Article written by Corneliu Bodea
 
Contributor www.republica.ro
 
I follow closely the events both in my vicinity and in the more distant space and I am aware of domestic and international political decisions, the results of important scientific research and discoveries, the significant cancan and other events. I can generally call myself an information-minded person. In the avalanche of topics and the effervescence of journalistic reporting or simply communication in recent months, I tried to define a series of points of support for a schematic but comprehensive and eloquent drawing dedicated to this year’s main event, the SARS-CoV pandemic -2, of the associated disease Covid 19 and of the consecutive economic crisis. The few days spent alone in a place dear to me on the shores of the Adriatic, the sound of cicadas and maybe one or two glasses of wine helped me enormously. I was surprised not to be able to unite what appear to be two perfectly parallel planes that I came to as a result of my attempt.
 
Leaving aside, however, those who believe that the earth is flat, that vaccines are made to fool the population and that this virus does not exist, I can not group the information, the real effects, but also people’s perceptions as elements. geometric contained in the two planes we were talking about and which never seem to meet before infinity.
 
In one of these we find aspects related to the above-mentioned crisis that seem to be mostly positive or at least without negative potential and I will list a few:
 
– the abrupt cessation and then the drastic reduction of human activities (transport, resource consumption, etc.) generated the largest decrease in carbon emissions and led to the most significant return of pollution indicators in the industrial age, contributing more than any project until then to slow down global warming;
 
– the emergence of the pandemic has generated the greatest known human effort to combat one of the greatest risks that could lead to the extinction of mankind, according to all major and authorized studies, namely the risk of pandemics with deadly viruses;
 
– work from home brought the family back with its importance and challenges to people’s attention, making them address their problems;
 
– the slowdown in the lock-down period has given most people the opportunity to introspect, an activity so important and long abandoned to the daily whirlwind of false problems;
 
– governments have found resources everywhere to give oxygen to companies, entrepreneurs, temporarily raising or subsidizing the tax burden, offering grants for development, modernization, subsidized loans and more (we don’t know yet, because this ball still jumps…). The European Union has successfully overcome the cold superiority of the north, finally finding the warm and funny talk of the south acceptable, and hands would have become friends if the rules of protection had not forbidden this.
 
– even President Trump, who dealt with the crisis perfectly and at the same time the best in the world (kind of the first in the country, the second in the county…) said he was worried and confused, throwing more colorful recommendations;
 
– energy prices have fallen, stocks are rising, banks are rejoicing in lending to governments that are lending companies…
 
It would look really good if there were no other plan, a plan that contains less positive aspects, worrying aspects that I allow myself to list briefly and incompletely:
 
– People are dying! Over 600,000 people at the time of writing this article have died from this virus, which is shocking! For comparison only, in just 6 months this pandemic has claimed about twice as many victims as all terrorist acts in the world produced from 2006 to the present;
 
– people lose their jobs! Unemployment figures remaining after the end of the lock-down remain well above the average of the last 10 years;
 
– insecure and inept politicians create false crises in order to distract citizens from the erroneous measures they take in managing the pandemic situation. The health crisis could pass in 1-1.5 years, but the effects of the quarrel of immature boys could follow us for decades;
 
– the money that flows generously to all pockets moves for the benefit of financial institutions and will be paid top and bottom primarily by us, by us taxpayers and the smaller we are, the harder it will be and the more ruthless the process will be ;
 
– our psyche of all suffers! I feel, I see daily confusion in the eyes of colleagues, of friends. A slowness with dubious sources is installed as if in us and our actions are uncertain. The pressure of uncertainty affects us and believe me, six months, a year is enough to cause lasting changes.
 
I have certainly forgotten things, I have certainly omitted important aspects from both plans and I invite you to complete each of these lists. At the same time, I strongly believe that it is important to understand that these two overlapping plans cannot exist, that they are presented to us from time to time depending on our interests or that we collect information incorrectly due to the confirmation bias. I think we have to learn and prepare at the same time. There were 107 billion people on our beautiful planet before the present generation and we have a responsibility to them as we have to the many billions that will succeed us if we exceed this critical period of 50-100 years as the beautiful philosopher Toby Ord reveals in the book “The Precipice”. I believe that this crisis is part of the great challenges of this period defined by him and I also believe that there is a chance to live in these times and that we will talk about the people who have lived now.
 

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