There is a miasma that is staring into our faces because of the Coronavirus. It is not just because of the death toll that is rising, or the constant increase in the amount of people getting infected. Neither is it just to do with the unimaginable economic slowdown, or the endangering of innumerable livelihoods. But it is instead because of ‘us all being in it together’, as we keep saying to each other – and yet not being in it together.
There is a stupefying noise that has deafened us all: Thanks to fake news, no news or too much news. Everyone is acting like a messiah, but the reality is that everyone is a novice. Some call quarantine a privilege; the other – a curse. There are growing concerns, for instance, according to Laurie Garrett, an American science journalist that if more and more people continue to be increasingly re-infected, so is there a flaw with testing, or a deficiency in their immunity levels? More interesting questions are inspired by the likes of Climate-migration experts such as Alex Randall; making us re-evaluate our commitment towards global environmental issues like Climate change, and not presenting excuses for not having ‘enough economic resources’ to fight it – because this is what Covid-19 has trained us for: fighting a catastrophe.
A sustainable survival from the post-Corona world is only possible: if we acknowledge, realize the dynamic it has created – in fact, continues to create
Now how did I straight away jump from the problems we are facing during a global health emergency to an environmental issue such as Climate change? In fact, above, I also talked about news adding onto the noise, difficulties in dealing with the quarantine, lockdown – but I have not even touched yet on equally worrisome issues like the mobility problems, challenges associated with shifting to online work, education, travelling, life post-lockdown and so on. It is so, because all these issues are interwoven, and yet so independent in nature – that it becomes all the more difficult to decide as to how many of them we have resolved, and how many we are yet to.
And amidst these ‘resolving of crises’, there is a huge crisis about discourse. And a huge dilemma as to who has a stake in it, when supposedly ‘we are all in this together’?
The answer is simple. Taking inspiration from the likes of Karen Litfin (1994), it is all the more important to bind ourselves as an ‘epistemic community’. In simple words, now that we are in the post-Coronavirus world, (not necessarily past it) – it is important to not just be seeking medical advice, or counting upon international organizations such as the World Health Organization to name a few – but providing everyone with the opportunity to have a say, and be active as multi-level stakeholders using a multi-level governance approach. May it be the economists, political scientists, policymakers, local and sub-national populations, or any other experts as well as non-experts, who can contribute to building a discourse on the world post-Corona.
This is definitely very overwhelming to even imagine at a time when the world is already polarized along differing beliefs or perspectives. Power struggles constantly shifting and making it all the more complex for us to determine, as to who decides what? But here is a thing: Issues always get resolved towards the end. They are, however, recognized first; owned first.
And what the world particularly lacks at the moment is ownership of the crisis, and the crises springing up from within it. We are frankly more concerned with brushing off the responsibility, than taking it. A sustainable survival from the post-Corona world is only possible: if we acknowledge, realize the dynamic it has created – in fact, continues to create. The dynamic has indisputably taught us to resolve but we sure cannot resolve unless we also evolve. And there is no evolution without discourse and no ‘effective discourse’ without taking everyone together.
The writer is a political scientist based in Rawalpindi, and currently teaches at an affiliate centre of the University of London. She’s enthusiastic about issues of global security, multi-level governance and development. Tweets at @NawalAmjad12