A civic renaissance after the pandemic

A friend of mine called this essay “radical”. I never been even close to be radical in my thinking in my entire life but what we are going through changes a lot and perhaps it is time to really play a different game: enhanced civic engagement, a personal and collective responsibility.

As the pandemic is ripping apart communities all over the world, a once localized health emergency soon morphed into a global pandemic, kicking off an unprecedented set of interlinked crises whose causes and solutions till not long ago seemed too unrelated to each other and too big for a unified intervention.

Finally, now we are forcefully exposed to see the threads behind each of them and a new determination, a united commitment empowered by civic action might be on the horizon to save us.

This is no more just a health pandemic, or an isolated, sudden wave of global inequality, or an unexpected escalation of domestic abuses, or an abrupt discovery that climate change has far wider implications than we ever thought.

These are all symptoms of pre-existing structural fixtures, a set of dangerously interlinked patterns that unless dealt with holistically, will lead to new mayhems of devastating consequences.

A crisis of such gravitas is turning useful in blurring the rigid boundaries separating problems affecting humanity, prompting us to look at them more as parts of a whole rather than isolated silos.

In a sense covid-19 is simplifying the picture, helping us connecting the threads that had become the fiefdoms of a narrow expertise.

For example the deep segmentation of the United Nations’ work on global development with agencies and programs vying for funding and marred by competing interests, is clear evidence on how problems and issues highly connected to each other, have been instead treated too narrowly apart.

We notice now how social exclusion due to unequal power structures is not just a “marginal” problem affecting minorities groups but an overarching threat to our civilization.

We are now realizing how inclusion approaches for persons with disabilities or for the LGBT community or for abused women or out of schools girls in developing countries should be much more related to each other as the problems they are attempting to solve are all consequences stemming from the same source, radically embedded social injustice that requires a new common understanding: only a united and strong response, rather than the usual “piece mail” undertakings, can bring an impact.

After all, how can we conceive a solution to the domestic violence pandemic if we do not design and embrace a radically different form of policy formulation, one that truly mainstreams gender related perspectives in whole decision making process and then translates them in measures implemented on the ground?

Then how could such actions be effective and truly challenge the unequal power systems, if they are not part of a broader reset in thinking of the consequences on the grounds of structural inequities embedded within our societies?

Politics still, vastly, a male domain almost everywhere with rare exceptions; minorities groups destined to a future of precarious low paid jobs; persons with disabilities still marginalized; a glass ceiling still blocking from leadership positions in the corporate world those most deserving but held underserving just because of their gender; an unpunished culture of domestic violence; a predatory and discriminatory approach to humans, nature and the ecosystem.

How can we obtain meaningful changes if the overarching issue of social justice isn’t placed at the center of governing, locally, nationally, regionally and ultimately, globally? Perhaps the pandemic could be seen as a blessing in disguise though paid for at a very high price, with the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of people’s lives and the pain and suffering of many more. Not only of the families of the victims but also of all those human beings whose vulnerabilities and deprivations have been so greatly exposed.

Only the highest forms of leadership among the global political class will allow a frank and long ranging conversation on how to reboot the planet, creating a “one whole” approach to dealing systematically with all the crises that have become too shameful to continue to be ignored.

At the same time, should we only wait and hope for the wisdom of the global leaders to rise to the challenge or should, we energize a new understanding of civic passion, leading to a change in the equation, giving people a bigger say on matters related to their lives?

On the one hand, it is encouraging that an intellectual debate has started, globally and locally, on ways not only to cope with the pandemic but also on how to transform our economies and lives.

Stronger than ever have been the criticisms towards our approach to consumerism, driven by a “turbo” capitalism, greedy and often predatory in nature and, as we witness, too devastating in its impacts.

The flow of ideas and proposals symbolizes the creation of a global planet earth “constituency”, a sort of international “caucus” aimed at readdressing the wrongs of the past, setting in place a new understanding of what the future would look like if new bold policies were put in place.

While welcome, on the other hand, such idealistic attempts to make change are challenging to implement.

It is difficult to fathom how could such a global platform come into existence and bring forth new fruits and escaping, at the same time, the risks of becoming another elitist project.

We need to enlarge this conversation by big margins, by including students, unemployed youths and common citizens, members of minority groups, including persons with disabilities, the LGBT community, persons of colors and very importantly native indigenous people, creating a sort of new agora where people from all the stripes of life feel emboldened to express their opinions and, very importantly, are empowered to propose new ideas.

This new decade could be marked as the years of civic renaissance; a renewal of the public conversation at all levels, creating the conditions for stronger and less apathetic community engagement.

After all, it is the common people who understand firsthand how neglecting the common threads and the multidimensional aspects of the pandemic, is affecting their lives. Austerity measures led to drastic cuts to the health care in Lombardy, not just in the hospitals but at local levels, in the primary health care services spread in territory, to those who play a so vital role in the day to day life of the people.

After all, it’s higher levels of inequalities pushing vulnerable citizens in Nepal, unable to sustain themselves over the lockdown in a shuttered Kathmandu to leave and return to their villages by walk, often a several days journey.

It is the same injustice and racial discrimination forcing thousands of migrants to queue for hours and hours in the outskirts of Pretoria in order to get some relief.

It’s a male dominated politics and economics compounded by patriarchal cultures that have indirectly caused women to suffer the worst abuses over the extended lockdowns.

It’s disrespecting the environment that brought higher rates of Covid 19 deaths in places worst hit by air pollution. It’s rising temperatures from global warming that provoke outbreaks of transmissible diseases that could suddenly turn into new pandemics. It is the devastation of the world’s ocean that is killing life under water and with it the very oxygen we need to breath. It is the destruction of the planet’s biodiversity that will eventually lead to the demise of our own species.

Certainly we should demand and expect from our leaders the courage and vision to drastically rethink the way the global system works, by going deeper to solve the underlying causes. Keeping them to the task and check on their performance will be essential but we should not neglect our duties as citizens to think and act bolder while radically change our lifestyles to meet a new normal.

It is high time for new forms of citizenship consciousness to emerge and rise to the daunting challenges ahead, formulating and proposing new formulas that would allow humans to thrive sustainably and more emphatically in a post pandemic order.

Leadership after all should not be totally delegated to those elected to office: it is our responsibility too to propose new options and create new spaces for action.

Reclaiming some aspects of decision making should bring new forms of citizenship participation, forcing those in power not to forget where their legitimacy to govern come from, compelling them to adjust to a new paradigm where public consultations and public forms of engagement are going to be the pillars of a better democratic order.

Surely local news outlets, so far battered by the vortex caused by a damaging and often unproductive use of social media, can play a pivotal role in aggregating new ideas coming from the citizenry, acting as amplifier to raise and generate more interests and more involvement.

Educating, involving and engaging the vast majority of youths, in north as well as in the south of the planet, also through a different and more intelligent use of Facebook for example, should become a matter of urgency.

Because of lack of inclusive policies and unattractive politics, most of them, the world over, have been marginalized and disenfranchised, silenced and disengaged, ending up alienated from the public discourse. As consequence, some have already been derailed by the charms of populism and extremism.

Helping youths understand the common threads shaping our planet and our economies with their profound contradictions and anomalies that are obstructing the quest for a sustainable economic model based on social justice and fairness, will secure stronger foundations to such new model of participative governance.

Ultimately, we should not forget that, a new and better world will emerge only if empowered by a reinvigorated sense of civic passion among the people, one capable of making the difference.