In the last year, South Africa has experienced increasingly severe planned blackouts -- or load shedding, as they call it here -- although things have been better since a National State of Disaster ended on 4 April. This has significantly impacted the ease -- or not -- with which a book can be published from here. There are two issues: communications, and local services. The publication of a book requires intensive use of communications, and blackouts have severely disrupted this. With less impact (no more than hours lost), it has affected services, such as printing. OBSERVATION: There is also the mental impact: shall I even try today to use the fickle communications I have? Is perseverance self-defeating? I asked the publishers whether they could offset the African situation. They kindly took a few measures, though not to truly offset the disadvantage. One can't expect that, either.
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