to work overtime throughout to cover other wards. I am working at the theatre section [as a midwife]. When I am off, I would be requested to assist in Covid-19 wards….” 

***

A new report examined blood donations in nine states between mid-December and January. Some showed evidence of coronavirus antibodies.

The coronavirus was likely in the U.S. as early as mid-December 2019, roughly a month before the first COVID-19 case was confirmed, according to research published on Monday.
A study of blood samples from 7,389 routine donations to the American Red Cross between Dec. 13, 2019, and Jan. 17, 2020, found evidence of COVID-19 antibodies in 106 specimens, according to researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The donations were made in nine states ― California, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin. Donations with antibodies reactive to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, came from all nine. 

Healthy planet, anyone?

A story of cranberries, one of only three fruits native to the US, with blueberries and Concord grapes the other two.
Native people cultivated cranberries up and down the Eastern Seaboard for centuries. Cranberries, grown in bogs primarily in New England and Wisconsin, depend on plenty of water, cold winters, and mild summers. The cranberry

is the result of millions of years of evolution, thousands of years of human consumption, 200 years of intentional cultivation and dedication. But how the viney plants will fare in the future is far from certain. In New England as elsewhere, climate change is shifting many of the conditions under which the plants thrive, from warming winters to changing summers. The changes are making them harder to grow and putting a question mark next to the iconic, beloved crop’s future.
Growers that love their crop and the scientists that help them are working to figure out solutions, and the situation isn’t yet dire. But … “we don’t really have a Plan B….” 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

We continue clearing out and auctioning my mother’s effects from her large house.
One item, a large, heavy, one-piece wet bar presented our moving team with a conundrum: too large to pass through the upstairs passageways. (We concluded it had been built in place, with nary an eye to moving it, ever.) Our team, two auction house movers, our gardener, domestic worker, and me consulted (in Zulu, so I followed via hand gestures)… then, together, we tried, this way and that, to make headway. Alas, no dice. The gardener hatched a plan: lower the bulky piece by rope over the verandah wall, slide it down a long ladder, then lower it onto the truck bed. While in theory, a good plan, I was skeptical: “what can go wrong, will go wrong…” Happily, I was wrong.
After a couple of small adjustments to the plan… this photo essay captures the maneuver.
Creativity + Courage + Willingness + Strength = Success! 

 

Virus pandemic as forest fire

Trump’s Covid-19 Failures Miss Key Lessons From 1918 Pandemic  (6:55 mins)

News blues…

US daily Covid-19 hospitalizations are inching closer to 100,000 - the highest they've ever been.  (2:22 mins)

***

What Needs To Happen Before The COVID-19 Pandemic Is Considered Over?

There needs to be a whole new approach to confronting the virus before the pandemic can be considered over or resolved, said Daniel B. Fagbuyi, an emergency room physician in Washington, D.C. That starts with leadership and a more coordinated, national pandemic plan.
“It is clear that the pandemic response and messaging has been mediocre,” Fagbuyi said. The cessation of this pandemic clearly begins with national leadership change, a change of the old guard and a visionary that embraces science.”

…Steps that will bring the coronavirus pandemic under control and how long it might take to get back to "normal."  

Healthy planet, anyone?

Something a little different in this segment today: a celebration of artists over 12,500 years: “Tens of thousands of ice age paintings across a cliff face shed light on people and animals….” 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

After four decades of living in California – dry summers and cold, wet, dark winters – I’m rediscovering KZN weather: warm, wet summers and cold, dry winters. I love KZN weather.
My attempts over the past couple of years to grow veggies failed because I misunderstood my garden nemesis: the cutworm.
Destructive cutworms attack seedlings at or just below the soil surface. The trick to avoiding that damage? Sew seedlings early-to-mid August, before the rains begin late September, early October. August, of course, is also the time neighborhood monkeys are most hungry. Seedlings that avoid cutworms encounter monkeys. Not a single beet/beetroot I planted survived the monkeys. All beets were uprooted, ditto green onions. Potatoes take a beating but thrive. Zucchini (“baby marrows”) do better as monkeys gnaw the young fruit while still on the plant. Half a zucchini is better than no zucchini – and just as delicious – and I gleefully harvest them.

Help is not on the way

News blues…

MSNBC: Rep. Andy Kim: “1 Out Of Every 1,250 Americans In This Country Has Died Because of COVID" (5:45 mins) 

***

With 4 percent of the world’s population, the US has 19 percent of the world’s Covid deaths. Since Thanksgiving, there has been 346,061 new infections and 2,704 deaths. This clip includes an information update with Dr Fauci. 

 ***

An informative overview of Covid – potentially brewing over 5 decades  (11:30 mins)

***

South Africa requires Covid certificates for cross-border truck traffic.  (2:20 mins)

***

The last several weeks workers with the local village’s Umngeni Municipality have engaged in “popcorn” strikes, spontaneous events that block municipal office entrances. The original focus was a request for an increase in salary. Today, more action:

Protest action at Umngeni Municipality remains unresolved. A Court Interdiction was issued on 2020-11-27 to 6 respondents regarding the protests. The applicant in that court interdict is Ms Thembeka Cibane the Municipal Manager who wanted the Court to force all 6 applicants to instruct those who are protesting to stop their actions.
As a result of the court interdict, there was a public meeting at Mpopomeni Hall to discuss the way forward.
After that meeting, a decision was taken to intensify the protests by blocking all roads leading to Howick. The targeted roads includes R617, Tweedie Rd and all others access roads. Information received also indicates that today’s protest will be joined by people from Zuzokuhle and Mathandubisi areas. Roads blockade are expected to start in the early hours of Monday morning 2020-11-30.

I hope protesters wear masks….

Healthy planet, anyone?

...Scientists are finding that parasites are puppet masters, shaping ecosystems by changing the behaviour of their host species. Research in California  showed parasites were involved in 78% of links in the food chain. Rough estimates suggest there could be 80 million parasites, but only 10% have been identified….
Colin Carlson is a biologist at Georgetown University in the US who has just published a paper in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B arguing for a global parasite project to record parasitic life on Earth. He says we know next to nothing about them. “When we think about plants and herbivores and carnivores, there are parasites operating on every part of that food web – they’re this kind of dark matter. There are these unaccounted for links and forces in the network that we often can’t quantify.”
Carlson believes conservationists underestimate public support and interest in parasites. “People assume that because they’re gross, there’s not going to be any interest,” he says. “And I think, actually, it’s quite the opposite … People like the idea that there’s this entire hidden world within animals that we know nothing about. People love frontiers, right? They love the deep ocean and deep space and there is a frontier inside every animal on Earth.”
The global parasite project could lead to half the world’s parasites being described in the next decade, researchers say. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Cycads  typically grow very slowly and live very long, with some specimens known to be as much as 1,000 years old. Cycads are sometimes mistaken for palms or ferns because of a superficial resemblance, but they are not closely related to either group.
I’ve a special place in my heart for cycads. When I was a child, one had grown, ignored for years, in a bird aviary near my bungalow. Then, an irate cycad-knowledgeable person strongly urged my mother to remove the aviary and “protect that bloody cycad. Don’t you know it could be a thousand years old?”

A couple of youthful cycads try to live long and happy lives in this garden. Alas, caterpillars make that tough.
Last year, I noticed swarms of yellow and black caterpillars on the youthful cycads. Yesterday, I noticed relatives of those swarms had returned. Quick online research indicated these would soon develop into Cycad Moths, a blue-grey butterfly.
Despite their attractive coloring, birds avoid these critters as the diet of cycad makes the caterpillars distasteful.
I scooped dozens of these caterpillars from cycad fronds and tossed them into the pond. The Massacre of the Innocents, each of us victims of do-what-ya-gotta-do.
As a mark of respect, I watched the caterpillars drown and sunk. Sunlight illuminated their bodies on the pond bottom. 

I tell myself they’ll to enrich the ecosystem as compost….