But all that was of last two years since January 2020 when the novel coronavirus outbreak spread like wildfire from China, engulfing the whole planet in a lethal infection and destroying all that we call normal. Today in February 2022, it appears that life is reverting to a... ‘new normal’ now. But has it really? However, from an economic standpoint, the damage has been done. The massive contagion of the deadly COVID-19 virus has fundamentally shattered the interconnected world as we know it, upending human life across the planet and dismantling normalcy.
In these traumatic times when TV news stations have regularly been playing reports on small screens across India stating that the government will do all possible to prevent this infection from spreading, what has come forth is much too little, far too late.
First, the government has waited much too long to assess and analyse the clear and present danger that the multitudes it rules face. Second, with the spread of misinformation and recently introduced policies being too sluggish to take the desired effect, people demand that the government take greater responsibility for their proper implementation. The government should stop acting in ways that are politically advantageous to them. We all deserve better. The show must go on, with everyone on board. Period.
[Future waves of Covid-19 infection should be the most pressing public health priority for all elected governments the world over. We may be sick of hearing about COVID, but let’s not pretend or fool ourselves into thinking that the dangers have passed. Normalcy remains a long way off. Meanwhile, don’t ditch the face mask; they are increasingly available in pharmacies, supermarkets, and online. Let's make sure we're adequately protected.]It’s a hard-knuckle world out there.
Little wonder the future of globalization (the kind that the corporate leaders and global organizations champion) appears bleak. In the short run, it does. It is back to requiring serious course corrections if it has to go on. It’s not that globalization is the culprit for the woes we suffer today. But as we move towards a world of increasing integration, we are also becoming more aware of its downsides.
Maybe we need to rethink the approach to our globalized society to preserve its benefits while warding off new challenges.
Globalization may be responsible for the destruction of our natural environment - air pollution, acidification, and deforestation are just a few to mention. It may also be responsible for the incredible increase in income inequality and poverty, leading to violence and instability. What's going to happen if we keep going down this road? At the same time, as humanity at large keeps confronting creepy new political and social realities of the day in the aftermath of this ongoing financially ruinous pandemic, which is far from over yet, the global economy or the global order will hardly be peaceful or smooth sailing.
One still hopes to make the world a better place to live in: I don’t know about being prosperous in a conventional sense of the term or not, but being self-sufficient, yes. (Prosperous and Self-sufficient are not the two sides of the same coin, they aren’t).
I am no disgruntled economist who is discontent with western modernity and unfairly prognosticating on trade and commerce issues of the globalized world. Perhaps, that’s beyond my pay grade. Neither am I speechifying through this, shall I say Thought Post full of my quasi-socialist fulminations? But in an increasingly polarized world where jobs are being lost thanks to technological disruptions, hardly do that look to be a viable option. Indeed, even as we cautiously begin to navigate the uncharted waters ahead, I suspect it will be business as usual from here on out. Who knows, life with COVID-19 pulmonary scars may only get worse in a post-pandemic world. Life is hard, and most of us are finding ourselves at unexpected crossroads, and there are no signs.
Who doesn’t like to breathe easy? Yet, the potential threat of some virus or the other damaging the liver, lungs, heart, brain, and kidneys will always loom large over people and communities across the globe. Come to think of it: the coming age will impose a heavy toll on people’s lives and well-being in the form of anguish, stress, fear, anxiety, and worry. Beware, human life is doomed to be a never-ending misery for the foreseeable future. Politically and economically, we are in worse shape than we have ever been.
Against such a backdrop, my favourite stories have frequently become barnstorming satirical, laced with subtle slights, humour, drolly irony, or amusing incongruity. Every month or so, I roll them all up in my stories in an attempt to be funny or have a little fun in the process. Today, common people like you and I take refuge in our hand-held devices (thanks to unlimited data pack!) in an attempt to find instant gratification, which in this perspective seems acceptable. So carry on.
What's more, being the old softie that I am in a smug hard-knuckle world of digital utopia, I prefer peace to panic, patience to quick fulfilment (or “instant gratification”), whereas others (it appears to me) seem keener on worshipping the digital deities of the glittering virtual world - so addicted so as not to venture outside at all. While online awareness is vital, I understand that. But I also wonder what, realistically, could we do differently with people's addictive always-online behaviour so that we can put their attitude into reconciliation with a fear of... solitude?
In some ways, I enjoy living my life as I please, but from a completely different perspective, as I'd like to believe. What can I do when my old-fashioned sense of pragmatism doesn't always sync with the realities of the traumatic times we are living? When I say something like that, I realise I sound holier than thou, but facts are realities, and we all eventually figure out how to live with them, don't we?
[To be continued...]
By Arindam Moulick
End of Part I of III
Written October ‘21 to February 2022.
End of Part I of III
Written October ‘21 to February 2022.