A glimpse at the post-pandemic world of the West
Coronavirus wreaks havoc and the world continues to struggle in defeating the potentially deadly virus amid larger concerns being raised over how the post-pandemic world would appear for the West.
There shouldn’t be any skepticism over the effect this unprecedented crisis that killed more than 1,96,000 people globally can have over world economy. There could be a major paradigm shift at economic, political and strategic levels as rise of nationalistic sentiments, China’s ascendance, poor governance globally, cracks within European Union and many doubts on globalization already begin to emerge.
‘The Great Lockdown’ recession
Pandemic had hit the already sluggish global economy in a way of adding fuel to fire as IMF warns of ‘severe recession’ in 2020. In financial parlance, a recession is defined as the contraction of economy in two consecutive quarters where one quarter is already down in terms of output. “This is a worst recession since the great depression”, says IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath and this paints an alarming picture having seen the ramifications of it in history. The Long Depression of 1880s and the Great Depression of 1930s led to both the world wars rising extremist ideologies and arms race. Similar scenes may not be repeated but these lessons seem to be high relevant at these circumstances.
Survival of the fittest
This ‘global health emergency’ as proclaimed by the World Health Organisation has brought even the world’s filthy rich to its knees. Unemployment rate in the United States soars past 20% as 26.5 million Americans filed jobless claims in just last five weeks considered to be the highest level of unemployment rate in the U.S. after 2008 financial crisis.
Situation is even more grim in Europe as Covid-19 may even ramshackle the European Union. Tussle between leaders of European countries while negotiating the economic rescue plan had shown it clearly that there are cracks within the union. European Central Bank President Christiane Lagarde had already said that the bloc’s GDP may fall up to 15% due to coronavirus. This is not the first time Europe is facing a major financial crisis. Euro zone crisis which came as a surrogate of 2008 financial crisis had caused rift between the continent’s Southern and Northern parts.
For people in corporate firms — the one with lucrative jobs, the lockdown is just an inconvenience. People got used to the idea of work from home and thanks to technology for making this happen. The problem lies for those engaged in retail, hospitality and other small businesses who rely on daily earnings with thin margins. They almost become bankrupt, debt-ridden and jobless. It’s even more worse for those blue-collared labourers who work putting their lives at risk during the pandemic.
Business as usual is a distant dream
It would be outlandish to say that everything would become completely different from how they were earlier as soon as pandemic ends. But it would be even more foolish to think everything would remain the same as it was. There will be changes in dynamics of our works. Many may lose their jobs and there can only be a slim chance for raise in salaries for at least a year. Post-pandemic world may throw more challenges for departmental stores and retailers who were already struggling to cope up with this world of instant gratification where people expect their needs to be fulfilled at the click of a mouse. Companies may think not twice but thrice to continue with global travel that would become expensive as airline industry is almost besieged due to epidemic and as firms have gotten used to video-conferencing. ‘Work from home’ being a possibility, there could be diversion of funds to maintain office spaces and buildings on to something else that could boost output.
Pandemic politics
The optimistic side of coronavirus is that it has helped in exposing the true characters of world leaders. The Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern emerge top class in handling the pandemic. Germany had extra ICU beds to handle patients from France and Italy and Ardern was praised not just for flattening the curve but for crushing it. Donald Trump also for his part stayed true to his track record by trashing Covid-19, blaming Barack Obama, lambasting WHO, stealing credits and terming the coronavirus as ‘Chinese virus’ which is nothing but pure bigotry. Brazil’s Bolsonaro had initially rejected Covid-19 as a fantasy. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said “we got to hug and nothing will happen”. UK PM Boris Johnson who asked people to return to their jobs said “one should face the virus like a man” and later got hospitalised is well known.
Populist sentiments are seen being raised during the lockdown across the globe but there seems to be a fair chance for it to change as pandemic ends. The way to defeat the virus is by coming together not just as citizens of their states or territory but as ‘homo sapiens’ as human beings are called biologically. Post pandemic world would not be stuck under the world of parochialism and would try to broaden its horizons better than it did earlier. The outbreak has not occurred just because of the bat eating Chinese and the post-pandemic West would definitely be sure of this.
