Category: in the news

Where are we going?

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The scent of emigration is in the air.

Not for us. We have no such plans.

But if you’re driving around the Southern Suburbs while going about your business on any given day, you will – without exaggeration – likely see at least one family upping and leaving the country; their belongings being loaded into a shipping container, probably headed for… well… where exactly?

I do get it. It’s not like SA doesn’t have its problems: crime, loadshedding, corruption, economic issues, BEE, poor governance, more loadshedding, some more crime and just an overall feeling of despair on many days.

But there are two points that I’d like to make here. Firstly, that SA isn’t particularly exceptional in this emigration thing. Maybe the reasons are different in each place, but no-one seems particularly happy at the moment:

70% is a lot of your young people. And it’s worth noting that Ireland is one of the destinations of choice for emigrating Saffas, too. (Aside: maybe that’s why the Irish want out?) But there are many less developed countries with high emigration rates: India, Iran, Albania, Bangladesh, Jordan, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and… er, yes… Ireland.

SA is far from alone in people wanting to be elsewhere.

But then that brings me to my second point: where do these people want to go? Because, as Cape Talk’s Refilwe Moloto remarked this week:

Considering emigration? Where? ‘Cause the world is going to hell in a handbasket.
I understand why you want to emigrate, but the world is not what it used to be… It’s angry, selfish, and inward-looking. There’s this terrible psyche in the world now that goes, ‘Us first’… xenophobia… Brexit… right wing politicians across Europe…

I think she’s being a bit dramatic with some of that (although), but the sentiment is right. The grass is not always greener on the other side*, and even if it is a little bit greener, it’s clearly often not as green as many emigrants thought or hoped it might be. How much of that lack of verdancy are you willing to put up with, given the cost, the logistics, the emotional wrenching and just the sheer upheaval of everything in moving halfway around the world?

And how long do you have to be in your new country before you’re allowed to bitch and moan about it all the time on social media? Well, not very long at all, it seems. (Obviously, I’m not going to give examples here.)

What happened? Did you not do your due diligence? Were you ridiculously expecting utopia*? If you don’t like it, you can always come home. But here’s a tip: as I found out when moving to SA, the sooner you stop trying to make the country fit in with you, and rather just choose to fit in with the country, the better and easier is is to live your daily life without the constant stress of feeling like an outsider.
And any other approach is actually a little narcissistic, don’t you think?

But enough of my advice.

Because a lot of people leaving will obviously take the view that things will have to be really bad elsewhere before it’s as crappy as they feel it is here. But looking around (and even with my rose-tinted, glass-half-full mindset fully engaged), I don’t see anywhere that’s particularly attractive right now*.

The world is a bit of a mess at the moment.

* We’re not including Norway here, obviously.

Blame the virus

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There’s a worrying thing happening worldwide at the moment. Anecdotally, we’re seeing a lot more people suffering from – and/or dying from – cardiac problems. Generally, these people tend to be relatively young, and often relatively fit. Certainly not the cohort you would expect to be hit in this way.

Of course, the tinfoilers are all over this. After all, what has changed since the onset of the Covid pandemic? Yes, the vaccine. So that must be it, because there’s nothing else that has been so ubiquitously distributed around the world (ha!), so QED, the vaccine is causing the problem.

You actually have to admire their scientific approach. Indeed, when we as scientists are trying to find out what causes something, we too look at changes in the systems which precede that thing. In this case, what we would also consider is:

THE ACTUAL VIRUS

And lookie here: this German study suggests that infection with Covid – even if it’s a mild infection – is associated with heart problems down the line.

And, surprise surprise, they found damage to the heart and increased cardiac markers (the chemicals in the blood that we measure to see if there is damage to the heart) in previously healthy patients.

This is a study that still needs more work (indeed, it’s still ongoing), but the signs are clear. If you have had Covid, you are more likely to have cardiac damage than if you didn’t have Covid. And while in many cases, that might only manifest itself in shortness of breath or chest pain, there will sadly be some individuals who suffer much more serious consequences. See my first paragraph above.

These observations fit well with another study – importantly mostly done before the vaccine was widely released – in which a team based in St Louis, USA found some very disturbing results regarding cardiac and circulatory problems post Covid infection:

Importantly, the more severe the infection (they used non-hospitalised, hospitalised and ICU) the greater the increase in risk, but in virtually every situation, the risk of heart or circulatory disorders was increased in those who had been infected with SARS-CoV-2.

So when we’re out there considering whether to take our booster jab for Covid, please look beyond the anti-vax nonsense. Please ignore the shouty people telling you that “the jab is killing healthy, young people”. No. It’s the damn virus that’s doing that.

And if you want to be better protected against the damn virus, go get the jab.

Observing

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OK. I have a lot to do today, but I felt that I had to take a quick break and get some thoughts down on paper pixel. And that only because maybe I feel that I should say something today and I do need to clear my mind a little.

Social media are a horrible place to be today. Some might argue the same of any day, but I’d say especially today – and any day when something momentous has occurred.

Today, for me – despite my not being a Monarchist – it does feel like the rug has been pulled a bit. Something big has shifted. A disturbance in the Force, if you will.

When I think back and look through the major historic events that have occurred during my lifetime, the Queen dying would obviously be one of them that’s right up there. Others? 9/11, the Berlin Wall coming down, the Space Shuttle disaster, Chernobyl, the Falklands War (those last two weren’t really “single moment” things, although the sinking of HMS Sheffield was).

What I’m saying is that considering my lifespan, there are relatively few “big things”, and what happened yesterday was certainly one of them. Arguably the biggest, since I’ve obviously never known any other monarch in the UK, and while everything in the world constantly and necessarily changes, the Queen was always someone – something – that was remarkably constant.

That’s not to say that she didn’t change with the times as well, indeed, I think that was one of her most impressive feats: often she was even ahead of the curve. Her Christmas speech in 1952 – remembering that she was just 24 years old, now the head of the Anglican church, and female in an (even more) male-dominated society included this line:

…but I want to ask you all, whatever your religion may be, to pray for me on that day – to pray that God may give me wisdom and strength to carry out the solemn promises I shall be making, and that I may faithfully serve Him and you, all the days of my life.

Which I feel showed amazing foresight, acceptance and openness towards other faiths. Setting a good example from her first moments as monarch.
And something many people could still do a lot better at now, 70 years later.

Later in life, we saw another side of her. Her sense of humour, her incredible work ethic and her vulnerability. The annus horibilis speech in 1992 given that she has given 70 Christmas speeches, the fact that that one remains strongest in the memory is most likely because we saw her human side publicly, maybe for the first time.

The world has lost a wonderful, quiet, perceptive leader.

And, as I said when Prince Philip died last year:

You can learn a lot about people by watching their public reactions to this sort of news.

I recognise that not everyone likes a royal family, and I recognise that Prince Philip may sometimes have been a divisive figure, but some of the comments on social media – particularly those making it all about the individual posting – are both appalling and superb.

As far as I am concerned, you can say what you want. They’re just words. Sometimes pleasant, sometimes humorous, sometimes distasteful, sometimes downright vile. And as I noted above, you don’t have to share my views on the Queen or anything else. But one should always bear in mind that freedom of speech does not mean freedom from the consequences of that speech. Whatever those may entail.

Again:

You can learn a lot about people by watching their public reactions to this sort of news.

It’s worth noting that those downright vile people have always been out there. But sensibly, you probably chose not to associate with them before. Now, their incendiary viewpoints are thrust upon each and every one of us via retweets, “shares” and “likes”, whether we want to hear them (we don’t) or not.

Be the better person. They’re just words. Step back, take a deep breath, quietly observe.

But also: always remember. As you should with the anti-vaxxers and the covid denialists and the rude and the ignorant. Because knowing who or what you’re dealing with will stand you in good stead, should you come to interact with those people in the future.

Some tweets

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Various subjects. As you’ll read.


First up: Covid (of course).

People go to a festival, think they’re safe because “it’s outdoors” (except the shared car journeys, the indoor bits, the bars and the densely crowded, close contact bits), and then they contract an extremely infectious virus.

It’s nothing new.

We’re told that it’s sociology, rather than epidemiology or microbiology that tells us when a pandemic is over. And looking at things sociologically, in many cases – like the festival(s) above – behaviour has returned to normal. Except, if the pandemic is over, why are so many people still getting infected with the causal agent? And this in summer, as well.
Wider society might think we’re done with Covid. The medical experts will tell you differently.

Crime: It’s a huge problem in South Africa. How do we solve it?

It’s not so difficult, apparently:

Actually, it’s been staring us in the face all the time. Rather than increasing policing, relying on better intelligence or working on active rehabilitation of offenders, people should just stop stealing. Then the crime numbers would come down.

You can’t fault his logic. And if we can make it work on theft, then surely robbery, assault and murder should be addressed in the same way.

Just do less of it.

Crime: Sorted.

Photography: The trouble with it being free.

There is indeed a lot of “vapid shit” in the photography sections of the internet. (And to be fair, in a lot of other sections as well.) But, aside from asking people to produce less of it (see above tactic), would having to pay for trendy, hipster, retro film – like we used to have to do – make people care more?

Probably.

But, it would also price many people out of the photography game. And we would miss out on a lot of talent because of that. And so the best way is not to make a return to the “good old days” of film and cassette, but rather to champion and support and share the really good work out there.

And yes, maybe occasionally take the piss out of the really horrific stuff, just for balance.

Loadshedding – now available in California

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Indeed.

So let’s add the USA to the ever-lengthening list of loadshedders and near misses:

Dear old SA
Switzerland
UK
China (including Shanghai)
Australia
Finland
USA
We’re currently (no pun intended) in the middle of a 4 day Stage 2 sesh here, due to breakdowns at six different power stations (including Koeberg), and a late return to service for another unit at another power station.