Dear Reader, It has been a particularly turbulent few days in what we have already understood to be an unabatingly turbulent year. While the bad news appears relentless, there is an equally relentless trickle of good news: harder to find, no doubt, but important gains are being made globally in the fight against the destruction of our humanity through social distancing, mask mandates and the threat of a two-class society that immunity passports would bring. Yesterday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that Texas is now completely open and the statewide mask mandate is a thing of the past. On Sunday, without a televised announcement or any fanfare whatsoever, South Africa's lockdown was eased from Level 3 to Level 1 because it is no longer feasible to pretend the country is in the midst of a public health crisis. However, the mask mandate and the State of Disaster (with its incursion into civil liberties) remain, so the easing of levels is mere lip-service to an ending of the crisis. PANDA has seen a doubling down in efforts to silence us in the South African press - an effort that leads us to add the defence of free speech to our list of items requiring urgent attention.
Speaking of attention, we'd like to sincerely thank you for yours. We would not still be banging this drum without your support and the energy that we get from you that keeps us going.
~ The PANDAs | 
