2021, A Coronavirus Odyssey (I)

I write these lines from the future. It´s June 5th, 2021—World Environment Day.

Please allow me to recap. We began the year with the World Health Organization announcing with great fanfare the end of the coronavirus pandemic. SARS-CoV-2, said WHO, is under control, but by no means gone. Just as the viruses responsible for influenza, hepatitis B and C, dengue, rotavirus, measles, Ebola, HIV and SARS that never went away. All arrived to stay and will continue visiting us from time to time; there is nothing we can do about. But from now on, WHO triumphantly stated, at least there is a vaccine against the novel SARS-CoV-2.

With the vaccine readily and cheaply available in drugstores across the planet, we can now turn our full attention to the humanitarian crisis and the economic collapse that SARS-CoV-2 brought about. The anger, the pain, and the grievance from millions all over the world grew heavier, more seething, as it became clear that our reckless and self-absorbed rulers not only didn’t see the pandemic coming, but when they finally saw it they lacked the guts to properly handle it.

The world is no longer the same, many have said. But I want to be a bit more cautious, telling myself that we also had to choose to learn and change when, in 1918, World War I ended. Sixteen million people perished in that war in less than four years—one percent of the world´s population. One year later we created the League of Nations to re-engage international relationships, establishing a basis for achieving long-lasting peace. But of course, the peace didn’t last long and just 20 years later World War II began. When that one ended, in 1945, it left between 50 and 70 million dead. Two-and-a half percent of humanity. Then, once again, we said to ourselves that were ready to learn and to change. We established the United Nations to “maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.” It sounded like celestial music.

But the music soon turned into a fight for power and control of the UN, and the organization that promised harmony quickly fragmented and began losing relevance. And one must ask: What has the UN done to prevent the impacts of our reckless demographic growth (we are now more than 7.8 billion people)? What has it done to change our excessive consumption patterns? What have they done to stop our frenzied planetary urbanistic ambition? Or to rebalance our dreadful obsession for dominating nature? And, where was the UN in 2020 while the coronavirus pandemic arose? We shall not forget that the pandemic began because a deadly virus jumped from animals to humans in the “wet” markets of Wuhan, China. And from that breeding broth, SARS-CoV-2 emerged, travelled, and ended conquering every corner of the planet.

And now, once again, the dead have reminded us of our own fragility. Since the spring of 2021, all nations have been focused on establishing a new world geopolitical order. One to be centered on planetary solidarity, social justice, multilateralism, and caring for the environment. The aim is to come with a new architecture that doesn’t hinge on the superiority or inferiority of nations, but on our planet´s needs (recognizing that they are simultaneously our needs). On a new way for people to relate to one other. Such changes take time. But if every individual believes they have a stake in this new game, we will all contribute to transforming our lifestyles and turning the tide of humanity and planet Earth.

What I now see is that, compared to what happened after the two World Wars, we don’t need to waste time and energy creating a new global organization. Fortunately, we already have one. Although now crippled by its excessive bureaucracy and shrinking budget, the UN still can be renovated, rehabilitated. And that is precisely our greatest undertaking: transforming it to truly be up to the global challenges, of preventing crises such as the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, so that we are not again caught as utterly unprepared as we were in 2020. And so, in mid-2021, all 193 UN member countries, with the unanimous vote from the five members of the Security Council, agreed to acutely change the structure and mandate of the organization. They also agreed to renovate, from the core, all financial multilateral organisms, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Global Environmental Facility, and all regional development banks. This is certainly good and encouraging news.

And allow me to share some more good news that is just coming in as I write these lines in June 2021: all governments have put their money where they mouth is and are working day and night on the UN reform. And they are doing it in a transparent and participatory manner, and to serve all world citizens, with no exceptions. The objective they have set for themselves is to transform the organization into a truly multilateral platform with enough capacity, authority, and financial resources to ensure world peace, prosperity, and security. In other words, they are seeking to restore the principles upon which the UN was first established in 1945. The big challenge now is, and will continue to be, keeping the balance among the needs, aspirations, and responsibilities of all nations. And, of course, recovering citizen trust by ensuring we all can call the UN to order if it fails to fulfill its promises. Fair enough.

To demonstrate how serious they are, new leaders in the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China have all agreed that, by mid-2022, there will no longer be a standing Security Council; rulings of the entire body will be mandatory for all and none can veto any decision. In the new UN, youth organizations, indigenous peoples, and civil society will be represented and have the right to vote.

Although many details are still missing, I am hopeful. I´m indeed hopeful that this time the world will wake up to its new global reality and responsibility.