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I step back a little to have a better perspective on the trend of events. What I see is a world that has been able to send men to the moon, but does not know how to produce masks to protect themselves. How can we possibly live our lives when the scourge decides its time to move on? That is very ridiculous for sure!

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People are already talking about life after Coronavirus, even though the crisis is far from over. Sportsmen and women are back on the fields to battle it out, while regular and irregular employees are working almost at full capacity. It is true that questions will arise and nothing prevents us from trying to answer some of them. One of the first concerns the very nature of this crisis, which is not only on health and economic but also cultural. What is the narrative around this epidemic? Does it differ from the one developed in the previous ones?

Surely one can also wonder about international relations, with this crisis, it is the fate of certain institutions such as the WHO to answer questions like, how did societies react during the crisis, how did they decide who they let die and who would live, which and which country is eligible to be granted Aids, what are the criterion used to offer medical equipment’s and so on and so forth?

A magical relationship with time.

Before thinking about the post-crisis period, you have to think about the crisis itself. This work is difficult. First, because the situation is extremely complex. Second, because we don’t know when the “after” will start. It is necessary to determine on what date we will return to normality, but even the experts disagree on this point. Some speak of the end of 2020, others of 2022. Unfortunately, the horizon of entry into the post-COVID era is moving away as we think we are approaching it. The third difficulty, common to all crisis situations, it is never the right time to say that we should have anticipated.
Could or should we have acted sooner? The problem is that when everything is going well, no one can see why things should go wrong. This is particularly true in Africa, where we have an almost magical relationship with time, where we refuse to consider the worst for fear of provoking it. Our cooks refuse to prepare for the afterlife, nobody wants to think about death … And when, on the contrary, everything is bad, thinking about the long term is seen as an alibi for not managing emergencies.

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The amazement of Westerners.

What will remain of this crisis is the staggering effect that hit the Western powers. We have seen them act in dispersed order, commit errors that are usually criticized by Africans. When the United States decided to close its borders to Europeans, the latter experienced ostracism, the status of plague victims that is usually reserved for Africans. We looked at it with an interest tinged with selfishness, and even with a certain cynicism. Thus, the teachers of lessons can find themselves as destitute as Africans.
However, this has put Africans in a position to tell Westerners that they do not have the answers to all the problems. This restored certain equality in the face of the emergency, allowed us to take an uninhibited look at the West. This is all the more so since Africa has discovered her know-how and innovative potential.
Africa made robots, respirators. Chloroquine, which we know well, and certain African plants have become worthy of interest. With renewed confidence in the idea that we can contribute to something on a global scale, it can have an influence on our complexes, on our famous “voluntary servitude”.

Solidarity and humility.

These reflections lead us to the question of the next world, which must necessarily be more united, more humble, more human. Utopia? Today, it is rather the fact that we can return to business as usual which is utopian! Even if we wanted to, we could not go back. How to imagine relaunching the market economy without asking the question of the place of a man? The time has no doubt come to stop believing that we humans represent the ultimate in Creation.
rethink our relationship to biotopes, and not just through the lens of global warming. The latter is indicative of what we are going through, of course, but it is our attitude towards living things in the broad sense that we need to reconsider. We have entered an Anthropocene crisis, this system which only works by subjugating other forms of life, only by negotiating “rights to pollute” … Who can believe that we could start living in a world that has sent men to the moon but does not know how to produce masks to protect themselves? It would be ridiculous and extremely tragic too.

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No better time.

There is no better time than now to dispense ourselves of the age-long belief and disposition that other humans are too important than the other. If and when this attitude is adopted, there is no gainsaying that the world will become a better place post-Covid-19 era.

Sincerely @izge.