Reimagining the world

The unimaginable has happened. The world has been brought to a grinding halt by a virus that jumped out of nowhere and without giving any warning went off on a disastrous course devastating city after city.

After initially creating havoc in China, it shifted to the heart of Europe. One by one, European countries started to succumb under the pressure of the rising cases of Covid-19 and the growing numbers of the deceased.

The first country to lockdown completely was Italy, followed by Spain, Hungary, France, UK, Netherlands and eventually more than 90 countries all over the world . More than half of the world population is currently under partial or complete lockdown.

As the virus moved to the US, the fatalities it caused within days, shocked the world all over again. The magnificent New York, the city that never slept, went under complete lockdown on March 22. The haunting images of the empty famous streets, usually bustling with people from morning to night were dreadfully sad.

The pandemic has already infected nearly two million people and claimed more than a hundred thousand lives. The long-term impact of this pandemic will be felt by people all over the world for a long time to come.

The scale of disaster is unprecedented but it is indeed a watershed moment in the history of the world. The world that was going too fast and spinning out of control has suddenly been forced to stop by in the middle of nowhere. There was no warning for countries or people, no preparation, no clue as to the intensity or the spread, no time to mitigate, no national or international plan for cooperation or coordination, no apparatus to combat the onslaught and no idea what to do.

All that the incumbent governments could do, frantically, was try and save the lives of citizens by forcing them inside their homes and keeping them there by whatever means possible. That clearly was only a temporary, emergency arrangement in the absence of any real defence against the pandemic.

Industry, commerce, businesses, offices, schools, colleges, universities, travel, transport, shipping all over the world has come to a halt.

But was this even possible to imagine just a couple of months ago. It seems more like a plot of an apocalyptic movie. Who could have believed that the world could be put to halt like that. Just about everything was dependent on everything else and the global businesses were running around the clock from Japan to San Francisco and Sydney to Johanesberg and China to Europe and everywhere in between.

The world was in a constant feverish frenzy of business, business, business and goods, services were rolling; money was zipping from country to country, spanning continents, over tangible and telecommunication networks and the mad dash was on twenty four seven. From multi-billion dollar merchandises moving on gigantic ships to small personal items ordered online, the goods were on the go and the world was spinning, spinning at a breakneck speed. Surely, the make-up kit that was ordered online was to be received by someone within two days, the gym equipment that had to be transported from the warehouse to the customer through priority shipping or the machinery that was to reach from Europe to somewhere in South America – everything was so incredibly important.

Nothing could be delayed. Shop, shop, shop, till you drop and the world was spinning, spinning out of control. The offices that were so inevitable, the deadlines that were of the paramount importance, the parties and dinners that simply could not be missed, the hangouts which had to be attended and suddenly the jolt from the brakes slammed on by the sheer need to preserve life just stunned everyone.

When life was threatened by a real danger looming near, the priorities automatically rearranged as if someone had pressed the reset button. In an instant, the only important thing was to save yourself and your families. The most important item to have with you was basic food and the most precious thing was your health.

Through this tragedy we have been given a chance to rethink and reimagine the world we were living in – or more like hanging on to, with the fear of crashing, if we let go. The motion has been broken and the world is not spinning like crazy anymore. The lockdown has been an eye-opener in many ways. We have seen that we did not need a lot of ‘stuff’ after all. We have found out that we can redesign and reimagine office space and have meetings online easily and accommodate everyone, and that works out fine also; we could do without taking out cars everyday all over the city for something unimportant and it turned out so much better for the environment.

As people remain stranded inside their homes, the planet has taken a sigh of relief. Air quality has improved all over the world, animals have come out and the waters have become clearer as have a lot of other things as well.

When this disaster has passed, let's not go back to the exact same ways we were so used to. Let us reimagine our world. A world where humans can coexist on the planet with other animals and care for their habitat also. Let us put in our sincere effort to preserve the environment by reducing the number of times we use cars and planes.

Let’s reimagine office work, meetings and especially international conferences. Every year an enormous amount of air travel is done around the globe for thousands of different conferences big and small. Why can't the world have more online conferences in specially-made conference rooms with telecommunication facilities, in all cities, so that unnecessary air travel is avoided for good. Let us be content with less shopping and reduce the need for brands to bring out collection after collection of inexpensive, disposable clothes and accessories. Let’s promise ourselves to be closer to nature and cherish and preserve rather than consume and destroy.

If that is what we get post-pandemic, then we will indeed have a much healthier way of living to look forward to rather than the nostalgia for the old times.

The writer is a social development professional.