This is very much universal that any kind of change brings development. After any big change people work with new enthusiasm and redefine every aspect of their life with new hope and spirit forgetting about all the losses and sufferings behind. At the same time, this is also a whole truth that ‘every cloud has a silver lining’. Currently, the blue sky of the whole world has been covered with deep black clouds of the COVID-19 pandemic and going through the most uncertainties this green planet has ever witnessed. It has been proven historically that big natural calamities, epidemics, pandemics, charismatic leaderships change the society as well as the whole world forever in terms of belief, ideology, lifestyle, economy and consumption pattern.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center- the coronavirus pandemic which has already been declared by the WHO as the World Public Health Emergency on 30 January 2020 and recognized as a pandemic on 11 March has claimed (As of 04 May 2020) more than 248,000 lives worldwide.
If we look into history, we would find some big epidemics and pandemics that also brought a significant change in human society. Some notables are- HIV/AIDS Pandemic which was at its peak during 2005-2012 and has taken 36 million lives so far, Flu Pandemic in 1968 caused by influenza took 1 million, Asian Flu during 1956-1958 took 2 million, Flu Pandemic in1918 took 20-50 million, Sixth Cholera Pandemic during 1910-1911 took 800,000 plus, Flu Pandemic during1889-1890 took 1 million, Third Cholera Pandemic during 1852-860 took 1 million, The Black Death during 1346-1353 took 75-200 million, Plague of Justinian during 541-542 took 25 million and Antonine Plague in 165 AD took 5 million.
In the economy, the world must face another big depression as of the 1930s and an economic meltdown happened during the second half of the first decade of this century. There might be a big unemployment rate, reduced GDP growth, less production in manufacturing sectors, drastically fall in the emerging service sectors worldwide and the aviation industry, a decline in demand among consumers, and less mobilization of funds and cash flow in the economy. And all of the above negative impacts would persist for long in the world economy.
Recently, Politico Magazine, based in the USA that covers politics and policy in the United States and internationally surveyed more than 34 smart, macro thinkers, and compiled their predictions that are going to reshape our globe forever in the coming days.
If we summarize all of their opinions we would find that- any type of personalization will become dangerous, patriotism will take a new definition, we will find a decline in polarization, a return to faith in serious experts, less individualism, religious worship will look different, new forms of reform, regulatory barriers to online tools will fall, a healthier digital lifestyle, a boon to virtual reality, the rise of telemedicine, an opening for stronger family care, parliament could finally go virtual, big government will make a comeback, government service will regain its cachet, a new civic federalism, the rules we have lived by will not all apply, trust will be revived in institutions, we can expect a political uprising, electronic voting will go mainstream, election Day will become Election Month, voting by mail will become the norm, we will find more restraints on mass consumption, domestic supply chains will be stronger, the inequality gap will widen, a hunger for diversion, less communal dining- but maybe more cooking at home, we will find a revival of parks and above all a change in our understanding of ‘change’.
Similarly, what might be the appearance of the arms race in the future world is a big curiosity. We have already come to know that some soldiers of the mighty Aircraft Carriers of the United States Navy have been infected by the COVID-19 and many of them have died. But they have nothing to defend themselves- where a single Aircraft Carrier could destroy a whole country within a few hours. This is a painful irony. So, running after the race of procuring, manufacturing, or inventing sophisticated deadly weapons investing trillions of dollars would simply be vain for any nation. Because considering the historical shreds of evidence and trends of the last two centuries we may conclude that the world will have to combat more upcoming pandemics during the years ahead and combating all those would be the priority for any country being equipped with a state-of-the-art healthcare system and medical research.
Are the foreign policies of most of the countries going to be very cooperative? The answer might be, yes. Because we have seen that combating such kind of pandemic is almost impossible for any country alone. Even a big and sophisticated healthcare system could not tackle this pandemic as we have seen in the case of Italy and the USA, where the health care system is one of the best in the world. With the passes of time, we are also observing that all kinds of epidemics and pandemics are getting an unpreventable form. Viruses are changing their DNA mapping to coping with any vaccine.
In the case of fiscal policy, we could see that a huge budget might be allocated to developing and expanding the healthcare system. There would be more investment in making doctors, nurses, and building capabilities in combating any kind of epidemics rather than making ballistic missiles, submarines, or any other deadly weapons.
Perhaps this is the first time in history where the whole human beings are fighting against a common enemy as we have seen in many science fiction movies where our planet was attacked by the aliens and all countries of the world together fought against them.
It can be predicted very easily that more common enemies might appear in the coming days in the form of deadly infectious diseases or unprecedented natural calamities as a result of unfavorable climate changes that could engulf the whole world. Because, reckless uses of natural resources, rapid urbanization, industrialization, deforestation, and subsequent severe environmental pollution have made this green planet pretty much unfavorable for living creatures. Biodiversity has been damaging and the ecosystem has been broken down substantially. Therefore, the natural remedy of many diseases has also been disappeared.
The world leaders should be united and the UN should take a resolution for uniting the whole world for establishing a common platform where there should be concerted efforts, preparations, and measures to combat the unpredictable, unknown, and invisible enemies of mankind.
That might be a materialistic preparation. But from the metaphysical or abstract pint of view in line with the materialistic preparation the human beings should change their habit, lifestyle, consumption pattern forever. They have to be serious in upholding family ties and values, they should abide by the sexual moralities, the authorities must show zero-tolerance against crime and sexual abuse. The UN must be stronger in making all countries bound to abide by its all resolutions taken and to maintain good governance, real democracy where the opinion of the majority of people must be honored and reflected. All the leaders of the world should keep in mind that power is not everlasting. Every dream and master plan or blueprint might be dismissed or dismantled by some uncertain and unpredictable enemies before being able to take minimum preparation.
In this capitalist and consumerist society, people are very much scared about death and any type of discomfort, chaos, and loss of wealth and luxury. Technological advancement, stock of deadly weapons, mighty-armed forces, and abundance of wealth made human beings and many counties reckless, arrogant, and unscrupulous. The absolute power of many countries made them oblivious about justice, good governance, human rights, and unprecedented divine or natural punishment. The universal derogatory motto of ‘might is right’ has been established strongly in this world with a globalized and glamorized look. In the name of so-called democracy, human rights they are blackmailing billions of people in this world and looting their natural resources. When their monetary and strategic interests are under threat then they forget about their marketing of democracy and human rights. In some cases, they fulfill their purposes physically but in most of the cases they do it with the local collaborators or by their loyal rulers.
In the developed world trillions of Dollars are spent on pornography, gambling, drugs, crime, and various kinds of vulgarism. Sexual morality is also disappearing and causing many unknown diseases that can also be termed as divine or natural punishment. Many Genetically Modified (GM) foods, wild animals carrying deadly viruses are proved harmful for human consumption and might be responsible for many diseases, like cancer, various viral infections, and many more. But all of those negative activities have now been stopped due to the coronavirus pandemic. The volume of criminal activities has been reduced substantially. Moreover, the emission of harmful carbon has been reduced by almost 50% that could make a huge contribution to the healing of the devastating climate changes on our planet.
When oppression is unlimited, human rights violation is endless and if there is no justice, no remedy, demand for justice is only the crying in the wilderness then punishment from heaven or natural punishment is inevitable. Many people may disagree with this, but that is the whole truth.
This pandemic has been giving us many big lessons every day and will continue for a more uncertain period. So, this is high time for the people of this world with different statuses to reshape their thinking on lifestyle, food habits, relationships, moralities, consumption patterns, humanities, values, reckless pollution, and many more aspects of human life. But if we forget about and do not learn lessons from this big pandemic then more deadly invisible enemies might appear in the coming days that would instantly kill millions of people in a day.
The writer is a banker and Freelance column writer
