W H Y ????????

WHY? Humanity advances through crisis. And crisis management is fundamental to design our future. But, it is also fundamental to asses what happens and why it happens. That we are living very disturbing times with the coronavirus crisis and hundreds of thousand of deaths around the world, we already know. But it is fundamental to discover how this happens and why, because otherwise we will not be capable of designing our future. It is astonishing that, living in such a sophisticated and technologically advanced world, such a crisis came as a surprise. As citizens, we don’t know the origin of the virus and we don’t now why and how it spread around. The velocity, the extension and time caught everyone short. And then came the question not only on how it started in China and why the Chinese are reacting so furiously about the origin of the virus, as well as How it’s possible that the highly developed countries, like the USA, France, Italy, China and Japan, cannot avoid the death of tens of thousand of his citizens. This means that all the technology and financial power this countries have is useless to protect their citizens of one virus, whose origin is unknown. Nowadays politicians are not prepared to face this new challenge. And, until very recently, neither scientists were oriented to research other focuses, nor to investigate such virus. No one, I repeat no one, was researching before January this year the corona virus. No funds were supplied to such research. And the conclusion is that not a single country paid attention to what was happening and every one reacted according to his poor judgment. And, if the world leaders reacted badly, how do you expected the millions of unemployed to react overnight ? So, we get to the role of government in this crisis. Badly managed countries will not improve with the Covid 19 crisis their governance. The leaders are not changing during the crisis and are showing unbelievable poor approach in managing the crisis. And this is valid also for the companies. The crisis revealed countries’ and companies’ all strengths and weaknesses. At once, no mercy. In a astonishing speed we are facing a new reality. And this reality can only pave the road to a better future if we really know what and why it is happening. China won’t be capable of resisting forever and, with use of their soft and hard power, avoid investigations. We need to move forward. The only real fact we have is that everything started in China. The crisis in countries like Brazil is much harder to be solved. The country’s socio-economic hidden reality is being revealed with such brutality and such an astonishing picture that political leaders just do what they know: increase their political power to manage the future, which is not clear at all. The role of government changed at once. The market economy is disappearing and new priorities come, especially one: to deal with the social crisis. It is not just unemployment; it is a change of the market economy model. The jobs as we knew in the past are extinguished. The use of technology will be more intense and consumption will be different. So, all the education we had in the past is challenged by new paths of the future. We are approaching a new world. And in that world, government priorities and conceptions of public health will certainly have to be different. It is inconceivable that government expenditure in protecting populations from such threats, as we are experienced nowadays, will not be a priority. What can we do in the moon or mars, if we are dying on earth with a virus like this one? Or zika, dengue, TBC, HIV, Ebola and such? Our concern along the crisis also raises about community life. On one hand, we will be more isolated and on the other hand we will need more and more solidarity. There is some kind of Sofia dilemma we are facing. How will solidarity be established in a world where we have to save our own life? Innumerable cases showed very clearly during the crisis that the leadership committed not only to solve his own political carrier but mainly the country’s present population and the future one, the balance about present and future, between death today and life tomorrow, was much more successful than a politician who bets only on his political future and thinks about the present, queue sera, sera. We cannot agree, as citizens in democratic societies, with the use of the crisis to increase undemocratic practices and power. Crisis, even so deadly as this one, have to be solved through democratic leadership and practices. In WW II, the winning powers, UK and USA (the USSR is a different case) maintained all the democratic institutions in service for winning the war. The world will be very, very different, and so we must have the ability to adopt ourselves to this changing scene. It is not true that everything will disappear, but is not true either that everything will be the same. The rich will be rich, but the poor will certainly be more miserable. In the case of Brazil, realities will be more painful since the country’s management as whole has been terrible for years. But, the country’s food and energy independence could help in minimizing the crisis’ effects. Besides all the changes we expect in the next years, there are some things that we already know an others we really don’t know; the coronavirus will last much longer than we wish and the light in the tunnel is far away. Covid19 will possibly be added to a long list of diseases we are living with every day, starting with flu, aids, Ebola, TBC, zica dengue, polio as well as cancer and so on. In many cases the humanity finds the right medicine and we survive. We worry quite a lot about climate change and we will have to worry much more after this pandemic. Climate change has much worst effects on us than the pandemic and it has to be our first concern to survive. So, the change is already on. In all it’s faces. Technology as well as working relations and specially work opportunities. Inexplicable health crisis become economic ones, as well as the political and socials. So, the day after will be very different and the biggest change will be a bigger challenge for individuals, families, groups, nations and countries. Priorities are changing and we have to be prepared. And the question is, are we? We will worry much more about our survival. Or not. History shows that when the Nazis killed 6 million Jews, the world took a long time to react and only did so when the Nazis and the axis attacked it and threatened its own existence. Last but not the least, Brazil’s cultural heritage, diversity and extension could be a new asset to overcome this and future crisis and allow us to face the future with a different perspective. First of all, if we survive, we can plan the outcome, but, if dead, we cannot even help the future generations to build up a better future. (Le Chaim.) Stefan Bogdan BARENBOIM SALEJ