Opinions Archives — Safe Hands

Covid-19 vaccine rollout – why the government needs a lot of help from its friends

I am not yet 60, and so I won’t be getting a Covid-19 vaccine any time soon.

But it’s not clear that anyone over the age of 60 is getting a vaccine any time soon either. The South African government’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout plan has it that phase two begins on May 17, 2021 – but there is general skepticism that this will in fact happen.

A May 1, 2021 Moneyweb report notes that:

The country’s rollout is proceeding at a pace much slower than expected. To date just over 293 000 South Africans have had received their jab, which represents only a fraction of the 1.25 million healthcare workers who are first in line. This adds up to about 0.5% of the general population. The initial target of having 67% of the country’s citizens vaccinated by the end of 2021 is now unlikely to be achieved.

The same Moneyweb article notes the many and real issues South Africa and many other developing nations have faced in laying their hands on the precious vaccines. It then goes on to say:

Secondly, (the government) needs to clarify urgently what the requirements are for the involvement of private medical providers in the vaccine rollout. It also needs to expand the number of platforms (such as local clinics, GP practices, pharmacies, and private and state facilities) on which the vaccines are rolled out. If ever there was a need for public-private collaboration it is now – both in terms of funding vaccines and in providing platforms. This would enable large-scale vaccination to occur at the pace needed to turn the tide against Covid-19 in South Africa. (My emphasis)

I’d go further though. It’s going to take more than collaborating with private medical providers to get this show on the road. Many, many South Africans will simply not be able to get to private pharmacies, and their local clinics (if functioning) are likely to be overwhelmed.

Other ways of getting millions of people vaccinated in a short space of time are going to have to be found.

The expertise is there

Looked at from a project management perspective, there are a lot of moving parts: procurement, safe distribution of both the vaccine and all the associated medical supplies, a wide array of venues in sometimes inaccessible areas, pharmaceutical prep areas, trained staff to administer the vaccines – to name just the main things I can think of off the top of my head.

On current showing the government is simply not going to be able to get this done.

But I can think of several organisations that have the know-how (or parts of the know-how).

Venues: The Independent Electoral Commission runs successful elections in all the far-flung areas of the country every couple of years. Their database of venues large and small is surely the place to start when thinking about vaccination venues? And could their database of workers be roped in to help with the administration at each of the venues?

Distribution: There is not a tavern or spaza shop in the country that cannot be reached by the trucks of South African Breweries and Coca-Cola. Even if their vehicles are not able to offer adequate refrigeration, their intimate knowledge of getting products into every corner of the country would be invaluable.

Project management: South Africa organises several world-class mass events every year – the Argus Cycle Tour and the Comrades Marathon spring to mind. The people who organise these events must know a thing or two about juggling a lot of balls and getting things done to a schedule with deadlines. Could a think tank of these experts not be put to work with the Department of Health to figure out how to get this done?

I’d wager that if any corporates were approached by the government they would be more than willing to pitch in, in service of their long-term bottom lines.

Look… I’m aware that a mass vaccination project has complicated ethical dimensions; I know that things are rarely as simple as they look. I know that bringing corporates into a medical setting might be fraught with issues. And there are undoubtedly transformation and equity issues that would need to be addressed.

But the alternative doesn’t bear thinking about. It’s time to use all the expertise we have to get as many people vaccinated as we can, as fast as we can. That means partnerships at every level of this massive project.

My message to the government is simple: ask for help, people!

Contact me if you would like to chat about how I can help with all your organisational or communication needs (coaching, editing, writing, social media). And you can subscribe to my newsletter here.

Main photo: Spencer Davis on Unsplash

Charity begins with a dress

Every March I wear a dress every day.

I am answering a challenge from the Milk Matters organisation, which provides donor breastmilk to premature babies. I wear a dress every day, and people sponsor me, much as they might sponsor a runner for every kilometre they run for a good cause.

It’s not a huge hardship to wear a dress, but it is a break from the routine outfit we all wear most of the time (jeans, shirt, jacket or jersey). From Milk Matters’s point of view, it is something that raises awareness easily, because it provides a photographable and shareable daily event. Continue reading

Covid-19 takes away, but it also gives

The other night we had a friend round for drinks. (Yes, we were socially distanced, yes we sat outside). She stayed for supper and we ate hamburgers, cooked for us by my 18-year-old son.

There were rolls from the local Spar, cheap cheddar cheese, slices of tomato and some lettuce. And a few sliced gherkins. We make our own hamburger patties, with supermarket onions and lots of Aromat. We laid the table with the usual family mats and hauled out the everyday crockery. Continue reading

How I lost and found my craft mojo

I have always loved making things, using my hands to get things done.

For most of my life, that has meant sewing – making my own clothes, making patchwork quilts, making face masks, even making nifty little things to avoid spending money.

A good 10 years ago now I joined a quilting group. Over the years, the group has mutated to a craft group, where we sew and knit and do workshops and talk and support each other. We meet on the first and third Saturday afternoons of the month, in a local library.

At least we did until Covid-19 made us all stay home. Continue reading

It’s the end of the year – and you have the power to make things better

It’s time to say goodbye to 2020, with hopes of a better 2021.

Except, dear reader, you do know that’s not a thing?

I’ve written before about magical thinking – and some of that is worth repeating here:

The idea that somehow the sunset and sunrise on a particular day in our Western calendar have any bearing on the flow of life is what psychologists call magical thinking – defined in the online Sceptic’s Dictionary thus: “magical thinking involves several elements, including a belief in the interconnectedness of all things through forces and powers that transcend both physical and spiritual connections. Magical thinking invests special powers and forces in many things that are seen as symbols”.

So, somehow, the very dawn on the new year of 2020 brought us the Covid-19 pandemic, and the dawn of 2021 will make it all better?

That’s patently not the case. The only thing that will make things better is something we all have personal control over – our willingness to observe the public health measures we have all been asked to observe. Wear a mask. Stay away from other people. Stay home as much as we are able to.

By all means, take a holiday as the year turns, by all means use this artificial transition to reflect on the past and plan for the future. Celebrate your blessings, eat a lot of food, do charitable good works. But for the love of all that is light and bright this festive season, stay safe and sane and sensible.

My first post of 2021 is scheduled for January 21 – see you then, when things will be no different from the way they are now unless we all behave like caring human beings.

Main picture: My light-loving summer solstice celebration table.

Thoughts at the end of a long year

Cricket is back, and I don’t know how I feel about that.

In the depths of South Africa’s strong lockdown, I remember wishing that there was some cricket to watch – it felt as though a leisurely Test match would help pass the time.

England is in South Africa for some T20 and ODI men’s matches. Ordinarily this would be an occasion of joy and interest, a sign of things getting back to normal.

Instead it feels that the matches just underscore how very peculiar things are.

The T20 at Newlands on November 27 was played in front of an empty stadium. I felt as though I was watching two different matches.

On the screen, the batsman hit a mighty six, straight into the stands. In my head was the memory of a roar from the crowd, a man reaching up to catch the ball (and not spilling a drop of his beer!) and throwing it cheerfully back to the fielder.

On the screen was a forlorn figure, the fielder trudging up the stand to fetch the ball, just as he would have done as a schoolboy.

The thing is sport is a collective endeavour: the players and the crowd together are the warm heart of humanity, loving and hating and hoping and despairing and eating and drinking and hugging and Mexican waving.

This is what the Covid pandemic has taken from us, or from the ones of us who are still alive and plodding our way through days that feel flat and long and tired.

I have been lighting two candles every night since March. As I do it, I think of all the other people who are having a hard time in the Covid. I am so much better off than them, I think, with gratitude and the certain knowledge that I have done nothing to deserve it.

No one I know and love has died, we have weathered the financial storm, we are not going hungry, we are not health workers on the front line. All we have to do is wear masks and organise small, cautious, open-air social gatherings with people we know well and can set the rules about what to do about cutlery and crockery. Summer is here and we can even go out for a beer or two to the local pubs where we can sit outside. (I am aware there are those who think even these activities are too risky – this article is a good articulation of the position our family has taken: Confessions of a Pandemic Risk-Taker

So, if things are sort-of-just-okay in this corner of Cape Town, why am I having terrible dreams? Why have I been unable to settle to my sewing and handwork? Why does everything feel like such an effort?

The cricket made me understand. We are all living and working and playing in a small circle of light while all around darkness and loneliness and isolation loom.

In times like these, I turn to poetry. And two poems come to mind. Nobody can express anguish quite like TS Eliot. Phrases from his Preludes keep going through my mind. They are about a different time and place, but the mood is exactly right for now. Part four goes like this:

His soul stretched tight across the skies
That fade behind a city block,
Or trampled by insistent feet
At four and five and six o’clock;…
I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.

I will keep lighting my candles, thinking of the gentle things that we all miss. Because what else can we do now except hope? And that’s the second poem that keeps coming to mind. It’s hand-written in a book I have been keeping for years, where I copy down things that strike me. It is about a man and his cat.

My Cat and I (Alan Mathews)
When the clock uncovers me
and the day lies mean and flat.
I wrap myself in solitude
and breakfast with my cat.

High on kitchen stools we perch,
metabolism thin,
and ponder on the fates that move
the world of mice and men.

He understands me well, my cat.
He makes no smart replies.
Instinctive wisdom lies behind
his tranquil slitted eyes.

The monstrous tensions of our race
somehow he comprehends
and how life great simplicities
evade his giant friends.

So with his furred contentment
he absorbs my edge of pain,
assuring with a rounded purr
that good will rise again.

Restored, I pat him ‘au revoir’;
he bumps me with his head.
I hustle out to earn a bob.
He strolls to find a bed.

I have carried that poem with me for thirty years, and I didn’t write down the source publication*. I hope you find it as sustaining as I do. Cricket matches will again be full to the brim with people drinking beer and catching sixes. Good will rise again. Until then, wear a mask and take as few risks as you can.

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* January 2021 update: I have made some progress on tracking down the source of the Alan Mathews poem. A search on Twitter led me to the Facebook page of poet Robyn J Black, who mentioned Alan Mathews in a post. I contacted Robyn, and she sent me this information: “Yes that is a poem by Alan Mathews, a long-time member of the Goulburn Valley Writers Group Inc., former founder and editor of Tamba magazine and award winning poet and short story writer. Alan was from Orrvale and Shepparton, Vic. Aust. and passed away a couple of years ago. He was a gentle and gentlemanly soul, and an exquisite writer. We miss him. ‘My Cat and I’ was printed in ‘Categories’ and in Alan’s book ‘Blackbird Singing’”. Blackbird Singing is listed in the Australian national book catalogue as published by Little River Press (which cannot be found online) and this article in a local newspaper about Mathews says that Blackbird Singing is self-published. I continue to search for the copyright holder!

February 2021 update: Robyn Black has contacted me. She writes: “Alan Mathews’ widow, Bev Mathews, has advised she gives permission for Alan’s poem to be used and she said he would be tickled pink to know you mentioned him and TS Eliot in the same blog.” Copyright permission obtained at last!

The simple joys of stationery

Last weekend, I bought a little notebook.

A6, black, 192 pages, cream paper, quadrille.

I was killing an hour while waiting for a teen school event to finish, and felt I could retire to a coffee shop and spend the time dreaming up topics for future blog posts. (Obligatory Covid-19 disclaimer: the coffee shop observes all protocols, I wore my mask, I sanitised my hands.)

So I wandered into a stationery shop and purchased the aforesaid notebook, after hovering over lined versions. Something about quadrille just seemed right for a grey Saturday morning.

The notebook, the pen, the coffee.

When I had finished the coffee, and put my mask back on, I stowed the notebook in my handbag.

Dear reader, this will shock you: Only at that point did I notice that I already had a notebook, with matching pen. Kept in my bag for the very purpose of opportunistic note-taking.

My name is Renee and I am a stationery addict.

New possibilities

I buy a ruinously expensive Moleskine planner every year because I like the feel of the paper.

I use only a particular range of Bic pen, in a particular shade of purple. It also comes in pink and blue, which can be used for highlighting different aspects of lists. (I am addicted to those too).

I have piles of unused and half-used notebooks. All of them, one day, will be useful, I just know it.

As addictions go, this one is relatively harmless. No one else if affected if I mindlessly buy yet another notebook.

But it is interesting to try to understand the source of it. What is it about the clean crisp pages of a new notebook that is so entrancing?

For me, its about hope, about a sense of new possibilities. And an anchor to reality: pen and paper tie us to the generations of people who have used them to navigate the world. In a world of online nastiness and IRL fear and uncertainty, there’s something consoling about the solidity of a new notebook.

I give you stationery, a simple pleasure in a complicated world.

Contact me if you would like to chat about how I can help with all your organisational or communication needs (coaching, editing, writing, social media).

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash