Crisis reality alert!

The Covid-19 crisis has the potential to unleash upon humanity an unprecedented developmental crisis which could severely affect income, health and education across the globe. In a recent report, the UNDP issued fair warning that global human development could plummet for the first time in 30 years. While both rich and poor nations will have to face the music, it is evident that a significant drop is predicted in underdeveloped countries that have little to no economic cushion to help break their fall.

The pandemic has brought about an additional layer of problems and challenges onto the world’s already trembling socio-economic plane. But let’s be clear, the pandemic is not the reason for this sudden worldwide chaos, it is just the trigger. Years of persistent exploitation, inequality and discrimination have created unstable conditions that have been carefully hidden by those at the helm. The crisis has removed this veil of security that was hiding the accumulated burden of the people and has exposed the true nature of modern-day systems. People seem to have already forgotten that hunger crisis has already befallen us and that there are constant underlying fights between nations to control the natural resources of the world.

While many remain bewildered as to why such a crisis emerged, blaming it solely on the pandemic, it does not take a genius to put one’s finger on the problem. In a capitalist-driven world, everything revolves around wealth and money. The global capitalist system has given rise to stark inequalities due to which countries are becoming exceedingly and increasingly poor. The unequal distribution of wealth further exacerbates the problem with a selected few having control over majority of the world’s wealth. The pandemic has taught us not to rely on existing systems that only support the rich. In these unprecedented times it is important for everyone to join hands and unite against this biological threat instead of focusing on making profits.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2020.

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