March 20, 2021

I just reminded my friend ( I purposely won’t use her name) to remind her that I will come to bring some money for her as she has an appointment on Monday, March 22, at the big hospital here in Durban, Luthuli Hospital. This is where all the experts in their fields are. It is free is you have been referred by another doctor who explains that you can’t afford the expenses. Here’s the story.

She used to work for us here at MD as a kind of house mother. One day she came and when I went to greet her she told me that she couldn’t see out of her left eye, it was just black.  I piled her in the car and took her to an ophthalmologist who examined her (for free) and said that there was nothing wrong with her eye, it must be something before it gets to the eye, like a nerve or something. He phoned a friend who was a neurologist, who said that she cold come now now. But it was going to cost something like R500 for the visit, and if he found that  she had to be admitted to a hospital …..Well, that was way out of my range, so he wrote a note and I took her to McCord’s hospital, a hospital for eye problems. This is free (Americans would call it socialism). Once they put her into the system , she had to get in the queue for the doctor. It was about noon. I told her to phone me when she was finished and I would come and fetch her and take her home. She never phoned. So I phoned  about 4pm and she said there were still 5 people ahead of her. I told her again, when she was finished. But she never phoned. She made her way home on her own. That was about April of 2019. She made many visits to this hospital and from time to time to the big hospital. I was impressed with the care and cleanliness of McCord’s hospital. I also knew a young doctor there who could give me reports on her progress or lack of it. Her sight began to get worse, in spite of the care, and the other eye was also affected, so that now she could barely see at all. She needed to have someone accompany her if she wanted to go anywhere.

     So the situation was that she couldn’t work because she couldn’t see and we got a letter from my ophthalmologist to say so, But it wasn’t accepted by the government authorities, when she applied for a disability grant .(I think that the government has been tricked often by people who get their doctor friend to write such a letter…scam, so they want a government doctor, as though he or she can’t do the same thing)

   In any case for the whole year 2020 she was back and forth to the doctor at Luthuli and kept asking why her grant wasn’t forthcoming. Finally, about 2 weeks ago, I went to the person who handles all the stuff for those who are hired by the monastery, and she explained what this lady had to do, which was to get all the files of all the visits etc. from Luthuli, to present them to the insurance company to be able to qualify for a grant.

    The last time she was at Luthuli to get a copy of a one page document, they charged her R620. Wow. Now she needs a sheaf of documents about an inch (20cm) thick. God only knows what that could cost.

Now she says that the taxi fare from here to Durban is R40 and another R35 from there to Luthuli. That’s R75 one way for one person. She needs someone to accompany her, so double that. That’s R150 one way for the two of them. The return trip is another R150. That’s R300 just for transport. And she hasn’t had a salary for welll over a year. I really don’t know how she survives. When I get some money from overseas, it put some in her account to be used for food, rent, electricity, and transport, if she has to go to the doctor or to do some shopping.

   She phoned to make an appointment (as she was told to do) and was given an appointment at Luthuli for Monday the 22^nd of March. When she explained that she needed copies of all the reports, etc. for the insurance company, she asked how much that could cost. The lady told her to bring R800 with her. What? Where is an unemployed blind person who is applying for a disability grant supposed to get that kind of money? Anyway, I managed to scrape together R1000 to help pay for the transport and something for the copies. I will take the money to her tomorrow, Sunday 21^st so that she has something for transport on Monday to get started

   Bloody bureaucracy!

 

 

 

March 19, 2021

Anti-Christian persecution is one of the most dramatic human rights scourges of our time. Though statistics vary widely, the low-end estimate for the number of new Christian martyrs every year in the early 21^st century is around 6,000 to 7,000, while the highest-end accounting puts it at 100,000. That works out to somewhere between one Christian killed for the faith every hour, to one every five minutes. Whatever the actual number, it’s a death toll of staggering proportions.

Beyond fatalities, watchdog groups estimate that 200 million Christians around the world are at risk, facing daily threats of harassment, physical assault, arrest, imprisonment and torture.

Wow, even I didn’t do the arithmetic to see how drastic this is. I knew there was persecution but I didn’t realize it was so bad till someone did the sums for me.

March 17, 2021

I am wondering what is wrong with the people who suddenly are worried about this or that vaccine. Those that are being used have run through all the tests with thousands of people and have been OKed. It is clearly better that you have it than not. Here we are trying to get it out first to those who are on the front line, and then, us oldies, and eventually everyone. It is a bit slow but it is going. I am not holding my breath, but in any case, I wear my mask wherever I go, I keep my distance (but I am hardly anywhere where there is a crowd,) and I get sanitized many times a day.

·         Uber said it would reclassify more than 70,000 drivers in Britain as workers; they will receive a minimum wage, vacation pay and access to a pension plan.

This is interesting. Uber is getting to be something common here too when people are stuck for transport, but it is very expensive. When I had my service done after 15,000 km., I found out that the mechanic had to use Uber to get the materials because his own car was not working. We are a 1^st world, 3^rd world country. Most of the country is 3^rd world, but there are pockets of 1^st world, mainly in the cities and suburbs, and a few well to do commercial farmers.

Today is St. Patrick’s day. We used to do a Polish Polka in the seminary on this day to celebrate the great missionary, Patrick. Here is something that I just picked up this morning.

Putin ordered meddling in 2020 election

President Vladimir Putin of Russia authorized extensive efforts to interfere in the U.S. election to hurt Joe Biden’s chances, including operations to influence people close to Donald Trump, according to a newly declassified intelligence report.

 

The report did not name Russia’s targets but seemed to refer to Rudolph Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, who relentlessly pushed allegations of corruption about Mr. Biden and his family involving Ukraine. China considered its own efforts, but concluded that such an operation would fail, the report found.

The U.S. intelligence community also determined that Iran tried to aid Mr. Biden in the final days of the election by spreading emails that falsely claimed to be from the far-right group the Proud Boys. Unlike in 2016, there were no efforts by Russia or other countries to change actual ballots, the report found. Life gets more and more complicated. Cyber security is number one now, and there are always some who are more clever who will find a way to hack in and spread misinformation or whatever they want. It is scary.

 

 

March 11, 2021

Under the American Rescue Plan, direct payments of up to $1,400 will be sent to Americans and a $300-per-week supplemental unemployment benefit will be extended until early September. The bill also provides substantial benefits for low-income Americans, including an expanded child tax credit, and it funds pandemic priorities such as testing, contact tracing and genomic sequencing.

The measure, which passed by a vote of 220-211, cements one of the largest injections of federal aid since the Great Depression. Republicans have attacked the plan as wasteful and excessive, but 70 percent of Americans support it, according to a Pew poll. ( Seeing how the poor suffer here in South Africa….mainly Africans, but not all, I can sympathize with those who have lost jobs or will be evicted, or have been evicted from their accommodation, no insurance coverage, which went with the loss of a job. Of course, there will always be some wastage or finagaling, but for the good of the greater majority it means the difference between life and death)

 

Related: Merrick Garland was confirmed as attorney general with strong bipartisan backing. The vote was 70 to 30 in the Senate, with 20 Republicans in support. ( I was glad to see such bipartisan support for such a good man)

 

March 8, 2021

As president of General Motors, Mark Reuss made global headlines when the company committed to go all-electric with its vehicle lineup by 2035. Automakers around the world are following suit to phase out fossil fuels in favor of more efficient, zero-emission vehicles. Reuss joins Washington Post columnist David Ignatius to discuss what is needed to drive mass EV adoption and how GM will drive the transition. Join Washington Post Live on Thursday, March 11 at 11:30am ET.

It looks like electric is in and fossil fuels is out. Between 10 and 15 yrs. is not really a long time. But where is the electricity going to come from?

March 5, 2021

The metallic element is housed in a bulbous piece of aluminum, called a catalytic converter, that encases a honeycomb structure that filters fumes. National data is scarce, but news reports point to thousands of catalytic converter thefts over the past year, a crime wave that has risen with the price of one of their essential components: rhodium, a silvery-white chemical element that is a byproduct of the production of platinum and palladium, and is unparalleled in its ability to remove the most toxic pollutants from vehicle exhaust.

A single troy ounce, which is slightly heavier than a regular ounce, of rhodium cost around $27,000 last week — more than a brand new Toyota Prius. That’s up from $1,700 three years ago.

Today Pope Francis flies to Iraq. May God protect this man of peace.

 

March 3, 2021

Electric cars: Volvo Cars said it would convert its entire lineup to battery power by 2030, phasing out vehicles with internal combustion engines faster than other automakers like General Motors. The automaker, based in Sweden, is owned by Geely Holding of China.  (That’s only 10 yrs. from now. I may even still be alive. But. By that time, I think I might be worrying about other things, like eternal life. Ha.)

 

One of my favorite speeches comes from Robert Duvall in "Second Hand Lions":

"Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things that a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good. That honor, courage and virtues mean everything. That power and money, money and power mean nothing; that Good always triumphs over Evil; and I want you to remember this: That Love, true Love never dies. Doesn't matter if any of this is true or not. You see a man should believe in these things because these are the things worth believing in." #favoritemovie

(What do you think? This was sent by a friend from Southern Indiana)

From Nickle and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich, about 2001 (These clothes were being sold in Wal Marts)

34   In 1996, the National Labor Committee Education Fund in Support of Worker and Human Rights in Central America revealed that some Kathie Lee clothes were being sewn by children as young as twelve in a sweatshop in Honduras. TV personality Kathie Lee Gifford, the owner of the Kathie Lee line, tearfully denied the charges on the air but later promised to give up her dependence on sweatshops.

 

March 1, 2021

(retired former Pope) Benedict also commented on Joe Biden, the second Catholic president in U.S. history: “It is true, he is Catholic and observant. And he is personally against abortion. But as a president he tends to present himself in continuity with the line of the Democratic Party … And on gender politics we have not yet fully understood what his position is.” (This was in a recent interview in Rome)