Odd people.

As humans we are all wired differently when it comes to our ways of thinking, our ideas and our beliefs. Some people are wired more strangely than others, it has to be said. I know someone been anti the Covid vaccine since the vaccine came out. No problem for me, that is her choice. However, she will carry on about the side effects of the vaccine and her uncle apparently reacted badly to it recently. Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t, I don’t know the uncle, so I can’t say for sure exactly if he really did or didn’t and I’m not saying people don’t react from the vaccine either. What these last two years have really taught me is to have an open mind and respect other people’s choices, but there’s a limit. I’ve had the vaccine, so please don’t call me a sheeple. I respect the fact that you don’t want the vaccine, and you shouldn’t lose your job for it – I really believe that, but don’t carry on either about how terrible you believe the vaccine is. I don’t know anyone personally who has reacted to it and I know of a lot of people who’ve had it – how often during 2020 did I hear and read comments from people saying they didn’t know anyone who had died because of Covid, when as a nurse working in a hospital during the three surges, we were the ones seeing the patients in ICU’s and Covid wards, many who did not make it. Healthcare workers also got very sick and sadly some didn’t make it either. Back then it wasn’t the weakened Omicron variant either. As a nurse, when the vaccine first came out just over a year ago, probably the vast majority of nurses had the vaccine in the city I live and I have not heard of anyone reacting badly or dying because of the vaccine.

The point I’m making is – this person who is anti the Covid vaccine, drinks at least a couple of beers a day, on the weekends more and she smokes cigarettes and weed. You are anti a vaccine, because of all you’ve heard about it – yet you are happy to drink like a fish and smoke like a trooper and think excess booze and tobacco don’t have side effects either? I’m not perfect. I like a drink or two now and again. I don’t always eat as healthily as I should, but I don’t carry on at others about what decisions they should take when it comes to taking a vaccine or anything else. I will give advice if asked, and if that advice is not agreed with, then so be it, that’s your choice. Maybe if you live a completely healthy lifestyle and want to talk about not taking the vaccine, I’ll take you a little more seriously, otherwise, chill, carry on downing those beers and puffing on your joints and forget about how terrible you think the Covid vaccine is.

Never mind the vaccine, my husband knows someone who drinks a good ten beers or so, most days. One evening when I was working a few weeks my husband went to his home for a braai (barbeque) and he made a baked bean salad. He rinsed the baked beans of all the sauce they sit in, in the tins, because that sauce is not healthy hey – really, please just imagine a huge laughing face from me, because I guess it’s quite healthy to be drinking the equivalent of ten cans of beer a day! Once again, if you are the epitome of healthy living, I’ll take you claim about unhealthy baked bean sauce seriously, but not when you are drinking ten cans of beer a day. There you have it. Some people can be odd.

Midweek Rambles.

I wrote this on Wednesday, but am only getting around to posting it now.

I have a little extra time, so shall use it to catch up and post an extra blog or two. So, The Films and Publications Amendment (FPA) Act in South Africa, (which my two previous posts were focused on) that was signed into legislation at the beginning of March this year, has gone largely unnoticed, especially by the average working person, who has more important things to be concerned about, like making sure they have a job, (officially the unemployment rate is 35%, unofficially estimates are higher), making sure they have a roof over their heads and can feed their families and themselves. That said, the South African Govt. are slowly signing in legislation that will make it easier for them to oppress ordinary citizens, like myself and other people who write or speak out on social media and criticize the Government. They may not do it right now, but what about when they are campaigning for the next presidential elections and realize there is far too much opposition to them on social media, they will start slapping everyone with fines or the possibility of jail time. Welcome to a country, where you cannot even simply highlight the flaws of the Government who is supposed to be serving you and not the other way around. Look at Zimbabwe, it’s already happened to them. The Zanu PF barely tolerate any opposition voices, they ban opposition rallies, while holding their own rallies. Is South Africa heading down the same path? After all, political killings have happened commonly in recent years in South Africa. Whistleblowers get threatened and assassinated. Widespread oppression will become a reality in South Africa, if we do not speak out against it now.

Our state of emergency in South Africa, brought on by Covid has now ended, but the likes of mask wearing indoors and social distancing and the necessity of having the Covid vaccine for large events, have just been signed into health legislation and now fall under the general umbrella of the health department. If you want to visit South Africa, you need proof of a negative covid PCR test no older than 72 hours or your vaccine certificate. Masks and vaccines are contentious subjects, and have been for the last two years. Many believe mask wearing in public is ineffective, period, but because of the regulations still wear them, obviously for fear of getting booted unceremoniously out shops etc, or getting arrested. We don’t have to wear them outside anymore. As healthcare workers, we are still masked up in the hospitals and I accept it, but to be honest, cannot wait for the day when we don’t have to them wear them anymore. I accept the necessity of wearing masks, especially in healthcare settings. In the beginning, when we didn’t know what we were dealing with, I believe we needed them. It also makes a difference whether you wear them properly or not. For sure plain non surgical cloth masks are not really effective, I understand, but at least in the beginning they were a little better than nothing. After working through three serious surges or waves, where we were dealing with more than “just the flu”, they were a necessity I believe, although I know many will disagree with me, including an ex colleague, a retired nurse, who is opposed to mask wearing. She said we were being hysterical, (the ex colleague) – easy to say so, when you were sitting in front of your computer screen, believing all the anti Covid videos that you were watching on You Tube and not working in a hospital, especially in ICU’s and Covid wards. Regardless of where or how it emerged, it was a serious initially. From the beginning I expected Covid would eventually weaken and with the onset of Omicron it did, but we had to get through it until it did weaken. Now it’s weakened, is mask wearing an absolute necessity in shops and indoor spaces? Probably not, not for your healthy and fit person. Vulnerable people need to protect themselves more. As for children, mask wearing is a waste of time and always has been. Life has got to get on with some sort of normality now. Although I do suspect that continued mask wearing in South Africa is “punishment” for the fact that only just over 40% of South African adults have been vaccinated, which as an indication that our healthcare department has been slack in rolling the vaccines out, or that over 50% of South African adults don’t want the vaccine. That said, I believe in freedom of choice and you cannot force people to take an injection they don’t want to. You can try and encourage them, but there is only so far people will be pushed. Is threating them with their jobs wrong? Young, fit and healthy adults probably don’t need the vaccine. I however am not young, fit and healthy. I am diabetic, nearly fifty, and decided it was in my best interests to get vaccinated. Vulnerable people would do well to get vaccinated. When it comes to worrying about vaccine side effects, I think back to to the three previous surges and working in a hospital, where up to 8 patients a day were dying in our ICU during the peak of the first surge, in a hospital that barely saw 8 people a day passing away during the week, I would be reading people’s comments on social media during my time off, saying the likes of “I don’t know anyone who’s died from Covid” or it’s “just the flu”. Well, when all the healthcare workers in the city that I live in, went in their hundreds every day, to get the vaccine during the initial rollout last year, I heard of some with side effects, but not serious, and no one died from the vaccine – everyone I know who’s had the vaccine, has not died. So, we have to be sensible and not just say no, just to spite the Govt or the scientist but to trust our instinct. However, if a person truly believes they don’t need the vaccine, or to wear a mask now, two years later and with a weakened virus, they shouldn’t be forced to.

That all said, because of Covid, many Governments around the world have become more emboldened to push through more draconian laws that are limiting our freedom of expression. I will never advocate for hate or violence of any sorts, but surely I should have the freedom to write about what I want to, in a responsible manner? I should be able to criticize what I believe is a Government that has many corrupt politicians and officials in it’s employ, and who get their salaries from tax monies from working people like me. I should be able to do so freely, as a law abiding citizen of South Africa, without fear of being punished, because I don’t have a piece of paper that says I am allowed to express myself or my opinions (in a responsible manner of course) on international public platforms, that get their revenue from advertising and certainly not from the South African Government. What I say to the people who are trying to squash our opinions, because they don’t like them is voetsak. If you are not South African and don’t know what it means, it’s Afrikaans slang, which every South African regardless of the background they come from, knows what it means. Politely it means go away. Impolitely it means p**s off!