Blogs from Eastern Cape, South Africa, Africa - page 5

“The point of modern propaganda isn’t only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate the truth.” – Garry Kasparov Not only do we have a raging Covid-19 pandemic but, right alongside and equally alarming, is the “infodemic” underpinned by the deluge of information out there on social media and news platforms. As the clock ticks through the day (slowly during this increasingly boring home-bound captivity), there is a never-ending stream of theories, videos, posts and the like flying through cyberspace destined for our “essential to be in touch” devices. What then happens is entirely at the discretion of the receiver. The sensible thing to do is to hit the “delete” button but human curiosity has its own magnetic force which draws many of us to want to read ... read more

“Negativity is like burning plastic: while destroying itself, it annoys everyone with its stench.” – Charbal Tadros No point kicking off with WHO statistics on Covid-19 as it is very easy for anyone to access the data on their website dashboard. The reality is that infections and the death rate globally continue to nudge upwards albeit at declining daily rates in a number of countries. The key societal shift currently is the massive push back from civilians in a number of countries who challenge the iron fist manner in which their Governments have handled the virus. The key themes are; reacting too late, over reaction, an assault on civil liberties, lack of transparency with regards effect of measures and impact on the population and most importantly, the disastrous impact on people’s financial well-being. Economies are in ... read more

“I’m very much a believer that it’s action that matters much more so than, you know, the flurry of political promises and statements and slogans that are used during political discourse.” – Christine Lagarde The WHO dashboard as at 2.00am 26 April 2020 has the following statistics on their Covid-19 global dashboard (SA in brackets): Confirmed Cases: 2,774,135 (4,361) Deaths: 190,871 (86) New cases in last 24 hours: 93,109 (141) Bottom line, we are very far off being out of the woods! No vaccine or cure in sight although there are numerous biochemical companies globally who are working frantically to find the silver bullet that can hasten an end to this nightmare event in our modern times. Here in South Africa we have much to be proud of. The manner in which President Ramaphosa (CR) and ... read more

“Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings.” – Elie Wiesel There is no doubt social media has had a strangely perverse impact on this whole Covid-19 pandemic. There is an incessant and daily bombardment of information from all directions and it is not too dissimilar to a tsunami of epic proportions threatening to drown all in its path. We have access to this gargantuan flow of information but do we have the ability to process it all? I doubt it as all it seems to do is fulfil our desire to know, because it is in all of our natures to try and understand things especially when there is no thread of prior experience to tap into. So, what ... read more

“Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass. It is about learning to dance in the rain.” – Vivian Greene (an author born in Rhodesia in 1904) An interesting quote to say the least and it somehow resonates with the current nightmare scenario confronting mankind. There is a monumental and frightening storm raging with no early signs of abating, but whilst we fervently wait and hope that Covid-19 will eventually blow out, we still need to figure out how to make the most of a frightening situation beyond our immediate control. Huge numbers of humans around the World, myself included, ponder daily on what will happen next as we watch in horror at the relentless onslaught of this virus which simply has not played by any rational rule book. Each day there are chilling ... read more