Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Ainsley Ash

How the coronavirus shapes this year’s holy month of Ramadan

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By Ainsley Ash

MAIN IMAGE: Due to coronavirus restrictions, Muslims are celebrating Ramadan a little differently this year. SOURCE: Ali Arapoğlu on Pexels

Across the world, the coronavirus pandemic is changing the way that millions of people are marking Ramadan.

The holy month is a time when Muslims traditionally focus on prayer, spiritual rejuvenation, charity, and time spent with loved ones. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, however, this year’s Islamic holy month looks very different for the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims.

Worshippers typically gather to celebrate each evening with friends and family, to break the fast that is observed during daylight hours throughout the month, but coronavirus lockdowns imposed by governments across the world are making it impossible for many to join together in person.

In Saudi Arabia, mosques in Mecca and Medina, two of Islam’s most holy sites, are closed throughout the month.

https://twitter.com/QasimRashid/status/1251622705960493057?s=20

“It pains me to welcome the glorious month of Ramadan under circumstances that forbid us of prayers in Mosques and of performing the Ramadan prayers,” King Salman said, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

Indonesia, the country with the world’s largest Muslim population, banned all forms of travel on April 24, the first day of Ramadan, CNN reports. The night before, thousands of worshippers gathered in Aceh, one of the more conservative provinces in the country, and defied social distancing guidelines, Aljazeera reports. 

In Pakistan, mosques are allowed to stay open, so long as they follow public health guidelines that religious leaders and the Pakistani government have both agreed upon, Dawn reports.  This compromise comes after many worshippers had defied more stringent restrictions.

“We knew that people will definitely go to the mosques even after the government stops them by force. We did not want to send police to the mosques to impose a ban on congregational prayers and for arrests,” Prime Minister Imran Khan told reporters.

Technology is helping worshippers to find ways to maintain traditions.

In the United Arab Emirates, the General Authority of Islamic Affairs has launched a smart interactive platform with teachings from the Quran and special activities “to encourage the public to be committed to social distancing and stay at home”, Gulf News reports.

According to the Middle East Eye, authorities in Kuwait have altered the call to prayer to include “pray in your homes” instead of the regular “come to pray”.

Since lockdown began, many mosques have begun holding prayers and services online.  “There’s only so much you can listen to on YouTube but having a live connection with your imam and local scholars through Mixlr, GoMeet or Zoom, is a great way of keeping spirits high,” Imran Choudhury, a British mosque volunteer told The Guardian.

US students sue colleges for loss of on-campus experience

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By Ainsley Ash

MAIN PHOTO: Due to the coronavirus pandemic, schools have sent students home to complete their semester online. Many students say this is not what they signed up for and want back some of their money. SOURCE: Edward Jenner on Pexels

Students in the US are suing universities that have closed their doors and moved classes online due to the coronavirus.

The online experience, they argue, is not what they paid for, and they want their money back. 

Students at Drexel University and the University of Miami have filed a class action lawsuit. They say that they should be reimbursed for the fees they have paid which are normally used to fund services such as computer labs, libraries, and social networking events, all of which the students can no longer receive.

A law firm based in South Carolina, the Anastopoulo Law Firm, is representing the Drexel students as well as students in a similar case against the University of Colorado. It is investigating “dozens” of other potential cases, a lawyer from the law firm told Inside Higher Ed. The firm has created a website, collegerefund2020.com where students can lodge their cases. 

At the University of Chicago, a private research university, students have organized a petition to ask for a drop in tuition fees for the final quarter of the 2019-2020 school year. Their campaign, called  “UChicago for Fair Tuition” has drawn over 1,700 student signatures. According to a survey conducted by the U.S. News and World Report, the university is the second most expensive U.S. college with $59,298 in tuition and fees. 

“The world-class education that consists in having opportunities to work and interact with academics and peers (not to mention the vast numbers of innovators, creators, doctors, organizers, and more that congregate on our campus) will no longer be provided,” the petition to the administration states. 

The campaign statement added that “families that rely on small business, service-industry and other precarious work will be hit far harder than a school with a multibillion-dollar endowment”.

The campaign is not supported by all at the campuses. Zarek Drozda, a UChicago employee and recent graduate wrote an article for The Chicago Maroon, the university’s student newspaper urging campaigners to consider the “unintended impacts of such a reduction.” 

“Such a significant loss in tuition payments will likely mean less money for the most financially at-risk employees: dining hall, cleaning, and other service staff. It will mean less money to support research and grants, including vital research on COVID-19”, Drozda wrote in the student publication.

Colleges and universities are taking substantial financial hits because of Covid-19. 

Even if campuses reopen in the fall, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, both large public universities research universities, expect to lose $100 million, according to the Associated Press.  

Colleges and universities across the U.S. are set to receive approximately $14 billion dollars in grants from the federal stimulus package passed last month. Of this, $6 billion is to be used as emergency cash grants for students affected by the economic fallout of the pandemic. 

Colleges fear the lasting financial impact of the coronavirus. Colleges worry that students will not return to school in the fall, as they may be unable to afford tuition. For international students, the cost of studying abroad may not be feasible. And with many athletic seasons cut short, revenue from sporting events is expected to fall. 

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South African Airways denied more funding

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By Ainsley Ash 

MAIN PHOTO: After being placed under business rescue in December, South African Airways has been denied further funding from the government. SOURCE: Maria Tyutina on Pexels

The South African government has denied further funding to South African Airways, its national carrier. 

In a letter signed by Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan  and addressed to the airline’s business rescue administrators, SAA was told that the government would not support the airline’s bid for funds from foreign banks, nor was it able to offer any funds itself.

The airline was placed under business rescue in early December 2019. 

Gordhan’s decision comes after SAA asked the government for an additional R10 billion to supplement the R5.5 billion it had already received for business rescue operations. 

Gordhan ‘s letter said the government would not be able to provide additional funding because the Covid-19 pandemic had “stretched national government resources”. 

The airline has accumulated R26 billion in losses over the past six years and last turned a profit in 2011. SAA has largely relied on state bailouts to continue operations throughout these years. 

The EFF has responded to this decision by accusing Gordhan of engineering the “deliberate collapse” of the airline. In a statement released on Wednesday, the EFF said that it was disingenuous to label the requested R10 billion as a bailout, because the funds would put in place measures that would have rescued the organization and secured jobs. 

“It is therefore clear that Gordham has no intention of rescuing SAA or protecting the incomes and livelihoods of its employees,” the statement said. 

The EFF called for a multi-ministerial oversight of all State-Owned Enterprises “to prevent the inevitable arrogance of Gordhan from collapsing them”. 

SA Express, the regional carrier, is also facing uncertainty. In March, the Business Rescue Practitioners made the decision to liquidate SA Express. 

According to notes prepared for a briefing to journalists by Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni on Tuesday, economic measures being considered by the government include the “consolidation of public entities and closure of SAA and SA Express”. However, Mboweni later told journalists that he was unaware that the phrase had been included in his notes, reports the Daily Maverick. 

SAA has halted all domestic and international commercial flights since the government imposed the coronavirus lockdown on the country. Apart from recent chartered repatriation flights, SAA has been out of operation since the end of March. 

Global domestic violence surges under coronavirus restrictions

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MAIN IMAGE: Domestic violence cases have increased across the world since the start of coronavirus restrictions. SOURCE: Tumisu on Pixabay

By Ainsley Ash

With at least a third of the world’s population on coronavirus lockdown, many women and children are at home, safe from the virus, but find themselves in more immediate danger of domestic violence.

“For many women and girls, the threat looms largest where they should be safest — in their own homes,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said earlier this month, during an address in which he urged governments to address the “horrifying surge” in domestic violence.

Argentina has seen emergency calls for domestic violence cases increase by 25% since the beginning of their 20 March lockdown, reports The Guardian. In Italy, advocates have said that calls have sharply decreased, but they have seen a massive increase in texts and emails. 

After lockdown was implemented in the Chinese province Hubei, reports of domestic violence in a single county in February tripled compared to a year ago, according to the Globe and Mail.

The UK’s largest domestic abuse charity, Refuge, has reported a 700% increase in calls to its helpline in a single day, reports The Guardian.

“It happens in all crisis situations,” Marcy Hersh, a senior manager for international humanitarian advocacy at Women Deliver said to The Guardian. “What we worry about is just as rates of violence are on the rise, the accessibility of services and the ability of women to access these services will decrease. This is a real challenge.” 

Some countries have responded by adjusting  the restriction of movement in cases of abuse. 

In Spain, the government has told women that, despite rigid lockdown rules, they will not be fined for breaking them if they are leaving home to report abuse. 

The UK government has developed an app called “Bright Sky” to discreetly provide information and support to victims while also promoting the #YouAreNotAlone hashtag on social media.

In South Africa, a country with already high rates of gender-based violence, resources are being stretched thin. Since the beginning of the lockdown, 148 people have been charged with crimes of gender-based violence. The national police hotline for gender-based violence reports received 2,300 calls in the first week of lockdown.

“Domestic violence shelters in South Africa are reaching capacity or are unable to take new victims due to lockdown and social distancing measures. In other cases, they are being re-purposed to serve as health centres,” Tina Thiart, a founding member of 1000 Women Trust, told Independent Online, 

President Cyril Ramaphosa wrote an open letter to the nation on Monday, addressing the increase in violence. 

“It is disturbing that during a time of such immense difficulty for our country, women and girls are being terrorised inside their own homes, forcing them to make desperate calls for help,” Ramaphosa wrote. 

He said the Interim Steering Committee on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide wasconsulting with civil society organizations to develop guidelines to address gender based violence during Covid-19. 

He expressed condolences to the families of individual victims of gender-based violence.

Governments struggle to contain coronavirus threat to prisoners

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by Ainsley Ash

MAIN PHOTO: A montage of the faces of political prisoners being held in Egypt where a campaign is under way to secure their release in the face of the risk posed by coronavirus. Source @BowdyT

Prison authorities across the world are facing a coronavirus crisis in their institutions.

For many detention centres, confined spaces and limited access to hygiene and health care make it nearly impossible to practice the World Health Organization’s recommendations on social distancing and increased sanitation measures. The result is that inmates and correctional staff are at high risk of transmission of the virus which has already found its way into detention centres around the world. In some countries, prisoners are being released to reduce the threat of an even greater crisis.

In New York City, the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak in the United States, Riker’s Island prison is facing what Ross MacDonald, chief medical officer of New York City’s correctional health service, called, “a public health disaster unfolding before our eyes”. As of Wednesday, more than 280 inmates and 440 employees have tested positive for COVID-19. This is a 6.6 percent infection rate, which is seven times higher than that of New York City, Newsweek reports. An inmate who was held on a technical parole violation has died after testing positive for Covid-19.

Amid calls from activists and public health officials, over 1,000 inmates who were being held on technical violations of their parole have been released. A New York Post report suggested that at least one of them has been rearrested for robbery. The Legal Aid Society in New York City has asked for the specific release of 105 inmates “due to their unique vulnerability to complications from COVID-19”. “Many have release dates that are only weeks away,” their statement read. “Given the exponential spread of the virus, this could mean the difference between life and death.”

CNN reports that in Chicago, at least 251 detainees and 150 staff members at Cook County Jail have tested positive for coronavirus. One detainee who tested positive for the virus had died, and at least 22 detainees had been hospitalized.

Cook County Board president Toni Preckwinkle described the situation in prisons as ‘a petri dish’ for the virus.

Authorities are also having to deal with outbreaks of violent protest in prisons as inmates become infected, according to the CNN report.

In Iran, thousands of prisoners have been temporarily released, most non-violent offenders serving short prison sentences, Al Jazeera reports. Among these, about 70,000 are believed to be those arrested during anti-government protests. 

The release decision has been met with strong opposition. Violent protests have erupted throughout the country, resulting in the death of 36 prisoners, according to Amnesty International.

Across the African continent, countries have begun to address the issue. At the end of March, Ethopian President Sahle-Work Zewde granted pardon to more than 4,000 prisoners who had been jailed for minor crimes or were nearing the end of their sentence. In Ghana, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has granted amnesty to 808 prisoners, 783 of whom were first time offenders, Business Insider reports. 

Among those seeking release from prison are some high profile inmates who are hoping for a personal reprieve. Julian Assange, the Australian-born Wikileaks publisher, is currently being held at a London prison. His bid for release was rejected by a judge on the grounds that there were no records of infections in the prison – but since then at least one person there has died of the disease.

Australian parliamentarians have petitioned for his release, arguing that he is a nonviolent prisoner with a chronic health condition, the Washington Times reports. 

In the US, convicted rapist and movie mogul Harvey Weinstein contracted the virus at a facility in New York, but is said to have survived the virus, according to Reuters. 

South Africa has reported its first coronavirus cases in prisons last week after an East London correctional worker became ill, according to News24. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases has started a screening and testing program at prisons across the country. 

South African prisons are chronically overcrowded, raising concerns for the spread of the virus, There are already high rates of TB in the prisons, especially the Multi-Drug Resistant strain (MDR-TB), another disease spread by close contact with a carrier. As of March 2019, 37 percent of South Africa’s prisons were overcrowded, according to Business Live. 

Courts rejects shackdwellers petition to stop demolitions

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MAIN PHOTO: Abhalali has lost a bid to have demolitions halted in parts of Durban. This photo of a demolished shack was posted by the group on its Facebook page.

By Ainsley Ash

Shackdweller movement Abahlali baseMjondolo has expressed its disappointment after the Durban High Court rejected an application to stop the eviction of shackdwellers by eThekwini authorities – despite claims by Abahlali that the action was illegal. 

Abahlali approached the court after multiple incidents of shack demolitions in the Ekuphumeleleni and Azania areas of the city. 

Abahlali says the recent evictions in these settlements were conducted without court orders and resulted in the serious injuries of residents. The city’s land invasion unit, however, argued that it had only targeted and demolished shacks that were unoccupied.  

While evictions are suspended for the duration of the Covid-19 lockdown, action against “land invasions” and the demolition of “unoccupied shacks” are not. 

A statement by Abahlali said the group had been prepared to present evidence such as photographs and affidavits that could prove long-term residence but the evidence had been rejected.

The statement revealed that High Court Judge Mohini Moodley had asked the representatives of the eThekwini Municipality and Abahalili to discuss the matter to find a solution on their own. Abahalali had asked that the shak=ckdwellers should be allowed to rebuild on the same piece of land. The city had denied the request, said the organisation.

Instead, the city had offered the use of alternative accommodation in emergency camps at the Durban Exhibition Centre and in Pinetown, created to accommodate the homeless during the Covid-19 crisis. 

Abahali members rejected the offer, fearing that they would not later be able to return to the contested land. They also expressed concern about their ability to practice social distancing and ensure their safety while living in these camps. 

“We cannot accept that people can be subject to state violence or made homeless under any circumstances, but state violence and evictions became particularly urgent during this time of a worldwide health crisis in which impoverished people are most at risk,” said Abahali.

A photo of a demolished shack posted by Abahlali on 29 March. (Abahlili baseMjondolo on Facebook)

Durban Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda told Ground Up, “Covid-19 does not mean that there must be a holiday in respecting the laws of the country… We are a caring municipality and have mobilised resources to provide shelter to more than 4,000 homeless people.”

He said that the city had worked hard to meet the needs of its housing insecure residents.

Great Barrier Reef experiences largest bleaching event in five years

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by Ainsley Ash

MAIN PHOTO: Coral bleaching occurs when the coral turns white as a stress response to warm water temperatures. The effect is visible in this photo of coral in Keppel Bay, on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. (Arc Centre for Excellence in Coral Reef Studies)

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has just experienced its most massive coral bleaching event on record, according to a new study.  

Four mass bleaching events have occured in the area previously – in 1998, 2002, 2016 and in 2017

The scientists from the ARC Centre for Excellence in Coral Reef Studies who conducted the research noted that while the 2016 and 2017 bleaching events were severe, they were concentrated in a relatively small area. The 2020 bleaching event, however, has struck all three regions of the reef – northern, central, and for the first-time, southern sections. 

The study detailed the differing degrees of major bleaching events which have been prompted by unprecedented rises in ocean temperatures. (ARC Centre for Excellence of Coral Reef Studies)

Coral bleaching occurs when the corals turn white as a stress response to warm water temperatures. While the bleaching does not immediately kill the coral, sustained high temperatures could lead to permanent death of the reefs which are living organisms made up of thousands of small creatures called polyps who live symbiotically in a marine community.

Of the five events so far, only two, 1998 and 2016, were associated with El Niño – a climate phenomenon that can increase the chances of extreme weather patterns. Higher average summer temperatures due to climate change could mean that El Niño is no longer necessary to trigger these events, according to scientists. 

As the bleaching events occur closer and closer together, the coral has less time to recover fully. 

This year in February, the reef experienced the highest monthly sea surface temperatures ever recorded by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. The unprecedented temperatures continued into March, prompting extensive coral bleaching warnings. 

In the weeks following the record breaking temperatures, Terry Hughes,  Director of the ARC Centre for Excellence in Coral Reef Studies, and a team from the Great Barrier Marine Park Authority conducted an aerial survey of the over 1,000 reefs. What Hughes saw, he said, is an ‘utter tragedy’.

In an article published by The Conversation, Hughes writes, “The Great Barrier Reef will continue to lose corals from heat stress, until global emissions of greenhouse gasses are reduced to net zero, and sea temperatures stabilise.”

Scientists have warned that the loss of the Great Barrier Reef would have severe consequences for the marine life that depends on it, creating even greater threats to the Earth’s dwindling biodiversity. The reef is home to more than 1,500 species of  fish and 400 types of hard coral. 

Without urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, coral reefs would not survive, said Hughes. 

Western Cape government calls for medical volunteers to help fight Covid-19

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By Ainsley Ash 

MAIN IMAGE: A graphic issued by the Western Cape government showing the spread of Covid-19 cases in the province.

The Western Cape Government has issued an appeal for medical volunteers to sign up to help fight the spread of COVID-19 as it gears up for a rise in case numbers in coming weeks. 

On Friday the government issued a statement explaining that the pre-existing burden of disease among the province’s population combined with the COVID-19 pandemic were increasing pressure on medical facilities. It called on doctors, nurses, pharmacists, pharmacy assistants and emergency medical service personnel who were not already employed by the Department of Health to sign up online to offer their services.

The request came as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the province rose to 418, with 25 people in hospitals, seven of them receiving intensive care. 

https://twitter.com/WesternCapeGov/status/1246046870956359680?s=20

On Thursday, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde and health officials took to Facebook for a live presentation to discuss the province’s response to COVID-19.

“We have got enough hospital beds, enough ICU beds and enough quarantine facilities right now,” Winde said. “But we’ve got to be preparing for what the impact is going to be in a week, two weeks, and two months’ time?”

While the province’s numbers are currently low, Western Cape Head of Health Dr Keith Cloete said that the numbers of locally transmitted cases, hospitalisations, and ICU patients was expected to continue to increase. 

Dr Keith Cloete explains challenges of preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the province. (Ainsley Ash)

Cape Town has been the epicenter of the spread of local transmissions with 333 of the 418 reported cases residing in the Cape Town metropolitan area. Before the government’s request for volunteers, over 100 students at the University of Cape Town had already begun volunteering to run a local COVID-19 hotline.

Members of the UCT Surgical Society who opted to volunteer have been classified as emergency medical personnel, giving them the necessary permissions to travel to and from the Tygerberg Hospital Disaster Management Centre where the hotline is located.

This week, the national Health Department will begin to conduct mass community screenings and testing to track and prevent the spread of local transmissions. According to Cloete, community health workers and NGOS will carry out these preventative efforts, beginning with vulnerable communities in the Cape Town Metro.

Feel-good fake news? Shutdowns bring spate of urban wildlife sightings – and plenty of misinformation

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By Ainsley Ash & Renny Simone

Viral photos, purporting to show wild animals ‘reclaiming’ cities left vacant by coronavirus shutdowns, have been making the rounds on social media. But are these feel-good posts too good to be true?

A recent tweet featuring photos of dolphins and swans swimming in clear Venice canals has amassed tens of thousands of likes. The user celebrates that “[n]ature just hit the reset button on us”. Another tweet celebrating the first sighting of the critically endangered Malabar civet since 1990 has been retweeted thousands of times – with a video to prove it.

Like the countless others that have followed, these posts claim that shutdown protocols are causing the return of wildlife to the world’s now-vacant cities. The reappearance of these animals has been the subject of articles from outlets including The Guardian, the New York Post, and The New York Times. 

Posts like these provide a silver lining for victims of COVID-19’s disruptive spread, but the reality behind them is often disappointing. National Geographic wrote that the video of the ‘Venetian’ dolphins was actually taken at a port hundreds of miles away.

Why do people want to believe these posts? Susan Clayton, a psychology and environmental studies professor at the College of Wooster, told National Geographic, “People hope that, no matter what we’ve done, nature is powerful enough to rise above it.” The sense of hope that the stories bring might feel real, but the posts themselves often are not. 

As for the posts that are genuine, there is usually much more to the story than coronavirus shutdowns. Urban ecologists have been studying the return of wildlife to cities for decades. Many of these changes came before coronavirus and the emptying of urban spaces. In San Francisco, for example, excited Twitter users have been uploading photos of coyotes roaming the streets. But an article about the city’s rebounding coyote population was published on February 20th – more than two weeks before San Francisco’s first reported case of COVID-19. 

Ecologists have been quick to warn against the spread of misinformation about urban wildlife. Parveen Kaswan, a member of the Indian Forest Service, corrected a misleading photo purporting to show deer walking the streets of Jaipur. According to Kaswan, the photo was actually taken in Haridwar, where such sightings are common – the city borders Rajaji National Park. “[S]preading positivity is one thing,” Kaswan tweeted. “Dumbing down society is another.”

Others, though, have taken a more lighthearted approach to the issue of misleading wildlife posts. Memes and screenshots depicting everything from dinosaurs in New York’s Central Park to the cast of Cats in a London square celebrate the ‘return of nature’ to the world’s cities.

It is too early to tell which impulse – to celebrate, educate, or make fun of – will win the day.

https://twitter.com/RoflGandhi_/status/1243519632193007618

Albert Thabede’s Life of Faith

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By Ainsley Ash

Many South Africans tell stories that have a marker: before and after democracy.

Albert Thabede remembers the earlier time well.

“Things were very, very bad,” he says, when he could not leave his house without his dompas.

But Thabede prefers a different before-and-after story: before and after a Monday morning in 1986.

“I was going to work. The man was preaching on a train. And then something [started] happening to me,” Thabede says slowly, staring into the distance that is the conglomerate of palm trees and pink houses and slumping clothes lines and vocal white taxis. He is sitting in a rusted folding chair on the back porch, and I am sitting beside him in a dilapidated seat covered with a piece of grey carpet.

Albert Thabede locks the door while leaving for church. (Ainsley Ash)

“He was preaching … Jesus. Then, my eyes were red. I was crying. I didn’t know what was happening to me,” he says matter-of-factly, with a crooked bright white smile on his face.

            His eyes are black, rimmed with a faint blue colour. Possibly from old age. He is 73 after all. Today he is wearing a grey-blue shirt with denim pants to match. He no longer has girlfriends or drinks Zulu beer, he says, unlike the men in his culture who do not know Jesus.

            I try to imagine a younger man with wholly black eyes overcome with emotion on the train to work. I struggle to remove the deep wrinkles lining his smile, and the white hair dotting his beard. [[lovely image]]

            Every Sunday morning and every Wednesday night, Thabede can be found in only one place: his church in Cato Manor. It’s where he finds his friends, his family, and his god. The congregation sings hymns half in Zulu and half in English. Baba confesses that he does not know all of the English words.

“Abancane kuYe bangabakhe… Babuthakathaka kepha Unamandla… Yes, Jesus loves me,” Thabede hums, and I hum along.

“That’s my favorite song,” he informs me. I agree. It is a lovely song.

The view from Albert Thabede’s back porch. (Ainsley Ash).

Even though Thabede is aging and his knees give him fits, he does not fear death, he says. He has done what he felt he was supposed to do: get a job, get a wife, and find his god. He does not seek wisdom or luck from prophets or ancestors or “grannies”.

“They say you get your job, because your grannies gave it to you. I don’t believe that now… I only believe in god,” he states with the wisdom of an older man with kind, blue-rimmed eyes.

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