02-04-20
One good thing about the lock down has been
conversations, both on phone and in person. One can say forced mindfulness is
making a presence. The calls are long and when one is closing them the reluctance
to stop is clearly visible. Compared to my earlier avg. 2 minutes average call with questions &
answers this variety is better. Maybe we will remember lock down with nostalgia
in future Aha it gave it me time.
On our favorite topic of ocean churners, we
see more of them and for some reason they are coming our earlier in the day.
Now we see them at 5.30 or early, with in this community social distancing is
in vogue but mask is generally missing as they are not very conducive to
conversation on the run/walk. The real spice for them is conversation.
Coming back to Covid, I wanted to share few sources
of information/analysis I follow. I use them as they are mostly individual and
not some faceless organization. Mostly practitioner of art/ profession and academics
of the practicing variety. They have their skin in the game (their name) and send
only one to four updates on twitter. Some of them are also popular on Tv circuit
for their coverage of events around Covid.
She publishes a covid-19 tracker for India, every day morning, with a small
commentary on what the previous day meant in terms of growth and where we are
headed to. Calls out BS nicely in her tweets.
BMC has picked up social media tricks though they are still far behind
Mumbai police (one of the best handle in Govt sector in India). The updates are
regulars and measured through the day. Check periodically for official updates
and information.
3. https://twitter.com/phl43, Phillipe
Lemoine, a PhD candidate in philosophy at Cornell, but lives in Paris now.
He does an interesting analysis beyond what numbers are showing and relates
them to overall picture.
4. Other than this reliable commentary in our newspapers (in Pdf format
these days). Some articles in Indian Express on protocols, issues and how to
deal with it are illuminating.
Beyond these I
don’t venture unless an organic connection emerges from any of the known
providers.
Weekend coming up,
will be using it to deep dive on what I am hearing on future post covid from friends,
mentors and market analyst. Personally, I think no revolution is coming up in
terms of changes in human behavior. As soon as possible we will be back to our
normal consuming and gloating over material wealth. If and only if Covid-19
extends beyond June and we see real pain in terms of lives lost and businesses
closed, will we start seeing change in our behavior.
Interesting thoughts, Chetan. You are right, of course, that the crisis is not likely to change such basic drivers of human behaviour as greed, competition etc., however, it may alter some of the forms of their expression in society. For the first time, so many people are able to work from home over a long period of time; or we are seeing a scaling back of economic production without immediate collapse; and some commentators have raised the issue of mobile-based surveillance as a significant lever of change in democratic societies. Perhaps people will shift even more to virtual connectivity, not just for personal but also for professional, reasons, or Big Brother will really come to watch us even in democratic societis. Of course, time is the crucial factor. If crops cannot be harvested over a whole agricultural cycle without spreading the virus or global supply lines of essentials begin to break down, we may see a return to more localised economies or even outright chaos in places. Yet, if countries come together to help each other out bowing to the fact that the virus recognises no national boundaries, we would be in the opposite scenario. At the moment, though, we can only wait and watch as it is all hidden in the mists of the future.
ReplyDeleteSasmita
DeleteThanks for your encouragement, yes an increase in surveillance is almost given now. Irrespective of govt types, the trend will be for more invasive approach as compared almost nothing formal in western world.
I am quite optimistic for now, that this is blip and things will resume soon. Though normalcy of any kind is far off.