Ordinary life before the pandemic was already a catastrophe of desperation and exclusion for too many human beings, an environmental and climate catastrophe, an obscenity of inequality
Never thought of this before, but it is true for sure. We know only so much and only what we are being fed, but we can't blame it on others. It is our responsibility to know what's happening around us and who the desperate people are and how we can lend a helping hand.
hope can coexist with difficulty and suffering
that is why never lose hope no matter how deeply you've suffered and what difficulty you're going through.
and it will take decades of study, analysis, discussion and contemplation to understand how and why 2020 suddenly took us all into marshy new territory.
I may not agree with the length of the study "decades". In this time of technology, we have access to so much data that can and should take quite a little time to figure out what it took to get where we currently stand.
foreordained
the outcome of the matter was foreordained: predetermined, preordained, ordained, predestined, destined, fated; rare predestinated.
In the last government shutdown of 2018-2019
I wonder when exactly and how long the shutdown was there for and why?
These specifics make clear how possible it is to change the financial arrangements of all our societies.
We should be grateful in good or bad situations but should not stop striving for a better one. Perhaps, this pandemic made clear the impossible is happening.
In the emergency legislation passed in the US in March, many workers gained new sick-leave rights. Lots of things we were assured were impossible – housing the homeless, for example – have come to pass in some places.
Everything is possible, but the question is "Does anyone responsible deeply care about"? The only impossible is when one blocks and impedes themselves.
I have found over and over that the proximity of death in shared calamity makes many people more urgently alive
the sense of knowing everything was temporary at the proximity of death makes them less attached to the things they held on so dearly.
I want to live a good life and I want to risk my life, because I can also lose my life in one night
I love this sentence. It reminds me of our forefathers who risked their lives bringing change to us - the freedom, the liberty, the independence, that we currently have is the efforts they put in practice with their lives at stake.
In the aftermath of disaster, a change of consciousness and priorities are powerful forces.
to those who value the change, to be part of, to make it happen, and to know that it should be our rights to have universal healthcare not a privilege.
We may also rethink the precarious just-in-time supply chains.
Rethinking has already begun with factories turning to making ventilators and face masks - no longer precariously waiting for supply from other continents.
Perhaps we will find a new respect for the workers who produce our food and those who bring it to our tables.
We are already growing respect for the medical and produce workers because we now know the importance of these peoples' hard works more than ever before.
depredations
An act of attacking or plundering
And people have found ways to help the vulnerable, despite the need to remain physically distant.
We are blessed to have people out there jeopardizing their lives to protect others. They have found numerous ways to help the needy ones whether this is helping them with groceries or taking them to hospital. We should be appreciative of this,.
When this storm clears, we may, as do people who have survived a serious illness or accident, see where we were and where we should go in a new light
It's an equivalent to a saying that every night is followed by a day light. People become better, tougher, and more prepared after they go through a hardship which in this case in coronavirus.
ominous
adjective giving the impression that something bad or unpleasant is going to happen; threatening; inauspicious: there were ominous dark clouds gathering overhead.
his denial of science and critical thinking among religious ultraconservatives now haunts the American response to the coronavirus crisis,
It baffles me to know at this age and time, we still find people denying very existence of science when in reality almost anything and everything around them has some science involved in them.
common fate
common fate - a Gestalt principle of organization holding that aspects of perceptual field that move or function in a similar manner will be perceived as a unit.
he damages of keeping the economy closed as it is could be worse than losing a few more people.” (Golisano has since said his comments were misrepresented, and has apologised.)
I cannot imagine people get away with just an apology. There should be harsh consequences when peoples' lives are at stake.
The mainstream media colluded in obsessing about looting in the aftermath of Katrina. The stock of mass-manufactured goods in large corporate chain stores seemed to matter more than people needing food and clean water, or grandmothers left clinging to roofs. Nearly 1,500 people died of a disaster that had more to do with bad government than with bad weather. The US Army Corps of Engineers’ levees had failed; the city had no evacuation plans for the poor, and President George W Bush’s administration failed to deliver prompt and effective relief. The same calculus is happening now. A member of the Brazilian opposition said of Brazil’s rightwing president Jair Bolsonaro: “He represents the most perverse economic interests that couldn’t care less about people’s lives. They’re worried about maintaining their profitability.” (Bolsonaro claims he is trying to protect workers and the economy.)
It is sad to know the very elected official ignoring the risk of their own people's lives. Yet, they are shamelessly rerun for the next term knowing they betrayed their own people and still expect to get elected.
Such elites often prioritise profit and property over human life and community
PBS had a talk on this subject recently whether it is worth shutting down the economy to save lives or letting people die to save the economy and the only way to answer this question was to find out how much a human life is worth… in dollars. In fact, the federal government specifically valued a human’s life for $10 million.
Disaster scholars use the term “elite panic” to describe the ways that elites react when they assume that ordinary people will behave badly. When elites describe “panic” and “looting” in the streets, these are usually misnomers for ordinary people doing what they need to do to survive or care for others. Sometimes it’s wise to move rapidly from danger; sometimes it’s altruistic to gather supplies to share.
Interesting. This should send a clear signal to the rich to help themselves by helping the ordinary people with their basic lively essentials. This will help avoid "panic" and "looting" in the streets, and thus a safer environment for everyone.
Those who benefit most from the shattered status quo are often more focused on preserving or reestablishing it than protecting human life
This statement reminds of an old saying in Farsi which the literal translation is "the sheep is concerned about dying while the butcher is concerned about its fat". The senators out to come up with a plan to save American lives rather than to profit from the situation.
exhilarating
adjective making one feel very happy, animated, or elated; thrilling: an exhilarating two-hour rafting experience.
he first lesson a disaster teaches is that everything is connected.
Indeed, that's what makes us all human being. A creature so dependent on its surroundings that can only understand when taken away from them, yet we take pride and become arrogant.
people around me worried that they were having trouble focusing and being productive
This is exactly the case with a friend of mine and myself included where we have lost our focus and productivity to a great extent --- constantly worried about the outcome of day to day living of normal people. It helped us fall behind on so many things we had greatly aspired for including getting a career in the law enforcement agencies. Having all the events postponed, it feels like the careers we had so much focused on vanished in no time.
upended
set or turned on its end or upside down
preciousness of life
We naturally take things for granted. We can only appreciate when we do not have what we need and in this case, our family and friends who are so significant to our own existence. Life is a blessing given to us and should be valued a lot.
The word “crisis” means, in medical terms, the crossroads a patient reaches, the point at which she will either take the road to recovery or to death. The word “emergency” comes from “emergence” or “emerge”, as if you were ejected from the familiar and urgently need to reorient. The word “catastrophe” comes from a root meaning a sudden overturning.
3 words only brilliantly explain the entire situation we are currently in and dealing with. It is a wonderful job done... learned a lot for future work.
The future will not, in crucial ways, be anything like the past, even the very recent past of a month or two ago.
"In crucial ways" is the key here. There is going to be a lot of changes from shopping to socializing and working or even exercising.
isasters begin suddenly and never really end.
I think disaster do end at some point, but slowly and gradually. However it does catch you off guard.
the title already tells us about the changes going to happen in the world specially after coronavirus is over.