Witoubou Newmai
The COVID-19 pandemic is actually asking every one of us to go a bit deeper and think for and into ourselves by rethinking an assortment of concepts, ideas and theories. As we rethink things, many of them are no longer mere far away concepts and theories—or they are no longer something abstract and that we have to believe and live. They are, in reality, facts, and they are very much here.
The prevailing pandemic is asking and telling us that co-operation, support and solidarity of mankind are no longer acts of choice but necessities. Pandemics and other global challenges such as climate change are stripping mankind’s privilege of living and reducing us to a status of mere existence. We are saying this because crises of high magnitudes often take away ‘living’ so that we merely exist.
When we talk about co-operation, solidarity and support, it may not be that easy if we do not widen our horizon. As such, and given the unfurling trend, the concept of the ‘role of citizen’ may need to be redefined in a big way. But if we decide not to, the problem lies not in ‘there’, but in ourselves.
Actually we are talking about the narrow politics of region or identity which impedes co-operation, solidarity and support in a time such as this.
When we talk about rethinking an assortment of concepts, ideas and theories, we are actually asking to recall ideas such as that of Arnold Joseph Toynbee’s “the mirage of immortality” that blinded people who are “convinced that theirs is the final form of human society” (Samuel Huntington).
As the line between ‘what is local’ and ‘what is global’ is getting faint with time, the virus issue has even fast forwarded us to ask about the contributions of borders when the collective humanity is challenged.
Maybe, Lester Pearson saw this 60 years ago when he wrote that humans were moving into “an age when different civilizations will have to learn to live side by side in peaceful interchange, learning from each other, studying each other’s history and ideals and art and culture, mutually enriching each other’s lives. The alternative, in this overcrowded little world, is misunderstanding, tension, clash, and catastrophe”.
Pearson’s can be taken that humans can no longer waste their energies for something less important or we must conserve resources to thwart bigger and overarching challenges.
As we are almost there in the desperation line, it is time we tune our horizon appropriately and respond to things accordingly.
