Going Home

Evacuation Tomorrow!

If there are no last minute delays, I’ll be flying home tomorrow on a US State Department evacuation flight from Lagos to Dulles Airport in Washington DC.

My friend Jean offered to pick me up at the airport. She didn’t realize it wasn’t New York! But she made me think maybe I could get a flight from DC to New York. Done!

If not for the virus, I would have asked DC friends to put me up for a night to rest before returning home. But that’s not something I can ask now.

And especially after Covid exposure from being in lines this morning trying to get access to my Nigerian bank account! Today, second day after the lockdown for Lagos was lifted, only one branch of the bank was open.

I spent an hour and a half in various lines both outside and inside. The bank employees all wore masks, but people in the lines were not so careful. Many customers had their masks over just their mouths, or dangling around their necks.

At two locations inside the bank we were asked to stay 6 feet apart, but in the queues outside and the one upstairs, there was no distancing.

So I had plenty of chance for exposure. And I’ll have more at the airport and on the plane tomorrow, I suspect!

White Privilege at the Bank?

I am white, as most of you know. In Nigeria, especially now with the pandemic when many foreigners have departed, I stand out.

My white privilege clings to me. I prefer not to make explicit use of it. But sometimes I do! When I was pulled out of the line and let into the bank ahead of others this morning, I accepted. I justified it because of my age!

I still didn’t get to the head of the line inside. After an hour and a half I left without seeing a banker! And after I got back to Sam’s I found that the bank did finally reply to my emailed requests for help. So maybe I can get the account working without ever gong in!

White Privilege in Health Care

I’ve known there are major differences in health care in the US between people of color and white people. This has been in the news for several years. But for many it’s difficult to believe.

An epidemiologist, family physician, and senior fellow at the Morehouse School of Medicine says, “It’s been hard for Americans to understand that there are racial structural disparities in this country, that racism exists.”

She believes that most white people would deny that racism has “profound impacts on opportunities and exposures, resources and risks.”

But she explains that “COVID-19 and the statistics about black excess deaths are pulling away that deniability.”

In the article here you can read about some of the the causes and the evidence. It’s a serious problem that is crying for a solution.

And in case you don’t read to the end, there’s a mildly hopeful conclusion, though I won’t hold my breath:

In a sign of possible movement in that direction, Vice President Mike Pence and Surgeon General Jerome Adams held a conference call last Friday with hundreds of leaders of the African America community to discuss the alarming statistics. The government is working on increased testing and outreach efforts to communities of color, Adams said after the call, and on increased social and financial supports.

We all need to pay attention to this unfair situation.

COVID-19 targets communities of color

Dance to the Drumbeat

Do you know the name Tony Allen? I must have danced to his drumbeat a zillion times, but I never knew his name. When I saw the announcement of his death in The New York Times, I asked Sam, “Do you know Tony Allen?”

“Of course, Mother. He died a few days ago,” Sam said.

I should have known. Sam has paid attention to music for ever, and he’s in the entertainment business after all! And now I know the name of one of Fela’s drummers.