11 April 2020

Saturday · Day 16 of lockdown

Gauteng still had the most coronavirus cases in the country with 801 persons infected, while the Western Cape had 541 persons infected, and KwaZulu Natal had 412 persons infected. The so-called wage-subsidy scheme was also applied retroactively to include days worked since 15 March 2020. Violent crime rates were reported to be falling globally. In South Africa, homicide rates fell from 326 to 94 in the first week of lockdown compared to the same time last year. Canadian lawmakers passed legislation to subsidise up to 75% of salaries in an attempt to discourage mass layoffs as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

I watched the Korean movie Parasite for the second time tonight. I saw it in the cinema a few weeks ago, but its message felt slightly different this time around. Posing as unrelated servants, a poor family con their way into the home of an upper-class family. As one unexpected, gruesome event unfolds after the other, the film begs the question: who should really be considered the ‘parasite’ in this situation? The film also discusses the idea of being trapped, both physically (characters unable to leave a space for years) and metaphorically (the idea that upward mobility is a farce and that having hope can lead to dire consequences). There is a scene in which a great storm causes the poor family’s basement home to become flooded and most of their possessions to be destroyed. This is juxtaposed against a scene in which also as a result of a storm the rich family end up feeling mildly irritated when they are unable to go on a camping trip. During uncontrollable times like these, the rich will be ‘inconvenienced’, but still emerge relatively unscathed, while the poor are pushed further into a state of destitution.

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My day was dominated by my time in the kitchen. I had taken it upon myself to make authentic New York pizzas from scratch. This included crafting homemade dough and kneading it for nearly 90 minutes. The pizzas were a success and my family really enjoyed the experience. Despite the dreariness of lockdown, it is lovely to have such special and intimate moments with those around me. My love for cooking has also grown during this time.

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Private banks across South Africa have begun to offer payment holidays, relief programmes, and various other initiatives in an attempt to minimise economic hardships felt by their clients.

While this may appear great on paper, I thought I’d dive a bit deeper into their reasoning behind these decisions. Firstly, this is a marketing scheme. Banks like FNB and ABSA are using this to not only appeal to their current clients, but to attract new clients as well. It’s safe to say that this lockdown has had a negative economic impact on almost every citizen in South Africa, and the idea of payment holidays or saving schemes is very appealing to many.

Secondly, how much do these private banks actually care about their client’s situations in these dire times? Unfortunately, from what I have uncovered, I believe the answer is very little. 32 years ago, my father, who was then 17, walked into United Bank (now ABSA) to open his first personal bank account. To this very day my father has remained loyal to this bank. Every payment, every credit card, every loan and everything financial he has ever had to deal with, he did in conjunction with this bank.

Following the announcement of these various payment relief programmes, my father approached his bank to apply for a payment holiday on his bond. Despite never missing or even being late on a payment, ABSA refused his application.

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Everyone, with the exception of a few extremists (in my opinion the only thing extreme is their lack of common sense), seems to be on the same page that social distancing is the best way to counter the effects of the novel coronavirus. […] How to counter the effects of economies around the globe shutting down due to social distancing is another question. Various economic recovery strategies are being put in place for the post-Covid-19 period, and to my surprise, many of them include ecological focus points. I think people are finally starting to realise that we have angered the earth.

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We had a party last night so we got up quite late this morning. We probably partied until 4:00 am. When I got up I had my daily cup of coffee and sat in front of the TV for a bit. We then had some brunch (eating the leftovers from last night’s braai). The rest of the day we just lay in bed and watched movies. Later, I cut up all the ingredients to make burgers because we had a build-a-burger night. We then climbed back into bed because it had started raining hard. I am not sure how long the rain lasted, but it was so soothing.

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2 028 cases. 25 deaths. 75 053 tests conducted. The number of tests conducted is increasing, which is great and the government is even conducting more tests daily than private facilities which shows their seriousness. I think that this is very important as it will help assess the situation better to make more informed decisions. […]

I am beginning to believe that South Africa’s situation might not be that bad, as we have relatively few cases compared to other countries. It is encouraging to hear that Cyril called the nation to pray (he prays before he addresses us), and also that he was part of a church service on Good Friday. I think that he is impressing the country. I hope once this is over he can use this newly gained trust and his improved reputation to truly change and improve the country in all of its spheres.

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Today I read an article released by the UN projecting that the number of deaths due to starvation in 2020 had risen by 130 million, largely as a result of the effects of economic lockdown in poor countries. I am now firmly convinced that the lockdown is the worst policy to have been implemented in these circumstances. […] I believe that many more lives would have been saved if this virus was treated in a similar way to previous outbreaks and not as some floating death serum.

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Today my sister and I visited the shops for the third time since the beginning of lockdown. Just for the sake of a ‘change in scenery’, we decided to go to a shopping centre that was located slightly further away from our house rather than to the usual, closer shopping centre. If I’m being honest, this shopping trip was more a treat than a necessity. We got a few nice things for our Easter lunch tomorrow. We also felt a craving for sushi, which we were pleasantly surprised to find. The one thing that I did notice that was different to our usual Checkers was that, here, they had put up massive plastic screens between the tellers and customers. This is a hygiene measure I haven’t seen before and I think it is so clever. The employees don’t have to wear uncomfortable face masks and these screens create a proper barrier between them and customers. One of the perks of going to this shop was that it is on top of the hill, so when we were driving home, we got to see the ocean for the first time since lockdown started. Yes it was very distant, but it was a beautiful view and really reminded me of how lucky we are to live so close to the sea.

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Today is Holy Saturday. We as a family thought back to when all the disciples were sitting around thinking that their saviour, mentor and friend was gone forever. We acknowledged their fear during this time and their faith. Just as we are uncertain about our future, all the disciples were living in fear and uncertainty. This, again, gave me a better perspective about the bigger picture. Although the coronavirus is a pandemic, it seems small compared to what the disciples faced. We need to keep faith and find peace in the fact that our God is bigger than the virus.

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I guess that being productive today helped me feel a little better about things. This weekend I am really not going to look at the news, and rather just focus on trying to calm my thoughts, which are usually all over the place, but are even more so now. It’s Easter Sunday tomorrow, and I think it’s probably the first time I haven’t spent the day with my extended family. As the whole family won’t be coming, and we won’t have to be preparing food for the masses, I decided we might as well make Easter a little different. Slaving in the kitchen for hours when there is only me, my mom and my two sisters two feed, is nonesensical. I figured, instead, I would make nachos and we can spend the day in our lazy clothes, eating deliciously lazy food.