About

A spectre is haunting the planet: the Coronavirus pandemic.  The efforts to manage its deadly spread, have been radical and unprecedented.  We are urged (compelled) to isolate and also told ‘we are all in this together’.  Radical lockdowns may well have been necessary. But they have also been accompanied by the collapse of industries, a sharp rise in unemployment, the evaporation of livelihoods and the closing of borders.

We are living through times of great uncertainty and turbulence. The actions taken now (by people, authorities, companies and institutions), the social protections put in place (or not), the varied experiences during the pandemic (of rich and poor, Third World and First World, insiders and outsiders), and the paths taken as the pandemic ebbs (as it eventually must) will reshape our world for decades to come. This pandemic, like its predecessors, will change the world substantially, and not necessarily for the better.  Already there are troubling signs of authoritarian regimes making use of the emergency to cement their rule, and of the poorest being at the sharp end of the harsh measures taken.

At the same time the crisis has already made the case for the importance of states with strong technical capacity.  It has highlighted the inability of markets to offer solutions, the limits of hyper-globalisation, liberal cosmopolitanism, and much more.  

We can expect that the world afterwards will be very different to the world before.  This blog looks at that emergent future, and the politics needed to make sure a better future emerges from the fallout of this pandemic.  This blog captures my thoughts and observations on the Coronavirus pandemic.  If we want to emerge from this crisis with a better, more socially just, world then we need to shape the decisions made now and the ways in which we re-emerge from lockdowns.  This blog is a small contribution to that project.  It will try to use only reliable, quality sources.