The sun is a daily reminder that we too can rise again from the
darkness and we too can shine our own light and spread the glow for others to
shine.
The thought is
hope in this sea of petrified humanity, enervated & with despair.
The family,
relations, friends and any person known to us would become dodgy in days ahead,
weakening the cord that held societies.
Hope is that cord that we must not let go and
fall in an abyss in trying times.
This antipathy
would be a new way to live in the world that we can expect to change our world
as we knew it not in distant past.
The humanity
evolved over centuries by touch, embraces, holding and shaking hands would go a
rapid transformation with a wall of uncertainty ahead of us.
We are now
learning that touching things, being with other people and breathing the air in
an enclosed space can be risky to our existence.
This
uncertainty can never vanish completely for anyone who lived through these endemic
times.
The comfort of
being in the presence of near ones might be replaced by a greater comfort by an
absence of it. Relational intimacy would undergo a transformation that would
start questioning oneness.
For developing businesses,
Instead of asking- Lets meet over lunch, we would be asking- Can we do it
online and over video conference?
Relationship
shall never be the same again.
Patriotism
would be more inclusive and might not need badges and medallions hanging on
chest with stars on shoulders of a uniform to manifest it.
It would also
include civil society as large who fought the battle against the pandemics and
put their lives on line to fight an invisible enemy that put the entire human
race in front of a death row.
During this
epidemic not a single bullet would be fired, but it tumbled humanity downhill
with immense loss of life, livelihood and with permanent trauma and damages.
We would now
witness market-based models for social organization fail. Governments world
over would be required to care for society and subsistence to all who need it
would be a norm for a long time to come and failing to do it would make them
pointed target for world to see.
Self-seeking behaviour
of world leaders would be immediately rejected by the society and leaders would
be made accountable. Current political ideologies would wilt and welfare-ism
would gain tractions.
When this ends,
Governments world over would reorient politics. Governments would allocate substantial new
investments in public goods-for health, education, rehabilitation and public
services.
Defence budgets
would be seriously cut worldwide and would be deployed for reconstructions od
societies and not for its destructions.
The economy and
the social order would collapse if the government doesn’t guarantee income for
the millions of workers who will lose their jobs in a major recession or
depression that world has not seen ever- not even during the great depression.
Triumph of hope
and life over fear would still drive the underlying religious belief, but all
religions have to interpret the holy books and rituals afresh.
Congregation
being part of human gregarious nature would now be differently advocated by
religious leaders.
Use of
electronic media to address the faithful is already being used and in future, a
la carte offer over electronic media could be a norm for conducting a ritual to
preaching and even for confession in some faiths.
Obeisance and
donations online for furtherance of religious bodies’ social services would be
norms. After a while, people would still congregate to their holy places, but way
the blessings and greetings are exchanged would look very different.
All faiths
would have to deal with the challenges of keeping faith alive under the adverse
conditions at different times.
Religion in future
would challenge conceptions of what it means to be a preacher and to follower. Interconnected
humanity would help bridge the motive behind religion’s significance and would
seek common ground to eliminate frivolity and reduce contact rituals.
Seeking truth through
its credible emissary, science, would gain more protagonists that have been
declining against faith & religion in more and more societies would be a
norm again.
The world has
heard and seen science work in this lockdown to work its magic against
theological practices that helped none and could not evade a single death out
of this pandemic.
Some countries
that relied on the power of God soon realised that God was too busy with his
agenda to heal the world otherwise, asides of COVID in the faithful who
ultimately were sheltered by science and not by rituals and offerings to God.
In the absence of a viable vaccine for the foreseeable future
treatment could involve managing Covid-19 by treating its symptoms rather than
its cause.
There is no easy solution. The months ahead will involve a fragile
balancing act between the interests of public health, society and the economy,
with governments trusting each other on this epidemic more than ever before.
The pandemic battle is only half the story about in finding a
solution While half the battle will be in developing the tools to treat the virus,
the other half will be to have enough doses and, distributing these in a fair
and equitable manner.
If greed again sits on top of fear, then the battle won would be
lost still till everyone, rich, poor, marginalised, fringe all get the
treatment to get well. If not, then the virus would return with more ferocity
and new mutants.
I hope humanity prevails over money and rogue capitalism.
Personally, I am happy that at least for a
generation, if not more, we can expect that public respect for expertise in
public health and in medical professionals to be at least restored partially.
Doctors would
get back their lost glories in non patients & so would be the scientists,
engineers, mathematicians, and all who contributed in building this world,
country by country, society by society and by brick by brick.
While Corona
wanes progressively, as we all expect, let us celebrate hope with our Doctors,
Scientists, Engineers, Frontline Warriors, Police, Civil Society & pretty
much everyone else who have contributed & restrained themselves to fight
out an invisible enemy.
But when it gets
circled by the vanguards involved in vanquishing it, would not help the viruses
see the light of the day again.
The day is not
far where hopes would thrive again and humanity and science grow everyday to
assuage the sufferings of the world and the world itself.
29 April
2020
Tend to agree mostly; our priorities will change for the better and governments all over should focus on public health and primary education more. Let's see...
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