Pretoria News Weekend July 11 2020

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4 4 SATURDAY, JULY 11 2020 | PRETORIA NEWS WWORLD Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt. HERBERT HOOVER American engineer, businessman and the 31st president of the United States ICYMI | IOL.CO.ZA EX-WIFE OR FRIEND DEFECATED IN THEIR BED, SAYS DEPP LONDON: Giving evidence in his libel action against the Sun newspaper, actor Johnny Depp told London’s High Court yesterday his ex-wife Amber Heard or her friend had defecated in their bed in what he described as a “fitting end to the relationship”. CORONAVIRUS UPDATE COVID-19 GLOBAL FIGURES • JAPAN More rain expected as death toll rises to 66, with 16 still missing HOTLINE: 0800 029 999 THE coronavirus is affecting 213 countries and territories around the world. NUMBER OF CONFIRMED CASES: 12 462 531 NUMBER OF DEATHS: 558 795 NUMBER OF PATIENTS WHO HAVE RECOVERED: 7 261 539 https://www.worldometers.info/ coronavirus/#countries Air conditioning may have spread disease MUENSTER: Scientists are to test a new air filtering system at a German slaughterhouse hit by a coronavirus outbreak after suggestions that the air conditioning system may have helped the virus spread. Hygiene experts from the University of Bonn plan to install the new filter this weekend at a plant belonging to the company Toennies before tests begin on Monday. German health authorities will use “smoke tests” at the plant in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck in the western state of North Rhine Westphalia. Last month, 1 413 of 6 139 staff at the plant tested positive for Covid-19 in what has been called Germany’s worst localised outbreak. Air in the plant must be cooled to between 6ºC and 10ºC to protect the meat. It was likely that the cooled air was then being fed back, without being filtered, into the hall where the employees worked. | dpa Russia sued over Flight MH17 disaster MOSCOW: The Netherlands announced yesterday that it was suing Russia in the European Court of Human Rights over the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over war-torn eastern Ukraine. Nearly 300 people on board Flight MH17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, were killed when the passenger jet was shot down by a missile that a Dutch-led investigative team has determined came from Russia. Most of the victims were Dutch. Russia has rejected the allegation that it provided the missile to a pro-Russian rebel group fighting the Ukrainian military for control of eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, near the Russian border. Although Russian President Vladimir Putin has represented such rebel groups in international peace talks, the Russian government has repeatedly denied direct involvement in the conflict. | dpa • COVID-19 Experts in China for virus inquiry WHO advance team sent on scoping mission AN ADVANCE team from the World Health Organization (WHO) was headed to China to organise an investigation into the origins of the novel coronavirus which sparked the global pandemic, a spokeswoman said yesterday. The virus is believed to have emerged in a wholesale market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, since then closed, after jumping the species barrier from the animal kingdom to infect humans. The two WHO experts, specialists in animal health and epidemiology, will work with Chinese scientists to determine the scope and itinerary of the investigation, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said, declining to name them. “They have gone, they are in the air now, they are the advance party that is to work out the scope,” she said. This would involve negotiations on issues including the composition of the fuller team, she said. “One of the big issues that everybody is interested in, and of course that’s why we’re sending an animal health expert, is to look at whether or not it jumped from species to a human and what species it jumped from,” Harris said. “We know it’s very, very similar ThePeople Search resumes for former ‘Glee’ actress LOS ANGELES: US authorities resumed their search yesterday for former Glee star Naya Rivera, who is believed to have drowned in a California lake while boating with her 4-year-old son. The boy was found on the rented pontoon boat. Rivera, 33, who had boating experience, disappeared on Wednesday at Lake Piru in about 9m-deep, murky water. | AP to the virus in the bat, but did it go through an intermediate species? This is a question we all need answered,” she said. The two experts will spend the weekend in the Chinese capital. In an effort to block future outbreaks, China has cracked down on the trade in wildlife and closed some wet markets. The WHO mission is politically sensitive, with the US – the top funder of the UN body – moving to cut ties with it over allegations the agency mishandled the outbreak and is biased toward China. More than 120 nations called for an investigation into the origins of the virus at the World Health Assembly in May. China has insisted that WHO lead the investigation and for it to wait until the pandemic is brought under control. The US, Brazil and India are continuing to see an increasing number of cases. The last WHO coronavirus-specific mission to China was in February, after which the team’s leader, Canadian doctor Bruce Aylward, praised China’s containment efforts and information-sharing. Canadian and American officials have since criticised him as being too lenient on China. | Reuters and AP TOKYO: Parts of Japan still searching for missing people and evacuating those stranded by deadly floods and mudslides were bracing for more pounding rains through the weekend. The death toll had risen to 66 as of yesterday morning, while 16 remained missing, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said. Most are in prefectures on Kyushu, Japan’s third-largest main island. The damage has spread into central Japan’s scenic mountain villages known for hot springs and hiking. Search-and-rescue work continued in Kuma village, where nine people were missing and the effort was delayed by deep floodwater and the risk of more mudslides. In the hot springs town of Yufuin in Oita prefecture, an innkeeper was found dead, and rescuers were searching for three of her family members who were still missing. A SPITFIRE and a Hurricane fighter aircraft roared above the village of Ditchling, East Sussex, yesterday in a Battle of Britain Memorial Flight over the funeral procession of Vera Lynn yesterday, honouring a singer who became a symbol of hope during World War II and again during the coronavirus pandemic before her death last month at 103. Known as the ‘Forces’ Sweetheart’, Lynn, right, died on June 18 surrounded by family after a lifetime in which she • AUSTRALIA State locked down as coronavirus spreads AUSTRALIA’S coronavirus hot spot Victoria recorded 288 new cases yesterday, the largest number of any state since the pandemic began, and authorities warned the spread could worsen. Victoria, Australia’s second-most populous state after neighbouring New South Wales (NSW), has been cut off with border closures by other states. All states and territories but NSW had eradicated community transmission Mayor found dead after sex crime case filed SEOUL: The mayor of South Korea’s capital was found dead yesterday after he was reported missing amid a criminal probe and media reports of alleged sexual harassment. Mayor Park Won-soon’s body was found at Mount Bugak, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said. There was no sign of foul play and police did not give a cause of death. The apparent suicide came after Nearly 2 000 people were still stranded in 70 places, chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said. Rescue workers and the authorities were in touch with most of those areas, though the extent of damage was not fully known. The Meteorological Agency has FORCES’ SWEETHEART recorded such songs as The White Cliffs of Dover and We’ll Meet Again. Fans and members of the armed forces lined the streets as her coffin, draped in the flag of the Union, was driven towards a private funeral. Lynn was back in the headlines in April when Queen Elizabeth II used words from Lynn’s song to tell the country, ‘we will meet again’ and urged people to show resolve during the Covid-19 lockdown. | Reuters one of Park’s former secretaries filed a complaint on Wednesday alleging the 64-year-old had sexually harassed her. The police confirmed the complaint filed against him. “I apologise to everyone,” Park wrote in a note released by the city and his family. The long-time mayor was considered to be a possible 2022 presidential contender. | Reuters issued evacuation advisories in Nagasaki and other areas on the Kyushu region due to continuing downpours. In all, more than 1.2 million people have been urged to evacuate, though it is not compulsory. The agency predicted up to 300mm of rain throughout today. | AP of the virus, but Victoria-linked infections are spreading. Victoria hopes a second lockdown in Melbourne, the nation’s second most populous city with 5 million people, will curb the spread, imposed on Wednesday and will last six weeks. The Victoria tally reflected a new record of more than 37 500 tests in a day, state Premier Daniel Andrews said. Australian states have banned people crossing borders if they have been in Victoria in the past two weeks. International arrivals at Melbourne Airport have been banned after breaches of hotel quarantine were blamed for the country’s only widespread transmission of Covid-19. Yesterday, Victoria became the first state to recommend residents wear masks. Australia has recorded more than 9 000 cases and 106 patients have died. | AP Dutch bank to probe role in slave trade AMSTERDAM: The Dutch central bank (DNB) said yesterday it would launch an investigation into its own role in the 19th-century slave trade. Following a similar move by the Bank of England, DNB said it would ask independent researchers to determine what its involvement with slavery was at the time. “The investigation will examine DNB’s role as an institution in the first years of its existence and presidents and board members from that period,” the bank said. The DNB, which was founded in 1814 by Dutch King Willem I, said it would decide on further steps once the inquiry was complete. The Dutch played a major role in the global slave trade from the 17th century until the Netherlands abolished slavery in 1863. The Dutch West India Company operated ships estimated to have traded 500 000 slaves in the 17th and 18th centuries. | dpa • CHINA Macau’s casino king buried as gambling hub faces new era HONG Kong’s highest-profile officials and business people paid their respects yesterday to Macau’s gambling king, Stanley Ho, who built a business empire from scratch in the former Portuguese colony and became one of Asia’s richest men. Ho, who died at age 98 on May 26, presided over the transformation of Macau into the world’s biggest casino centre, outpacing the US’s Las Vegas strip. Shielded from challengers by a four-decade monopoly on gambling, Ho grew his operations into one of the most lucrative gaming businesses through his firm SJM Holdings, valued at about $6 billion (R101bn). His privately held company Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau, or STDM, has stakes in everything from luxury hotels to helicopters and horse racing. Ho’s one-hour funeral ceremony was attended by black-suited guests, including local tycoons who wore masks. Among the pallbearers were Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, and senior members of China’s top political consultative body, Edmund Ho and Tung Chee-hwa. White flower wreaths from well wishers filled the funeral parlour, including from Chinese President Xi Jinping. Ho’s death comes as Macau faces a critical juncture, with officials warning that the special administrative region is too dependent on gambling and faces acute challenges as it reels from the impact of the Covid-19. STANLEY Ho at his 85th birthday party in Hong Kong on May 26, 2006. | AP Succession plans for Ho, who had four wives and 17 known children, had been in place since 2012, when he was forced to restructure his business after a legal battle in the family over his fortune. His family remains a part of Macau’s gambling industry. His daughter Daisy is chairperson of SJM, while his fourth wife, Angela Leong, is a co-chairperson. His daughter Pansy is co-chairperson of MGM Resorts Macau unit, and son Lawrence runs Melco Resorts and Entertainment. | Reuters • AFRICA Talks over controversial dam remain deadlocked CAPE TOWN: Negotiations between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over the filling and operation of the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd) have produced no results after seven straight days of talks, reported Daily News Egypt. According to the report, Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation said on Thursday that the delegations of the three countries had agreed to send three separate reports on the talks and their viewpoints to South Africa, whose President Cyril Ramaphosa is the current chairperson of the AU. Egypt maintained that while Ethiopia stuck to its “inflexible” positions, Egypt had shown flexibility during the resumed tripartite talks, sponsored by the AU and other states’ representatives and observers, wrote news outlet Xinhua. For Ethiopia, the construction and filling of the dam are not two separate events, one of the country’s negotiators, Zerihun Abebe, told the BBC. Ethiopia’s $4 billion (R67bn) hydroelectric dam is expected to produce 6 000 megawatts of electricity and become Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam upon completion. The delegations of each country will meet today with the international observers separately. Tomorrow, a ministerial meeting will be held in the hope of reaching a consensus. The talks are expected to last until Monday. | ANA
PRETORIA NEWS | Saturday, July 11 2020 5 A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself. ARTHUR MILLER American playwright and essayist ICYMI | IOL.CO.ZA TRUMP TELL-ALL BOOK A book by President Donald Trump’s niece, author Mary L Trump, PhD, describes a family riven by a traumas, exacerbated by a patriarch who “destroyed” Donald Trump by short-circuiting his “ability to develop and experience the entire spectrum of human emotion.” See https://bit.ly/TrumpsNiece OOPINION CARPING POINT EDITORIAL ‘Keep the canary alive in the coal mine’ KEVIN RITCHIE @RitchKev IT WAS brutal this week. Our economy, already suffering a nauseating number of unemployed people, seems to be developing the same horrible momentum of the Covid-19 infection rate. The difference is most of us will get through the pandemic, not all of us will survive the economic contagion. Media24’s announcement of newspaper and magazine closures and the cannibalisation of other editorial functions provoked the typical clamour of digital distress. But all those beating their breasts should be ashamed of themselves. Their messages of condolence should stick in their craw. Nothing will happen, this is social media after all: next week will roll around with a new outrage on the diary to virtue signal. Our media is in dire shape. The coronavirus just took it and gave it a very hard shake. This is not a reset, it’s a culling of the weak in the herd, but there’s no guarantee who will make it to the waterhole – or if there’ll even be water if they get there. We can blame rapacious owners draining papers for profit or reframing news in their own image and likeness, but the true villains are the readers themselves. The media crisis we are living in now began decades before, when people stopped reading papers – and certainly paying for them. As the eyeballs diminished, so too did the advertisers until all that was left was the flotsam and jetsam of legal notices published under duress – and the odd, sad sex worker. Far too many readers stopped buying papers because they didn’t like how their echo chambers were being disrupted – they didn’t like the bad news, or the stories about people who didn’t look like them and certainly didn’t think like them. Many gleefully reported how they could get their news for free from overseas TV channels or from social media, little understanding that overseas TV only ever broadcast local stories when it’s 5-to-catastrophe while social media is a toxic stew of fake news, f**kery and fantasy with lashings of character assassination and confirmation bias. Legacy media were often their own worst enemies, allowing consultants to lead fearful print editors and managers by the nose, evangelising the gospel of clicks, shovelling the news you’d pay for in print on to sites for free, squirming in delight when content went viral or was “curated” by competitors, conveniently forgetting that Facebook “likes” and retweets pay neither salaries nor the water and lights. They blithely ignored the fact that people won’t pay for papers if they can get news for free on their cellphones. The readers didn’t care, living large on the flush of the infodemic. Well, that’s all changing. Another 500 journalists are about to find themselves on the streets, next to the thousands of has-beens trying to flip burgers, peddle insurance or re-write press releases. It doesn’t have to get any worse. Buy your local paper while you still can, engage with the editors. Hold them to account. Make your newspaper, once again, as Arthur Miller famously said, “a nation talking to itself”. Keep the canary alive in the coal mine. It really isn’t that difficult. Ritchie is a media consultant and a former newspaper editor A DOCTOR talks to a patient at the Coronavirus Unit at United Memorial Medical Center, in Houston, this week. It is important for people with pre-existing ailments to continue taking their chronic medication during this current health crisis, says the writer. | AP COMMENT Comorbidity and Covid-19 DR GLORIA MEMEH Ensure that those with pre-existing conditions take their chronic medication FOR EVERY South African, the Covid-19 pandemic has been a herald of change, with the deadly plague creeping into nearly every nation and state on the planet. The virus is a red thread that has been woven into the very fabric of our being. We experienced an unprecedented national lockdown, the likes of which have never been seen before. Even after some of the regulations have been lifted, some now fear the outside world because of this invisible foe that we face. But we cannot allow this fear to force back the progress we have made in the fight against chronic ailments like Tuberculosis and HIV/Aids, which have long beset our country, and which remain an issue even during this time of the corona crisis. In this time of Covid-19 calamity when comorbidities may be the difference between life and death, taking chronic medication is all too important. HIV has has held pandemic status globally for decades. In South Africa, it is estimated that 7.6 million citizens are carriers of the virus, with 4.5 million undergoing antiretroviral therapy. During the lockdown, there has been a 17% decline in viral load tests, and a consequent decline in HIV testing and the initiation of antiretroviral therapy. According to data from Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) in Khayelitsha on the outskirts of Cape Town, the initiation of antiretroviral treatment had halved in March and dropped by more than 50% in April. The implications of these declines are both stark and grim. With fewer people starting antiretroviral therapy and viral load monitoring, we may see an increase in viral resistance, a spike in transmissions of the virus and a surge of life-threatening co-infections like tuberculosis. In May, the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) recorded a significant drop in TB testing since the first day of lockdown in March. Before the lockdown, the institute conducted an average of 47 520 TB tests every single week. This plunged to a median of 24 574 tests a week, representing nearly a halving of tests critical in detecting and monitoring the disease. According to their report, the NICD attributed this to restrictions on movement and public transport. Regarding drug-resistant TB, there has been a massive decrease in case finding and treatment, figures here also almost halving during the lockdown. But while HIV and TB carry a certain notoriety, chronic diseases like diabetes cannot be forgotten. Research conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council in March indicates that 13% of South Africans surveyed were unable to access their chronic medication during the lockdown. Of greater concern, the study found that 13-25% of people living in informal settlements or rural areas revealed that their chronic medication was anything but easily accessible. These figures should startle, for the simple fact that comorbidities like diabetes or high blood pressure are a harbinger of doom for most of those who will contract Covid-19. Make no mistake, South Africa is dealing with what is arguably the biggest health crisis in our recent memory. This is a war that is waged on many fronts, and while attention is drawn to the advance of the coronavirus, we must take heed of the fact that there are other threats on the horizon. These threats have long been an albatross around our necks and losing ground in this theatre would be devastating. Not only because it sets the scene for more death and sadness because of those lost to Covid-19, but that it renders our sustained effort to eradicate them completely an exercise in folly. While the threat of Covid-19 remains a reality, it has never been more important for people to take their medication. Memeh is a general practitioner based in Johannesburg The importance of volunteer-funded research SIMON ELWEN CONSERVATION or biological research projects funded through fees from volunteers or students are common in many countries, especially in developing nations, and on projects working with charismatic mega-fauna. “Voluntourism” projects, as they are sometimes known, often have a bad reputation as little more than gapyear holidays for wealthy kids to pet lion cubs or engage in “white saviour” fantasies, although core concerns mainly pertain to projects working with humans and especially children (Smith & Font 2015, Freidus 2017). Although no industry is perfect, we argue that this approach to project funding wildlife research projects is valuable, reasonable, and for many projects essential. Although there is considerable scope within this sector, we focus our commentary on projects with a scientific biological research focus rather than “conservation”, “rehabilitation” or “community engagement”. We focus on three marine research groups within South Africa, the (SSRC (Social Science Research Council), Dict (Dyer Island Conservation Trust) and OR (Oceans Research), although the arguments apply elsewhere. A significant amount of the primary research on marine mega-fauna here since 2010 has been conducted by these organisations – all of which are funded partially by “voluntourism”. A brief review of publications listed on these projects websites reveals 69 scientific papers or reports, in a wide range of international journals and most with international collaborators. None of the investigators leading these projects hold permanent academic or government research positions and several were completing their PhDs over this time. Funds from volunteers and visiting students (ie those also doing a thesis as part of their visit) contribute to both direct project costs and salaries, without which many of those 69 contributions to science (and associated theses) would likely not exist. These field focused projects provide budding scientists with exposure to field skills and project realities not easily incorporated into time-limited and theory-focused undergraduate courses of 100-plus students. Project fees are functionally the same as any university or course fee, but come with the added bonus of multiple wildlife experiences, which if undertaken by the students on commercial tours, would be substantially more expensive. Increasingly, many university students are required to conduct internship or extended off-campus placements as part of their degree, especially those in the growing number of course-work based Master’s degrees available in Europe / UK. Research organisations can provide access to long-term data, project concepts, supervision, field training and often support students onto their first publications with limited input from overworked supervisors at their home university. It is only reasonable to charge a fee for this service. Pro rata, internship fees are typically less than those paid for an MSc in the UK which don’t include accommodation and food and “optional field courses may incur additional costs”. Do paid internships bias “gaining experience” towards wealthier students? Yes, but the same argument applies to any form of tertiary education that is not free. Do paid internships take away opportunities from local or poorer students or limit job creation? In our experience, no. In most cases, the fees generated allow the organisations to exist, contribute to the salaries of project members and associated staff and allow for the support of local students. Without these training fees, organisations such as ours would likely not exist in their current form. They’d be smaller, run shorter field seasons, probably and train far fewer students. We argue that if research projects are conducted in alignment with good academic and ethical standards, funding from “voluntourism” enables research, student training and collaboration opportunities in areas which would otherwise not exist. We fully support the promotion of diversity in science, but caution that blanket calls to ban unpaid internship positions or advertisement as they are “a barrier to diversity and inclusivity” may be counter-productive outside of the developed world. Elwen is the director, Sea Search Research & Conservation and the Namibian Dolphin Project and is a research associate in the Department of Zoology and Botany at Stellenbosch University and Mammal Research Institute at the University of Pretoria White privilege needs to be addressed IF THERE was one thing South Africa might have been expected to do over the last 107 days of lockdown was to think deeply on the harsh inequality that Covid-19 has brutally exposed in this country. We have many problems, after more than quarter of a century as a politically free society, many of which have their roots in our fractured and deeply dysfunctional past. There is no overlooking this, getting over it or wishing it away. Whether it be police brutality in Alex, the looting of VBS or state capture as a whole, Black Lives obviously don’t Matter. It’s a phenomenon that permeates beyond there to every aspect of our society, from the classroom to the boardroom and the locker room. This week South Africa’s current ODI and T20 cricketer-ofthe-year Lungi Ngidi announced his support for the Black Lives Matter movement and urged the rest of his Protea teammates to join him. He shouldn’t even have to ask. But some former white, national cricketers were horrified. Boeta Dippenaar and Pat Symcox took Ngidi to task, arguing all lives matter and urging that the government act on farm attacks. They weren’t the only ones. They miss the point. If all lives mattered there wouldn’t be a need to highlight that Black Lives Matter not just here, but worldwide. Farmers’ lives matter too. But they’re not the only ones getting murdered in this country, nor are they the largest group of victims. Both issues, black lives and farm murders, need to be addressed, but both need different solutions. To conflate the two is neither logical nor fair. What it does do, though, is perpetuate the arrogance of a white privilege that has never been properly addressed since 1994. Until we do this, we will never truly forge a nation. Editor Newsdesk Advertising Subscriptions Deliveries FOUNDED 1898 Valerie Boje 012 300 2107 012 300 2200 0860 326 262 0860 326 262 Mail: PO Box 439, Pretoria 0001 E-mail: pta.newsdesk@inl.co.za Web: iol.co.za/Pretoria News Facebook: facebook.com/ PretoriaNewsSA Twitter: @Pretorianews Instagram: @pretoria.news PRESS OMBUDSMAN Complaints relating to editorial content can be sent to complaints@inl.co.za PTA News Weekend is printed by Insights Publishing, 47 Pixley Ka Isaka Seme Street, Johannesburg, Gauteng. The copyright in the literary and artistic works contained in this newspaper and its supplements, as well as in the published editions and any other content Or material (including in any online version), belongs exclusively to Independent Newspapers (Pty) Limited unless otherwise stated. The copyright, including the reproduction and adaptation of any content or material contained in this newspaper and its supplements, is expressly reserved to the publisher, Independent Newspapers (Pty) Limited, under Section 12(7) of the Copyright Act of 1978. The circulation of the Pretoria News Weekend is certified by the Audit Bureau of Circulations,which can be contacted at PO Box 47189, Parklands, 2121, South Africa or Suite 5, Ground Floor, 158 Jan Smuts, 9 Walters Ave, Rosebank, 2196, Johannesburg. Cover price: R9.50 (includes VAT at 15%)
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Pretoria News Weekend July 11 2020

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