How nations have taken on the corona challenge

Commentator

My yearly visit to the Big Apple appears to hold dangerous portents this time. Last Sunday’s presser by US President Donald Trump, after he goofed up serially on his initial reaction to the coronavirus threat, clearly showed a shaken leader who finds himself out of depth to handle the national emergency. He, perhaps, finds that ‘his rule by tweet’ approach to governance has misfired this time around. This was evident in his handing over the mike midway to Vice-President Mike Pence and the belated attempts to firefight. The drastic hacking of the Fed rate to zero, perhaps, achieved the opposite in terms of even more jittery markets. It is perplexing to see the leader of the first world with a first-rate medical infrastructure come up short on its foresight to handle the pandemic.

New York, the 24×7 city, is a desolate locale indeed, with the general panic levels among citizens sky high, supermarket shelves empty, restaurants and theatres shut and business activity near minimal. Small professionals such as taxi drivers and daily wage workers appear to be really taking a hit. My trader son-in-law, who ought to be rejoicing normally under abnormal market conditions, finds the situation unnerving.

Comparatively, my banker son in Singapore appears to be in a more comfortable space, with the efficient state system taking charge effectively to reverse the coronavirus cycle. Singapore has just ordered an internal lockdown of its citizens.

From what I read about India, it does definitely appear to have faced up to the trying times with credit so far. The SAARC initiative by the Prime Minister and the outreach to countries such as Israel and Iran would go a long way in upgrading India’s stock in the comity of nations, once this challenge is effectively behind us.

And to think that the cognoscenti by far expected India to fare poorly, given its inadequate per capita medical facilities and generally unsatisfactory (or, perceived to be so) state of public health networks. Perhaps, those very challenges in our country are what make us better prepared to handle such natural and health-related calamities.

India’s handling of the pneumonic plague epidemic in Surat in 1994 by the effective public health response of the local authorities and the manner in which the pestilence was kept confined to one city and, what is more, using the window of opportunity to make Surat one of India’s cleanest cities now, earned worldwide appreciation.

Then again the tsunami challenge over the Andaman & Nicobar islands showed how the country could address such a natural calamity even in remote locations. The handling of the earthquakes in places like Latur in 1993 and the innumerable floods all over the country, including the particularly grim one in Kerala last year, and the efficacy of the newly established National Disaster Management Authority are matters that warm the cockles of the average citizen’s heart.

It is generally believed that our much-maligned city government hospitals are capable of handling medical situations and exigencies well beyond their ken. A country like the US may have plenty of resources in terms of funds, but money is not everything. We must have done something right with our medical collegiate education to have handled multiple emergent situations nationwide with aplomb.

The next few weeks would cement the positive world opinion about our country. President Trump was all praise for India’s culture during his recent visit to the country. How ironic that he finds himself in the midst of his presidency’s greatest challenge, that too coming in the thick of presidential election season. All the supposed good things his government did in his tenure could get wiped out in a jiffy by his inept handling of the coronavirus threat.

In his recent address, he insinuated about something happening to him ‘a couple of months down the line.’ What he meant is unclear. Was he hinting at some corona-driven health emergency or was he hinting at expected reverses electorally? Notwithstanding any of these, the entire political map of the world is slated to be altered dramatically in the aftermath of the corona emergency. Analysts have predicted that the political fortunes of several leaders such as Germany’s Angela Markel and Britain’s Boris Johnson could be at stake. What will happen to China’s Xi Jinping is uncertain. The leaderships of France, Italy and Spain would also be called to account by their electorates, especially if the story turns out to be sour, like in the case of Italy.

Iran, which is another badly affected country, may once again find its government being spared, thanks to its Islamic moorings and the likelihood of attribution to providence. Though they apparently gave birth to it, China’s subsequent handling of the crisis has been with credit. Whether it was thanks to its authoritarian system of governance or indeed good leadership is difficult to say. But other countries such as South Korea and Singapore which came out on top during the crisis would reap political benefits, too.

If India maintains its effective tack during these difficult days, the ruling dispensation is bound to reap rewards down the line.

It is ironical that a British psychic, Sylvia Browne, had predicted the onset of a pneumonia-like viral disease in the year 2020. Let us hope that the global handling of the malaise is also as in the book, End of the Days, which sees an end to the pandemic within the year, with minimally more casualties than what the toll has been so far. The British health authorities feel that the disease would prevail up to spring next year.

India would also benefit from the prolonged summer which would take its toll hopefully on coronavirus.