The paradigm of the world, is chaos!
It was, at least before the Corona virus took over our lives, work, social commitments, social media, grocery shopping hours, vacation plans, news bulletins and conversations. Now he word "chaos" no longer describes our situation, adequately. I am sure some "working from home" Oxford dictionary contributor, in her pajamas, sitting at a dirty kitchen table, with a pile of dirty dishes behind her, will think of better word or coin one.
In the 1980's and 90's, globalization was deemed the answer to all problems. It promised us a lot. The end of cold war, elimination of economic disparity, the proliferation of democracy, world trade to efficiently and adequately use the resources provided to us by mother earth and the ultimate unification of humans over color, race, cultures and borders.
We never saw the realization of the "globalization promise"
In fact it was followed by a wave of right wing populism and such governments in most countries; closed borders, "walls", trade tariffs and fear of immigrants/refugees became the new norm. We can't call it de-globalization. The countries still seek to benefit from other countries and their goods and services but without any responsibility, with a blind eye and cold shoulder towards the countries that do not provide any monetary benefit or can cause "empathy expenditure".
My friend, the Corona virus, provides us a different perspective on how the world without and with borders exists, almost simultaneously.
It shows, how closely woven the world is, for a virus with very specific origins to travel across the globe, in matter of days. How common are international and national conferences and vacations, sporting events, "entertainment needs", supply chain, essential and not essential services, how economy are interconnected and how we panic on bad news anywhere across the globe. Yet, working from home, cancelling the cruises and postponing the flights,social distancing, grocery hoarding, self-quarantine and attending church over facebook live comes so easily and naturally to us.
As part of a society that at least at some point in time yearned for "Vasudev kutumbakam" (world as one family) , who knew all we need was 75 rolls of toilet paper and absence of a viral infection, to be happy.
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