During the pandemic period, when the corona virus was traveling around the world causing damage, frightening and killing mercilessly, it was common to hear from people that the world would not be the same as before. I heard the most different reports that we would emerge from this catastrophe better than before.
I read a text at the time of the pandemic, which said: “The outbreak of the pandemic caused by the “new” coronavirus (in fact, a new and more aggressive mutation of Corona) highlights the protagonism of at least two possible extreme scenarios for survival of life on the planet. On the one hand, the return to a dystopia of societies confined in isolation, without links of sociability and with the predominance of outsourced, subordinate and precarious work in terms of social protection networks like those that characterized the evolution of humanity in the last century. At the opposite extreme, we will be able to witness the rebirth of a truly environmentally, socially and ethically sustainable society, such as that advocated by the international agenda since the publication of Our Common Future”. I dare say that little has changed. We learned very little from the pandemic period.
For those who thought that the appearance of the coronavirus in the province of Wuhan, China, was a brake on tidying up, to put things in the right place, they were completely mistaken.
Who could have imagined that there would be room for a fratricidal war, as we are seeing on TV, between Russia and Ukraine? I believe that no one in their right mind could imagine that the world would see the emergence of a “new Hitler”, in the words of Belarusian writer Svetlana Aleksiévitch, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2015. Exiled in Germany, last week I read an interview with Svetlana Aleksiévitch, impressed by how Wladimir Putin challenges the world, without anyone to stop him. The USA, the European Union, the Pope, trade sanctions came together, and no one stopped Putin. On the contrary, Russia’s economy grew.
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Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, official numbers of soldiers killed have been kept secret by both Russia and Ukraine, who claim that releasing this data could harm their performance in the war. But estimates suggest that casualties could reach 700,000 dead. In addition to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which has already claimed almost 30 thousand lives.
The world is becoming a more violent place than at the beginning of this century and should reach the end of 2024 with at least eight major wars, in addition to dozens of armed conflicts in search of territories or governments, researchers warn.
Along with the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which has seen thousands of deaths since October 7, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, large-scale armed conflicts are currently taking place in Burkina Faso, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Myanmar, Nigeria and Syria.
If the world was already divided ideologically, during the pandemic it got worse. A new class of people has emerged all over the world: denialists, and even flat-earthers; ignoble, defiant of science. Making everything more complicated.
We live and experience surreal times, in which crazy people lead the blind. And, with social media, everyone is shouting their nonsense at the top of their lungs.
It is no wonder that post-pandemic increased the number of people with depression and anxiety, and increased the number of suicides, especially among young people.
Unfortunately, we learned little during the pandemic period, and humanity remains more lost than ever. We run so much, we have so much technology at our disposal, and we are in a bind, not knowing which way to go.
Holy Week, which according to Christian religious tradition celebrates the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, I pray to the good and wonderful God, in his infinite kindness, to have mercy on us. Happy Easter everyone.
Luiz Thadeu Nunes e Silva, Agronomist, Speaker, columnist and traveler: the most traveled Latin American in the world with reduced mobility, visited 151 countries on all continents of the earth. Author of the book “From crutches I made wings”.
Member of IHGM, Historical and Geographic Institute of Maranhão. ABLAC, Barreirinhense Academy of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
Email: [email protected]
