By Abhilash Borah
Words like “lockdown” and “quarantine” have suddenly stormed out of the dictionaries. The most developed nations as well as the not-so-developed ones are fighting. Global community has come to a standstill. No sports. Lost wanderlust ambitions. Closed theatre halls. Nothing! “Social Distancing” term is in vogue. COVID-19 pandemic has made stock markets to crumble and becomes the most dreadful episode so far in 2020. And unfortunately has taken huge strides in shutting the world off in the worst possible manner. No international flights, disrupted global supply chain and global economy has gone for a toss. The unfortunate reality is that International Monetary Fund assessed that the world has already entered a period of recession due to COVID-19, and the repercussion would be horrendous than the last financial crisis.
This quarantine period has brought some reflections of life, history, society, economics, environment, geopolitics, and predicting the future too! To look at things optimistically in this period of pessimism and tragedy, the current crisis gives us basically an opportunity to have unbiased assessments of the current stressful phase, and urges us to either learn from it or perish, and let earth heal itself. The choice is ours and we have to walk the talk. Industrial revolution started in the West with the beginning of trade, railways, ship-building activities, etc. It has resulted in the sophisticated laptop I am using today, the food delivery app that you use which has revolutionized our food habits, the cab aggregators that have made our lives more comfortable to travel, the air-conditioner that makes us cooler during 40 degree Celsius summer heat, the artificial intelligence technologies that make Internet of Things just amazing stuff to endlessly think about.
The boon is we are connected more than ever before materialistically, and the bane is we are disconnected with ourselves, and nature! Nothing comes easy without a price, and the priceless wonders of humanity – smile, sharing, caring, being compassionate, having empathy are nowadays, too rare in this fast-paced global village. And humanity has just lost it! The comfortable life we are enjoying has come at the cost of pollution, where air, water, and soil are left nowhere to be clean enough for biotic organisms to survive peacefully. Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services (IPBES) finds, “1 million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades, more than ever before in human history.” And thanks to the so-called most empowered homo sapiens for bringing wonders of nature to the threshold of extinction including herself. So the price we paid has left a deep dent on scarce environmental resources. And actually nobody cares even today, and we just do not care enough for the flora, fauna and also humanity at large. But we are more interested in consuming as much as we can and leave out the rest, and throw our plastic garbage just next to our street at the nearest dark spot where nobody is watching! COVID-19 has actually shown the world where we are today, and has articulated that the chaos that we have sown are due to our selfish-deeds, and is just a trailer of what series of catastrophic events the world is more likely to see in the future.
May I emphasize that the next big event is, if not sooner, the effects of global warming and climate change by the end of 21st century. We are still failing to come to terms on how to reduce carbon emissions and after years of post-Earth Summit in 1992, Kyoto Protocol, and Paris Agreement in 2015, there is no deal. From the individual level to the global level, and most importantly at the level of our inner conscience and spiritual values, we have just lost it. We fail to raise concerns for the things that actually matter the most. Rather we show concern for a materialistic world which has only momentary benefits and instant gratification to offer.
Moving on from socio-environmental ethics to economics, basic economics, and the concept of supply and demand, and open economy, outlines one important aspect that the more the unrestricted flow of goods and services the more the economic upliftment of the people. Indeed, the more the resources at one’s disposal the higher the living standards and the more the increase in living standards the higher the aspirations and good health and well-being prevail. And yes, the much sought after GDP of a country rises as well. Of late, we see trade wars have peaked, countries have closed the borders, unrestricted movement of goods and services have come under too much restrictions, and tariff rise has become normal! Protectionism has been at the forefront in almost all the economies of the world, and the irony is it has failed to protect the very people that it was supposed to help via economic growth. Collective efforts on the world stage has been missing.
No doubt we are very good at holding high level summits. United Nations General Assembly, G7, G20 et al. summits are unlikely to produce any positive result. Regular joint statements of “collectively combating terrorism by all the nations concerned” have become a cliché as Afghanistan is still battling with its decade-long trauma of orthodoxy and radicalism, ISIS assaults on churches and public spaces have become too frequent, and radicalism is yet to see an end in itself. Pakistan is reluctant to disclose the whereabouts of UNSC designated terrorists, and yet preaches peace and tranquility, superbly supported, by its all-weather master, China. Europe has already closed its borders for migrants, and has little to offer.
The refugee crises, the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis unfolding at Yemen, depicts different stories which the privileged quarantined ones would not understand because sharing stories on Instagram and TikTok-ing is more important than attempting to learn the chaotic depth at which the world has fallen into. At all levels, we are failing. Had something real and tangible been targeted, today, millions of refugees wouldn’t have really ventured into the high seas for a safe livelihood, the greenhouse gas emissions wouldn’t have been at an all-time high, poverty, and economic inequality wouldn’t have left people in distress, terrorism, secessionism and extremist movements would have been eliminated. And scientific research wouldn’t have red-flagged the dangers that humanity is facing, along with the ecosystems.
The world today is facing an unprecedented crisis, and also provides the young millennial class, and the entire world population a big opportunity to lead the way. I believe the most important factor which is needed to effectively deal with the unfolding crisis is ‘leadership.’ Unfortunately it is nowhere to be seen. Individually, we are great leaders in grabbing the best of smartphones available in the market, but we lack the spirit to raise voices for the kids in Africa who are part of the supply chain and are involved in mining activities extracting those rare earth metals that are essential items for manufacturing smartphones!
At times like this, the wonderful opportunity is that, we can be leaders to lead ourselves. And take this quarantine phase to look inwards and brainstorm and nourish our spirits to enter the post-COVID-19 world and face the impending challenges. We need everyone at work. The challenges are many. Radicalism, poverty, malnutrition, environmental pollution, terrorism and building robust civic-mentality are all huge obstacles which we have to defeat for a better, brighter and happier world. Let us lead our powerful minds to a greater tomorrow. 7.8 billion creative and powerful minds can certainly lead the world towards peace!
With high hopes, I end with Cicero’s saying, “While there’s life, there’s hope!”, and look for better days to come.
(The author is Associate Fellow The Commonwealth Society, United Kingdom [email protected])