Say what?

Worldwide (Map) 

April 7, 2022 - 495,119,710 confirmed infections; 6,166,410 deaths
April 8, 2021 – 133,132,000 confirmed infections: 2,888,000 deaths

US (Map) 
April 7, 2022 - 80,248,990 confirmed infections; 983,820 deaths
April 8, 2021 – 30,923,000 confirmed infections: 559,116 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
April 7, 2022 - 3,725,200 confirmed infections; 100,070 deaths
April 8, 2021 – 1,553,610 confirmed infections: 53,111 deaths

Numbers from April 2019

Posts from back then >> 

News blues

While we have an “official” end to Covid’s state of disaster in South Africa, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) Minister, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma throws cold water on a nation when she

…warned that government can declare a national state of disaster again should Covid-19 infections spiral.
South Africa exited the national state of disaster following an announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa during an address to the nation on Monday night.
… Addressing the media on Tuesday, Dlamini Zuma said the Covid-19 pandemic no longer qualified as a disaster. 

***

As national concern for COVID withers [across the United States], the country’s capacity to track the coronavirus is on a decided downswing. Community test sites are closing, and even the enthusiasm for at-home tests seems to be on a serious wane; even though Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a new deal on domestic pandemic funding, those patterns could stick. Testing and case reporting are now so “abysmal” that we’re losing sight of essential transmission trends…

Read more about what this might mean >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Serious times  (0:55 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - April 6, 2022  (2:15 mins)

***

On war…

Analysis: Why some African countries are thinking twice about calling out Putin 

Healthy planet, anyone?

“Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals, but the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels.”
– United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres

Read “Climate scientists are desperate: we’re crying, begging and getting arrested” >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Update of culverts. Yesterday, after I sent a photo of growing signs of damp walls in this house, the roads work team went from one lone backhoe and driver dealing with the periphery of the culverts to a backhoe and driver and a dozen people wearing reflector jackets milling about watching the backhoe and driver scrape silt and debris around the culverts.
An increase of workers does not mean an increase in effectiveness clearing the culverts.
Tea-tee (Teeti?), the sole female overseer of the work, promised the work team would be back to continue today. One problem? Tea-ti sees two culverts on “my” side of the road – one of which is totally blocked – but does not see that culvert on the other side of the road. This leads her to believe there is no culvert exiting the other side of the road, that, somehow, someone(s) built half a culvert that ends halfway under the road. She also thinks the department may have to tear out the culverts and build a bridge. A bit radical, but I’m not against that long-term solution. It would allow a larger space for water to flow – that is, until silt and debris builds up and blocks the space under the bridge. That’s unlikely to happen over the next decade so… go for it, Tea-tee. (First, though, check with locals – farmers and small-holders, plus drivers who use this back road to avoid backups on the freeway – on how building a bridge would affect them day-to-day.)

***

I’ve three weeks more here before I return to California. Friends tell me CA weather is hot, hot, hot – unseasonably hot for April. This time I’ll not return to my boat on the river so no way to easily cool down on hot days.
KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:13am
Sunset: 5:49pm

San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:45am
Sunset: 7:37pm

Disaster no more

Day 752, Wednesday, April 6 - Disaster no more

News blues... 

As of midnight Monday, after 750 days, SA declares an end to the national state of disaster. 
“We have now entered a new phase in Covid-19,” President Ramaphosa said. “While the pandemic is not over, conditions no longer require that we stay in a state of national disaster.” 

Watch President Ramaphosa  (2:48 mins)

Editor's note: By my count of 745 days, I appear to have lost or dropped almost a week of South Africa's state of disaster. What a disaster. 

With restrictions dropped at 750 days - 2.13 years -  I recalibrate my count ... and the direction of the theme of this blog. 

More on that tomorrow....

Shanghai-d

News blues

China’s strict zero-Covid policy means all positive cases have to be hospitalised. But in the last few weeks, as case numbers have risen sharply and 26 million people entered a harsh lockdown, mainland China’s most important financial hub has come to a standstill. The number of new daily positive cases exceeded 10,000 for the first time on Monday. Although 38,000 health workers have been shipped in from around China to help, medical resources are overwhelmingly diverted to combat Covid, leaving it difficult for non-Covid patients ... to access them.

Read “This is inhumane” >> 

***

Even as South Africa surpasses the milestone of 100,000 confirmed Covid deaths, the government – strict about restrictions until now - still plans to end lockdown "soon", despite scientists’ warnings that a fifth wave is imminent. Last week, April 5 – that’s today – was the day to end restrictions. As of now, no certainty nor update on this deadline.

Responding to questions posed in parliament, Deputy President David Mabuza said, “We think (forcing people to vaccinate) would be crossing the red line'. All we can do is encourage our people to go and vaccinate."
Despite a wide range of initiatives to encourage large-scale vaccination, there has a been a great reluctance to do so, spurred on by optimism after the government relaxed regulations that enforced mask-wearing in public, and opened up sports and entertainment facilities to increased spectator and audience numbers.
Mabuza said the easing of these regulations announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa last week was part of attempts to convince citizens to take the vaccine voluntarily, as they would be required to show this when attending events.
Mabuza also said plans announced by Ramaphosa for amended health regulations to replace the much harsher 'State of Disaster' laws that have been in place for over two years now were underway, despite warnings from experts about the risk of a fifth wave.
He confirmed the views of some scientists that this wave would be less severe than previous ones, because the population had reportedly developed a level of herd immunity.

Read more >> 

Healthy planet, anyone?

Off planet, an amazing opportunity to glimpse a giant planet evolve. It is still ‘in the womb’ yet nine times the mass of Jupiter.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Practicing the tactic “apply pressure through channels (culverts?) but let things evolve”, I contacted the ANC’s councilperson for this area to request attention to clear blocked culverts. After the ANC were voted out in favor of the DA, I contacted the new councilperson for this area. She stepped up and did what she could. Indeed, she managed to get a backhoe out here and the driver backhoed and scooped and pushed and pulled. But he did not touch the actual culverts; hard to do that with a backhoe. He implied he'd be back to finish the job.

That was two days before the national holiday, Human Rights Day. Since then? 

Nothing. 

Nada. 

Dead quiet on the eastern front. 

Lots of rain though, so flooding continues.
Finally, yesterday, after trying to “do the right thing” – for 6 years! – I phoned the regional big boss. He’d been informed the problem was resolved. I explained it had not – that the culverts have never been directly dealt with, only the area surrounding the culverts had been graded or backhoed.
He copied me on an email to the crew in charge of roads in this area:

Colleagues, Please urgently attend to the blocked culvert on D 292 at xx Road. Please make contact with [the resident cc'd here] to advise when it will be done.
I suggest you use a TLB and VRRM Labour in cleaning out the silted pipes.

His colleague in charge responded:
Good day
Note two weeks back MS Zondi was opened that drain at D292 with a TLB. Thanks

I responded:
Thank you for including me in this email... Here are yesterday's photos of the blocked culverts on "my" side of the road [photos posted yesterday] ... As you can see, the quality of the silt now flowing into the area when it rains shows the silt is also draining into the area from the district road.
Let me know if you want photos of flooded area taken over the last weeks AND the last four years that show the continuing evolution of this problem.

What happens now?
We wait.
Meanwhile, the flooded area of the garden continues….

The damp in the house continues.
Thank the gods for water as it allows me to soothe my simmering anger by clearing lilies and pond weed. As I work, I contemplate next steps: Now that I have email addresses, I continue direct pressure. I also write an article for the local paper. Then another article. I also visit the local animal rehab center, Free Me and, 1) explain the disappearance of fresh water otters in this wetland and how the blocked culverts may contribute to otters’ demise, 2) encourage them to apply pressure to the roads department to clear the culverts and encourage the return of otters, and, 3) explore whether they’d consider re-introducing otters into the waterway. Otters in the waterway would benefit my pond, too: they’d make short work of the runaway growth of the lilies by gobbling them up. Yum, tender lily root salad for otters.

Slowly, slowly

News blues

Almost 5 million people in the UK are now believed to have Covid-19 ... an all-time high figure for the disease which first struck the nation two years ago. Hospital admissions and deaths are also rising but not nearly so sharply... 
This sharp jump in case numbers is being driven by the virus variant BA.2 which is even more transmissible than the original Omicron version that swept the UK at the beginning of the year.
The latest wave comes just as the government has ended free testing for the virus and as the nation prepares to enjoy its Easter holidays. This prospect raises the fear that further increases in case numbers, followed by rises in hospital admissions and deaths, could afflict the UK.
But as other researchers have pointed out, spring has arrived and warmer weather will allow more and more people to mix out of doors where they are less likely to infect each other. The outcome is unclear, in short.

Read more >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
MAGAmadness  (2:13 mins)
Compromised  (1:12 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

From Instagram, info on UNEA plastics treaty  and greenpeaceafrica

Almost 80,000 tonnes of plastic leak into the oceans and rivers of South Africa each year, making up 3% of the plastic waste generated annually in the country. About 2.4 million tonnes of plastic waste is generated in South Africa each year. From that, 70% is collected, but just 14% of it (including imported waste) is recycled.
…
In October last year, eco-volunteers from the Strandloper Project embarked on an expedition to collect data about the types and origins of plastic pollution along the southern shoreline of South Africa. 

Read “Strangling the ocean: Volunteers are trawling the South African coastline to find out where all the plastic pollution is coming from” >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

This house is a hive of activity. Electrician still figuring out the spaghetti of aged and aging wires cluttering up the system, but he’s making progress. The tenant/caretaker and his young crew mowed two sections of lawn yesterday … before discovering one mower is leaking oil due to a crack and the other mower has a bearing problem.
I finished the first round of settling into the new office. The floor is unfinished – that must wait for now – but the desk is “good enough”, three lamps installed on the desktop (I take pleasure in “re-modeling” lamps and creating one-of-a-kind lampshades) and the expandable worktable is ready to work.
Martha swept and tidied the garage.
The newly resident kids – 8 and 10 years old – tested the swimming pool and found it suited their needs. Yay! Lovely to see people using the pool.
Alas, it rained heavily last night, second night of such rain after dark. I’ll have to check the culverts again today. Yesterday’s check was alarming…

Still no word on when the culvert crew from municipality will be back.
Time to begin another campaign of harassment to get them to finish the job – now six, going on seven years. Easier to work on improving my harassment skills. To date, the harassment skills have proved exceptionally ineffective.

Since the backhoe driver removed trees and plants holding back silt,
exposed silt is pouring into culvert area from both sides.

That silt in middle ground did not exist this time last year.
It's a product of plant removal, more rain,
and inability to foresee the likely result of tree and plant removal.

The second, totally blocked culvert, exposed....At least on the south side of the road.
On the north side of the road, 20 feet away, there's no indication at all that a culvert exists.
The culvert is entirely hidden by debris and vegetation.

Backhoe created a perfect conduit for silt and debris to slip into culvert area.

Close up of above silt-into-culvert path.

***

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:11am
Sunset: 5:53pm

San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:51am
Sunset: 7:33pm

April fool

(c) Maxine

News blues

Among the journal Nature Medicine’s findings from research that deliberately infected healthy volunteers with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it takes just a tiny virus-laden droplet - about the width of a human blood cell - to infect someone with Covid-19.
Other findings include:

• Covid-19 has a very short incubation period. It takes about two days after infection for a person to start shedding virus.
• People shed high amounts of virus before they show symptoms (confirming something epidemiologists had figured out).
• On average, the young, healthy study volunteers shed virus for 6½ days, but some shed virus for 12 days.
• Infected people can shed high levels of virus without any symptoms.

For those wearing, but chafing about mask mandates: “The study emphasizes a lot of what we already know about Covid-19 infections, not least of which is why it's so important to cover both your mouth and nose when sick to help protect others.”
Read “First human challenge study of Covid-19 yields valuable insights about how we get sick” >> 

***

Another round of debunking Ivermectin, popular anti-parasitic medication, as an antidote to Covid-19, a virus.
New England Journal of Medicine's deputy editor recently said that Ivermectin did nothing to help COVID-19 patients: “If there are active treatments, it is better to use those agents than agents that we wish worked."

Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug often used to deworm horses and cattle, does not reduce the risk of being hospitalized with COVID-19 despite its questionable rise as an alternative treatment for the disease, according to a large new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The clinical trial, which began in 2020, analyzed more than 1,300 patients in Brazil who were infected with the coronavirus. Half were given ivermectin and half a placebo in the randomized, double-blind study, meaning neither doctors nor trial participants knew what a patient received.
The results confirmed what U.S. health officials have long stressed: Ivermectin did nothing to aid those sickened with the virus or reduce the risk of ending up in the hospital.

Read more >> 

***

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Gauteng government has spent a staggering R1.238-billion of much-needed Covid-19 funds on the construction of four new “field intensive care” hospitals. The money was spent in 2020, but two are still not open. The other two are only partially open and are being repurposed for other aspects of healthcare. The Alternative Build Technology units were controversially commissioned in March 2020 to provide extra bed capacity for the first wave of the pandemic.

Read “Gauteng’s ‘new’ R1.2bn Covid-19 ICU hospitals still lie abandoned, unfinished or underused “ >> 

***

Daily Maverick,  an informative progressive South African news outlet, presents updates on Covid:

• SA’s State of Disaster could be lifted by next week [although confusion reigns]. 
• Shanghai, home to 26 million people,  in the fourth day of a new, two-stage lockdown.
• Canada is facing a fresh Covid-19 wave just as authorities ease restrictions. 
• The US is set to end its pandemic-related expulsion policy at the border with Mexico, lifting the hopes of thousands of migrants who have been waiting months for a chance to seek asylum in America.
• Children between five and 11 years old who received the Pfizer vaccine were 68% less likely to be admitted to hospital during the Omicron wave in the US than unvaccinated children, according to a new study. 

***

On War:

Before and after photo essay >> 
More harrowing war devastation >>  (8:00 mins)

***

The Lincoln Project:
Trump and Russia: Partners in Crime  (0:40 mins)
Trump Loyalties  (1:20 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

A reminder of our beautiful world, in photos >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Yesterday was another big workday: second layer on the pond cracks; sorted through more river rocks to separate out weeds and roots; painted the office. The latter was exhausting, but now done, “finished and klaar.” True, the office needs a new floor since I pulled up to replace old carpeting and discovered two sheets of wood covering an odd, concrete-lined rectangular hole. Until that floor’s laid, I – or someone who knows carpentry – cannot set up the desk that will be affixed to one wall.
Electrician still trying to sort through the cable and wire spaghetti that is this house’s electrical system.
That’s turning out to be a bigger challenge than anyone expected.

Shame of the nation

Worldwide (Map) 
March 31, 2022 - 485,581,100 confirmed infections; 6,135,050 deaths
February 25, 2021 -128,260,000 confirmed infections; 2,805,000 deaths
February 25, 2020 - 112,534,400 confirmed infections; 2,905,000 deaths
January 21, 2021 – 96,830,000 confirmed infections; 2,074,000 deaths

US (Map) 
March 31, 2022 - 80,022,500 confirmed infections; 978,700 deaths
February 25, 2021 - 30,394,000 confirmed infections; 551,000 deaths
February 25, 2020 - 28,335,000 confirmed infections; 505,850 deaths
January 21 2021 - 450,000 confirmed infections; 406,100 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
March 31, 2022 - 3,715,390 confirmed infections; 99,976 deaths
February 25, 2021 - 1,547,000 confirmed infections; 52,790 deaths
February 25, 2020 - 1,507,450 confirmed infections; 49,525 deaths
January 21, 2021 – 1,370,000 confirmed infections’ 38,900 deaths

Post from March 29, 2021: Fall days 

News blues

Whither Covid?
Three years of pandemic World Health Organization states the BA.2 variant of coronavirus now represents nearly 86% of all sequenced cases. Even more transmissible than its highly contagious Omicron siblings, BA.1 and BA.1.1, evidence suggests that it is no more likely to cause severe disease.

As with the other variants in the Omicron family, vaccines are less effective against BA.2 than against previous variants like Alpha or the original strain of coronavirus, and protection declines over time.

Read an explainer >> 

***

This week, the Biden administration launched a new website to provide a clearinghouse of information on COVID-19. This is part of a continuing effort to prepare Americans to live with the coronavirus >> 

***

On War:
The Gini index or Gini coefficient is a measure of the distribution of income across a population. Developed by the Italian statistician Corrado Gini in 1912, it often serves as a gauge of economic inequality, measuring income distribution or, less commonly, wealth distribution among a population. South Africa - with a Gini coefficient of 63.0 - is currently recognized as the country with the highest income inequality. (The World Population Review attributes this massive inequality to racial, gender, and geographic discrimination, with white males and urban workers in South Africa earning much better salaries than everyone else.)
Income inequality coupled with greed, endemic corruption, incompetence, and a pandemic result in South African children malnourished and, indeed, starving.

In the past 15 months, 14 children under the age of five starved to death in Nelson Mandela Bay and another 216 new cases of severe acute malnutrition were confirmed in the Eastern Cape’s biggest metro, where more than 16,000 families were left without aid because of a bureaucratic bungle by the provincial Department of Social Development.
Another 188 children received in-patient treatment at the metro’s hospitals for severe acute malnutrition and in February 11 children were hospitalised with severe acute malnutrition.
The impact of dire food shortages, including a shortage of nutritious food in communities, is, however, much larger. The University of Cape Town’s Child Institute estimates that 48% of child hospital deaths in South Africa are associated with moderate or severe acute malnutrition.
…This comes after the Eastern Cape Department of Social Development forfeited R67-million meant to assist those worst affected by poverty in the province.
During a sitting of the provincial legislature last week, members of the legislature were told that the department had been unable to spend the money, which was meant for families who were unable to meet basic needs.
“It is unfathomable and simply unacceptable that the department, under the leadership of MEC Siphokazi Mani-Lusithi, was unable to spend R67.076-million that was meant for the most vulnerable in our province. These funds are now lost forever, while the people of this province go hungry,” said Edmund van Vuuren, the Democratic Alliance’s spokesperson on social development.
[He added,] “In Nelson Mandela Bay alone, 16,634 beneficiaries were denied social relief of distress, in the form of food parcels, because Mani-Lusithi’s department chose to appoint service providers that did not have the capacity to deliver.”

Nelson Mandela would weep with shame.

Read “The shame of the nation…” >> 

Along the same lines of income inequality coupled with greed, endemic corruption, and incompetence:

• The Life Esidimeni tragedy (also called "the greatest cause of human rights violation" in democratic South Africa). This company is still in business, promoting itself as “in the business of caring for the most vulnerable members of our society”…
• ”Unknown individuals, most likely working from inside the aspiring state-owned Postbank, stole millions through the social grant system late last year. The breach, which has been kept a secret, is the second time the Sassa payment system has been compromised since Postbank took charge of the social grant payment system in 2018.” >> 

Related… just days after South Africa tried to sell itself as an investment destination, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), released the latest employment data. South Africa’s economy is in dire straits.

Unemployment in Q4 last year rose to 35.3% from 34.9% in the previous quarter. This was the highest level since the start of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey in 2008. The youth unemployment rate remains at a staggering 65.5%.
Under the expanded definition which includes discouraged job seekers, the unemployment rate declined to 46.2% from 46.6%. You know things are pretty bad when this is the “good news”.

Read more >> 

***

The Lincoln Project: Partner  (0:40 mins)

Last week in the Republican Party - March 29  (1:50 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Wildfires have been igniting in Colorado and Texas, and have burned hundreds of thousands of acres in the past few weeks alone >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

After the untimely death of our gardener this time last year, I’ve occasionally hired a “day laborer/labourer” to assist with painting exterior walls, some gardening, and light handiwork. It’s been going well enough despite his lack of English skills and my decrepit abilities in Zulu. As a child I managed alright with pidgin Zulu. As an adult, I’m embarrassed to express myself in error-prone Zulu. This is a new wrinkle in my attitude: in past situations involving an unfamiliar tongue I’ve enjoyed immersion: fumbling through the language until I get it right. Immersion has allowed passing “well-enough” in Hebrew in Israel, French in Belgium, and Dutch in Nederland.
Today, with trepidation deriving from our apparent inability to communicate, I asked the day laborer to accompany me in the “bakkie” – my late mother’s Chinese lightweight pick-up Chana.
Rather than struggle, however, we enjoyed a confused and confusing couple of hours during which he expressed a desire better to speak English and I, more courage to express Zulu. 

I learned I’d been mispronouncing numbers one to ten. I also learned the respectful term for a person’s death. Until yesterday, I’d used the less respectful term to communicate my mother had died. 
Our jaunt in the Chana also culminated in him asking me to teach him to drive the vehicle. 

I won’t do that. (The Chana is for sale, and I cannot risk damaging it.)

***

Water is a wonderfully mysterious and generative element. Despite too much water in one section of the garden – the overflowing stream near the blocked culverts – I’m rehab’ing the decrepit grotto fishpond located near the carport.
In the past, I’d set up this pond with a handful of golden comet fish, lilies and duckweed, and a filter/fountain. Alas, I’d returned to SA to find “an accident” had killed all life in that pond.
Until last week, I’d not had the stomach to try again.
Then, I tested the pond’s concrete lining for leaks.
There were many.
Yesterday, I began plugging them.

Locating and cleaning leaks.

Figuring out what materials will fill cracks
so large they expose the plastic underlining.

Overly ambitious, I'll also sift the silt that's built up around
the river pebbled landscaping. This is a big job with an advantage:
pulling out deeply embedded weed roots.

***

Crisp evenings and nights signal autumn here:

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:09am
Sunset: 5:57pm

San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:55am
Sunset: 7:31pm

Apathy

News blues

Shanghai, China’s biggest city and metropolis of 25 million people, will lock down its eastern half from Monday until Friday. The phased lockdown is expected to curb the Omicron-fueled Covid-19 outbreak and has in recent days become the leading hotspot in a nationwide outbreak that has hit China with its highest caseloads since the early days of the pandemic.
Read more >> 

***

Americans have been deeply divided ideologically about a multitude of issues - healthcare, immigration, voting rights, gun reform, climate change, on and on – for years. The pandemic has exacerbated rifts, pushing Americans further apart on key pandemic response efforts. Last year,

[s]urveys from Pew Research Center,  found that in the early months of the pandemic, about 6 in 10 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents believed the virus was a major threat to the health of the U.S. population, compared to only a third of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents. That 26-point gap would ultimately grow to approximately 40 points by the fall…

Read “For red and blue America, a glaring divide in COVID-19 death rates persists 2 years later” >> 

***

On War:
War makes unpleasant bedfellows…
South Africa as a political entity has been sitting on the fence regarding Russia’s invasion and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. Now, it may become clear why this is so: the confluence of Escom’s decades-long mismanagement (Escom, remember, is SA’s coal-driven electricity parastatal), the potential for Russian-built nuclear power plants in our future, and Russian natural gas. And, “daar lê die ding” - Afrikaans for something like “that’s the thing” or “the truth is revealed”….

Amid a war in Ukraine and soaring gas prices, South Africa wants to urgently secure access to vast amounts of natural gas.
Gazprombank, owned by Russia’s state-owned gas supplier, confirms it is considering a bid for what is potentially a multibillion-rand contract — which, if awarded, would raise questions on whether South Africa’s stance on Ukraine is being influenced by its thirst for gas.
The Central Energy Fund (CEF) released a tender last month, looking for a gas aggregator to help secure liquified natural gas (LNG) for various gas-to-power projects planned for the Coega special economic zone in the Eastern Cape.

Read more >> 
And more >> 
And yet more >> 

Healthy planet, anyone?

© Joel Pett | Copyright 2022 Tribune Content Agency

 Shawn Heinrichs grew up along South Africa’s coasts. His protective instinct for life beneath the waves inspired a career investigating its mistreatment by humans and campaigning for change.”
Today, he photographs oceans and ocean creatures and says, “'Apathy is one of our biggest problems'”.
See his photos >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Readers may know my penchant for Marmite. For the gustatorily ill-informed, Marmite, it is a black, salty goop invented by German scientist Justus von Liebig and originally made in the UK. South Africans who enjoy eating this black goop spread it on bread, toast, savory biscuits, etc.
Marmite threads through my memories of childhood so I overcome the gross factor and tuck in. For example, I attended an all-girl high school as a “day scholar” (not a “boarder”) and wore uniforms with a tie, brown lace up shoes with bobby socks, etc., etc.
One memory of those days involved the trays of Marmite sandwiches (“sarmies”) set out for “boarders” for a first “break” snack. I and a girlfriend – also a “day scholar” - found it the height of daring to sneak up on the trays and snatch half a marmite sandwich. We’d scarf up the morsel, only half conscious that the snatching added to the taste.
Oh, what daredevils! Good times! 
Marmite was on my grocery list today.

Alas, no Marmite.
Marmite is made from brewers’ yeast. Apparently, the pandemic played havoc with SA’s Marmite production affected by shortages of brewers’ yeast and the shortage continues. Plenty of Bovril on store shelves. Bovril is a salty, black goop but it doesn’t entice.
Back in October of last year, makers of yeast-extracted Marmite said production was to start up again. No sign of the goop at Pick n Pay.
Boo hoo!

***

The goodish news?
The hard work I’ve mentioned over the last weeks is paying off. I’ve accomplished much. Not so the electrician who, despite his statements to the contrary, has still not installed the pre-paid electrical meter downstairs. A month ago he assured me he’d have installed both meters within two weeks. That hasn’t happened. Indeed, I’m troubled by the dearth of completion on any of the jobs he’s working on at this house. (The laundry washing machine unexpectedly burned a fan belt that’s been extraordinarily difficult to replace. It’s an older workhorse of a machine, so I wait and wait and wait…. Maybe, like Marmite the fan belt shortage is a product of the pandemic, too?) 

The workload is exhausting – cleaning in preparation for painting, painting, cleaning up after painting… weeding the pond… harassing the culvert/road workers … weeding the pond... sorting through “stuff” … keeping the house running… this, that, and the next thing… 

But we’re getting there!

***

Crisp evenings and nights signal autumn here: 

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:08am
Sunset: 5:59pm

San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:58am
Sunset: 7:29pm