Relief (not!)

Click to enlarge and enjoy
© Zapiro

News blues

In the US, the change in reported COVID-19 cases per 100k people in the last two weeks >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:

McMorrow fights back (1:42 mins)

Ron DeSantis: bad for business  (1:00 mins)

***

On war…

Ramaphosa and Zelensky finally talk about Russian aggression >> 

Zelensky’s post-talk tweet: “Had a phone conversation with @CyrilRamaphosa. Told about our resistance to Russian aggression. Discussed the threat of a global food crisis, deepening relations with the Republic of South Africa and cooperation within international organizations.”

 
Ramaphosa’s post-talk tweet: “I had a telephone conversation with President @ZelenskyyUa of Ukraine to discuss the conflict in Ukraine and its tragic human cost, as well its global ramifications. We agree on the need for a negotiated end to the conflict which has impacted Ukraine’s place in global supply chains, including its position as a major exporter of food to our continent. President Zelenskyy anticipates closer relations with Africa in future.”

 
“…deepening relations with the Republic of South Africa and cooperation within international organizations…” and “…closer relations with Africa in future”?
Sounds good.
But ...how tight is Putin’s grip on African leaders? Who, for example, is pushing nuke power in South Africa? Putin and Russia, that’s who. At least they’re the frontrunners, along with China – second in line but so-so on nuke power these days  - also, South Korea, France, and US. 

US isn’t going overboard for nuclear power anymore, plus, for US, I suspect nuke power would require way too much effort, given South Africa’s lack of knowhow and the minimal overall economic benefit to the US.)

So. We shall see how much closer and how much deeper relations become between presidents in the future.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

More kvetching about Escom/Eskom:

[The parastatal power company] Escom forecasts more load-shedding in the winter season, with the power utility saying there could be as many as 101 days of power outages — something that it calls an “extreme case” scenario.
The “best case” scenario (if there is such a thing regarding the major inconvenience of load-shedding) is that Eskom might throw South Africa into darkness for 32 days during winter.

Read more >> 
Oh, great! Cold, dark winter made colder and darker because, after a decade of loadshedding, Escom – a power generation company - still hasn’t figured out how to deliver consistent power?
Just in Time – JIT* -  for me to abandon ship… back to drought- and fire-ridden California. She’s got a ticket to ride  ….
[*JIT? Just in time… A form of management – usually managing an inventory of consumables but sometimes of emotions - that requires suppliers and supply chains to produce materials just as production is scheduled to begin, no sooner. 
The goal? 
Lean and mean production machine that meets demand with zero storage costs. 
Managing emotional inventory, however, means recognizing emotions, applying limits - neither ignoring nor overly expressing feelings of frustration, irritation, and anger, nor making dramatic snap decisions – and, importantly, knowing when to ride!]

***

This week’s posts focused on corruption. There is another aspect: when fed up – or broke – residents do not pay their utility and rates (property tax) bills. Each month this year, uMngeni Municipality has sent out the following notice with their invoices: 

Click to enlarge

As fed up as I am with “service delivery” – the lack thereof – I pay my bills. The idea of purposefully putting myself into a position where I'd have to interact regularly with any South Africa bureaucracy as an individual is, well, laughable. If, however, a concerted effort by a nationwide community of protesters arose that was dedicated to fight corruption in government, I’d join. The ‘popcorn’ protests that spring up here and there are ineffective against SA’s entrenched corruption. 
A nationwide effort, though? Hmmm....

***

Disney in hot water: Least favorite governor Florida’s Ron DeSantis has it in for Disney, threatening to strip the company of its 55-year-old special status that allows it to operate as an independent government around its Orlando-area theme park.
This, over the DeSantis-inspired measure that bans schools from teaching young children about sexual orientation or gender identity.

After DeSantis signed the bill into law earlier Monday, the Walt Disney Company wrote in a statement that its "goal" was to get the law repealed or defeated in the courts.
DeSantis said Disney "crossed the line" with that statement. On Thursday, DeSantis went further, suggesting Disney's "special privileges" could be lifted.

Read more >> 
Wanna-be-Donald-Trump Ron DeSantis doesn’t care who he takes down in his struggle to be anointed the next Donald Trump. Kids? Dime a dozen. Transgender? Way too many of ‘em already. Teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity? Bah humbug!
(Read the downside of DeSantis' effort to Floridians >>) 

I support Disney in repealing or defeating DeSantis’s inhumane trend.
My gripe about Disney? The apparent impossibility of unsubscribing from its email lists. Specifically, its National Geographic for children’s email list.
I subscribed two children to that magazine. They liked it – until they outgrew it. That happens. Children grow and outgrow. Disney specializes in children so it must know that.
Yet, it’s taking months of frustration to stop Disney sending me annoying offers to re-subscribe, or buy this, that, or the next unwanted publication. A simple “unsubscribe” link isn’t offered on their emails, so I tried their Contact Us link. That consistently presents the error page, “our system is currently unavailable. Try again later.”
Frustrating.

***

Sunny yesterday. Showers predicted today and for the next 3 days…
KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:22am
Sunset: 5:32pm

Rain, finally...
San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:24am
Sunset: 7:51pm

Live with it

Worldwide (Map) 
April 21, 2022 - 507,015,200 confirmed infections; 6.207,600 deaths
April 22, 2021 – 143,503,705 confirmed infections; 3,056,000 deaths

US (Map) 
April 21, 2022 - 80,801,505 confirmed infections; 990,210 deaths
April 22, 2021 – 31,862,100 confirmed infections; 569,500 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
April 21, 2022 - 3,743,590 confirmed infections; 100,195 deaths
April 22, 2021 – 1,568,500 confirmed infections; 53,900 deaths

Post from April 22, 2021: “Earth Day” 
Post from April 23, 2020: “Try it, what have you got to lose?” 

News blues

…and yet another variant/subvariant of coronavirus as BA.2.12.1 and BA.2.12 account for over 80% of cases in New York state- both “more transmissible than BA.2 with a 23% – 27% growth advantage.” This is a 67% increase since last week.

Against the backdrop of rising new variants, the Biden administration is scrambling to provide new guidance around masks after a federal judge in Florida struck down a federal mask mandate for air travel and other forms of public transportation.
… 
President Joe Biden and his administration have signaled that people will have to make their own decisions on COVID as the pandemic evolves. Biden on Tuesday told reporters it’s up to Americans to decide whether to mask up aboard airplanes. 
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said last week that COVID won’t disappear and that people will have to weigh individual risks as cases rise.

Read more >> 

***

Another American stands up to Republican trends towards fascism 

***

The Lincoln Project: It’s in the Plan (0:58 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - April 19, 2022  (1:49 mins)

***

On war…

Day 56 of Russian invasion of Ukraine 

Healthy planet, anyone?

A drop in the ocean – on sea level rise, with photos >> 

***

Why has humanity destroyed such vast forests? And can we bring this to an end? 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The latest bout of Stage 4 power cuts – three 2.5-hour sessions per day - is scheduled for Stage 3 by 10pm tonight. This still entails three 2.5-hour sessions per day, just at different – actually more intrusive – times of the day. 

Sigh.
But take heart: Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter apologised to the country for this week's high-level power cuts, but said they were “necessary to avoid a total system blackout.”
Ah, joy. Thank you, Mr. de Ruyter…although when it’s dark, it’s dark. May as well be a “total system blackout.”
Insult to injury? Yesterday's post mentioned a study conducted in 2018 that established loadshedding costs SA business and industry in excess of R 2 billion per week.
That cost increased 1 April 2022 when Eskom increased their rates by 9.61%. We the People, bearers of the brunt of loadshedding’s inconvenience, pay for the luxury of Escom’s incompetent delivery/non-delivery.
Loadshedding focuses the mind and amps up negative emotions.
Looming power downs from 6pm to 8:30pm had me scurrying to secure the house and put the dogs to bed (Pixie hates her sleeping quarters and requires the incentive of 3 Beeno doggie biscuits to shift from her favorite armchair to that doggie bed.) I pull on my jammies, hurry through my pre-bed ablutions, set the emergency light, and ensure my laptop and phone are plugged in and prepped to begin charging as soon as power returns. I draw up my extra blanket, draw down my mosquito net, and hop into bed. Yes, 6pm is early for bed (then again, I’m up before 5am) but I read a library book on my cell phone until I fall asleep, awaken at midnight to read further, and fall back to sleep.

***

Insider humor from Zapiro

© Zapiro

Zandile Gumede is the former mayor of Durban accused of corruption and the ANC’s newly elected eThekwini [Durban] chairperson. Her win is seen as “giving the middle finger” and “a setback for Ramaphosa’s renewal project” 

Complicated stuff.

Gumede and her co-accused are facing 2,786 charges relating to a 2017 Durban Solid Waste (DSW) tender amounting to more than R320 million. The trial has been set for July 13 to August 31 in the Pietermaritzburg High Court. Gumede was charged in May 2019 while she was still eThekwini mayor. She formally resigned as mayor in August 2019 after being recalled by the ANC.”

Read more >> 

[SA] Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana explained that officials were looking at setting up an independent agency to manage the [disaster/flood] money. This would include people from outside the government to ensure proper transparency.
This is an immense concession – our own finance minister believes that the government is corrupt, or at the least, cannot be trusted.
There are plenty of examples as to why this has happened. Just in the past few years, money destined to buy personal protective equipment for health workers at the start of the pandemic was looted. Nearly half a billion rand was spent on sanitising classrooms that did not need to be sanitised. The contracts to do this work were agreed to on WhatsApp.

Read more >> 

The newly elected eThekwini ANC regional leadership has been accused of hijacking the work of the eThekwini Municipality by establishing a nerve centre to co-ordinate the government’s response to the floods.
Who’s surprised that, after the ANC government promises to help the country recover from the recent floods and make financial resources available, ANC representatives are met, not with gratitude but overwhelming cynicism? Most people – me included - believe this money will simply be stolen.
Certainly, corruption is not just within South Africa nor only South African politicians. The US, too, has its COVID-19 fraud schemes, some of which, totaling $150 million, are drawing criminal charges. The US Justice Department is unveiling charges that range from overcharging for medical services to selling fake vaccination cards. 
Corruption in the US tends towards powerful political figures "fund raising" from powerful lobbyists, corporate and business interests - who expect big things in return. This is built into the nation's laws, the most recent of came out of Citizens United vs FEC. 

Money, always a major driving force of politics, each day becomes even more important across the world.
Astonishingly, US Congressman Mo Brooks, a Trumpie's Trumpie, loyal devotee of The Donald, was video'd recently explaining how Congressional committees work >>
Who was it said, "the truth will out"? 

Oh, yes, Shakespeare ...

An outing I can get behind...

Discouraging

News blues

In the US state of Florida, a federal judge struck down President Joe Biden’s national mask mandate covering airplanes, airports and other public transportation. This prompted the White House to announce the rule would not be enforced while federal agencies decide how to respond to the judge’s order.

The ruling appeared to free operators to make their own decisions about mask requirements, with several airlines announcing they would drop mandates, but other transport networks including the New York City subway planning to keep them in place.

Read more >> 

Additionally, most major US airlines are no longer requiring travelers or employees to wear face coverings on domestic and some international flights >> 

***

The Lincoln Project: Roger Stone  (0:20 mins)

***

On war…

Photo essay documenting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine >>

Healthy planet, anyone?

President Ramaphosa addresses flooding across the east coasts of South Africa. Another national state of disaster!(25:00 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Loadshedding at stage 4 today; no electricity from 2 to 4:30am, 10am to 12:30pm, and 8 – 10:30pm. This just-in-time change presented on the app at 7:30am.
How do small and large business owners and their formal and informal workers manage to run under these conditions? Some, grocery store chains and big manufacturing plants, for example, run petrol- or gas-powered generators. The “little guys”?
A generator parts manufacturing company lists challenges facing businesses:

• Loss of production: where most businesses use electricity for machinery, technology and light to complete the day’s work, loss of electrical power means that the day’s target cannot be completed.
• Loss of profit: with the loss of production, there is a loss of profit, and in some cases, a large loss. Businesses cannot keep pay their employees to be present during a power outage….
• Theft and burglary: small businesses are choosing to close for business during load shedding as incidences of theft increase. During the power outage, burglar alarms are rendered useless, , with increased risk of burglary, unless they have an alternate power source.
• Damage to electronics: the surge of electricity when the power is returned upsets the steady voltage flow in the electrical system. This in turn can cause damage to electronic components.

A study conducted in 2018 established that load shedding is costing SA industry in excess of R 2 billion per week. 

Read more >> 

***

Rain slows, clear skies for few days…
KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:20am
Sunset: 5:35pm

Some drizzle predicted…

San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:28am
Sunset: 7:48pm

Easter Monday

News blues

Covid news roundup: Pfizer and BioNTech reported preliminary clinical data supporting use of their Covid-19 vaccine as a booster in children ages 5 to 11. And, one vaccine developer won marketing authorization in Europe while another faces a regulatory setback.
Read more >> 

***

China’s strategy for managing their recent Covid outbreak in Shanghai, population more than 25 million, has been a tight locked down since last month; only last week did they begin to ease onerous restrictions.
The Biden administration eschews lockdowns while it continue its strategy of vaccinations, boosters and treatments… and urging a seemingly reluctant Congress to take up a multibillion-dollar funding package upon its return from recess.
Read more >> 

Our World in Data – global Covid tracker >> 

***

On war…

Photo essay >> 

Healthy planet, anyone?

As I stepped into the bathtub last night the house plunged into darkness.
What to do?
First, wonder – not for the first time – if I have the fortitude to live in South Africa. Unlike thousands of others, I’m choosing to live here. Is that the wrong choice? Why am I choosing the inconvenience and the ineptitude that accompanies almost every facet of daily life here? 

After I donned my jammies, I tried to determine if the problem is local – confined to the house – or widespread. My recollection was that Escom called off loadshedding. Electrically power wi-fi doesn’t operate without power so accessing Escom’s loadshedding app with its schedule was out of the question. 

Shining my heavy-duty emergency light on the main distribution board, I ascertained no fuses had tripped. Rather, the whole neighborhood was dark.
Escom's just-in-time schedule - no warning - again.

However, Our World In Data’s fossil fuel energy tracker map presents interesting data on global electricity sources. 

 

Source: Our World In Data based on BP Statistical Review of World Energy & Ember.
© OurWorldInData/energy 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

A recent SMS offered easy-to-get money that may be an invitation to participate in money laundering.

Do you need a loan with a low interest of 5% which there is no credit check Blacklisted, Debt review and Court order are eligible and accepted. T & Cs applies… [sic]
1. PERSONAL LOANS
2. SECURED LOANS
3. INSTALLMENT LOANS
4. STUDENT LOANS
5. HOME LOANS
6. BUSINESS LOANS
7. PENSION LOANS
8. PAYDAY LOANS
Loan Amount From R5,000 up to R10 Million Interested kindly contact our South Africa branch for more details on how you can apply. [sic]
S.G RESERVE BANK LITHUANIA AFFILATED WITH SOUTH AFRICAN RESERVE BANK.

Info on how to contact sender included email address, phone, Whatsapp, and customer service numbers, along with another “call number”.
If I was desperate enough to apply for such a load would the S.G. Reserve Bank of Lithuania, affiliated with the SA Reserve Bank, give me precise measurements for the size hose to use to ensure efficient vacuuming of money out of / into my bank account?
“Bob’s story: During the Zuma years, a friend “Bob” – who speaks fluent isiZulu and is known to and liked by provincial chieftains who occasionally visited his country home - called an ambulance after the daughter of a KZN politician was involved in a vehicle accident.
Soon after, the woman’s father called Bob and asked for a bank account number into which to deposit a financial thank you. Caught between common sense (never share your bank account number with a politician) and local politics (don’t antagonize local chieftains) Bob reluctantly presented a seldom used bank account number. A day later, very large sums of money began to flow in and out of that account. Bob said nothing, did nothing, and never touched one penny of those funds. (FYI: One US penny is equivalent to 10 SA pennies.)
Corruption R Us?
As KZN residents suffer severe flooding, someone realistic recognizes the temptation presented by funds for flood victims. She or he determined that the SA Human Rights Commission will monitor the distribution of the SA government’s R1-billion emergency relief package. “The commission says it will ensure the resources reach those who need them most. The Public Protector will also send a team to make sure there is no maladministration or corruption.” .

Hmmm. Will this avert the usual money grabbing?

 
More worries that KZN disaster relief funds will be looted: report 

The corrupt recognize no boundaries and no need other than their own. Amid a global pandemic, for example, billions were stolen from funds to address Covid in Africa and South Africa. 
Indeed, SA health minister Zweli Mkhize, his ‘family friend’ and ex-private secretary pocketed Covid-19 cash via R82m Department of Health contracts. 
Amanpour and Company recently interviewed Frank Vogl, anti-corruption expert and author of The Enablers: How the West supports kleptocrats and corruption – endangering our democracy (18:00 mins).
An excerpt:

Isabel Dos Santos, the daughter of Angola’s former dictator, had a personal fortune of more than $2 billion; 40% of Angolans live on less than $20 a month. And Vladimir Putin has stolen so much from Russia and its citizens, that he — not Bezos, Musk, or Gates — may be the richest person alive. As Frank Vogl shows in his deeply researched and damning new book, laundering the dirty cash of kleptocrats into safe investments could not happen without the help of Western bankers, lawyers, accountants, and realtors – these are the enablers.

Read the review and buy the book >> 

***

Yet more rain…
KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:19am
Sunset: 5:37pm

San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:29am
Sunset: 7:47pm

Deeply unsettling

News blues

As Covid takes hold across China,

… cities are locking down their residents, supply lines are rupturing, and officials are scrambling to secure the movement of basic goods - as the largest ever recorded outbreak of Covid-19 threatens to spiral into a national crisis of the government's own making.
At least 44 Chinese cities are under either a full or partial lockdown as authorities persist in trying to curb the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant…
In Shanghai, the epicenter of the country's latest outbreak, scenes once unimaginable for the hyper-modern financial capital have become part of the daily struggle for 25 million people. There, residents forbidden to leave the confines of their apartments or housing blocks for weeks have been desperate for food and freedom….

Read more >> 

Shanghai’s Covid outbreak is China’s most serious since the beginning of the pandemic, with 200,000 cases reported – and likely far more not reported - since the outbreak started in March.

While the government touted its Zero Covid strategy, its system of containment using intensive testing and tracing, combined with partial or complete lockdowns when a case is detected, as keeping case counts and deaths low over the past two years, the reports coming out of Shanghai suggest that the local government was unprepared for an outbreak in the country’s economic center and cast doubt on the feasibility of Zero Covid at this point in the pandemic. That’s translated into serious struggles for residents, including hours-long ambulance wait times, dwindling savings, and inadequate or rotten food supplies, among others. Although the central government is reportedly stepping up efforts to get supplies to the city, the overall policy is driving many residents to criticize the government’s policy — and Shanghai’s implementation of it — despite serious potential risks to their safety and freedom by doing so.
[Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations said recently,] “Even the authoritarian governments… still have to take this mass reaction into account, or else will lose the cooperation from the society. We’re going to expect that [the central government] is going to improve the policy implementation, even though the policy itself is not going to change.”

Read more >> 

Across the US, evident rise of BA.2 variant >> 

***

The Lincoln Project: Affinity  (0:32 mins)

***

On war…

Russia Resumes Attacks On Kyiv >>

War of words: Across the U.S., law makers are writing and presenting insidious anti-gay and anti-transgender bills – essentially, to outlaw a facet of humanity that includes human sexuality and human love. Missouri bill 2140 is one of 50 similar bills being presented in state capitals around the U.S.
Thank the gods for Missouri Representative Ian Mackey who confronts this direction. In this clip, Ian Mackey confronts a colleague in a beautiful, heartfelt speech. (2:15 mins) 
You go, Ian Mackey! Eventually, you will be proved right: these bills and the people who write them will lose. It’ll take time for the pendulum that is American politics to swing from its current extreme right position to something more humane, but it will swing. Sadly, people will suffer in the meantime. I, like millions of other Americans, can hardly wait for the swing.
May We the People see more Ian Mackeys sharing heart and love and humanity and generosity of spirit….

Healthy planet, anyone?

The Amazon Rainforest, a critical global ecosystem, is on the ballot in Brazil.
Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has presided over record deforestation of the Amazon – as unclear-on-the-concept humans stood by and watched.
As Bolsonao’s reelection campaign begins, can this essential-to-life rainforest can survive 4 more - any more - years of Bolsonaro in office?
Can humanity survive him?
A deeply unsettling reality: Forcing one country’s 2.126 million people to vote for life or death of the entire planet and 7.753 billion humans.
Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Yet more rain in…
KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:19am
Sunset: 5:38pm

San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:30am
Sunset: 7:46pm

MeerKAT

News blues...

Covid, schmovid! Let’s celebrate something out of this world – and first spotted by South Africans:

This record-breaking megamaser is the most distant one ever observed at 5 billion light-years away from Earth.
The light from this space laser traveled a whopping 36 thousand billion billion miles (58 thousand billion billion kilometers) to reach our planet.
An international team of astronomers, led by Marcin Glowacki, observed this light, using the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory's MeerKAT telescope. (MeerKAT is shorthand for Karoo Array Telescope, preceded by the Afrikaans word for "more.")
Glowacki is a research associate at the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Australia.
Megamasers are created when two galaxies crash into each other. It is the first hydroxyl megamaser that MeerKAT has observed,,,,

Read more >>

***

(c) Zapiro

Reviewing the aftermath of recent flooding in Durban, President Ramaphosa said, “…climate change is serious, it is here… We no longer can postpone what we need to do, and the measures we need to take to deal with climate change.”

Good for Ramaphosa. The reality, however, more complex. Where does a country like South Africa, burdened with ongoing massive corruption at the highest levels of government, get the funds needed to competently address the growing effects of climate change. Moreover, South African police used stun grenades to disperse a crowd in Durban, suffering catastrophic flood damage, calling for more and better official aid for flood victims.
Read more >> 
(See below, more on climate change action.)

***

The Lincoln Project: Abbott’s Wall  (0:55 mins)

***

On war…

Alla Gutnikova's speech at the Dorogomilovsky court. She is one of the editors of the Moscow student journal DOXA, and facing prison sentences for "inciting minors to take part in illegal opposition protests”. But the speech, “Be Like Children. Repeat: 2+2=4. Black Is Black. White Is White.” is about so much more. 

Read Alla Gutnikova's speech at the Dorogomilovsky court >> 

Healthy planet, anyone?

Twenty-five scientists affiliated with Extinction Rebellion, arrived at Westminster, London, and

... pasted pages of scientific papers to the windows of the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and glued their hands to the glass to highlight the climate science they said the government was ignoring.
This, a week after the government published a new energy strategy that promised to continue the exploitation of North Sea oil and gas, failed to set targets for onshore wind, and gave nuclear power a central role.
Dr Aaron Thierry, a 36-year-old ecologist said, “Last week the world’s scientists released a report that sounded the final alarm for the planet. It said we must end our addiction to fossil fuels now. The UK government’s response a few days later was to announce it will increase its exploration for oil and gas with the intention of extracting every last drop.
“Science tells us that this approach will condemn our civilisations to destruction. We will not stand by and let this happen. Scientists have been sounding the alarm for decades but have been ignored by governments.”
…[Another scientist said} ““At both the domestic and international policy level, there are very powerful actors who don’t want our society to decarbonise.
“There are people who are very wealthy and powerful from the way that the world is set up now and they don’t want that to change, they don’t want to decarbonise because that will limit their opportunity to generate money from fossil fuels.
“As a result we have government departments making decisions that will lead us to calamity, and as a scientist I know what impacts this has, I can see that coming, and I can’t be passive, I can’t just let that happen. I need to act.

An observer tweeted, “The government’s insane, and I don’t know what to do, other than to do this, to try and get the attention that we need to wake the public up.”
Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

More clouds, more rain…
KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:18am
Sunset: 5:39pm

San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:32am
Sunset: 7:45pm

Persistence

Worldwide (Map) 
April 14, 2022 - 501,095,900 confirmed infections; 6,186,310 deaths
April 15, 2021 – 138,278,420 confirmed infections; 2,973,058 deaths

US (Map) 
April 14, 2022 - 80,483,900 confirmed infections; 986,510 deaths
April 15, 2021 – 31,421,361 confirmed infections; 564,402 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
April 14, 2022 - 3,734,000 confirmed infections; 100,116 deaths
April 15, 2021 – 1,560,000 confirmed infections; 53,500 deaths

News blues

The world surpasses half a billion known coronavirus cases, amid concerns about testing. 

***

The Biden administration announced it is extending the nationwide mask requirement for airplanes and public transit for 15 days as it monitors an uptick in COVID-19 cases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was extending the order, which was set to expire on April 18, until May 3 to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant that is now responsible for the vast majority of cases in the U.S.
I’m intending to wear masks every moment of my return trip to California anyway, but… 

Read more >> 

***

The Lincoln Project: Last week in the Republican Party - April 13, 2022 (2:12 mins)

***

Healthy planet, anyone?

How much greenhouse gas emissions the world emits in the coming decades is unknown. … It will depend on what people around the world will do now and in the future.

In this situation, it’s helpful to create scenarios that cover a range of possible futures. This is what the ‘Shared Socioeconomic Pathways’ (SSPs) are. SSPs are the possible futures that climate researchers in the IPCC consider in their models.
SSPs do not tell us what the world will look like. Instead, they tell us what the world could look like.

Read more and use the IPCC Climate Scenario Explorer >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

That heavy rainfall that fell on KZN? Those predictions of flooding?
They were very real yesterday. Video clips of flooding in and around Durban  (3:00 mins)
Flood aftermath: view 1 (2:17 mins) and view 2 (3:54 mins)
More than 300 dead >> 

Stormwater drainage infrastructure
Many in the business community say the damage was made worse by a failure on the part of the provincial government and the Durban municipality to maintain drainage infrastructure and prepare for eventualities such as these.
Now, the Durban Chamber of Commerce has called for the government to undertake a “serious review” of the stormwater drainage system along the road networks.
It wants the local and provincial governments of eThekwini to share their disaster management plans, including their programmes of infrastructure maintenance and development to improve drainage and traffic congestion.
“There needs to be a serious review of stormwater drainage systems related to our local and provincial road networks to ensure that rainwater can easily drain away,”

Read more >> 

Indeed, there really “needs to be a serious review of stormwater drainage systems - all infrastructure - related to our local and provincial road networks to ensure that rainwater can easily drain away.”
My “timely” - 6 YEARS – nagging the local roads department to attend to the blocked culverts paid off, albeit in miniscule fashion. 

Plenty more nagging ahead. 

Frankly, I doubt that public entity – supported by residents’ property taxes, including mine - will ever devote the people power needed to address infrastructure problems, including my small one: clearing the second totally blocked culvert and removing silt that continues to threaten to rise to levels that block water from draining.
Nevertheless, their recent small efforts helped. This, after I kvetched to local council people then to the head guy in Pietermaritzburg. His terse email to the local office to get the work done galvanized the local team. Had I complained with less dedication, this house’s downstairs would be under water.
The good news? The sheer volume of water pushing into the open culvert cleared out debris and silt. Water is flowing better than it has for some years. The overflowing stream banks, last week not visible, are still overflowing, but the water level has dropped after reaching a depth in the lower garden of more than 1 meter (3 feet).
Alas, the sump formed by the backhoe operator is now a convex hump rather than a hole, due to silt runoff from the dirt road.
I will continue kvetching to the roads department although their workload increased exponentially with the flooding across the province. I will write another email, in report format and accompanied by photos and video clips, to the head guy in Pietermaritzburg. He’ll send a terse email to the local team. The local team will show up, mill around, scrape debris here and there, depart. And the cycle will be unbroken  (4:00 mins)
And… amid the flooding, Escom – South Africa’s parastatal electricity company – is “load shedding” again. Our electricity schedule: two hours off at 8:00 pm. 

Try pumping away massive amounts of excess water without electricity.

***

“Clear” weather predicted today. Alas, more rain predicted for the Easter Bunny weekend:
KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:16am
Sunset: 5:41pm

San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:35am
Sunset: 7:43pm