Be a flake

Remember Donald Trump's February 2020 claim about the coronavirus? That “there were only 15 cases of the coronavirus in the United States” and that those infections “within a couple of days are going to be down to close to zero”?
New York Daily News front cover page reminded him – and the world – of that this week - on the newspaper's front page. 

News blues…

When is the pandemic declared “over”?

The “end of the pandemic” means different things in different contexts. The World Health Organization first declared a “public health emergency of international concern”  on January 30, 2020, holding off on labeling it a “pandemic” until March 11.
The imposition (and rescinding) of these labels is a judgment made by WHO leadership, and one that can reflect murky, tactical considerations. Regardless of what WHO decides (and when), national governments—and individual states within the U.S. — have to make their own determinations about when and how to reopen their schools and loosen their restrictions on businesses.
Read the Biden administration 200-page comprehensive national strategy for “beating COVID-19.” 

Healthy planet, anyone?

Cutting down forests: what are the drivers of deforestation?

Since the turn of the millennium, the world has been losing around 5 million hectares of forest every year. Nearly all of this occurs in the tropics; almost half of all deforestation takes place in Brazil and Indonesia.
Three-quarters is driven by agriculture. Beef production is responsible for 41% of deforestation; palm oil and soybeans account for another 18%; and logging for paper and wood across the tropics, another 13%. These industries are also dominant in a few key countries.
Effective solutions will be focused on these agricultural activities and those countries where most deforestation occurs. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Clearing out the garage of years of rubble, some useful, most not - is one thing and, slowly but surely, I’m getting that done. Today, I plan to visit the scrap yard and try to recoup (minimal) funds for recycling metal.
Clearing out useful household goods is another thing entirely.
Many Americans, certainly San Francisco Bay Area residents, use Craigslist and garage sales to sell / recycle household items. Interested parties respond to Craigslist posts and then they show up to view/purchase/haul items away.
In South Africa? Not so much.
Far too many people respond to ads, offer to pay via EFT – before viewing items – and make firm appointments to pick up. THEN THEY NEVER SHOW UP. One simply never hears from them again. This behavior is routine and, apparently, accepted.
Is it just me or is this bizarre behavior?
It’s not just your average Joe Blow doing this. Business people do it too. Yesterday, for example, three different and disparate parties did this:

• Realtor said she’d bring current interested house buyer early in the morning – 8am – so his girlfriend could see the place.
• Online shopper phoned to say she’d come at 4pm to purchase a TV – offered at a very affordable price (so affordable that more than half a dozen people wanted it. (I opted for the first person who contacted me and make a plan to pick up. This means I still have the TV.)
• Swimming pool guy said he’d come by – “in the morning” – to check the pool filter.

Not one of those people showed up.
Realtor called – at least she did that although 2 hours after she’d been due – to say girlfriend “didn’t want to be late for work,” and that they’d come at 5:30pm. At 1pm, realtor called to say they wouldn’t come at all but would bring around “an offer tomorrow morning,” that the purchaser “didn’t want to lose the opportunity to buy.” Well, we’ll see, today, what happens on that.
Pool guy never showed up, never called. Naturally.
Excited TV purchaser never showed up, never called.
Everyone offers advice on how to circumvent dealing with these sorts of issues, but none of those solutions work either.
Now I have a perspective on why one can get nothing done in this country…. It is not just “incompetent” officials. It’s the culture itself. It’s perfectly acceptable, even expected, to be a flake.

Lockdown disorientation

Ah, the joys of lockdown. Forty-eight, going on 49, weeks.

Somehow, amid the ongoing monotony of lockdown, I lost track of days and dates. Yesterday’s post assumed it was Sunday. But it was Monday… evidenced by the gardener’s appearance to garden. After all, why would he show up to work on Sunday?
Every day, for 334 days (and counting) I’ve posted something about macro and micro aspects of the pandemic that concern this human:

• a beautiful and bountiful planet poorly managed by capitalist thinking (use it all up, suck out the wealth, ensure ROI - return on investment),
• a pandemic that, essentially, is the result of capitalist thinking shrinking and toxifying the wild places and stressing the world’s creatures,
• and the resultant zoonosis.

For 334 days,  I’ve posted about aspects of my small, personal life amid a global crisis.
How much longer can this continue?
(Impressive, indomitable Dr Fauci suggests that “we” - those of us who actually wear masks - might still be wearing them in 2022.)
Famous pirate, Long John Silver, puts things in perspective: “shiver me timbers…”

News blues…

More than half a million Americans – confirmed - dead of coronavirus.

The milestone [and magnitude] based on a tally maintained by Johns Hopkins University https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html , came just over a month after the nation's death toll passed 400,000 and as public health officials train their sights on new, more contagious coronavirus strains that have been reported in almost every state and threaten to tax already stressed local health systems.

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Tracking Covid-19 vaccinations worldwide 

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Let’s remember how We the People got to the current toll of half a million Covid-19 deaths: 

The big lie propagated by former President Donald Trump, involving the coronavirus pandemic systematically downplayed the severity of Covid-19 and the utility of face masks. It very likely resulted in the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
To understand the genesis of this lie, remember that the coronavirus arrived in an election year. Despite a rancorous initial three years punctuated with an impeachment, the former president's path to reelection was bolstered by one unimpeachable accomplishment: a robust economy. The coronavirus threatened that. The resulting interplay between politics and the pandemic created an irresolvable conflict that influenced the Trump administration's coronavirus response for the remainder of his term. 

***

The Lincoln Project is back – at least temporarily. Let’s enjoy their humor while we still can:
Book your Mexican Getaway Now!  (1:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

A slight modification of Benjamin Franklin reported words, “A Republic, if We Can Keep It”: a bountiful planet, if we work at keeping it….

Health means many things to many people. Often it means an absence of illness, but to the World Health Organization (WHO), health does not just mean freedom from illness, but a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. This concept of well-being became translated into the language of biodiversity in a significant way through the work of the Millennium Assessment. 

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Learn about GLEWS - Global Early Warning System - for health threats and emerging risks at the human–animal–ecosystems interface. The Joint FAO–OIE–WHO project to inform prevention and control measures, through the rapid detection and risk assessment of health threats and events of potential concern at the human-animal-ecosystems interface.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Trying to sell a house during a pandemic is bad. Trying to sell a house during a pandemic in South Africa is worse. Trying to sell a house during a pandemic to South Africans is a nightmare.
I’ve shared many bleak observations about South African tradespeople who make appointments then never show up, never warn that they’ll not show up, and never apologize for either.
Similar thing happens with home buyers. They make appointment to show up at an agreed upon time then, at the last minute, change their minds and make a different appointment time.
If I had nothing else to do but sit around sipping sundowner cocktails, perhaps I’d be more understanding.
Instead, last minute changes of mind based on apparent whim force me to reset my own appointments - and appear to disrespect someone else’s schedule.
It’s madding for someone with control freak tendencies who has lived for decades in the “time is money” US to appear as flaky as other South Africans.
It’s a live and learn world….

Welcome, day of rest

© Matt Davies-Newsday and Andrews McMeel 

News blues…

Just a matter of time before third wave hits SA – so predicts Prof Salim Abdool Karim: “Based on what we have seen so far with the second wave in SA and third wave in about a dozen countries so far, it is very likely we’ll have a third wave here.”
He suggests there’s more than a 50% chance of a new variant, in which case a third wave would be “substantial. … If we only see minor mutations without significant immune escape, then the third wave may not be as severe. Our levels of naturally induced immunity from the first and second waves will play a part in this.” 

Healthy planet, anyone?

UK-centric and wonderful … see and listen to birds and bird sounds 

South African birds and their songs – challenge yourself….

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I began what feels like a daunting task: contacting the travel agency with whom I traveled here. Their over-riding response to my email queries about applying my unused funds to my return trip?

Thank you for contacting [us].Your business and feedback are very important to us. … expect a response regarding this matter within 48 hours. ! Due to the outbreak COVID-19 we are experiencing an unprecedented volume of calls and requests. This has significantly delayed our response time. Please bear with us as we work to help all of our customers during this global crisis. We thank you for your patience.

My patience is thin. This is the same response I received when I contacted them in May, 2020 due to my Covid-19-cancelled flights … and in June… and in July … and in August…. It’s the exact same message I receive now, 10 months later.
Just the idea of pursuing this agency for information and to put my refund towards my next flight is exhausting. Nevertheless, after more than a year pursuing various KZN bureaucracies, I've developed tenacity....

Weatherings

Yesterday was another stinking hot 31C summer day in KZN – and no rain to cool things down.
Gone are my “salad days” – childhood and youth in South Africa - when I hardly noticed stinking hot 31C summer day as “inclement” weather.
These days, however, the weather forecast is one of my first daily go-to apps. My heart sinks when predictions indicate temperatures in the upper 20s and higher.
I tremble as I learn more about predictions in the future of global weather and climate. 
We, the people, appear particularly unwilling (or unable?) to grapple with issues of climate, climate change, and other ecological changes. We ignore predictions and continue blithely to act as if “nothing” much will really change.

News blues…

Last summer California fought unprecedented fires. This winter, Texas faces unprecedented ice storms and deep freeze. What’s clear to anyone willing to pay attention: few are prepared for the chaos of coming climate crisis.

An analysis of US Department of Energy data published in September found weather-related power outages are up by 67% since 2000. Climate change is expected to continue fueling hotter heatwaves, more bitter winter storms and more ferocious hurricanes in the coming decades. As both California and Texas have discovered in recent years, power plants, generators and electrical lines are not designed to withstand the catastrophes to come. And all the while, the fossil fuels that both states rely on to power these faulty systems are driving the climate crisis, and hastening infrastructural collapse.
“We’re already seeing the effects of climate change,” said Sascha von Meier, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. “There will be more of this and it will get worse.” 

Related but not “officially” recognized by “elected leaders”:
The planet
Prof Sir Robert Watson is one of the UK’s most eminent environmental scientists who led the UN’s scientific organisations for climate and biodiversity, is a former chief scientific adviser at the UK’s environment department, held senior positions at Nasa and the World Bank, and worked for then-president Bill Clinton.
Upon hearing that the British government will not block a new coalmine in Cumbria (“that’s absolutely ridiculous”) Watson said with great irony, “We’re going to lead Cop26 in Glasgow, we really care about climate change…but, by the way, we won’t override the council in Cumbria, and we’ll have a new coalmine.’” He added, “You get these wonderful statements by governments and then they have an action that goes completely against [their statements].” 
Human health
Outbreaks of the H5N8 strain of bird flu has been detected for the first time among seven workers who were infected at a Russian poultry plant. In recent months, the strain has been reported in Russia, Europe, China, the Middle East and north Africa, but only in poultry. 

My advice to fellow humans?
Educate yourself on how to prepare for a future our “elected leaders” are unprepared to acknowledge. And build resilience, in yourself, your children, and your loved ones. We’re gonna need it.

Healthy planet, anyone?

Photo essay: Lockdown in Brighton, UK 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I’m dreaming of a … California summer….
Now that I’ve dared entertain the notion of re-entering my own life, caring for my own life tasks and my own personal business, it’s as if a spell cast over me has broken.
For more than one year, I’ve lived in my mother’s house and dealt with issues raised by her life decisions/lack of decision. It’s been a wild ride. (Remember, for example, her “faithful” domestic worker’s son threatening to kill me, shoot me, rape me - this, after he’d served 5 years of a 7-year prison sentence for rape .)
Since I daring to imagine re-entering my own life, dealing with my own taxes (deadline to file taxes in US is April 15), living on and maintaining my houseboat again, even finding short-term income-generating work, the idea of returning to California holds steady in my imagination.
Yes, there are many things to complete before I purchase an airplane ticket, and many considerations - who can I line up to visit and/or communicate with my mother while I’m away? What if she dies while I’m away? -  but do have the right and a responsibility to my own life….

***

I’m hosting potential buyers of “stuff” – water pump, welding kit, pillar drill, and lots and lots of nails, screws, electrical switches. This activity stimulates me to permit myself actually to buy a ticket, get on an airplane, and return to my own life!
Nevertheless, I tremble at how I’ll tell my mother that I’m leaving.
I’m “it” for her day-to-day visits, and her day-to-day life decisions. I’m confident that, once I’ve sold the “household stuff” and begun to implement whatever plan will deal with the house, I can accomplish remotely most of the day-to-day bill paying, etc. Rather, it is my mother’s day-to-day life that gives me pause.
Can I persuade my brother to visit twice a week? His health is such that he cannot drive anymore. He’ll need someone to drive him the 20 to 30-minute each way. I’ll pay for his petrol.
Can I persuade my nephew, my mother’s favorite person in the world, to phone her or leave WhatsApp audio message after I depart when he’s not done so in the last 10 weeks?

One of the less-alluring aspects of my mother’s personality that regularly regurgitates in my life? She selectively weeds out full disclosure and presents to others a picture of how I victimize her.
For example, yesterday, I returned a phone call my mother received from one of her acquaintances. I explained to him that she loves to hear from him but she’s unable – too weak - to respond. I asked, would he continue to call her and be prepared to talk to her yet not expect a response? He was agreeable. Then he asked me why she was still in “that place”?
Apparently, prior to her fall, she’d expressed to him how terrible the Care Center was and how much she hated it, that I’d forced her into it, fired her ultra-faithful domestic worker, taken away her dogs, abandoned her….
Sigh.
I offered an alternative view to her friend and filled in details she’d conveniently forgotten to share - himself living in a care center.
“That does sound like your mother,” he said.

Yes, elderly people feel disempowered by and resentful of their growing frailty. Ditto their dependence on others.
I sympathize. After all, “growing old is not for the squeamish….”
I’m also reconciled, after a lifetime of the same, to my mother undermining my efforts and diminishing who I am.
I’m disappointed. But the upside? I’m a functioning adult. I've learned to weather this kind of emotional betrayal and I can handle disappointment.

She’s trained me well.
Thank you, mother.

A change in the weather

Family in Texas reports its still cold near Houston but things are looking up. They're cold, but not frozen.
In this part of KZN, we're facing a 31C day. Just the thought of it exhausts.

News blues…

SA has recorded 1,500,677 cumulative cases of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
Health minister Zweli Mkhize said in an update on Friday evening that the death toll in the country had climbed to 48,859. 
There were 151 more Covid-19 related deaths reported in the past 24-hour cycle. The deaths according to province were: Eastern Cape (12), Free State (21), Gauteng (43), KwaZulu-Natal (40), Limpopo (one), Mpumalanga (eight), North West (zero), Northern Cape (zero) and Western Cape (26).
The US, meanwhile, approaches half a million dead. The US confirmed infection rate – more than 27 million in a population of 328 million , is almost more than two thirds greater than the next highest toll, India, population 1.3 billion.

The US, meanwhile, approaches half a million dead. The US confirmed infection rate of more than 27 million in a population of 328+ million is almost more than two thirds greater than the next highest toll, India, population 1.36 billion.

***

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel nails Texas Senator Ted Cruz who fled the weather disaster in his state…  (9:00 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

“… in the US, recent research has revealed, that global heating harms Black and Latino children before they are even born, as well as in the first years of their lives.

The analysis of dozens of medical studies found women of color, particularly Black women, and their babies are most likely to suffer low birth weights, pre-term births and stillbirths from climate-driven threats. Hot temperatures can cause strain upon women and their unborn children, while heat can also react with pollutants from cars and power plants to create ozone, a ground-level pollutant that can cause an array of health problems.
“This pollution cause placental inflammation and affects the baby,” said Pacheco. “This can cause impacts in childhood but also bad outcomes when they are adults, such as heart and kidney disease. Even what we would consider limited exposures can affect the development of the baby.”
The climate crisis is shaping the lives of Black children and children of color before they take their first breath, but it doesn’t stop there. Once a Black or Latino child is born, there is a good chance they will live in a neighborhood that gets even hotter than nearby, whiter suburbs. Researchers have found that in US cities including New York, Dallas and Miami, poorer areas with more residents of color can be get up to 20F hotter in summer than wealthier, whiter districts in the same city. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

More and more people I know in the US have been or are in the process of being vaccinated. Hooray!
I’d like to be vaccinated but that’s not the reason I’m beginning to plan my return to California. 

I must return – soon – to take care of many outstanding business and tax-related issues. 

I’m considering travelling early April even as I grapple with how to ensure my mother’s continued well-being and how to manage the house and domestic workers if the house has not sold. And how to manage the sale from a distance when the house finally sells.
My mother was tracking well when I saw her yesterday. Both her eyes open and she continues to try to communicate.
The Care Center has ended the regime of spraying the facility against coronavirus. That’s good news for residents – and visitors – who had to escape the building for the duration.

Another day under lockdown

The beginning of week 48. In 32 more days, South Africans will have spent one year under some form of lockdown.
A silly joke:
     Time flies like the wind
     Fruit flies like bananas….

News blues…

(c) Covid-19 dashboard

  
Vaccination rollout begins in SA 
US state by state vaccination rollout 

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Healthy planet, anyone?

New ideas and innovations in the fight against microplastics:

Microplastics have been found in rain, Arctic ice cores, inside the fish we eat, as well as in fruit and vegetables. New research suggests 136,000 tons of microplastics are ejected from the ocean each year, ending up in the air we breathe. They are in human placentas, our wastewater, and our drinking water. All plastic waste, regardless of size, is detrimental to the environment, but microplastics pose a special challenge given their minuscule size (some are 150 times smaller than a human hair) and ability to enter the food chain.

Read, “Magnets, vacuums and tiny nets: the new fight against microplastics” >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

One of the pleasures of this time of year in KZN – late summer – is the blossoming coral shrub in the garden. The shrub variety sprawls so I trim back the thorny limbs and cut off the blossoms to display in my bedroom. 
More than 100 species of Erythrina trees and shrubs  – aka coral– aka lucky bean tree, gewone koraalboom (Afrikaans) umsinsi (Zulu) – grow around the world.

A decorative tree, it is also an important ecosystem component, providing food and shelter for a variety of birds, animals and insects. Many birds and insects feed on the nectar. Vervet monkeys eat the flower buds. Kudu, klipspringer, black rhino and baboons graze on the leaves. Black rhinos, elephants and baboons eat the bark. Bush pigs eat the roots, and the brown-headed parrot eats and disperses the seed. Birds such as barbets and woodpeckers nest in the trunks of dead trees, and swarms of bees often inhabit hollow trunks. Erythrina lysistemon is also widely used and enjoyed by mankind. They have been regarded as royal trees, and were planted on the graves of Zulu chiefs. They were planted as living fences around kraals, homesteads and waterholes.
As the photo shows, it produces stunning flowers. It also produces pea-like pods that twist into sculptural shapes to eject the black and red seeds. 
I gather both pods and seeds and sprinkle them with scented oils to create aromatic mini sculptures.

***

My mother, still weak, was nevertheless brighter yesterday during my visit. She follows what I’m saying – updates on the dogs and the (slow but steady) trickle of potential house buyers (no firm offers yet) – but still cannot clearly articulate her comments.

Crazy daddio!

Worldwide (Map) 
February 2021 - 109,885,600 confirmed infections; 2,430,000 deaths
January 14, 2021 – 92,314,000 confirmed infections; 1,977,900 deaths

US (Map)
February 2021 - 27,824,660 confirmed infections; 490,450 deaths
January 14, 2021 – 23,071,100 confirmed infections; 384,635 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)
February 18, 2021 – 1,496,440 confirmed infections; 48,480 deaths
January 14, 2021 – 1,278,305 confirmed infections; 35,140 deaths

News blues…

The first batch of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines arrived in South Africa on Tuesday night. 
The South African Medical Association (SAMA) says the vaccine will be administered at 17 sites.
Some healthcare workers should receive their jabs on Wednesday.
Meanwhile,

As SA began the first phase of its Covid-19 vaccination programme, health authorities would have also been buoyed by another day where new infections and the positivity rate remained low.
Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize confirmed on Wednesday night that 2,320 new cases were recorded in 24 hours. These were from 35,413 tests, at a positivity rate of 6.55% — again well below the 10%-12% range that Mkhize has previously cited as being of concern. 

***

Despite the state of Texas presenting enormous potential for renewable energy, renewables are pooh poohed.
Texas politicians, from the governor down, pan renewable energy in favor of fossil fuel. Texas is rich in oil and natural gas – and that industry contributes massively to conservative and right-wing politicians. Together, oil and gas money and politicians have created an “independent energy supply” grid – disconnected from the nation-wide grid.
The Texas independent grid is failing, massively and publicly, during the freak snowstorms. Texas politicians, however, spin reality and constantly pump out lies that blame “windmills.”
The truth? Fossil and nuclear fuel industries failed when instrumentation froze and became inoperable. 
Moreover, for more than 10 years Texas has ignored reports that predicted power grid emergency….  (2:44 mins) 

An oldie but goodie… “Can the world run on renewable energy” from 2015 offers information and data worth reading.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Four years ago, I asked a Texas real estate agent - selling property upon which my family planned to build a house – about Texas’ installation of solar and renewable energy. Her response: “We don’t do that in this state.
Too bad, eh?

***

Yesterday turned into a rout. I wasn’t able to visit my mother due to families coming around to view the house and my continued efforts to sell tools and machinery.
The latter sets me off on another rant about apparently accepted South Africanisms: making appointments and not following through.
I took a phone call from the adult son of a friend’s landlord who is an independent contractor. He expressed interest in a welding kit and other tools for sale. We set a time for him to drop by and I texted/sms’d him the address. 

Keep in mind, despite families dropping with a view to purchase the house, cars parked willy nilly, dogs barking…I made an effort to ensure the independent contractor could easily access the garage where the tools are located and, at the appointed hour I waited. 

And waited.
He never showed.
I’d put off visiting my mother, delayed a trip to the grocery store, opened the upper security gate… and waited….
At 7:00pm that night, he texted/sms’d that he’d “forgotten”….
If there’s anything consistent in South Africa, it’s this behavior from so-called business people and South Africans in general
Do the people on the other end of the appointment – those waiting – simply ignore confirmed appointment and go about their business?
Why can’t I do that?
It would make my life a lot easier to follow suit but ….