Blogs from South Africa, Africa - page 16

November 27, 2020 LX 288 touched down at Johannesburg International Airport (called Tambo), at 03:55 AM, after a 9:47 hours flight from Zurich. In it were two mighty excited passengers Nui & Nenad. Despite the Covid restrictions everywhere, we managed to squeeze out of Europe and into the summer of the southern hemisphere. As the SWISS Boeing 777-300 ER taxied, we looked how darkness slowly gave way to dawn, and at each other, gave us a big kiss, and said YES !!! we are here. Nenad was previously in several other African countries, but never in Southern Africa, nor the country South Africa. A wish he held for years. And for Nui, this exotic, far away place held so many mysteries and excitements she was eager to discover. Johannesburg the biggest city of the country with ... read more

“There is no worse mistake in public leadership than to hold out false hope soon to be swept away.”- Winston Churchill There is much in the media presently about the imminent availability of a vaccine for Covid-19 based on relatively successful outcomes of the Pfizer (90 percent effective) and Moderna(94.5 percent effective) trials. Never mind that these vaccines have been rolled out in record time and have leapfrogged many of the accepted processes which normally result in years of ongoing trials and reprocessing before being approved. Both shots rely on a technology called url=https://link.mail.bloombergbusiness.com/click/22124421.32536/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmxvb21iZXJnLmNvbS9mZWF0dXJlcy8yMDIwLW1vZGVybmEtYmlvbnRlY2gtY292aWQtc2hvdC8_Y21waWQ9QkJEMTExNzIwX0NPUk9OQVZJUlVTJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV90ZXJtPTIwMTExNyZ1dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249Y29yb... read more

Here we are, it has been 5 full weeks we are back in South Africa and it feels so good to be back! Yes, there is home, the diving, the golf, but also amazing wine and food! This is my own little paradise found! The country has now opened, or is in the process to open to anybody with a negative covid test. So at least we know it will be easier to go in and out in the near future. The second wave of Covid hasn't hit yet here. Not sure if and when it will happen, but we are ready to stay home if we need to! December being the school holidays month here, I also plan that we stay mainly home for most of the month. So after spending few weeks at home, ... read more

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.” - Bertrand Russell Covid-19 is now off the front pages and the media is not nearly as fixated with this pesky virus as was the case in recent months. Lock-downs are on hold, South Africa is on Level 1 and there is this far more relaxed mode and mind set suggesting the worst is done and dusted. The key word defining our current human view on Covid-19 is undoubtedly, complacency. How wrong could we possibly be and what will be the upshot of the increasingly “relaxed” outlook on Covid-19? The compulsion to write further blogs has waned and this edition follows a 3-week break. This suggests it has slipped to back of ... read more

“Every human has four endowments; self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom…. the power to choose, to respond, to change.” - Stephen Covey Someone once said “Every sunset is an opportunity to reset” and if there is one critical step, we all need to take in these repetitive, exhausting Covid-19 times, it is the need to “reset.” Our minds have numbed as we struggle to remember when, why and how this unprecedented intrusion on our lives all started. 2020 is now almost at the three-quarter mark and most of us talk about writing off this year noting it as one of very little by way of personal achievement. Many dreams, plans, activities, adventures have simply vaporised and disappeared into the mists of time. Against this backdrop, the past week ... read more