We have been ROBBED!!

#COVID19 pandemic has within six months crippled the world. From Kailua to Sao Polo, from Reykjavik to Budapest, from Marrakech to Samarkand, from Jaipur to Dunedin everyone is just #buffering; on hold, not knowing if things will restart, don’t know when, confused and conflicted if to just wait or shut down or reboot and restart. Welcome to post COVID19 #New_Normal, year #2020.

In our journey to this New Normal, each one of us has been #robbed, thus we stand at this juncture with vulnerabilities. Desperately looking for our new #lodestar.

We have been robbed by our #nations and their governments who always told us that “we got you” and gave the impression that they are our “#protectors”. The binding glue of being a nation seems to losing its stickiness across the world and government systems that were to administer the welfare, security and development of its people seems to be circling another planet’s orbit leaving its people very cold and #disenfranchised.

We have been robbed by our #scientific fraternity who always gave the impression that they were ahead of the curve and now two decades after cloning #Dolly_the_Sheep we still struggle with not the pandemic, but the inability to operate outside of national/commercial silos to solve world medical problems.

We have been robbed by our #economists, banks and stock markets who we continue to trust with our monies. Despite knowing that the world is spinning #notional_wealth, and having had an opportunity to course correct in 2007 during the global economic crash, they quickly slapped a temporary plaster and moved us along. This pandemic has reminded us all on the #fragility of this economic framework as we stand robbed yet again of our #investments, and our precious #savings.

We have been robbed by our #technologists who spoke about the existential threat of AI taking over humans in just a few decades from now, and yet we are unable to compute the data of what is happening globally and make sense of it all to save lives, to better manage the problems emanating from this pandemic.

We have been robbed by our #education systems who never really taught us more relevant life skills to develop our emotional, social and mental strength to deal with situations such as this. Our global workforce is just not tailored to our population needs, and they clearly don’t pay fair to our teachers and doctors.

We have been robbed by all those who sold us the idea of #globalization, as despite the access and real time connectivity, we have all got indoctrinated by the aircraft safety instructions and intuitively gone to put the oxygen masks for ourselves, and yet to look out for the other. Each nation to its own, solving a global problem!

We have been robbed by our #media, who instead of informing, educating and entertaining us, have been misinforming and sensationalizing; perhaps one of the biggest cause of public angst, hatred and anger. The world is becoming increasingly more #intolerant of the other, herding to village mentality.

We have been robbed by our various institutions of #religion with very rich treasuries that did not lead the way on benevolence and step up to feed and shelter those in need. They are perhaps more equipped than most governments to create economic stimulus packages for people.

We have all been robbed by #ourselves of our own basic human #dignity and #respect. 

While we all seek to have some semblance of normality, if we truly reflect, that normal was up to the brim with greed, hatred, distrust and cruelty. Perhaps this pandemic is a blessing for all of us to recover from years of daylight robbery and have a better new normal for humanity.

@faheemahamed // Inspired by the WhatsApp University of Forwards