Firstly sorry to all you followers out there for weeks of radio silence. I have had a lot going on and blog writing was pushed down my prorities. Now back in India after work in Kenya and Nepal in February I’m ready to write and with a whole lot of issues I have been thinking about e.g. is embracing one’s individuality an aspiration applicable to all children or just a cultural construct (from work with children’s clubs in Kenya), what counts as valid evidence in human behaviour according to the diametrically opposed demands of western scientific journals and local knowledge (The western journals’ power always wins), the intensely local views of the man who sells us vegetables here in Mussoorie or what it means when a country with Gandhi’s spinning wheel on its flag stands by and watches Hindu Nationalist police club a Muslim to death (last week) to the music of India’s National anthem… So lots coming in the next few episodes but first the massive global issue of the day- COVID 19.
Yes Corona Virus. As I write it is tracking across the globe like an arrow in our collective Achilles heel. Far from a definitive answer to anything I am just going to offer some thoughts it raises for me.
CoroVirus as depicted by Ancient Greeks
Firstly was it always inevitable that at some critical tipping point in our development trajectory we’d come to this? Population density, humans’ mobility, the infectivity of corona and various other factors at some point would combine as a perfect storm? A simple protein coat containing a little RNA has spread through our networked species, ignoring modern medicine, global economics national borders and the rest. A virus gone viral.
There have been several almost-pandemics in the recent past: HIV (but it’s mode of transmission did not affect everybody), ebola (being highly lethal may have limited its longevity and spread), SARS, bird flu. common flu even. Interestingly they’re all viruses, so simple they are not even organisms. Yet simply elegant – pure information in a protein coat with no metabolism. Viruses are impossible to kill chemically with drugs. Corona, spread by droplets and contact, lethally infective but symptoms develop at a low enough rate to allow asymptomatic infected people to travel, and with no cure is spreading around the planet. It may or may not become a total pandemic but if it doesn’t it won’t be long before another virus emerges which will. Are viruses the arrow to our achilles heel, Han Solo to Humanity’s Death Star?
Human footprints fossilised in Olduvai mud, Achilles heels and all.
Corona goes for the very jugular of development. My first blog in this series tracked human development from first tentative footsteps in Olduvai silt to rockets and internet and nuclear weapons. The exponential rise of Homo sapeins is linked to us becoming increasingly networked- family groups to tribes to regional sates to nations to global economies and ubiquitous googlized information. Corona virus’ threat is precisely because we are so networked. Could it be that networks even as they burgeon and assimilate power, making humans an (almost) unstoppable force on this planet also intrinsically braid Achilleseque vulnerability into themselves.
Can we be global not parochial. Like climate change and world food production and refugee issues and global fisheries and water corona virus is a global issue that needs a global response. It does not respect borders any more than CO2. A unified world response seems obvious but… but not to all. The selfish, small minded and parochial old man the most powerful nation on earth chose as its leader, commenting on a cruise ship with confirmed cases of Corona virus moored off California said “ I prefer the numbers stay where they are” and asked why take responsibility “when it is not our fault”. A tribal “our fault- your fault” approach is the same thinking that conceived of a wall to keep “Mexican rapists” out while freely allowing good US CO2 to percolate across planet. Such thinking is bound to fail.
Might pandemics push us to the next step ? I wonder if corona (or one of the subsequent pandemics that are surely coming) will push humanity up to the next level of development- the evolution of our self organisation to allow us to tackle global issues globally. Maybe we need global governance that goes beyond national democracy. Now groups of self interested voters choose what is best for themselves and the most powerful groups (aka tribes) rule the planet. Global issue based governance would be a step up for us all. Instead of the small thinker who the US population has foisted on the world as president of the planet we might have teams of highly qualified people making global decisions on good evidence and sound policy (e.g. a health team, an environmental team etc.) with big picture thinkers connecting each speciality to avoid siloed decisions. Tribal thinkers like Trump and Modi and Bolsonaro as dinosaurs of the past replaced by faces like Greta Turnberg- that would be a step up.
Private enterprise is not the answer. All through my life I have heard how innovations borne out of rational selfishness are ultimately good for us all, the invisible hand of private enterprise will solve all humanity’s questions etc. Thus humanity devolved decision making to multiple self-interested corporations, many with economic power well beyond most countries and political influence to match. None of them (despite the spin) thinks globally. A tangible positive spoinoff of this crisis for humanity is the cancelling of much non-essential travel and perhaps a small reduction in our carbon emissions. Climate activists have been trying to get humans to do this for years. Finally a virus made it happen The response of the corporations which neoliberalism’s acolytes say will solve all humanity’s questions? They’re offering bargain basement fares to get people who have cancelled non-essential travel to undertake non-essential travel. The whole system responded in fact. The economic downturn which slowed the consumption of fossil fuels has dramatically dropped the price of oil to increase our use of fossil fuels. Good business, bad for the planet. We clearly need to reduce not increase the power of the private sector. Planetary decision making needs to be made at planetary scale.
Corona virus as depicted by Johns Hopkins university, on 10/319 * You will know by now whether the yellow line of global infections has continued to rise exponentially or if it stabilised like china’s ,(orange) allowing humanity ore time to this about how to protect our Achilles heels.. Map by CSSE , Johns Hopkins University
So there are a few random thoughts about corona virus to resuscitate this blog on a cold grey day in the Himalayas: Vulnerability inextricably braided into our success, the need for global thinking, democracy as a flawed way forward in planetary decision making and a need to seize back control from private enterprise.. Let me know what you think… I am especially interested in other vulnerabilities you see wrapped up in human networked power (aka development). I can think of several.
jeph