Need for collective remedial action in the face of COVID-19

March 4, 2020, 12:00 pm

The West has, rightly, drawn the attention of the world to the potentially globe-wide devastating economic impact of the coronavirus epidemic (COVID-19)but saving lives is of equal importance. Death is the great and ultimate leveller and socially-conscious sections are probably hoping that the need to ward-off COVID-19 and its dire effects would be bringing the peoples of the world together in a united effort to manage the contagion. In these difficult circumstances mortality could very well be a binding link among humans.

May be, COVID-19 is the proverbial ‘Blessing in disguise’ that is seeking to remind peoples that they need to transcend all differences and work as one to defuse a global blight that could be as calamitous as the Europe-wide ‘Black Death’ of old. Hopefully, there would be no ‘replay’ of the ‘Black Death’ but the humanist is likely to wish that the current health crisis would, among other things, enable the world community to think outside the North-South international political divide.

At the time of writing, G7 finance ministers and central bank chiefs are meeting in Paris to discuss the raging contagion and chief among their fears is that it ‘could imperil the health of the global economy’. European Central Bank chief Christine Legarde was reported saying in the lead-up to the talks that, ‘We stand ready to take appropriate and targeted measures, as necessary and commensurate with the underlying risks.’

There is no specific mention of the global South in these statements but implicit in them is seeming concern for the economic well being of the world, regardless of material and political divisions. This augurs well for West-driven united action aimed at alleviating the present hardships of the developing countries, besides those of the ‘developed’ North. Hopefully, the poorest of the poor would be having G7 needed assistance of some kind with no strings attached.

Besides other things, the current crisis helps to reveal the strong economic interdependence between China and the rest of the world. The Chinese economy touches almost every country in the world positively and the epidemic helps to drive home the point that there could be no international economic recovery unless and until the Chinese economy revives and thrives once again. The lesson is unavoidable that international economic revival and Chinese material vibrancy are two sides of the same coin, so to speak. One cannot be had without the other.

Of added concern are South Korea’s present tribulations stemming from COVID-19’. Like China, South Korea is a world economic heavyweight and global material well being is inconceivable without a restoration to full economic health of South Korea which is seen in some quarters as the ‘World’s most creative and inventive nation’. Once again, the world community is obliged to go the extra mile in co-operating with South Korea in her efforts to bring herself out of her present COVID-19 ignited rough patch.

At this juncture, it would be in the international interest for North and South to work cooperatively and constructively to stop COVID-19 in its tracks. It is abundantly clear that we could no longer ‘discourse’ on a North-South polarity and all that it has come to imply over the decades since ‘independence’. The virus and its dire effects have transcended geographical and political boundaries and, equally crucially, helped to focus on the strong economic interdependence between North and South. So much so, if the international community is to survive collectively it would need to think strongly in terms of an extra-vibrant, total global economic recovery.

Gone are the days when the world could think on the basis of narrow, divisive categories, such as, North and South and rich and poor. Rather than think in exclusive categories, the international community would from now on be compelled to think in inclusive, integrative and cooperative terms. To be sure, it is quite some time since economic interdependence came to establish itself in the world, but it took COVID-19 to drive home this truth with a degree of harshness and shock.

One up shot of the foregoing is that exploitive sections of the North would not be in a position to pursue what have come to be called ‘Beggar thy neighbour’ policies with regard to the developing world or the South. Since the North needs the South and vice versa cooperation and constructive engagement policies would force themselves on the international community, since neither the North nor the South is in a strong enough position to dictate terms of engagement to the other. May be, the international community will come to realize the wisdom of the spent adage: ‘United we stand, divided we fall’.

Meanwhile, the World Bank has taken the initiative to provide emergency financial assistance in some billions of dollars to least developed countries and this is the way to go. Such help will come in handy but the international community needs to also think in terms of fostering self-sustained growth among its more vulnerable members on a more urgent basis.

The volatility of the world economy dictates the advisability of launching the weaker members of the world community on a path of self-supportive, sustained growth and development with an unprecedented degree of urgency. The present crisis has the merit of drawing the attention of the world with added force to this developmental requirement that could no longer be ignored.

The WHO was right in saying in the present crisis that the world is now in ‘uncharted territory’.While admitting to the truthfulness of this observation, it needs to be also stated that the world has been in such treacherous terrain for quite a long time; may be even the past 20 years. The first warning salvo was the world financial crisis of 2008. However, this crisis did not command the alarm and anxiety of the world that were commensurate with it.

It would now seem that ‘nature’ is highlighting the erroneous ways of the world with redoubled emphasis. The world economy post-1990 is in a state of chronic uncertainty and volatility and the international community has no choice but to close ranks and opt for unprecedented cooperation and self-help.