One of the most interesting aspects of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic is the way it brutally exposed "First World" nation's fragile House of Cards infrastructure, like nature just whipped that Wizard of Oz curtain back & brought them & the world to its knees in a matter of months...

What was also curious was the almost reverant tone awarded to China before the outbreak peaked in Europe by WHO, on their "model" handling of the crisis, as if any other country on Earth had their population in a perpetual choke-hold or that that was something to emulate...

...we all watched in slack-jawed amazement at their ability to build a hospital in a matter of days, but forgot that this is a country that positioned itself as a factory to the world's most rich & powerful nations - & in many ways leap-frogged them in both respects.

After using its Orwellian might to control the Covid-19 outbreak, China is continuing to capitalise on the hollow power of the so-called "civilised world", by making & selling masks to the highest bidders at a rate even they are struggling to keep up with: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/05/market-for-chinese-made-masks-is-a-madhouse-says-broker

Even outside of world-order tectonic shifts, a more pressing issue will arise for us, the global population, once the dust settles on Covid-19. After 9/11, the world became an unwitting participant in a terrorist dance that sold away their freedom, their safety & their rights...

..there was no social media, no Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram, Google hadn't even become a household name. News was what we saw on the television, read in a printed newspaper, or heard on the radio. Information was slow-paced, & as such, MSM & governments controlled what we

knew, & when we would know it. The Iraq & Afghan wars were marketed as righteous, but they were vengeful & misplaced, cost "the Allies" trillions in finance & the region was maimed beyond recognition, a conservative estimate of a million were killed either bc of non-existent WMD

or bc of actions 19 terrorists. Either way, the world changed bc we, the wider world, made it change for the worse. We welcomed it bc of fear. It was unironically & officially called the "War on Terror", it's "us" or "them." Covid-19 has already been characterised as a "war."

Many may not remember or even realise, but biometrics that are now commonplace in airports & passports were originally developed & deployed by the US military in 2007 to track the entire Afghan population "to help find Bin Laden" | https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/10/military-looks-to-upgrade-its-tactical-biometrics-with-identity-dominance-system-2/

This new military wealth, from private & government contracts to run the war effort in Iraq & Afghanistan, would inform commercial technological developments from 2000s to now, from social media, smart phones to wi-fi & non-desk based devices, & every owner was/is now "trackable"

China has used smart-phone technology as a means to develop a social currency among its population, to track every physical movement, payment & published thought. Access to this information helped them control the flow of the Covid-19 spread in Wuhan by tracking who was/n't ill

China has also used this information, before the pandemic, to jail people for thought-crimes & ostracise them from the rest of society by giving them a "social score ID" that means they cannot buy groceries, flag a taxi, or live even live in certain areas anymore.

It's social media "cancel culture" in real-life, but it is the Chinese government that is cancelling you. The clincial destruction of the Uighur people, from kidnapping children into re-education camps to wipe out a native language, culture, religion & identity - & then using the

surviving, bereft adults as mindless [to the government] meat machines to power China's production line to the world, in a similar fashion to the US industrial prison complex but far more efficiently & brutally run. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-51697800

"What does this have to do with a virus?!" you may ask. The chaos wrought on the world today is unlike anything we saw in 2003 War on Terror or the 2008 recession. We are contending with an "enemy" that has no allegience & is going no where, & it's exposed every nation's panties

Once a vaccine is developed & distributed, every world leader will once again say the dreaded words - "never again". What global populations must ask then respond in that moment of hollow defiance is, "at what cost to us?" The Pandora's box of personal information was opened a...

...decade ago, there's no closing that lid now. But now that governments have all this access to their subjects, what are you willing to allow them to do with that? Europe & USA have already leaned into isolatory, colonial-mindset politics, imagine what they could do w that power

And don't just worry what so-called Rightwing governments would do with that power. Remember saviour of the world Barack Obama? He re-upped the Bush "War on Terror" era Patriot Act *twice* - 2011 & 2015, & then handed that power baton onto Trump & any future president too.

There is optimism & hope in all this too, though! Economies can be rebuilt, but the dead cannot live again. Seeing the world as big as it is, pivot so quickly, even if it's scrambling, proves we are capable of seismic change when forced to do so, even if we did it to retain power

The next disaster that awaits us all whether we like it or not, is the global climate crisis. The world was unwilling or slow to change bc of the cost it would have on the established power dynamics aka economies. The lessons many corporations may learn from this is to accelerate

their evolving business model from people-led to AI led - bc if people become sick or the next natural disaster hits, they won't have to worry about the logistics of paying & re-placing a human-workforce who can't work - they can just flip a switch or pull a plug at no extra cost

We can certainly expect more self-checkouts at supermarkets/high-streets & more AI-pilot/driver movement of goods in the next few years. But the people risking their lives to treat us, clean after us, educate us & feed us have been shown to be the gold-standard of any society...

...& in many cases they've been the most taken-for-granted & undervalued. In the new world that emerges from this pandemic, I hope they aren't just applauded, but paid & protected in a manner fitting of their strength & grace, for holding up society & civilisation on their backs

& Finally, if governments can pivot on a dime, however efficiently/effectively as they are now to save their economies, they can do the same post-Pandemic to save us all from something much more terrifying/severe, climate change, bc that Death scythe hangs over all our necks too

Fin.

First Twitter rant in 3 years! Bloody eck.