Pandemic Lockdown - SA - Day-by-day...

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Monkey Bidness

Click to enlarge

Neighborhood monkeys stimulated today’s header and theme.
The American term, “bidness” defines a street hustle, a shady and mostly illegal business venture, and all things opposed to a legitimate business.
Oversight chafes Bidnessman Donald J Trump, always has, always will.
He’s a fella with a murky past - and murkiness is his best pal...
He quickly removed the federally appointed inspector general, Glen Fine, from monitoring the first US$2 trillion coronavirus “relief” package, put in his own guy, ("suitably experienced") Environmental Protection Agency inspector general, then neutralized him, saying, he, Trump would oversee the effort.
There’s nothing like mounds of apparently free money to stimulate giant clusterf**ks – and the goldrush is on.
This starter list could stimulate you to learn more about the greatest heist in history. Search using any terms you like to uncover more Trump-related corruption … and prepare yourself best you can.
It's gonna be a long, hard slog to get out of the mess we're in - a lot will  fall on people least able to withstand the fallout….

• There’s No Real Oversight of the $2 Trillion Coronavirus Relief Law
• Trump team’s use of big insurer to dispense recovery funds comes under scrutiny 
• Big Pharma Prepares to Profit from Coronavirus  
• The $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill was just the beginning of a Washington lobbying bonanza — but lobbyists are rushing to get a piece of the action in case it evaporates with a cratering economy. 
• Corruption has crippled SA's capacity to fight coronavirus, lives will be lost

Amuse-bouche

A single, bite-sized palette-freshening hors d'œuvre to rid the taste of corruption. Talent will shine in the darkest of times. Thanks, Michael Gene Sullivan

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Neighborhood monkeys aggressively prepare for winter. Late afternoon yesterday, as I mowed the lawn – again – mature monkeys oversaw the tree-swinging antics of young monkeys. I’m not sure where monkeys usually sleep but last night, unusually, monkey grunts and squeals continued until after dark. This morning, monkey grunts and squeals welcomed the rising sun. Through the burglar guards surrounding my dwelling, I captured two short vid clips  (forgive the lack of editing).

I’ll keep trying for shots of young monkeys enjoying life. I’d love to share how young’uns aim for a nearby tree, leap into the air, grasp what looks like a mere frond of another tree, and gracefully bounce from tree to tree with the greatest of ease.
 Trees as alive with monkeys as a flees infesting a dog’s coat.
Meanwhile, lions and other wild animals relax in South Africa golf club during lockdown.
Enjoy your day.
 My day includes The Revenge of the Lawn (Richard Brautigan).

Read Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4

Whackjobbery!

Lockdown Day 23...

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Yesterday’s post introduced the Lincoln Project  - tagline: Dedicated Americans Protecting Democracy. (Read We are Republicans; We want Trump Defeated)
Last night, MSNBC’s Ari Melber interviewed  Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt for an astonishingly hard-hitting 9-minute overview of Baghdad Don’s three-plus years in office.
Baghdad Bob, Americans remember, was the infamous Iraqi denialist and spinmeister during the US invasion of Iraq.

Truth in advertising: I identify as neither Republican nor Democrat. Nevertheless, I’ve waited for Americans, any Americans, to quit the handwringing about Trump and actually do something constructive about removing him from office. That he’s finally offended a cohort of powerful Republicans enough to act is icing/frosting on the (fruit)cake of irony.

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Take heed, though. Trump supporters a la Tea party protest across the country against stay-at-home orders. Isn’t that like demanding your own personalized dose of Covid-19? Of this photo Steve Schmidt tweeted,

this Josh Bickel of Columbus Dispatch [Ohio] photo is worthy of a Pulitzer. It absolutely and perfectly captures the whackjobbery of Trumpism and the grievance of people who have surrendered any vestige of common sense or normalcy to the altar of freak show politics and the dogmas of political cultism.

Only 199 more days of Trump’s reign….
Best not to count chickens though. Trumpist Republicans in Congress will pull out all the stops to corrupt the November election, from disenfranchising voters, to refusing mail-in ballots despite the pandemic, and everything in-between. Despite “whackjobbery”, Trump’s approval numbers sag further each day. (Still, 40+ percent approval?) See Pollster Nate Silver’s polling data.

***

South Africa’s select team on the pandemic functions at a high level …and insists on truth: South Africa, they agree, cannot escape the worst of the epidemic. This is because "it is a completely new virus, there is no vaccine, we have no immunity and it affects white and black, old and young… everyone". They’ll do what they can do to prepare. You do what you can, too: stay home/ shelter in place, wash your hands, socially distance, wear a  mask (and disinfect it regularly).

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I dashed out to the store early this morning to replenish our pantry. Who’d a thunk grocery shopping provided entertainment and diversion? I’ve started a cold – I hope it’s a cold! – so I hurriedly fulfilled the shopping list while noting more-than-bare but less-than-full shelves of fresh fruit and veggies. Other shelves were full. Cigarettes unavailable. Liquor store shut. (Funny how lockdown stimulates a longing for a rum and soda with mint and ginger… or a gin and tonic ….) Apparently, food shortages loom:

Concerns are rising that South Africa will experience a sharp increase in crime and social unrest as desperation over food supplies spills into streets and shops around the country. According to a senior police official, who briefed News24  over concerns raised during high-level government meetings this week, it was only a matter of time before protests and looting erupted on an unmanageable scale. 

***

Back home, behind the security fences and gates, I prep the garden for winter.
Fall/autumn is early. Winters at this elevation feature plant-killing frost so I’m preparing by spreading grass clippings around plants, distributing rich soil coughed up by moles, and composting leaves and pond weed.
I’m making the most of lockdown – even enjoying it. Gardens are treasure troves of new discoveries.

Remember Scruffy, the blind-in-one-eye, totally deaf dog who barks every 7 to 9 seconds?
Today, Scruffy’s several-hour long barkathon ended after my mother - the dog lover – intervened.
“Scruffy,” she told me, “can’t climb stairs anymore.”
She followed this pronouncement in her inimitable style of telling rather than asking. “Someone will have to carry him up and down the stairs.”
Hmmm, I'm the Someone who leads end-of-day dog walkies around the garden.
Someone’s exercise regime just added a component: weight (and) resistance.

Read   Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3   |    Week 4

Oh, the irony, the irony...

Forgive me, Conrad and Coppola for riffing off Heart of Darkness/”Apocalypse Now”….
South Africa’s efforts against the coronavirus pandemic have been noted as “world class.”
United States federal government’s efforts?
Not so much. 
The eloquent victims: 671,000-plus confirmed infected and close to 40,000 dead Americans.
The United States host more than three percent of the global infected (2,158,250) and more than two percent of the global dead (145,533).
Six months ago, who’da thunk it?

Cosmic irony? Donald J Trump dismissing people from “sh**hole countries” not “like Norway”.

To some, even bad news is good news and no news is bad news.
It isn’t news that Jared and Ivanka (Javanka) are clueless and self-centered. So, what’s news?
Not that Trump never learns from his mistakes.
Nevertheless, it is mind-boggling that he learned nothing from his first round of impeachment. Legal minds, all greater than mine, plus uber-smart Neal Katyal  point out the Trump’s defunding of WHO is an impeachable offense. (Yesterday’s post discussed WHO in some detail). 
Moreover, it’s the same category of offence that impeached him for his withholding funds from Ukraine.

Only 200 more days of Trump’s reign….

Former Republican Party members named on by-line of this Washington Post op-ed created the Lincoln Project to defeat Trump at November’s election.
(FYI: George Conway is spouse to Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway.) In the op-ed, the group states,

Publicly supporting a Democratic nominee for president is a first for all of us. We are in extraordinary time, and we have chosen to put country over party – and former VP Joe Biden is the candidate who we believe will do the same.

Steve Schmidt said on MSNBC last night,

The Republican Party that we all belong to, that we fought for, is dead. It’s a remnant of the past. It’s not coming back. It’s been utterly corrupted by Donald Trump and Trumpism and that is bad for the country… We’re in the middle of the defining event in American Life in our lifetime…. It will take an act of monumental leadership to pull this country back together, to unite it, to heal it, and to lead a recovery that will be difficult to come out of… Joe Biden is the guy to do it.

Note: I’d link to the op-ed, but the Washington Post has a paywall. It’s not Fake News but Natural Selection Due to Capitalism.
PS: I'm not sure  milquetoast Joe Biden is the guy to do it.  Hypersmart Elizabeth Warren could do it, but she's too scary smart - and too female - to too many Americans to be allowed the opportunity.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I’m impressed with how President Ramaphosa and his team of experts handle the growing pandemic. They deserve recognition for their “world class” levels of performance.
Perhaps efficient performance a la Ramaphosa et al, will trickle down, too.
South Africa’s state and provincial bureaucracies sorely need trickle down efficiency – and competence. So does my bank….
After four years of online banking and occassional use of the Instant Cash feature, suddenly I couldn’t use it to pay the gardener.
Lockdown means the gardener shouldn’t have to depart his township and run the gauntlet of police roadblocks to and from his house to collect his pay. After several failed attempts, I used precious airtime funds to call the bank. I learned that my years of paying bills online hadn't happened, indeed, that I have no online payment rights.
Why? No one knows?
The outcome?
The gardener must wait up to seven days for the bank to activate/reactivate my online payment rights. The 25-minute call consumed all my airtime. Since mine is the only phone in the house that works (more on that in an upcoming post), I must run the gauntlet of police roadblocks to purchase more airtime.
Is Kafka reaching for his pen from beyond his grave?

Goodbye Week 3, hello Week 4 of Lockdown.

Transition to the weekend with this photo of a “ladybug” (in US)/ “ladybird” (in SA) feeding on black aphids cultivated by ants on a young lemon tree.



Read Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3

You can't make this stuff up - Part 2

(c) Mike Luckovich

Today was initially scheduled to mark the end lockdown.  We're going another two weeks, until end of April. Then what?

Global confirmed cases of Covid-19 infection beyond two million, 640,000 plus in US alone. The US economy is in shambles, the global economy is following suit.
But fear not. The poster children for nepotism are on the case as Trump appoints Javanka to Council to Reopen America.

After several hours of giddy optimism about demonstrably good South African leadership on the pandemic (read yesterday’s post), I made the mistake of continuing to track news from around the world.
Congo’s news sobered me up.
Another Ebola outbreak in the eastern city of Beni as cases of Covid-19 erupt around the country. With more than 2,000 deaths from Ebola in the past 18 months, hand washing and social distancing is entrenched among Congolese. As they do their rounds, community health workers educate about coronavirus by word of mouth but fears mount.

Five-plus million Congolese and millions more people around the world depend on support from World Health Organization.  The same WHO that Prez Trump/US is threatening to defund to the tune of US$237 million in assessed fees, plus US$656 million in voluntary contributions. Voluntary contributions are “earmarked for programs including polio eradication, health and nutrition services, vaccine-preventable diseases, tuberculosis, HIV — and preventing and controlling outbreaks.”

WHO works around the world, including South Africa. (What WHO does.) Makes more sense to me to trim US military budget - Fiscal Year 2019, approximately $693 billion (US$693,058,000,000 or ZAR12,952,333,401,010,91) – and concentrate on life and health instead of oppression and death. But then, I’m anti-war not pro-business and that makes all the difference.

Moreover, the great irony is Trump defunding the WHO is largly designed to deflect scrutiny of his own administration's slow response to the outbreak. That's Trump the Businessman for ya!

Other women, actual leaders with, y'know, actual qualifications and stuff, are doing a disproportionately great job at handling the pandemic. So why aren't there more of them?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Earlier this week, I mentioned an autumn chill in the air. That’s borne out by two photos of … snow dusting the Drakensburg.

Drakensberg from Rosetta (click to enlarge)

Drakensberg from Kamberg (click to enlarge)

California is warming up. Yesterday’s temperature along San Joaquin River, in Sacramento Delta, where I dock my houseboat, was 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26.6 C). Cliff swallows likely are arriving from South America to rest and nest (one couple nests above my boat’s pontoons). Hummingbirds are wondering where I am and why I’m not filling their damned feeders.
I miss it.

Read Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3

You can’t make this stuff up

On top of all his miscommunication, false starts, repeated mistakes, false information, and butt-saving messaging, Donald J. Trump decided to delay, even further, mailing Americans coronavirus-related stimulus checks.
Why?
So checks can be printed with his name. Twitter users ripped that action.
 Then, as if punishing Americans wasn't enough, he went on to punish the whole damned planet: Trump Defunds World Health Organization In the Middle of a Global Pandemic
He attacked the WHO for its delayed response and unwillingness to confront China … without acknowledging that he’s guilty of the exact same things.

Week 2, Day 8 Friday April 3 post  suggested someone step up to Trump at a podium, switch off his mic, and escort him offstage. No one in his orbit is brave enough to do that. The US Constitution, however, provides a direct and effective measure: The Twenty-fifth Amendment (Amendment XXV).

Amendment XXV summarized: If the President becomes unable/unfit to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President becomes the President. This can happen for a short while, if the President is sick or disabled …or permanently.

Sticking point? Congress determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Right now, the House of Representatives is majority Democrat while the Senate is majority Republican. Republicans support Trump, no matter what. This means more hopeless partisan division and inaction… while humans die by the thousands.
Postscript: Concerned Americans frown with consternation at VP Pence becoming P. I’ve frowned, too. Mr. Pence showed little ability as governor of Indiana to make decisions based on peoples’ health needs and currently shows particularly sycophantic obeisance to Trump. I’m certain he’d dump the obeisance and jump at a chance at the presidency. He’d do better than Trump in that role – at least through the end of this disastrous administration. (That I’d ever suggest Pence step into the presidential role shows the level of Trump-induced calamity.)
As long as no one in government implements the amendment, Americans will continue to die while Trump hogs the mic.
Roman Emperor Nero, meanwhile, grins with delight: finally, history will ignore his fiddling while Rome burned. Donald J Trump has become history’s biggest bungler.

Lockdown works in South Africa

Hooray for South African leaders taking control of the pandemic. Monday April 13’s “public engagement with experts” Prof Abdul Karim, SA Health Ministry’s Zweli Mkhize, and others laid out strategies to confront South Africa’s coronavirus challenges.
 The first five to seven minutes of MP Mkhize’s introduction covered the latest numbers - tests, confirmed infections, deaths - and how numbers are generated. Except for 15-minutes of bad audio for two call-in experts, the conference (more than two hours long) was informative and a pleasure to watch.
Great going South Africans!
Prof Karim’s take-aways regarding personal protection, in order of importance:
1) Wash hands
 2) Social distancing
3) If you wear a mask – non-medical, cotton masks are fine for laypeople - remove it very carefully. Touching inside the mask could distribute virus and contaminate. Disinfect in hot water.

Webinars to the rescue!

Courtesy Zapiro. click to enlarge.

Days dragging by?
Daily Maverick’s Webinars make lockdown more bearable.
Link and listen to yesterday’s Climate Crisis in the time of Covid-19 webinar, with Mary Robinson and Kumi Naidoo, hosted by Rebecca Davis.
 Link and listen to today's Covid-19: The Status of the Pandemic in Lockdown Week 3. Maverick Citizen Editor Mark Heywood with health experts Professor Wolfgang Preiser and Dr Indira Govender.
Takeaways:

• high confidence that SA’s confirmed numbers of infections are accurate BUT it’s about who gets tested and when testing occurs.
• To avoid overwhelming the health systems, SA is going to have to create parallel health services specifically for Covid-19 – or risk infecting non Covid-19 cases with the virus. (It hasn’t hit the rural areas – yet!)

Trajectory of the virus in South Africa:
Prof Preiser: there will have to be measured relaxation of lockdown rules; we’re behind the curve with the worst yet to come; some habits will have to change for good.
Dr Govender: this is long term challenge with no return to “normal”… we can’t go back to overcrowding … and we need contingency plans to quickly contain Covid-19 hot spots as they crop up.

Sign up for tomorrow's webinar, Thursday 16 April at 12 pm. FutureNow: Face the Covid Reset. Daily Maverick Associate Editor Ferial Haffajee in conversation with John Sanei discusses life after the Covid-19 pandemic. 
Register here  (If you register then miss the live webinar, you’ll be emailed a link to watch later.)

***

Word from the urban streets

A domestic worker required emergency dental care at a Pietermaritzburg clinic, 22kms away. She departed early, traveled in a public taxi, and passed through roadblocks by indicating her swollen jaw. Coincidentally, her sister passed through a different roadblock early in the day and on foot. She was detained and spent hours sheltering from the rain in a police vehicle. She was released, unharmed, at 4pm, the beginning of afternoon commute.

Meanwhile back at the ranch…

Risking police roadblocks in this small rural neighborhood, I stepped outside the gate today: my first walk in 18 days. I delivered to elderly neighbors masks my mother had sewed. How to make a mask
It was déjà vu all over again. The same dogs barked in the same gardens – passing the chore of barking to the set of dogs in the next garden as I passed. The same glorious plants bloomed. Few neighbors in sight. Last year, a friend and I walked regularly in the neighborhood.
Then, a pair of young thugs hijacked, assaulted, and robbed my friend's elderly husband as he walked. He recovered but we lost our nerve.

Read Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3

Question of the Day: Whither Democracy?

 No truly “fair and balanced” person can watch the president of the United States and not worry.
Check out this April 14 press briefing  and this one, “Presidential authority is total” ...
Methinks the prez doth protest too much. He’s losing whatever marbles he had, he’s on the ropes (talking of ropes, Florida deems wrestling “essential business.”)
Be afraid. Be very afraid. The Trump/Moscow Mitch duo hath cometh – and hath bamboozled.
It’s a formidable opponent for generous-spirited people everywhere.

Jailbirds flying the coop?

Paul Manafort, set for release from Rikers prison in November 2024, seeks early release citing risk from coronavirus. 

• Ditto, Bernie Madoff, 81-year-old financial fraud schemester par excellence.
• Ditto, Michael Avenatti, convicted extortionist, busily working himself out of jail for 90 days. The Trump nemesis faces two more criminal trials.
• If I was a betting woman, I’d bet Harvey Weinstein is leveraging the coronavirus pandemic, too. And Bill Cosby. Cushy mansion/house arrest, instead?
• No ruling has been issued on a similar motion from twenty-eight-year-old Reality Winner, former intelligence analyst. Given the politics, I’d bet Winner, “leaker”/ whistleblower of a top-secret report on Russian election interference, is refused. She’s sentenced to prison for more than five years…and I’d bet she serves ‘em all.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I’ve alluded to KZN’s astonishingly fertile soil, that I can pluck a stem and push it into the earth and, pronto, it sprouts. Last year’s veggie garden presented both the up- and downside of fertility.
Upside: already rich soil, amended with rich compost, and potatoes, onions, and squash volunteer with gusto. Initially, starter plants - tomatoes, spinach (chard in California), strawberries, thyme, oregano, basil, and Thai basil - appear willing to flourish.
Downside:

The enthusiasm of beans, peas, and lettuce is quickly dampened by uMswenya. Cutworms.
California’s dry summers, wet winters, and clayey soil present few opportunities to understand cutworms. Sow bugs, yes: similar color and shape and, like cutworms, they roll/curl.
KZN’s wet, hot, humid summers present perfect umswenya conditions. Add beans, peas, dill, lettuce, rhubarb… and the gross, juicy pests thrive just below soil surface.
They demolish emerging sprouts and stems leaving only tiny scattered flecks of green.
I engineered seedling collars out of discarded toilet roll tubes cut in half. Unfortunately, collaring constrains plants and they grow spindly.
 My revenge? Popping unswenya.
This year, only volunteer squash survived cutworms. Instead, they fell victim to marauding monkeys. Takeaways? 1) How do farmers cope? 2) Do creatures like umswenya and monkeys account for Africa’s incredibly rich, fecund soils not developing as the world’s breadbasket?

***

I’m the only South African I know who sleeps (or admits to sleeping) under a mosquito net. Divebombing and sucking mosquitos are annoying but manageable. I dab smelly, homemade cannabis oil on the bites. (Lockdown means not worrying about wafting cannabis aroma.)
Alas, the manufacturer and dispenser who supplied me last year has moved on. I’m not sure how to replenish my supply but I’m using what remains, mostly on spider bites.
Despite consistently checking for spiders inside gum boots, shoes, waders, and outside gear, spiders express their displeasure at my presence. This year, they’ve dined on my right calf, left foot, sternum, and left wrist. The latest assault left a large red splotch with two tiny, raised bite marks on my right front hip.
If I don’t scratch, the angry red bumps disappear after eight to ten days of generous dabbing.
The odd thing? Unlike mosquitos, I’ve never actually caught a spider in the act, nor even found one on my person. 
Why blame spiders? Couldn’t aliens from another planet be conducting experiments?
Well, I encounter spiders and evidence of spiders: on plants, on walls, and webs slung between plants and anywhere I walk.
When I encounter aliens, it’ll be time for me to burst out of lockdown, damn the consequences.

A positive note: finally snagged a shot of a dragonfly near the pond. (Still no sign of goldfish.)





Read Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3

USA! USA! USA is number one!

USA! USA! USA is number one! This nationalist slogan takes on new meaning as the United States really is number one.

We're sitting on top of the world: 558,590 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus, and numbers still growing.

Doesn't that give a whole new meaning to Trump's campaign slogan, Make America Great Again.
That's fast becoming a heartfelt prayer.

David Bowie* has a song for that… “This is not America” – except it is. This is America in the Age of Trump.

(Left) The cover of Rolling Stone Magazine's May issue.  “The President and the Plague” outlines the last 5 months.

Coping in a time of crisis

• Is there anybody out there? 
• People dress up to take out trash to enliven their self-isolation
• Volunteering to help those self-isolating 
• Stay sane and Let’s Dance 

Okay, Boomer*

Born on the trailing end of Boomer Gen, I grew up in rural KZN and missed much of the US 60s culture and all of its nuance. Nevertheless, last night, to change my headspace from depressing Age of Trump news, I slipped down the YouTube rabbit hole and listened to ye good ole days classic rock:

• Pink Floyd: Another Brick in the Wall 
• Jefferson Starship: White Rabbit 
• Jefferson Airplane: White Rabbit 
• Jimi Hendrix: Hey Joe 
• Joe Cocker: Help from my Friends (Woodstock)  and Whiter Shade of Pale 
• Rolling Stones: Sympathy for the Devil 
• David Bowie: Heroes 
• Janis Joplin: Ball and Chain (Monterey) 
• Bob Dylan: Knocking on Heavens Door and his big existential questions, Blowing in the wind 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

Goldfish spotting: with no flick of goldfish fin or tail in six days I conclude fish are under lockdown, too. For, even the most dedicated kingfisher couldn’t pluck nine goldfish from a weed-and-lily-filled pond in six days. Could it?

  Of moles and mowing

A different section of lawn but moles with
similar mathematical inclinations?

For now, I’m declaring lawn mowing “finished and klaar.”
I’ve had it with maneuvering a mower designed for genteel lawns over hardy Kikuyu Grass and between ever-increasing numbers of mole hills.

It’s tough to learn anything about moles from moles.
Humans opine that moles spend their time in four-hour shifts, divided between sleeping and searching for food (earthworms, grubs, and other small earth dwellers).
Online conspiracy theorists say nothing about whether moles use clocks, watches, or cellphones to tell the time, but they confidently assert that moles love to eat Juicy Fruit gum (and that it's best to buy Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit in bulk packages from Costco). They also argue about whether 1) gum should be chewed or unchewed when placed in the mole tunnels, and/or 2) to use a knife and cutting board to cut up fresh (unchewed) gum into tiny squares, smaller than the period at the end of a sentence. Theoretically, moles eat the gum that “gums up” their insides, causing them to die of constipation or some other horrible digestive problem.
That sounds like American moles...and American consipiracy theorists.

Conspiracy theorist's view of moles.
(Looking for Juicy Fruit?) 

All’s I know about KZN moles in this garden is that they’re mathematically fastidious  (note the almost straight lines; perhaps they use an app on their cellphones?).
Based on the formal/biological names of most of the KZN creatures I’ve researched to-date, I’d guess this mole species is something like Common Brown Garden Mole.
 At any rate, no creature, Common or not, deserves to die of gummed up insides, constipation, or digestive problems.
Moreover, I've discovered I prefer moles to lawns.





Read Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3

Easter Sun-day-of-Rest-and-Reflection

Australia’s prime minister urged stay-at-home back in March and again, yesterday, for Easter.   Aussies appear to have overcome the national urge to buy up and hoard the country’s toilet paper supply. Perhaps they’ve sublimated fear into something constructively home-centric: baking toilet paper cakes. 
What comes next? The Great Australian Toilet Paper Bakeoff?

Easter Sun-day-of-Rest-and-Reflection

Back on March 27, first day of lockdown in South Africa, blogging a post a day for three weeks looked feasible. My daily routine already included reading world news, writing, gardening, exercising, visiting my mother, walking the dogs, and spying on garden creatures. Adding a post-a-day would keep insanity away. Wouldn’t it? Turns out, daily blogging quickly becomes debilitating. World news depresses. Trumpeting Trump’s lack of leadership, self-centeredness, and greed depresses. (I barely can watch him on YouTube; why is he allowed to campaign at “press conference” microphones?)
Gardening: me mowing the lawns is the garden equivalent of me cutting my child’s hair: clumpy and uneven. I seek out and murder cat’s claw sprouts. I fill sinkholes.  I collect and redistribute rich topsoil ejected from mole tunnels.
Exercise: I stretch, skip rope, run up and down stairs. It’s better than nothing but nothing like swimming and walking.
I watch mother sew cotton masks for the household and neighbors.
Spying reveals creatures sleep in on Easter Sunday. I haven’t spotted a goldfish in six days.

Yes, my position under lockdown is one of privilege, certainly more privileged than the majority of South Africans. Case in point: as I drafted this post, the gardener phoned. A family man with two young kids living in Mpophemeni Township, he had been scheduled to return to work this week. After we extended his stay away, I asked the status of the township. No infections that he knows of but life, he said, is “bad.” Crowded, anxious, bored, and, I’m sure, dangerous as people with incomes fall prey to people without incomes. (Last year, I asked if he grew veggies in his yard. He laughed, “Too many goats.” Goats and cattle trump people in Mpophemeni, and have priority right of way.)

***

Fewer vehicles on roads mean air is cleaner around the world. Moreover, a study reveals “pre-existing conditions that increase the risk of death for COVID-19 are the same diseases that are affected by long-term exposure to air pollution.” Imagine if governments and people around the world mobilized for climate change with just one percent of the effort expended on fighting Covid-19 infection.
Louis Armstrong sang it: “What a Wonderful World.” Read Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3

Staying sane during lockdown

President Ramphosa extended lockdown due to pandemic thorough the end of April. This means I must redouble efforts to maintain sanity.
Carrying an old-style camera around the large garden helps. And patience. After waiting in the hot sun, flies buzzing around, for what felt like an hour for this crab to perform for a video clip, I gave up and shot stills.
Note to wildlife photographers: I salute your patience and dedication to the beauty of the natural world.

Research shows this damselfly is Africallagma sapphirinum, the sapphire bluet, a species in the family Coenagrionidae. Endemic to South Africa, its natural habitat is ponds and lakes with floating aquatic plants. Guess where I saw it? Yes, posed on a floating aquatic plant.

click to enlarge.

I'm impatient for the day this garden reveals some long-mourned endangered species. So far, while extraordinary, most of the critters I've stumbled upon have been of the "Common" variety.
(Visit Photo Album for more...)

Read Pandemic Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3  

Pandemic - Day 15, April 10

Like fellow South Africans, I expected this daily grind of lockdown would end next week. Alas, last night President Ramaphosa extended it to end of April. From the macrocosm point of view - health and welfare – of course Ramaphosa is right. The threat and the potential effects of a rampaging viral infection in this country are horrendous. The potential of infection in townships and, worse, in informal settlements beggars belief.  Take a look at just one informal settlement and multiply that by hundreds and you get the picture.

Here in the microcosm? Small scale crazy making. I’ve got it good. This household consists of my fragile mother, two live-in domestic workers, and seven dogs. Marauding monkeys drop by now and again. Hungry kingfishers occasionally snack on easy-to-see-easy-to-skewer goldfish.
Nevertheless, crazy-making territory lurks between what was - walking and swimming several days a week – to what is: in-place stretching, running up and down 10 steps, skipping rope, and mowing the never-ending lawn.
Crazy-making lurks in the little things, too: the one-eyed, peeing-everywhere, deaf mutt (aptly named Scruffy) who barks every seven to nine seconds throughout the day; the need not to snap at housemates; truncated phone conversations with intelligent friends and family in faraway, chaotic United States.
 On the plus side, spending time in the garden is a gift. (More on that below.)

***

'Post Tortoise'

Courtesy Daily Kos

Back in 2005, a doctor stuck up a conversation with a 75-year-old Texas farmer. Eventually the topic turned to Trump and his role as GOP Nominee for President. The farmer said, “Well, as I see it, Donald Trump is like a 'Post Tortoise'.” Unfamiliar with the term, the doctor asked what was a 'post tortoise'. The farmer said, "When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a tortoise balanced on top, that's a post tortoise." Seeing the puzzled look on the doctor's face, the farmer explained. "You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he's up there, he's elevated beyond his ability to function, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put him up there to begin with."

Such is the chaos in the United States these days that American citizens decline US Embassy repatriation offers. One young woman in Lebanon explained that it's “safer” in Beirut.
I delayed repatriation for similar reasons. (See Week 2, Day 11, Monday April 6, “Fly the coop?”)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

Today, I spread yesterday’s grass clipping around sections of garden. It’s the beginning of autumn/fall here – one feels the coming-of-winter “nip in the air” – so time to start prepping plants and mulching anyway. I removed mounds of the diaphanous pond weed again today. I last thinned this weed on Week 1, Day 3, March 29. Another 20 days of lockdown.

I’m due to depart May 19. Will I? That is one question. Another question: what shape will I be in when I do depart? And will I have another 14 days of quarantine/self-isolation in California?

Read Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3

Pandemic Day 14 – Thusday April 9

Numbers as per MSNBC News, 4:03 pm April 8

click to enlarge.

On the same day in South Africa, 18 confirmed deaths and 1,845 confirmed cases*: 782, Gauteng, 3 deaths 495, Western Cape, 3 deaths 354, KwaZulu-Natal, 9 deaths 88, Free State, 3 deaths 15, North West 21, Mpumalanga 21, Limpopo 45, Eastern Cape 13, Northern Cape 11, Unallocated * numbers from News24.com Of 197 countries and regions, 184 have (are admitting to) confirmed cases of Covid-19 infections.

***

Usually a fan of late-night comedian-delivered news, I’ve not watched my staple comedians - Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, John Oliver, Trevor Noah, or Jimmy Kimmel - for weeks. Watching these guys in casual clothes sitting in their home studies – with poor sound quality, poor delivery, scripts not as scripted as usual, and missing laugh tracks makes me ... sad. But then there’s only so much comedy to be made while tens of thousands of people suffer and Trump hogs the spotlight to deliver “truthiness.”

The con man cometh… and overstays his welcome

Not only is he “great” and “perfect,” America’s snake oil salesman president is now “America’s cheerleader.” Remember back in 2015 when Trump, running for Republican presidential candidate, would flog Trump Organization products – steaks, bottled water, vodka, and Trump magazine?  Nowadays, he’s effectively taken over the Republican Party, dismissed anyone who showed effectiveness, expertise, competency, and dedication to government service and replaced them with… himself and his coterie. It's amazing how much lying, incompetence, and passing the buck Americans will put up with. Michelle Cottle sounds amazed, too. On the New York Times editorial board, she writes, “Drop the Curtain on the Trump Follies: Why does the nation need to be subjected to the president’s daily carnival of misinformation, preening and political venom?” A sprinkling of the latest gems from his coterie of supporters:

• “…they were on their last legs anyway…. ”
• “True Christians do not mind dying of coronavirus…” 
• Only .33 percent (i.e., less than 1 percent) of promised 3.5 billion N95 masks distributed to states… 

Meanwhile…

Here is KZN Midlands, lockdown is getting lax. Five days ago, during my first trip outside, streets and stores were almost empty. Yesterday, out for medication and iPhone charger cable, there were many vehicles on the road and in mini mall parking lots. Today’s foray for lawn mower petrol looked as if lockdown was over.

… back at the ranch

For someone who spent twenty years in California gardening in pots on a small condo patio and now lives and gardens on a houseboat, mowing a large lawn is an eye-opener. Each day this week, I’ve tackled another section of the large lawn here in KZN. I’m only half finished. The mower cuts out every seven to nine minutes or more frequently when it encounters thick grass. Pulling the rope to reignite the engine is developing the muscles in my right arm and my back. This will help when (if!) I return to my houseboat. I’ll be able to start up the 15 hp outboard motor on my gadabout dingy in no time at all!

Read Lockdown Week 1   |   Week 2

Pandemic - Day 13 - Wednesday April 8

Lockdown fever has set in!

Click to enlarge.

Pandemics have happened before. With luck, and caution, we’ll survive this one, too. I watch the goings on in both of my beloved countries with a heavy heart. On days like this, music soothes. The great Arlo Guthrie reminds us of Louisiana burdened by coronavirus with his     classic City of New Orleans (music video with great imagery)  And the late, great Hugh Masekela reminds us of SA’s complex legacy: Stimela (the coal train) Tomorrow is another day under lockdown. I’ll likely have more to say than I want to share today.

Stay safe…and enjoy the Critters (below) now in their new home.

Read Days 1 through 12.