Abdul Sattar
WE are witnessing some of the most radical changes in the world. Yet more transformations are around the corner. It would be a bit too early to predict what the post-corona world would look like, but it certainly will breed new normal. Life is locked down and so are the hopes for the better days of those who are forced to live on the margins of society. The most hated social distancing has now turned to be a reluctantly accepted reality of lifestyle. It’s a new lifestyle, let’s hope it doesn’t march with us for long. It happens to be the toughest ever trial for human beings to remain distant from their fellow human beings. In a nutshell, Coronavirus pandemic has deprived us from each other, having hit the foundations of our very existence. The fear around us has tightened the grip. We are literally afraid of each other. What a nightmare it is!
There is generally a popular narrative that it’s insensitive to raise political questions amidst the pandemic. It is a trap. There does exist an alternative which emphasizes that all crises are political by other means. Those who have watched or read ‘Shock Doctrine’ by Noam Klein are well equipped to understand how grave it is to raise political questions in the midst of crises. It is a correct moment to question the structural violence inflicted by the global political economy. While the elites manipulate popular sentiments to manufacture political consent, asking political questions in these turbulent times becomes even more pertinent.
The virus has hit the foundations of global political economy and has propelled us to question how the world over the last few decades has been governed economically. The most developed civilization, most sophisticated technological advancement and the mighty economic structure have apparently surrendered against the virus. It would not be too far from reality, in the current circumstances, to say that the world economy, at best, is precarious and, at worst, is shattered. How ironic is it that the world economy, which is well equipped to multiply the capital of well-heeled by thousands, is helpless to feed the wretched of the earth in this grave crisis. It came up with an inhuman, apathetic rational ‘choose between hunger or corona’. It unfortunately has become a global sham. Just to mention that the one percent of the global elite shares more than twice the wealth than the rest of the world. What a colossal disparity it is. Who will bust it? The global economy was well resourced to feed the wretched of the world at least for a few months but it shamelessly refused to take a humanitarian stance. Rather, it exploited humanity to earn profits out of a pandemic, helping capitalists to skyrocket their revenues. It has lethally strangulated humanity. It doesn’t stand a chance of being vindicated.
Let alone the human beings, capital didn’t even spare nature. It has ruthlessly massacred nature and ruined ecological equilibrium. Continuous deforestation to feed the unfettered lust of the market, burning fossil fuels, unregulated industrial processes are the worst cornerstones of capitalism. Such a colossal and irreversible damage to the environment. It blessed us with a development which chokes more than it feeds. We have been pitched against nature, and consequently both have suffered as a result. It didn’t care and ruthlessly pursued its profitable pursuits by causing the worst devastation. We unfortunately have tried to colonize nature which ultimately has hit us back. The scientists warn that the attitude may lead to more pandemics. The global elite extracted maximum out of the global economic structure but arrogantly refused to pay back when the common people needed the most. International monetary institutions with abundant resources have not yet responded to the plea to write off the debt of the global periphery. The global leaders are busy scoring points against each other by pushing the humanitarian issues under the carpet. Why can’t they emerge above the political differences to collectively work to pull humanity back from the brink? It in fact is a time for the global elite to hold their heads down in shame.
It is our right to question why states haven’t been able to invest much on public health. During the last few decades the states were deliberately forced not to invest much on public health and social welfare apparatus. Neo liberalism militantly creeped into the veins of the global economic structure and caused destruction greater than the novel virus. The neo liberal edifice has crumpled humanity, and has left no doubt about how sick order it is.
Ironically the world powers well equipped to force the poor countries to knee down within hours through sophisticated weaponries are found helpless against the virus because they have criminally neglected the public health care. WHO is an institution responsible for the health of seven billion people across the globe. It might come as surprising but its budget is less than that of any good American hospital. No wonder the whole world is paying the price. It is another global shame. The architects of neo liberalism have failed miserably, turning humans into fodder for the dark forces. After SARS and Ebola the world leaders flooded with emotions gave air to populist slogans but that remained a mere rhetoric.
The so-called political choreographer avoided locking horns with the corporate regime since it could have put their political careers at stake. Of course not public interest, their fear governed them. It puts to rest an illusion that neo-liberalism has enough for everyone and the market will come out as a savoir. It has failed it. What was supposed to be a salvation turned out to be a tragedy. Monetized health service is a greater threat to humanity than diseases. Global capitalism engendered with insensible market behaviours have pushed humanity to the brink of an impending disaster. Let us all reflect on how the world has been governed during the last few decades and why the dreams turned into nightmares. Shouldn’t we ask why despite abundant resources global capitalism has failed to feed and protect the wretched of the earth. The world was not ready for the pandemic despite consistent warnings from scientists. Issues of public welfare have deliberately been pushed out of political fields.
The world will have to behave more responsibly. It has to review, scrutinize and reevaluate the principles of ‘free market’ that proved to be catastrophic for humanity. The global economy has to submit itself unto humanitarian ethos to protect the future generations from pandemics, poverty, violence and miseries. Global economy will rebound soon, that is given. But let’s all raise our voices that the burden shouldn’t be laid on the fragile shoulders of the marginalized. We as a humanity need to decolonize nature. We share the planet with other species, they equally own it. Let’s value it as it deserves, after all our existence is equally contingent upon it. I sincerely hope that we will head towards a sensible discovery of civilization which does not involve colonizing nature and other species. Global capitalism is a virus and global inequality is a pandemic. We have to undo it. Are we prepared for it? It is high time which offers us to reflect and redeem our wrong ways, or else we will only have ourselves to blame.
—The writer is teaches History and Modern Politics at a University with interests in political anthropology, political economy and democracy.
