What are we going to do if and when this Covid-19 doesn't stop soon?

 

Thursday, August 13, 2020

Question : What are we going to do if and when this Covid-19 doesn't stop soon?

 The following posts are some of the answers I have written in the past in a forum called Qoura (https://www.quora.com/) where I had been active for a while. I do attend to write more on non-political situation, avoiding as much as possible from politics which I find boring. I will omit our names of those who asked the questions since most questions will not have the names of the person asking. Also, while the main answer could be short and simple, I will extend it further for my blog, based on what I have written. 

Question - "What are we going to do if and when this Covid-19 doesn't stop soon?"

My answer : You adapt or You die. 

COVID-19 did not kill as many of the previous deadly diseases humans had encountered before (at least now after six months into 2020). The Black Death (1347 to 1351) killed 200 million people (about 2/3 of Europe population), Smallpox (1520) killed 56 Million, and 17th Century Great Plagues (1600s) killed 3 Million. COVID-19 had infected over 17 million people Worldwide (as of July 31st 2020) but its global casualties is around 670,000 people (as of July 31st 2020). So compared to others before it, COVID-19 can be considered a manageable pandemic. So why is its effect seems to have crippled our 21st century society so badly?

The answer is our society is NOT self-sufficient. Our society has too many eggs in the same basket, so to speak.

After the end of World War 2, the idea of a society needs to be self-sufficient to support itself and its people through its own afford had been put forward by so many people (including scientists). Mahatma Gandhi for example wanted a self-sufficient India which did not rely on the West for anything and believed that India have the sufficient resources, capable manpower and knowledge to achieve this. 

By 1950s and 1960s, scientists from various fields has started to speak out against population boom which they believe could cause new social problems in the near future, if it was left unchecked. Uncontrolled population bloom could likely to cause drastic changes and uncertain conditions in economy, social changes and political changes which could lead to more problems than solutions. Being self-sufficient could mean that society in each nation could be forced to limit their population growth to a certain (manageable) levels, enabling the population to grow in a healthy way. 

Once the need for renewable power is achieved, more businesses which target internal market could be generated and wealth could start to flow within the community, providing both income and sustainable economy. 

Computer knowledge such as Network System, AR/VR and Internet could allow the society to keep in touch with members of its own community and with the outside World, allowing business to be conducted with surplus goods and possible services which does not require direct (prolong) human contact. This in return could allow a certain degree of International trade of goods and services while maintain a healthy individual community, separated but linked via Internet.

The advantage of such community in an emergency situation like COVID-19 pandemic is that, if a lockdown were to occur to one community, it could survive indefinitely for a very long time, with health-care officials taking care of the infected, effectively isolating them and monitoring for future infection. Movement could be restricted but that could not kill the economy or the community spirit in any way.

However, the society we have today are far from self-sufficient or capable of maintaining a proper growth ratio. According to the article by Julia Sommerfeld (dated Oct. 12, 1999) - "It took all of time until 1804 for the world’s human population to reach 1 billion. But at the population’s current growth rate, it only takes about 12 years to add a billion people to the planet. " Twelve years to add 1 BILLION people. That is NOT a healthy number or one which is manageable.

As the population grew, so did the economy. People started to demand more goods and services. Segregation in society occurred where the society is divided according to those who has wealth to spend (able to buy goods and services), those who willing to trade their time and skills to create and provide such goods and services and those who does the 3D jobs (as it is called in Malaysia) which stands for Dangerous, Dirty and Difficult. This segregation is an important aspect to understand when comes to understanding why COVID-19 were able to cripple our modern society today.

As far as 1997, the economy crisis could be felt in Asia but this had become worse after the Terror Wars (2001) which lasted (and still continued I guess) to this day. Because of the War, the petroleum price become erratic, and certain parties took advantage and rise the price to a higher level. At the same time, these "parties" made sure that the alternative source of energy (namely through renewable energy source) are not made available to the public as long as possible. This was our first mistake as a human society. We failed to recognize the importance of stabilizing ourselves as a species in term of economy, social stability and innovation. We stayed in the same spot too long and got left behind.

The second mistake is related to the first mistake. Because of the artificial (and unsustainable) conditions as mentioned above - we also created two dangerous Cycle for ourselves. The first Cycle is the Cycle of Uncontrollable Births which lead to a boom in human population. As I had posted in my earliest posts (regarding the 10 reasons why the World needs to be recycled), this boom in population is a very destructive cycle which leading humans down a very dangerous path and possibly multiple armed conflicts with the goal of wrestling resources from others. Already, between 2001 to 2015, some of the Western leaders tries to balance this out by allowing population from the poor region to migrate to their societies but that only brought forth more negativity than good as these migrated people refused to get integrated into the new (more advanced but often mild-mannered) society.

The second Cycle is the Cycle of Slave Labor. Slavery had become common after 1700s and all the way to the beginning of 1900s. After World War 2, Slavery seems to have died out as more and more human right movements sprung up everywhere, including in America in 1950s, 60s and 70s. For a while, we all assumed that Slavery had died out. We could not be more wrong.

Today, slavery still exist but in form of Slave Labor. The uncontrolled population birth (the first mistake) give rise to a higher level of poverty. Poverty in return give rise to ignorance, lack of education, political turmoil, lack in Scientific advancement and finally drop in the quality of life itself. Unfortunately for us, there are some religions (namely in Abrahamic circle) which fits perfectly within such circle of existence. The huge difference in wealth between the rich and the poor eventually forces the poor to make themselves into Slave Labors in order to find work. And as economy recessions continued and more and more people trying to find means to support themselves, making themselves "Slaves" to wealthier society seems to be the only way through this hard times.

The problem with these two "mistakes" is that they had defined the society we live in for the past twenty years (since the year 2000). Relying too much on petroleum and Capitalism to create and maintain wealth, human society become stagnant, incapable of changing. That is why COVID-19 have become so devastating. It was not about the fatality rate which made people concern. It is the economy impact which lies heavy on them. COVID-19 is causing tremendous impact on the already fragile economy, threatening to collapse the very (social) system we had created and become too dependent on for the past twenty years. 

Source : 

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/history-of-pandemics-deadliest/

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3072068/ns/us_news-only/t/world-population-hits-billion/#.VupjzpwrKaE