In this world of the pandemic, not a single person is safe. Whether he or she is rich or poor, it doesn’t matter at all. We can only hope that we are safe at home. Without any social contact, we can overcome this deadly phase of the pandemic soon. The ground realities differ from our hopes and aspirations. With millions of infected peoples around the world, social distancing will not help us much. We need effective medicines to cure the infected peoples fighting for their lives. We need a vaccine to prevent the spread of this disease. We don’t know when we’ll find these solutions. The present panic is so much only for this situation. Nobody knows how to survive if they get infected. Yes, thousands of infected peoples are getting well with medical help. Still, a good percentage of infected patients are dying every day. And the majority of the casualties are older people of society. Everywhere the older generation is the most vulnerable of all. Their immunity level is not so high to fight COVID-19.
The world is in a mess right now. Several countries are completely locked down. Some are practicing selective locked down to avoid an epidemic. The roads are deserted. The shops are closed. The usual business activities have largely been reduced only to the essential ones. And the world economy is virtually facing a great recession.
I do not doubt that the present capitalist economic model will not help us to rescue the collapsing economy. The poor will be affected beyond imagination. Even this upcoming recession will severely damage the middle-class society in most of the countries. Poverty will increase stiffly. Which might be followed by widespread famine. Millions of peoples will see the end of their lives. So even those who may escape death from corona, might not escape death by famine.
Let’s not deny the importance of welfare economy or even socialism to combat this colossal catastrophic situation. If we still hope that the market economy of present globalization will rescue us, then we are still living in a fool’s paradise. This economic model will even paralyze the running system. Only few with huge stock of capital will be benefited with this present structure of globalization of market economy. And the poor will be poorer. Rich will be richer. In de middle we have to count the number of deaths out of starvation.
All most all the industries will be affected adversely from this upcoming economic recession. With the number of factories and businesses closing down their works, millions of workers will be jobless. We can even see civil wars to start in the less democratic and developed countries. People may have to fight for their survival with arms and ammunition. In a single word, the world is probably heading towards a battleground of survival.
COVID-19 is a wake-up call for human civilization. We have to rethink about the present world order of political structure and economic imperialism. We have to cross-check the pros and cons of the hegemony of one superpower. We have to reconsider the world trend of military spending. At this point, let’s not deny the fact that we are spending the lion share of our G.D.P in our defense budget. This is the ongoing norm around the world. Even in the foremost countries of the first world economy, the states are channeling more expenditures to build up a robust military power. They are funding more in research and development of deadly military equipment than in the social health care system and education. One may argue that these military arm industries are fueling economic development in many countries. I think it is high time that mankind should accept the fact, that to focus on these military industries more, it has made itself defenseless against natural calamity such as corona pandemic.
In my personal opinion, we have only two choices for us to follow. We can just continue with our usual trend and keep the world vulnerable for each one of us especially in times of natural disasters like the present pandemic. Or we can make a paradigm shift of our concept of civilization. If and only if we can realize today that it is much more important for mankind to build up a world order of co-operation than the competition, only then we can survive with dignity. Otherwise, this present world order of competition will lead us only to disasters one after another. In this paradigm of competitions, we have to compete with each other in every field. For that every time we have to ignore the basic needs of survival. Our main goal remains to acquire more military and economic power to rule the world. Which will eventually be actualized at the cost of basic amenities, at the cost of developing our healthcare systems and education. These may put us defenseless against natural disasters. Again, we have to reconsider the fact that the technological breakthroughs which are playing havoc on the ecological balance of nature are also responsible for various natural disasters that we are facing now and will also have to face in near future. All these are the direct follow-ups of this present world order of competition. Now shouldn’t we wake-up for once, and realize that we have seen enough of competitions among every nation. Now it is high time to make a paradigm shift in our conception of development. Development doesn’t mean the power to rule others. Development means to live in harmony with others and as well as with mother nature. To live in harmony, we do not need to produce or invent more deadly weapons of mass destruction. We do not need to excel over other nations in every field of advancements. We need to co-operate with each nation to develop one new world order of harmony. Harmony with mother nature. Harmony with all nations, religions, races, and communities. Harmony with all the socio-economic class of people. Harmony with pragmatism, harmony with humanity. If only we can actualize and establish all these harmonies in every field of human civilization through mutual co-operation, only then we can make this much-needed paradigm shift of our civilization. This will help us to live in harmony with others as well as with nature. Only then we can build up a system to defend any type of natural calamities much more prudently.
4th April’ 2020
MY WORDS MY LINES 