Love in The Time of Corona: A story of disspitating intelligence

I remember how just a while ago in beginning March, me & a friend were happily planning a summer trip to Europe, excitedly scanning flights & Google Earth at the prospect of the adventures that would be awaiting us. Fast forward 3 weeks later, we received news that our offices & colleges are going to be shut down: the Malaysian government had decided to impose an RMO due to the Coronavirus attacks i.e. partial lockdown for 2 weeks. Every passing day, the death toll & number of cases rose worldwide. Curfews emerged, hospitals began to get flooded. While people silently fluttered away to heaven. So we began to self-isolate & quarantine ourselves, & observe the world a little more keenly. A little more sceptically. 

...And saw how the Coronavirus exposed capitalism's dark, dirty side in its full glory. 

So-called influencers riding on the wave of a pandemic, to market themselves. Airlines & the entire tourism industry taking probably the hardest hit ever. Businesses dying. Sanitiser businesses flourishing. Price control wars. The vulnerable, poor segments of society seeing their incomes compromised. Hospitals giving up on patients due to immense shortages. The possibility of a recession. I could go on, but the list is too long. 

But above all, we saw leadership crumble. We saw inept governments act with full ineptness, without a rationale or proper enforcement in place. Above all, we saw stupidity, racism, & selfishness emerge in its true glory. Religious gatherings still continuing, elites continuing their parties, citizens hogging up & panic buying groceries. The elites ignorantly enjoying the privilege of the sheer expense of testing kits, & private hospital wards. But everyone having the potential of catching the virus.

Stupidity & selfishness go hand in hand - but who's actually winning, in this game of self-interest?

The entire magnitude of the crisis doesn't need governments to step in, it needs them to deliver. But it's easier said than done; it's become impossible to predict the death toll, or resources shortages. Governments aren't always properly prepared to deal with such large-scale crises like Covid-19, nor the budgets. And not everybody has safety nets, nor the means of getting safety nets & social protection anytime soon. What we do need, is not just more awareness amongst marginalised communities in particular, but stricter top-down enforcement - but simultaneously, citizens to start acting & making decisions to empower others; to help each other in times of need. Lockdowns, curfews, penalties - whatever the case, this virus has gone to show the importance of civilised societies. What we do need is more transparency, for the sake of civic duty - from governments & citizens alike in stating who's been tainted with the virus. And what we do need is no shame in admitting that countries are short on medical supplies. Oh, we need so much more than linear thinking & small interventions to fix market failures when they emerge, & instead focus on collaborating with institutions or public-private partnerships to create institutions that can deliver sustainable growth. We need to know how to do capitalism in a different manner. 

This is not a time for egos to get in the way, when we're on the verge of an economic & physical collapse - because honestly, what a time to be alive.