A very interesting article appeared on social media with narration “the earth is closed for urgent repairs”. I enjoyed the narration as an environmental scientist. I remember when I started research on the harmful effects of cigarette smoking were beginning to be noticed by the scientists but nobody listens to their advice and adversely smoking became fashion and passion in the society. It took 40 years or more to compel governments to write a statuary warning on the cigarette packet that smoking is harmful to the health. Our urge to adopt modernizations changed the household geometries and urban settlements sprawl.
High rise buildings and extensive demand of energy increased the burden of greenhouse gases on the environment. As a result, the story of climate change emerged but many governments and people in general never believed in carbon emissions and its effects on the earth unless erratic weather experienced, melting of glaciers observed, sea level rise predicted and ocean acidification became a subject of investigation. On the other side, people never realized that individually each one of us is a part of contributing to the burden on nature; polluting our environment where we are forced to live since no other planet is discovered till today that can support life like our earth.
We ran fast to achieve everything in our life. The recent business model “buy now and pay later” helped in fulfilling our desire to buy things on credit. We gathered a lot of things for that in olden days we had to wait for months and years. I am not debating the merit or demerit of any system rather I am trying to project how we burdened ourselves and also the mother earth.
Interestingly, soon the philosophy of consolidating the financial future emerged. People started feeling stress by too many credit installments per month. Another net spread suggesting consolidation of debts which means that take a big loan and pay off small loans. So instead of many headaches the debtor will have the one probably with lesser interest rates. I don’t know how far debt consolidation helped people and reduced their tensions and worries.
There are many other aspects of our life that cannot be summarized in this article will require attention. We have to develop a series of processes to reorient our lifestyle. Nature taught us consolidation plays a significant role in building our memories. It is interesting to know that any information to become a memory requires consolidation. Scientists believe that information is coded as patterns of neural activity that can be lost in few minutes but a series of process consolidate the labile memory and fix it as a permanent memory. I don’t wish to complicate by describing how synapse split and new synapse form as permanent change. I feel in the post Corona era it is going to be reversed and consolidation of human life will be essentially required.
It is predicted that we will experience economic depression that will influence on jobs. In US 16-million people applied for jobless claim as on 9th April 2020 news due to closure of nonessential business after COVID-19 outbreak and according to UN agency worldwide the number of jobs wiped out is around 195 million. In every country, it is expected that small scale and medium business will not be able to sustain due to variety of factors and thus an increase in the number of jobless is inevitable. There seems to be reorganization of manpower in every sector.
In my opinion the post corona era will bring many changes in our thought process because we are getting a unique experience of quarantine, social distancing, limited movement, controlled purchases, restricted outing, closure of restaurants and public places etc. How far, we can control the habit of hand shaking, hugging and touching cheeks is a matter of speculations. Social scientists will study every aspect thoroughly and outcome will be known afterwards.
Though it is said old habits die hard, we have to adjust ourselves with new norms and adopt the philosophy of conservation and consolidation in every aspect of our life. I believe Allah will give us strength to deal with new challenges of post corona world.
Dr. M.U. Beg is a senior scientist at Environmental Pollution and Climate Program of Environment and Life Sciences Research Centre at Kuwait Institute of Scientific Research. Earlier he served Industrial Toxicology Research Centre, Lucknow, India for more than 20 years as Senior Assistant Director. He was a WHO-fellow during 1979-80, and Regional Team Member of UNEP-GEF Global Program on Persistent Toxic Substances in 2002. He was deputed by Government of India in 1991-1993 to UAE to establish DIER and Dubai Pharmacy College as its founder Dean. Dr. Beg published more than hundred research papers in peer reviewed scientific journals and presented in international conferences and symposium. Beside his scientific pursuits he has written around 80 short stories available on his website mirzaumairbeg.com; and at face book page Kahani Reading Club; and on U-tube #mubeg. Dr. Beg has written several articles for Arab Times, Kuwait Times and other magazines.
Read Today's News TODAY... on our Telegram Channel click here to join and receive all the latest updates t.me/thetimeskuwait
