It may take a lot longer than initially anticipated about the recovery, post Covid-19 anywhere in the world including in our New Zealand. New Zealand, due to its geographical situation has been in an advantageous position as compared to rest of the world. There is no land connectivity of New Zealand with any other country hence chances of any Corona infected person sneaking into our country were negligible. A relatively smaller number of population was another factor contributing to an early control of the deadly virus. Even with these natural factors helping New Zealand in fighting out Covid-19 effectively, we cannot undermine the pro-active approach of our government with a strong will to stamp out the deadly virus.

As the government will decide on coming Monday about its next step to move forward, the more stress now needs to be given on faster economic recovery. The rate number of jobs being lost are increasing by every passing day and so are the numbers of people going on benefits and government support. We can not afford this situation for long as one business after other are declaring number of jobs being reduced in the name of restructuring to save their companies from closing. This is all happening around the world with pretty much similar pattern and is creating a sense of insecurity and panic among people. People have started feeling that there is no security of life, job, or anything hence a kind of panic is creeping within the community.

Look at the world today, everyone appears to ready to burst out at any given opportunity. A small but ghastly incident of police brutality in America which resulted in death of an Afro-American man has created a situation which is unprecedented in history of America. The whole country is in big chaos, shops are being looted and torched and the law and order situation is at its worst. In the history of America for the first time, protesters stormed into White House and security personals had to move the President and his family to the bunkers at White House to save their lives. Everyone now knows how stubborn and strong headed President Trump is, about his decisions and policies. He is quite ruthless about implementing his decisions without bothering of the repercussions of his actions. This is what exactly is happening in America now. The world superpower was already cracking under pressure of the impact of Covid-19 with close to 2 million cases and around 110k deaths so far. These are the worst numbers anywhere in the world and America is the worst effected country on the planet with Covid-19. American economy, just like any other country of the world, is already in shambles and Covid-19 controversy is going to add further fuel to fire on the ongoing trade war between China and America. Thousands of people taking to streets in almost every city of America is a sign of unrest that was creeping for long time and it burst out at the most inappropriate time. At this juncture, it’s not only the prestige of USA as superpower at stake but also their claim of world’s oldest and most vibrant democracy which appears come down crashing.

On the other side of the world, in our home country India, the Corona crises seems to be going out of control now as restrictions are being eased in stages. It was already a herculean task to control or manage effectively to a population of 1.3 billion in a pandemic without any hiccups, but other demographical and political complications are making the situation even worse. Easing of restriction is also required urgently to stop the declining economy. Indian government has already announced plans to inject the economy with various projects and schemes worth equal to half of country’s GDP. So, the mantra for everyone is to stay calm and do not jump into anything until the time- situation is right for it.

-Yugal Parashar