Thomas L. Friedman, author and columnist is profound in his thoughts. He has just coined what it would be the new transition era BC (before corona) and AC (after corona).
Like BC ( before Christ) and AD (after dominion), Friedman’s BC may start hopefully from only a few months from now and counted backwards.
Thomas says things in some great style. For example in his book ‘World is Flat’ he referred to western world mothers telling children, something like this ‘finish your breakfast, people in India and China are starving’. But he said instead the words ‘finish your homework, people in India and China will take your jobs’.
On the era After Corona (AC) he says ‘Only generosity will save us’.
Then Yuval Noah Harari, captured people’s imagination with his Sapiens. His prediction on virus is equally profound. He says ‘In this time of crisis, we face two particularly important choices. The first is between totalitarian surveillance and citizen empowerment. The second is between nationalist isolation and global solidarity’.
We are seeing that surveillance oriented nations handle the virus better. So will there be a transition from freedom oriented to surveillance oriented!
Noah says ‘Asking people to choose between privacy and health is, in fact, the very root of the problem. Because this is a false choice. We can and should enjoy both privacy and health’.
Apparently technology can measure the temperature when a person presses on the keyboard of his mobile phone. That’s fine, but we have heard about ‘under the skin surveillance’. Scary indeed!
It’s interesting here. Consider, for example, washing your hands with soap. This has been one of the greatest advances ever in human hygiene
He says ‘Both the epidemic itself and the resulting economic crisis are global problems. They can be solved effectively only by global co-operation’.
For us now, what needs to be done is to follow instructions, stay at home, follow social distancing, wash hands and try to survive to witness the transition and hope for the best.
Kurian 