You’ll probably have noticed

With the kids on school holidays and family over from the UK, there’s a distinct lack of order and rhythm in our lives at the moment. I’m not saying that this is a bad thing, but I am saying that you’ll probably have noticed that this usually very concise, organised, carefully constructed blog isn’t… well… any of those things at the moment.

Sorry about that.

Another thing that isn’t happening is me looking at any of the news or media sites. Again, I’m not saying that this is a bad thing, because it’s rare that there’s happy happy joy joy stuff being spread via those means. But my absence, followed by a quick dip or delve in makes me wonder just how I could have missed some of the bigger stories. Like… did this just slip under the radar yesterday, or was everyone except me talking about it?

The De Ruyter in question being the outgoing CEO of Eskom, our ailing “electricity” “generation” and “distribution” parastatal.

I have so many questions.

Does this happen to the heads of state entities in other countries* as well?
Cyanide in his coffee? That’s proper old school Cold War stuff.
But it must also surely limit the number of suspects: The tea lady. The coffee man. The mysterious individual with the small glass vial who popped into the office canteen for a couple of minutes on Tuesday morning. The office cyanide suppliers.
There are easier way to kill people. High velocity lead poisoning is very popular in SA, I believe.
Why wait three weeks to tell the police?
How did the hospital detect the poisoning so quickly? Were there suspicions that he had been poisoned or was going to be poisoned, because you’re surely (and reasonably) going to go down the viral food poisoning route first with those symptoms, and then only realise that you’re too late to put things right when you are too late to put things right. I’m just saying that cyanide poisoning a rather unusual thing to investigate for on first line tests. Either a very astute medic or some insider knowledge.

And then there are those that believe that this is all some sort of hoax or false flag. No reasoning is given by these individuals, but then, looking at the names involved, they’re not known for their powers of reasoning.

Thankfully, there is one voice of sanity out there:

Dangerous stuff, indeed. And something which most ER staff in SA would immediately consider with a confused, disorientated or collapsed middle aged man arriving at their door.

I realise that it’s just a joke, but it says a lot about how thing work in the country that it’s as reasonable a theory as anything anyone else has suggested. Including the truth.

Whatever that may be.

* well, Russia, obviously.

El Niño Is Coming – and the World Isn’t Prepared

That’s the title of this Wired article, and it makes scary reading.

I have no doubt that climate change is a very real thing, but I have often commented that I am regularly unimpressed by the hyperbole and drama with which the news stories around it are presented.

This one seems a little different.

Current forecasts suggest that La Niña will continue into early 2023, making it – fortuitously for us – one of the longest on record (it began in Spring 2020). Then, the equatorial Pacific will begin to warm again. Whether or not it becomes hot enough for a fully fledged El Niño to develop, 2023 has a very good chance – without the cooling influence of La Niña – of being the hottest year on record.

Sure, there are predictions of hurricanes and crop failure, of food shortages and economic impacts, of power outages and ever increasing temperatures, but there’s no embellishment: just facts and indications of what we might expect.

It still doesn’t sound good.

I was less sure about climate change 15 years ago. I was put off by the constantly incorrect predictions and yes, probably swayed by peer pressure when it came to believing (or not believing) what was going on. But if I hadn’t changed my mind about climate change before 2020 (I had, but…) then Covid sealed the deal for me. Not because I believe that the latter was due to the former, but because I watched experts being experts and sharing their expert knowledge, and it being shot down because of poor reporting or just sheer bloody ignorance.

Now I know how those climatologists felt.

The worst bit about knowing that this is happening is not being able to do anything about it. Because it really doesn’t matter how much good stuff like recycling and switching off our geysers that you or I do, when (e.g.) China is building another 15GW-worth of coal-fired power stations in the first six months of 2023 and (e.g.) India is reopening more than 100 coal mines to make more electricity. While collective effort at a local level probably assisted with some degree of relief during our awful drought in Cape Town, it’s absolutely laughable to try to get consumers to behave more responsibly when it comes to climate change when Jinping and Modi are chucking out more CO2 than ever before.

We don’t even have enough electricity to go around, but we’re being told (and paid) by Europe to shut down our 18 coal-fired plants, which at full capacity (ha!) amount to about 45GW of generation capacity. Meanwhile, China is operating over 1,100 coal-fired stations for 1,110GW. And all the emissions that come with them.

Until that sort of dichotomy is rectified, (and I understand how depressing and pessimistic this sounds) it feels utterly pointless to try and “do our bit” on a personal level.

Angry birds

A clickbait-laden headline led me to a paywalled article from the M&G this morning:

More like… budgie constraints, amirite?

But hard luck, M&G, because I got all the information I required from your first (free) paragraph. Ha!

We know that there is no money available to help control or eradicate these pests, because
a) there’s no money available for anything, and
b) the entire department budget went on “don’t do this” signs in Struisbaai.

On the actual birds, we don’t see much of any of them in Cape Town (yet). Allegedly, there are Indian House Crow colonies here, but they are nowhere near as widespread as in Durban and KZN. There are more mallards in Bakewell than in Kaapstad, and the Mynas and Parakeets haven’t really got this far either.

It’s a bit concerning to see the parakeets described as “popular” above. Sure, they’re nice to look at, but they are still nasty invasives, destroying the habitats of our indigenous wildlife. This is the same thing that squirrels do, and it’s why I will happily take a catapult to any I see around our garden.

These parakeets are a problem worldwide. But who is responsible?

Paging Ian Betteridge.

That said, while these may all be terrible invasive avian species to have around, they’re still not annoying as some of our homegrown birds: the Egyptian Goose (not really from Egypt, not really a goose) and the F*****g Guineafowl being the worst birds ever to exist.

I’m less willing to take a catty to either of these two, because sadly, they do actually belong here, but I will (and have) happily taken the drone out of an evening to dislodge them from a prospective roosting spot within earshot of my bedroom.

Prefect end to the year

Last day of Term 4.
Therefore the last day of the 2022 school year.
The ceremonial switching off of the 6am alarm on the phone.
Prizegiving, and a goodbye to the headteacher of 19 years.
Some great results, and that prefect announcement.
Celebrating with a family meal out tonight (while our home sits in darkness).
And why not, given that there’s lots to celebrate and there’s the 2000-2230 slot for the next couple of evenings, and then an “are you actually f_____g kidding me” 1800-2230 on Sunday?

At least we won’t be able to watch Carte Blanche.

Why didn’t he ask before?

10 hours without power today. If only something could be done about it.

But… wait…

JUST IN: The Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, has directed the
management and board to work hard to get the country out of stage 6
loadshedding with immediate effect.

Oh. Well then.

I never realised it was that straightforward.

Why didn’t he just ask a bit earlier?