Again about India and the pandemic

Yesterday I wrote a few lines about India’s decision to confine her citizens. It’s a 21 days lockdown for 1,3 billion people. Many, in my part of world, cannot understand the magnitude and the complexity of such a decision. They do not know that hundreds of millions in India have no regular job. They live in cities and struggle, every day, to get some sort of casual work, that will give them enough rupees to buy the daily food their families and themselves need. That is how the informal sector operates, each day being a new beginning. And most of the people survive within the informal, occasional economy. If the economy is brought to a standstill, as it is now the case, that means no means of survival. It is just dramatic. Then, the solution is to try to go back to their ancestral villages and do some very basic farming. That’s what has happened in the last days or so. Millions have travelled back, in crowded buses, lorries and on the few trains that are still operating. As they moved back, one on top of the other, they might have caught the virus from their fellow travellers. If so, that means the virus has been passed on to an incalculable number of people and brought from the cities to the rural areas. That would be mass contagion. We will see. But we can be at the gate of a major public health problem in the largest country on earth. It would give the pandemic crisis a new, terrifying dimension. I can only hope this scenario is not going to happen.

India and elsewhere

India on lockdown can only be big news. That’s an impressive number of people. And it raises deep concerns as we know the fragilities of the health system in the country. I can only hope the virus does not spread out all over the country. And then, I think of other countries in the region, also with large populations and even weaker health facilities. And down the line, we have Africa. Everything must be done to prevent the spread of Covid-19 into the poorest parts of the world. If that is let to happen, we would be moving into massive tragedies. All this constitutes an unprecedented challenge.

Stay at home

This is an exceptional time in our modern history. It’s an extremely dramatic moment for some, and a very challenging menace for the humanity. But there is hope. The cooperation in terms of medical research is greater than what people are being told. It’s just a question of time. And we cannot run out of time. That’s why it is very important to isolate, to stay at home, to delay the contagion. People are getting this message. There was a survey today in Francophone Belgium and close to 90% of those who answered to the question said they are coping well with the mandatory stay-at-home rule. I think these results also reflect what is felt elsewhere, in other parts of the world.

Africa is calling me

I got a few calls in the last couple of days from African friends who live in different parts of Africa. They all wanted to know if I was feeling well. They were worried about me and my family, as we live in a dangerous part of the world, the unsafe Europe. I was very pleased to be able to chat with them. And amazed that the concerns were now running in the opposite direction. It was no longer me calling them to find out how is Kinshasa, or Bulawayo, Bujumbura, Freetown, Ouagadougou, Bamako treating them. That has been the tradition. But now, we live in a new normal, a world that has changed so fast in last few weeks. As one of them told me today, I am now at the epicentre of global crisis. And indeed, we all are, particularly in Italy, France, Spain, and so on. There is only one concern in the air. And every conversation is about the same subject. The same subject that made my worried African friends call me.

Health and freedom: the key aspirations

Plenty of thoughts about the geopolitical picture after the coronavirus pandemic crisis. Plenty of intellectuals frantically writing about this matter. I just tell them, at this stage, that after the health issues, the priority remains focused on safeguarding the different freedoms we so intensely cherish. Today’s world is an open space. People all over want to be free. Healthy and free.

Tomorrow's world

This pandemic might be a major turning point in many aspects of today’s lifestyles, not to mention politics and international relations. We will see. Some people are already speculating about those changes. That’s a way for them to advance their own personal agendas and political views. They can write many words about the coronavirus and its links to consumerism, inequalities, environmental issues and so on, including the impact of individual liberties. I have already read several pieces that do that expedition into the future of the humanity. And I concluded that all those words end up by being vague and a repetition of current banners. Propaganda instead of prospective thinking.

They distract many of us of the real challenges of the moment: to slow down the spreading of the virus and support the required research to produce a vaccine as soon as possible. These should be the two top priorities at this stage.

If you are a social scientist, a philosopher or an opinion maker, you should concentrate your attention on the first challenge. That’s within your reach. Tell the people they can make a difference in terms of contagion if they behave responsibly. Tell above all the young people to be as prudent as everybody else. The younger ones have been told that the disease would only have a mild effect on them. That was a communication mistake. It can seriously affect them, first. And they can catch it and pass it on to older people, with disastrous consequences.  

The debate about the future will take place at the appropriate time, once things are again under control. It will certainly be a very interesting discussion. Tomorrow’s world will be a post-coronavirus new reality, I am sure.

Crying for Italy

Today, we should say we are all Italians. The country is going through a catastrophic health crisis. The number of casualties is now bigger than the one experience by China, a nation that is many times more populous than Italy. We can only be deeply disturbed and extremely sorry.

The lessons will be drawn later. At this stage, it is vital to provide all types of support to the Italian health system. That should be a key priority within the EU. Ursula von der Leyen should be speaking about that day and night.

Fast and plenty of money

The key concern is to safe lives. All the efforts should take that as a priority. And make sure that the infection trend is bent and starts pointing down. The sooner we change the trend the better. It will send a message of hope. And that type of message is urgently needed.

The economy is the other dimension we must consider. We cannot find ourselves surviving the disease and dying of the treatment. The productive tissue must remain as intact as possible. Firms and jobs must be helped. They will require major injections of fresh capital. The leaders should keep sending the message that money will not be a problem.

The health challenges in the refugee camps

How is the coronavirus situation in the refugee camps around Syria? What is the risk level? Are the host governments, the UN and the NGOs prepared to deal with such threat?

I do not have an answer to these questions. And I am afraid we have lost sight of them, as well.

The Democratic candidate

The coronavirus has erased the Democratic party’s primaries from the news. Who remembers that Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders had a debate just yesterday? Even those who know about it can’t tell what the meat of such debate was. 

As such, it would be advisable to bring the primaries to an end. That would mean Sanders departing the race. Then, the Democrats could focus on promoting Biden as an alternative to the erratic and incompetent President we have today. 

Biden is an experienced politician but not a very good orator. His tone of voice doesn’t help either. It is not pleasant to hear. He must add to his presidential ticket not only a woman, as he promised he would do, but above all a woman that can speak better than he does.