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The Pandemic Exposes Dangers of the Informal Economy
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The Pandemic Exposes Dangers of the Informal Economy
And It Is Not Just Developing Countries That Are in Trouble
by Pascale Joassart-Marcelli
The novel coronavirus has wreaked havoc on the global economy, shuttering businesses, disrupting supply chains, and causing millions of people to lose their jobs. But the pandemic has been especially devastating for the world’s two billion or so informal workers, who constitute roughly 60 percent of the global labor force and often earn less than 2$ per day. These workers, particularly in developing countries, face a looming economic calamity.
Unlike workers in the formal economy, who benefit from legal and social protections, informal workers earn their living without a safety net. They are mostly women and mostly self-employed, engaged in occupations as varied as street vending, domestic work, transportation, and garbage collection. Some also work as off-the-books day laborers in factories, farms, and other formal businesses that don’t extend full rights or protections to all of their employees. Measures taken by many countries to fight the pandemic—including lockdowns implemented without significant assistance for those whose jobs are affected— have threatened the livelihoods of informal workers and pushed them further into poverty, hunger, and homelessness. In just a few weeks, millions of informal jobs have been lost and millions more have been put at risk.
But the crisis in the informal economy is not affecting just poor countries—it is hurting rich ones, too. Nearly a fifth of all workers in the United States are informal, and they are particularly vulnerable to the health threat posed by the new coronavirus as well as to its economic consequences. The popular image of the informal American worker may now be a laborer in the technology-enabled “gig economy”—such as a driver for Uber or Lyft—but the shift toward a larger informal economy began under U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Regulations on employers loosened after 1980, allowing businesses to gradually offload risks onto subcontractors, day laborers, and other flexible workers. Lack of worker protections now makes the coronavirus crisis particularly acute in the United States: it is not just a health crisis or an economic crisis but a deeper social crisis decades in the making.
THE RISE OF THE INFORMAL WORKER
A food delivery rider poses for a photograph while wearing a N95 respirator on March 2020 ,8 in Cardiff, United Kingdom. (Getty)
upward of 90 percent of jobs are informal, the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that over 400 million workers are likely to sink into deep poverty (defined as earning less than 2$ per day) thanks to the nationwide lockdown announced on March 24. The existence of large informal economies in many poor countries also increases the risk that COVID19-, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, will spread among the most vulnerable workers, who depend on daily earnings and cannot afford to stop working. Informal workers already face adverse health conditions, such as poor nutrition, limited access to sanitation, and chronic disease linked to air and water pollution. Unsurprisingly, informal workers have led protests demanding emergency public assistance in Colombia, Malawi, Uganda, and elsewhere. Some governments have taken small steps to support informal workers during the crisis. For example, in Peru, where almost three-quarters of jobs are informal, the government offered the poorest workers a one-time payment of about 100$. But many countries have done little or nothing to help such workers weather the pandemic.
have become increasingly common in industrialized nations. As economies became more globalized and governments embraced neoliberalism, demand for cheap and disposable labor increased along with the supply of people willing to work informally, including immigrants and other vulnerable people barred from formal jobs. In the United States, the public blamed big government for the economic turmoil of the 1970s, leading to drastic cuts in welfare spending and the deregulation of numerous industries over the next four decades. In this regulatory vacuum, the informal economy grew: more and more jobs lacked employment security, health-care coverage, sick days, pensions, and severance packages. In other words,
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informality arose out of deliberate decisions by elected officials to dismantle welfare, ignore or remove hardfought labor protections, skimp on affordable housing, and, more recently, prioritize financial firms over workers, reject universal health care, and neglect immigration reform.
The share of American workers engaged in informal work has crept steadily higher in recent decades. Between 2005 and 2015, the percentage of U.S. workers whose main jobs were informal rose from ten percent to 16 percent. By 2018, at least a third of the U.S. adult population had engaged in some form of informal work, according to the Federal Reserve. That same year, the ILO estimated that informal employment accounted for 30 million jobs in the United States—or 19 percent of the total labor force. These workers are ill-equipped to handle routine health problems, let alone a pandemic. They have no choice but to go to work, even if they are sick.
They are also disproportionately people of color, immigrants, and women. Economic and racial inequality has profoundly affected the way Americans experience the coronavirus crisis. Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and from local public health agencies show that African Americans and Latinos are more likely to die from COVID19- than non-Latino whites, challenging the notion that the disease is a “great leveler.” And death figures for these groups are most likely understated, given that vulnerable minority populations often lack access to testing and health care. Pundits are quick to point to individual “underlying conditions” such as obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes as an explanation for these disparities. But among the biggest risk factors for COVID19- are social and economic inequality, which have been exacerbated by the informalization of the economy.
Many at-risk informal workers have suddenly been classified as “essential,” keeping the economy going during the pandemic even though they lack basic labor protections. These include restaurant workers, farmworkers, caretakers, cleaners, and delivery workers— none of whom can work from home. Thanks to this labor, more fortunate Americans can telework safely without having to expose themselves to the virus. What remains of the formal economy depends heavily on goods and services produced and delivered by informal workers.
Such workers have limited access to the health care and other benefits needed to weather the pandemic and keep themselves and others safe. Even those whose employment is technically on the books, such as Uber drivers and Instacart shoppers, face a raft of disadvantages because they are classified as independent contractors. Many struggle to win unemployment benefits because their employers fail to pay insurance premiums or report wage data to state agencies.
It remains unclear how the major relief and emergency measures passed by Congress, allocating over 2$ trillion for paid sick leave, unemployment benefits, and food
A policeman (R) wearing a coronavirusthemed outfit composed of helmet, mace and shield, gestures towards a vendor at a market to raise awareness about social distancing, during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the COVID19- coronavirus, in Chennai on April ,2 2020. (Getty)
assistance, will help informal workers, because these measures contain onerous eligibility requirements and significant loopholes. But they likely won’t help the millions of informal workers who are unable to document wages and hours of work prior to the pandemic or who are ineligible for food stamps and sick leave because of their immigration status. What is clear is that the pandemic has deepened the precariousness of informal work in the United States, just as it has in India and other developing countries. Many workers don’t know how they will pay for their next meal, let alone their rent, making it more likely that they will continue working regardless of the risk.
TIPPING POINTS
Major crises sometimes expose the root causes of societal and economic problems, encouraging reform and change. The Great Depression set in motion the New Deal, which created the foundation of a new social contract that was further solidified in the years following World War II. The New Deal put in place social safety nets and laid the groundwork for more collective bargaining, facilitating the growth of the middle class, expanding social and legal protections of workers, and formalizing economic security for most working people.
Since the Great Depression, however, subsequent economic crises have had the opposite effect. They have allowed legislators to gut existing welfare programs, relax government regulations, demonize immigrants, and bail out large corporations that often rely on informal workers to fill their most menial jobs. The five major recessions since the early 1970s have eroded much of the country’s social safety net, driving many workers into the informal economy. In fact, net job growth in the decade after the Great Recession of 2008 was driven almost entirely by jobs created in the informal economy. The United States has created “bad jobs” much faster than “good jobs,” and American workers are suffering as a result. The employment figures much touted by U.S. President Donald Trump prior to the pandemic masked the fact that 44 percent of workers, or 53 million people, earned low wages, as defined by researchers at the Brookings Institution. Many of these workers were informal, laboring without legal and social protections.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The coronavirus pandemic seems to have generated an upsurge of solidarity. A number of organizations, such as the One Fair Wage Emergency Fund, the Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and the Undocumented Workers Relief Funds, have stepped up to protect informal workers and fill the gaps left by government programs in various U.S. cities. Although the work of these organizations is extremely important, it is not enough. If Americans want to minimize the most pernicious effects of the current crisis and better prepare for future crises, they must expand the social safety net and extend protections to informal workers.
The highly politicized protests to end state-imposed stayat-home orders in Florida, Michigan, Oklahoma, and other states may be intemperate and even reckless, but they reflect deep economic insecurities among middle- and lowincome Americans. Unfortunately, these demonstrations attack the wrong target. It is not the lockdowns that have caused economic insecurity but the informalization of the economy that has taken place in recent decades. To build a stronger country and healthier society, the United States must start using its coronavirus relief programs to require and provide greater protections for all working people, formalizing the informal economy by recognizing its significance.
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Afghan Government Stuck in Perpetual Taliban-ISIS Cycle
Recent Months Have Exposed the Weaknesses of the US-Taliban Deal
by Ali El Shamy On February 29, 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed a peace deal in Doha, Qatar. The deal has been one of the most contentious treaties in recent history, as it proponents praise it for being an important step towards ending the US’s almost 20 year long military engagement in Afghanistan, while others see it as a white flag that will allow the Taliban to do a hostile takeover on the country. Another point of contention is the reduction of violence clause, while the deal did not stipulate that the Taliban and government forces end their fighting, it was expected that there would be a major reduction in clashes. Thus far, the Taliban has not honoured this end of the deal as it has been resuming its attacks on civilian and government targets. Nevertheless, developments over the past week have shown some promise of a prospective amity between both sides of the conflict. CONTINUED VIOLENCE FROM TALIBAN IN SPITE OF DEAL During the negotiations and eventual signing of the deal in Doha, it was evident that it would not lead to the reduction of violence.
An Afghan security personnel carries a newborn baby from a hospital, at the site of an attack in Kabul on May 2020 ,12. (Getty)
The fact that the Afghan government did not take part in negotiations, nor sign the deal meant that two possible scenarios were likely to happen. First and foremost, as the government did not agree to the deal, it had no obligation to reduce its crackdown on the Taliban, especially if the latter chose to carry on with its attacks in spite of its commitments it promised to the United States. Second, the Taliban could exploit the end of its war with the US to refocus all its energy towards attacking the government. Both these scenarios were likely to happen because the deal never explicitly obligated the Taliban to stop its attacks; rather the US expected the group to reduce violence after the signing of the deal. The circumstances of the deal’s signing did display many holes early on, however there is little evidence to show that the deal might have worked in the first place. Shortly after the deal was signed, three anonymous American officials spoke to NBC news stating that the US government had gathered intelligence indicating that the Taliban didn’t have any intention to honour the terms put forward in the deal.
These warnings turned out to be true. Not only did the Taliban continue its operations as if no deal was signed, it actually intensified its attacks throughout the country. The supposed glimmer of hope that the Trump administration brought to the war torn country simmered in a matter of days. Both American and Afghan officials cite a surge in violence from the Taliban’s part, as a recent report from the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction stated that Taliban attacks on government forces were “above seasonal norms” last March. While the Afghan Security Council stated that since March 1, the Taliban have been carrying out an average of 55 attacks a day.
A NEW BLAME GAME
The presence of ISIS cells in Afghanistan has made peace the prospects of peace efforts more complex. ISIS insurgents are neither allied with the Taliban or the government, and they have opposed any peace efforts between both parties. In recent months, several devastating attacks on civilians and government facilities have put forward a new blame game in Afghanistan. While ISIS has claimed responsibility for several of the attacks, the Afghan government has repeatedly placed the blame on the Taliban, which then denies all involvement in such attacks. As a result, Afghanistan has been living through a perpetual blame game, whereby a terrorist attack happens which ISIS claims responsibility for, then the government blames the Taliban for said attack to which the Taliban washes its hands from. On March 6, days after the deal was signed ISIS claimed responsibility for a series of explosions in western Kabul, which killed 32 civilians and wounding 80 others. Quickly after the attack, the Taliban issued a statement denying all responsibility for it. May 12, 2020 was one of the bloodiest days in modern Afghan history, as two deadly attacks took place in the country. The first was an attack conducted by armed gunmen who targeted a maternity hospital in Kabul killing more than 15 people including two newborn babies. That same day, a funeral procession for a police officer
Both American and Afghan officials cite a surge in violence from the Taliban’s part, as recent report from the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction stated that Taliban attacks on government forces were “above seasonal norms” last March. While the Afghan Security Council stated that since March 1, the Taliban have been carrying out an average of 55 attacks a day.
Nangarhar was also targeted as 25 other people lost their lives at the hands of insurgents. Again ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks, while the Afghan government pointed the finger at the Taliban, and the Taliban once again denied. This time American officials, such as Zalmay Khalilzad, the chief negotiator of the Afghan peace deal backed the Taliban’s claims of innocence as they stated that evidence pointed towards ISIS as the responsible culprit. Nevertheless, May 12 was an important turning point since Afghan president Ashraf Ghani vowed to resume armed offensive against the Taliban, once again dampening the possibility of a viable peace deal between both entities.
?A GLIMMER OF HOPE ON THE HORIZON
In spite of heated tensions between the Afghan government and the Taliban, there have been a series of prisoner exchanges. This is an important development as a core part of the deal called on the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners, while the Taliban had to release 1,000 government soldiers who are held captive. Thus far, the government has released 2,000 Taliban fighters, while the group for its part freed 347 government fighters. Moreover, as of the writing of this piece, representatives from the Taliban are currently in Kabul as they are holding discussions with the government on further prisoner releases. This is also a positive outcome as far as the Trump administration is concerned, as Washington has slowly been withdrawing troops out of Afghanistan. As it stands, 13,000 US soldiers have started to move out of the war torn country, and more are expected to go back home provided that the Taliban abides by the terms set forth in the deal. While the Trump administration will undoubtedly use this as a victory to bolster his 2020 re-election campaign, the unpredictability of Afghanistan has shown that early celebrations can quickly end up becoming false alarms.
pinion o
Iran’s Patience Game Ensures a Prolonged Wait for Sovereignty Dreams
by Alia Mansour
Recently, there have been good signs that pointed towards a possible decline of Iranian interference in the region. First, there has been the recent appointment of Mustafa Al-Kadhimi as the new prime minister of Iraq and his successful formation of government. Then, there have been talks of an Iranian withdrawal from Syria as its bases and militias there have been facing targeted attacks from Israel. Finally, in Lebanon Hezbollah gave the Diab government the greenlight to take out a loan from the International Monetary Fund. In Iraq, some people have considered Iran’s inability to block Al-Kadhimi’s appointment, as well the Iraqi parliament’s confidence in the new Prime Minister as the beginning of the end of Iran’s intereference in Iraq’s affairs. Al-Kadhimi hails from a journalistic background, as he was a writer for “Al Osboeia” magazine, he then became a coloumnist and editor-inchief for the Iraq section of Al-Monitar International. Shortly after Haidar Al Abadi became president of Iraq, Al-Khadhimi became the new head of Iraqi intelligence. Ever since the American invasion of Iraq and the fall of the Saddam Huissein regime, Iraq has been ruled by a politicians who mainly hail from Shiite backgrounds and most of whom are loyal to the Iranian regime. Al-Kadhimi is part of a new generation of Iraqi politicians who do not subscribe to such pro-Iranian sentiment. As a matter of fact, Al-Kadhimi’s stances display a great divergence away from the establishment political class since his work with the Iranian opposition has brought him close to the United States, additionally he has shown to be quite pragmatic and liberal. The government officials and ministers he appointed also share his political sentiments and vision. He is also the first person to form a functioning government since the resignation of Adel Abdul Mahdi, as both Mohammed Tawfiq and Adnan al Zarfi failed to form governments of their own. As such, on May 7, 2020, the Iraqi political deadlock was finally broken after parliament approved of Al-Kadhimi’s new government. Ever since gaining parliamentary approval, Al-Kadhimi undertook a number of bold decisions that have come at odds with Iranian power. He decided to free all those who had been arrested during the protests that broke out late last year. He also decided to start paying reperations to the families of those who were killed during the protests, and he appointed new security officials who do not have any history of working with Iranian militias. He also reappointed Abdul Wahab al Saadi as the head of the Iraqi Counterterrorism Service after being removed from the post in September 2019. The US assasination of Qasim Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis also helped ignite AlKadhimi’s public image, as he emerged as a hero who stood against Iranian hegemony in Iraq, it should be noted though that he has never claimed any involvement in that operation. Furthermore, he was already a well known figure even be
fore the January 3 events. Al-Kadhimi has a tough task ahead of him. Iraqi citizens are facing deteriorating economic and living standards which have slowly been declining as a result of Saddam Huissien’s wars, international sanctions and the American invasion. Moreover, Iraq has become a hotspot for instabiliy and terrorism utlimattly leading to the rise of ISIS. For now, Al-Kadhimi will have to find ways to alleviate the living standards, mitigate the spread of the Coronavirus and prevent a resurgence of ISIS. These circumstances are perhaps the biggest reasons why Iran did not block the appointment of Al-Kadhimi. One musn’t forget that Iran has also faced a number of setbacks such as the assasination of its regional orchestrator, Qasim Soleimani, increased sanctions, and the rise of protests in Iraq as well as in its own backyard. However, Iran’s setbacks doesn’t mean that it will withdraw entirely from Iraq since that would go against its foreign policy of “spreading the Islamic Revolution”. Ever since Khomenei hijacked the Iranian Revolution 41 years ago, the Islamic Republic has been on a mission to take over the Middle East in the name of “spreading the Islamic revolution”. As such, it would be foolish to think that Iran would easily let go of the influence it has over Iraq. Iran’s ambitions do not contradict Al-Kadhimi’s intentions to reform and improve the conditions of Iraq and the Iraqis. However, a lack of international support might cause Al-Kadhimi’s rebuild project to fail even before it started. In Syria, Israeli strikes have prompted Iran to step back; moreover the Caesar Act has prevented Russia from starting its rebuild project in Damascus. Nevertheless, this step back does not mean that Iran will call all its militias back to Tehran. Lebanon needs its own miracle because Iran is currently exercising full control of Beirut through its oldest and most loyal ally, Hezbollah. The group currently controls all political apparatuses in the country and claims to be doing so in the name of “civil harmony”. Iran’s regional hegemony project has cost it a lot, but it won’t throw away 40 years of effort because of popular and economic pressures. It is still waiting for an opportunity to come to a new agreement with the US, though it might have to wait until after the next elections for such an opportunity to arise. Iran is still holding on to the puppet strings of the region, even if it’s changing its method it is still maintaining its end goal. As Khamenei said a few days ago, his country is engaged in a perpetual political and intellectual soft war, which sometimes evolves into a hard war. Stopping Iran’s ambitions will need a coordinated effort from all of those who live under its iron grip, if that doesn’t happen then our dreams for sovereignty will remain dreams for the forseable future.
A Weekly Political News Magazine Issue 1802- May - 29/05/2020
Khalifa Haftar: The Libyan General in a Battle for Control of the Capital
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The Museum of Quarantine An Exhibition of Our Pandemic Times
by Jessica Gelt
It is a simple yellow Post-it Note with a message written in childish scrawl: “Happy Birthday Daddy.” A second Post-it Note features a rudimentary drawing of what appears to be a princess. Both are pressed up against the curb — held there by a piece of wood. The piece, signed, “Peter,” is among more than 75 contributions to the Museum of Quarantine on Quebec, an outdoor community gallery, and home to all manner of telling ephemera related to life in the coronavirus era, in the winding hills of the Hollywood Dell neighborhood of Los Angeles. Creative director, architect and artist Ann Morrow Johnson started it on the gray
Speaking of hugs, one of Johnson’s favorite pieces was among its first entries. It’s a lovely hand-drawn picture of halved lemons above the words “Thought you could use a squeeze.”
Ann Morrow Johnson de Rivera created the Museum of Quarantine on an empty streetfacing wall near her driveway during the coronavirus pandemic on May 2020 ,21 in Los Angeles, California. (Los Angeles Times)
trying to alleviate by making art.
Her paintings are featured, along with all kinds of community contributions that together provide a touching, humorous and at times downright silly folk-art narrative of this surreal moment in history. (To reduce the chance of crowds and maintain social distancing at the museum, The Times has been asked not to divulge the exact location.)
Johnson catalogs each contribution to the museum on Instagram in a feed she created after launching the project in mid-April with a sign stating the museum’s name and purpose: Add art, crafts or cool found stuff to this wall, please. She included a watercolor of her own, two old relief studies and a “pup self-examination station,” which really was just a mutt-height mirror with doodles on it (and which has been the only piece to be stolen).
She also writes the equivalent of wall text for the museum’s exhibits. The caption accompanying the Instagram photo of Peter’s message reads, “Sharpie on Post-it Note. Potentially the next generation’s Banksy, the artist draws on banal materials and unexpected placement in a public space to create a strikingly heartfelt and arresting message.”
fence bordering her property.
“We’re trying to find ways to interact digitally, but having something that feels like it’s a physical presence in the real world has made a huge difference in the way I connect to people,” said Johnson, who in quarantine experienced a deep sense of despair and isolation that she began A square of pink felt, festooned with the word “soap” and stitched to a fabric head with a tidy blond bun, is captioned: “‘Soap,’ Mixed Media. Dali-style surrealism and crafting are blended here into an examination of the fact that after all the hand washing and sanitizing, human beings have all become the embodiment of soap.”
Walk by the wall in the flesh, and it resonates with the psychic buzz of community, even though
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you are unlikely to see anyone else perusing its intriguing offerings. Johnson said she has never witnessed another person contributing, but she has heard them, as was the case when somebody spent an exorbitant amount of time hammering a bracket to secure a heart emblazoned with the words “you are amazing.”
Johnson later discovered, to her unbridled joy, that the heart turns into a crazy LED light show for a few hours each night — erupting in white and shades of flickering pink that draw gawking passersby out for an evening stroll.
A -1,000piece puzzle featuring a hodgepodge of celebrities below the Hollywood sign — Dustin Hoffman in “Tootsie,” Arnold Schwarzenegger in “The Terminator,” Tom Hanks in “Forrest Gump” — was mounted and hung on the wall as the contribution of neighbor Bill Atchinson and his family.
“My wife and I have no art talent, but we had this puzzle,” Atchinson said, unintentionally reenforcing the trope that art is in the eye of the beholder.
The puzzle is missing four pieces, likely destroyed by Atchinson’s dogs, he said, but this flaw added a bit of mystery to the wall as evidenced by Johnson’s caption: “Hollywood — Puzzle & Resin. Locally relevant, and the missing pieces feel particularly apropos.”
Atchinson said he has watched the wall take shape, and it has brought great joy to the neighborhood during a difficult, socially distanced time.
“You can’t go up and hug each other right now,” he said. “But you can hug each other with that wall.”
Speaking of hugs, one of Johnson’s favorite pieces was among its first entries. It’s a lovely hand-drawn picture of halved lemons above the words “Thought
A passerby looks at “The Plague Tree,” a community gallery of sorts in Houston by retired lawyer Marley Lott. (Los Angeles Times)
you could use a squeeze.” An address listed at the bottom of the drawing serves as the metaphorical Easter egg, directing curious museum-goers to a nearby house where they will find a basket of fresh lemons accompanied by a sign inviting visitors to pick as many as they want from the tree in the front yard. there to see what’s new,” she said. “It gives me something to look forward to in these dark days.”
That’s exactly what Johnson hoped for when she conceived of the Museum of Quarantine, which she has since shared with her godmother, Marley Lott, in Houston.
Johnson said she is not a crier, but this early contribution, signaling the kind of lost connection she so yearned for in the early days of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s safer-at-home order, made her mistyeyed.
The neighbor behind the lemon art is Meghna Khanna, who responded to a Times interview request by email.
“During this unprecedented time, we are constantly overwhelmed with all of the negatives of COVID19-,” she said. “I want to use this time as an opportunity for more sharing, more collaboration and finding ways to bring everyone together!”
She said the Museum of Quarantine has given neighbors a sense of “being together in this strange time.”
That is certainly true for artist Megan Bourgeois, who moved to the Hollywood Dell from Austin, Texas, five years ago.
Bourgeois has never met, or seen, Johnson, but she regularly contributes her brightly colored creations — interwoven circles resembling geodes or the rings on a tree — to the wall. She credits the project with igniting a personal artistic renaissance.
“I lost my artistic mojo,” Bourgeois said breathlessly over the phone during one of her regular walks through the neighborhood. “This was so inspiring to me, I almost felt like I had a reason to create art again.”
Art stores weren’t open, so she used found materials (her preferred medium anyway) including cardboard and plastic foam. By her count, she has about six pieces on the wall. She includes her Instagram handle and has nabbed a few new followers. “It’s such huge ray of sunshine every time I go up It turns out that this expansive, symbolic, nonhierarchal, community-minded art project is contagious. Lott took the idea and started what she has dubbed “The Plague Tree.”
She initially hung a few teddy bears from the limbs of a Japanese apricot tree in her front yard.
“I have no idea why a single woman has a bunch of teddy bears and panda bears, but I had three or four,” she said, adding that after she hung them, they looked lonely, so she added some Christmas balls.
People walking by picked up where she left off, hanging ballroom dance medals, an empty Clorox wipes bottle decorated with diamonds and pearls, a red ball cap that says “Make America Safe Again” and a dish towel embroidered with the words “Wash your hands,” among other things.
“I like that I don’t know these people,” said Lott, a retired lawyer. “It’s a remote way of communicating, but with a physical object as opposed to email or a web call.”
Back in the Hollywood Dell, Johnson recently mounted one of her watercolors, a melancholy, carefully rendered depiction of downtown Los Angeles as seen from a distance, outlined by the soft blaze of the setting sun. Houses, tucked in the hillside in the foreground of the painting, emerge from the shadows of the gloaming.
Her caption on Instagram: “View from Quarantine No. 5.” The picture speaks of longing and loneliness but also of the great beauty of life, even when viewed from afar.
