The world post-COVID-19 is gradually evolving. Societies across the world have had to look inwards at a time when globalization was dictating otherwise.
A stroll through the streets of the internet, during these times, will reveal several observations. The most obvious is humankind’s intrinsic impulse for self-preservation.
Social measures such as self-isolation, facemasks, hygiene, and sanitation have been identified as important tools for the fight.
Economic measures such as cash transfers and food donations also gained currency.
Technology has been harnessed to, where possible, enable cashless transactions, virtual meetings, and remote working.
Whereas these measures have united humankind than had been possible pre-COVID 19, the political front that has brought more controversy.
China, the alleged original epicenter for the novel Coronavirus, did a better job at managing the tide.
The immediate reaction of the Chinese was to point an accusing finger at the foreigners, particularly African, for harboring the virus among them.
Donald Trump, the United States president, whose government had been accused of slack at the initial period of the virus, suspended all legal immigration.
Donald has also threatened to bill the China government for damages associated with Coronavirus.
When ‘democratic’ governments deploy autocratic approaches, such as curtailing freedoms of movement, there have been reports of human rights abuses such as police brutality.
Lock-downs, viewed as anti-democratic and anti-freedom, may have been delayed and hence the subsequent spread of the virus.
COVID-19 is turning out to be a transitional period. It is intervening between two dispensations that are going to mark a shift from pre-COVID_19 to post-COVID-19.
If we draw a parallel with comparable occurrences of the past, like the two world wars or the 9/11, we are facing fundamental shift in political, social, and economic dispensation.
The world wars brought the the two superpowers, the cold war, and the rise and rise of the west(ern) hegemony.
A closer look will reveal that the birth of modern computer-based technology is, in search of military supremacy, intertwined with the cold war.
The post 9/11 has been characterized by suspicion between social classes, the haves and have-nots and even religious faiths.
Developed nations have tended to close their borders from immigrants from less developed.
The rise of, sometimes militant, nationalism across the globe culminating in the Arab Spring, Brexit, and the election of Donald Trump.
We have seen the rise of transnational crime, with increased cases of piracy, human trafficking, and the slave trade.
We have seen within societies, for example, the development of social segregation like gated communities, seen as expressions of social segregation.
In the immediate aftermath of COVID-19 we have seen, perhaps for the very first time since the bible’s tower of Babel, a world united for a common cause.
The world waited in breath for the rise of a world leader with conspiracy theories insinuating that this was a precursor for the replacement of the United States as the superpower by China.
So, what does the world post-COVID-19 portend?
The increase in the number of diseases is seen as an environmental issue. It is nature’s response to cumulative abuse by humanity.
It would be prudent to expect political communication to shift from purely social-economic rhetoric to issues relating to the environmental implications of human actions.
Already, prior to COVID_19, we had seen increased emphasis on clean and renewable energy, remote working, smart cities, and increased emphasis on environment conservation. This is likely to gain momentum.
People are, furthermore, more likely to be not only more sensitive about social and human-animal interaction, but also about human-environment interaction.
Maurice Consulting Agency 