“Despite the unforeseen change in circumstances for us all; despite the pain, the difficulties, the fear, the stress, the social problems and financial ruin we must persist. We must change ourselves quickly – both as individuals and as a society – if we want to stay afloat.” (Zan Boag, Editor, New Philosopher, March 28, 2020)
Media reports now suggest there is a future we must plan for. No matter how long the tail, this will end and see us putting back in place the segments of life we put in the deep freeze. There is already an undercurrent of purposeful activity not related to the virus. How are you going designing your future and how mindful is it of the needs of others? As Peter Mares put it a few days ago in Crikey (April 3, 2020):
“If insecurity is new and unwelcome in our lives, then we can assume that its pervasive presence was never welcome in the lives of others. It should give us pause to consider the levels of inequality and disadvantage that we allowed to build up during Australia’s long boom.”
Commentators have drawn attention to the opportunity afforded by the crisis to move on emissions reduction and invest in clean technology to drive reconstruction (SMH News Review, April 4-5, 2020, pp24-25). We lost a decade of mouths saying yes while feet said no on carbon abatement. The next decade has to be fair dinkum (see Decarbonisation Futures by Climate Works).
Finding myself solo this evening, I watched Zulu. For Australia, totals today are 5,795 cases (106 new cases) and 40 deaths. NSW has 2,637 cases (57 new) and 18 deaths. World-wide totals are now over 1.278 million and 69,550 deaths.
Awesomely Astute 