In the wake of the H1N1 pandemic in 2009 that killed over half a million people around the world, the scientists warned of the fastest spread of any future viral disease. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic quite exactly demonstrates the prophecy. As expected, the blame goes to globalisation. Months into the controversial origin of the novel coronavirus outbreak in China, the virus travelled across the world in the fastest span of time and killed more than 580 thousand people and infected nearly 13 million as of 16 July.
Yet, the call for de-globalisation has not evolved through exactly this COVID-19 pandemic. It is nearly a century old design to throttle the thriving democratic forces. It evolved in the world politics through an autocratic practice. The economic crisis was the catalyst.
Is globalisation the culprit? Should de-globalisation be the possible way out to this endemic crisis? There is no clear-cut answer right now. Many conspiracy theories are in air at the moment and most of their proponents blame this hyper-connected world behind this rapid spread of the novel virus. It is partly true. No doubt the world in which we are living today was never so connected like this one. Neither the people who are enjoying the amount of freedom of speech or movement or living did ever before, nor did the politics. Yet, the call for de-globalisation has not evolved through exactly this COVID-19 pandemic. It is nearly a century old design to throttle the thriving democratic forces. It evolved in the world politics through an autocratic practice. The economic crisis was the catalyst.
The idea of anti-globalisation possibly was first introduced after the Great Depression in 1930s. In the backdrop of the Great Depression, US president Herbert Hoover passed the remarkable ‘The Buy American Act’ in 1933 that asked the US government to buy American first. Many of the politicians across the globe then followed suit. The rising democratic upsurge resisted the evil forces. The urge for de-globalisation shot up following another financial crisis, the Great Recession in 2008. Once again, it was bungled. International multilateralism nipped the anti-globalisation movement in the bud standing united. Until institutionalisation of the democratic populism through the election of US present Donald Trump, the anti-globalist howl was considered an autocratic practice. Now, burgeoning protectionism is once again threatening the intercontinental cohesion between democracy loving nations.
Globalisation and de-globalisation -- the antonymous terminologies are completely two different discourses. Where globalisation is an economic agenda item that led capital and capitalism to the highest efficacy of product manufacturing and prices in the last couples of decades, de-globalisation is entirely political.
Globalisation and de-globalisation -- the antonymous terminologies are completely two different discourses. Where globalisation is an economic agenda that led capital and capitalism to the highest efficacy of product manufacturing and prices in the last couples of decades, de-globalisation is entirely political. Consequently, globalisation has evolved through necessity, not obligation. Hyper-globalisation, in course of time, has branched out beyond the capitalist mode of production and it has been a globalisation of education, culture, science, health and so many other things.
Yet the globalisation is threatened. The greatest threats to globalisation are neither this viral disease nor the capitalisation of resources. The greatest enemies, as stated by the Harvard Business Review, are the conflict of superpowers, rise of populism and protectionism nationalism across the world, and the looming risk of another economic recession, which are pushing globalisation to the brink of collapse. In addition, the waning global leadership, plague of hatred, and swelling gaps between poor and rich nations have accelerated the fall. Indeed, the deadliest enemy is the rising autocratic regimes across the globe. The objective and agenda of the regimes are indistinguishable. They want separation because alienation blessed the autocratic forces with a boon. More they will be isolated, more they will rise stronger. The more humanity will be divided, the more they will be overbearing.
Despite this fastest communication and mobility among the world citizens, we had never been globalised in the true sense. We have theoretically been a cosmopolitan citizen, but in reality we are living in caves. Liberalism has taught us to be ‘believers of equality and individual liberty and rights.’ But, we have been individualistic in the process. Neo-liberalism has guided us to establish ‘a free enterprise and a model of competition.’ We have been medieval gods, instead, through the eccentric economic development. The most ancient virus, xenophobia or nationalism, is still ruling our thoughts. The global misrule and misgovernance are now devising the global political and economic agenda. Our imagination and sense of border or desperation to be a nation has not been globalised as yet. We live in a globalised world, but we do not belong to it. This pandemic is neither a health ‘black swan’ nor a product of the globalisation. It has emerged through the fault-lines, on the verge of an environmental and political doomsday. It is just tip of the iceberg.
Yet, this globalisation should be replaced. If we really want to replace it, it can only be replaced by a ‘more cohesive globalisation’ where neither politics nor capital, but people should be the central factor in a bid to create a ‘SOCIAL WORLD’. Though, in the Realpolitik, this is nothing but talking nonsense. The world has experienced uni-polar order, bi-polar world order and currently intensifying multi-polar world order. We have coped with every change. It is the time to embrace the ‘new normal’.
Yet, this globalisation should be replaced. If we really want to replace it, it can only be replaced by a ‘more cohesive globalisation’ where neither politics nor capital, but people should be the central factor in a bid to create a ‘SOCIAL WORLD’. Though, in the Realpolitik, this is nothing but talking nonsense. The world has experienced uni-polar order, bi-polar world order and currently intensifying multi-polar world order. We have coped with every change. It is the time to embrace the ‘new normal’.
The history of humans is the history of viruses, as well. Viruses have shaped the ways of our living. Down history, united we defeated them. Viruses are still hunting the human race with a spear of extinction. The next disaster, climate change which we have already welcomed, will respect no boundaries. It is blind to ideologies, race and social or the economic classes like this novel coronavirus. Apart from other natural catastrophes, climate change is inviting more viral invasion into the humanity. Melting glaciers across the globe is exposing many ancient ‘bacteria and viruses’. The ‘never-seen viruses’ were trapped under sheets of the permafrost for centuries. In 2015, a team of researchers from China and US conducted a study boring hundreds of feet into 15,000-year old melting Tibetan glacier in search of viruses. They found 33 types of viruses under the glaciers and 28 of them were identified as the novel viruses. A top virologist from China, famously called as bat-woman for her work on researching coronavirus in bats, has warned that new viruses being discovered are "just the tip of the iceberg". If we want to prevent the human race from the ‘frost demons’, we have no other way but to stand united.
On the 85th birthday of Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama on 7 June, he stretched out a solution for us as he said, "In the world in which we live today… We have all become much more interdependent; therefore, there is a need to be even more aware of the oneness of humanity. Climate change and the current pandemic, which threaten us all, are challenges that teach us that we must work together and make a concerted effort to reach our common goal of a more caring and more peaceful world.”
Right at the moment, the world is showered with many of sorts of socialisation – ‘social media’ and ‘social businesses’. We now need a ‘social world.’ “You may say I am a dreamer.” But, let us imagine, for a moment, for once at least, “there's no countries”, let us imagine, “all the people living life in peace” and let us dream “the world will be as one.”
*Toriqul Islam is journalist, working at Prothom Alo. He can be reached at [email protected]