Rethink

My Blog No. 20

Coronavirus or Covide 19 continues to damage globally.

Capacity and capability to fight the menace has depended on efficacy of healthcare system, quality of political governance and social capital of the concerned nation.

Good, bad and ugly as well as heroes and villains shall be known in a space of few months in the aftermath of this pandemic.

Inequalities, demographics, and right to information, no doubt, will change the face of this world and our lives in the next few decades but this pandemic has provided us a great opportunity to question our ways of living, working and thinking.

In the din and noise of machine and money and in the world of consumerism and materialism somewhere we lost the essence of living. For peace and tranquility we look for tailor-made programs offered by Gurus – of marketing. In the search of love and tranquility we look for sponsored events. These isolations, quarantines and lockdowns are making us think and appreciate basic values of life peace and happiness.

There is need to rethink handling of kids and older people. What values are we giving to our youngsters? Are we taking good care of our senior citizens in terms of their social, psychological, health and financial needs? Are we doing enough for marginalised people?

There is need to rethink and question some of our basic systems. Healthcare and Education being public goods cannot be left in the hands of private sector. To provide free and good healthcare system should be the focus of attention of all governments in the immediate future.

Global Financial System. How long can we remain slaves of dollarization? How long we suffer the forces of stock exchanges being playgrounds for greedy stakeholders. Why shareholders have become the only important stakeholder in business world? How long the Quantitative Easing be the solution to all the financial problems. 

Intergovernmental and multilateral institutions like World Bank, IMF and WHO were set up after the World Wars. What is their role and relevance in the present context?

Will there be a shift in the global political leadership? Old school models of Capitalism, Communism and Socialism as well as Left, Right and Centre kind of philosophies and thoughts need to be reexamined in the wake of post Covid 19 world.

We are still in the midst of the crisis. Lockdown is an opportunity for us to think afresh.