“The UN (United Nations) was not founded to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell,” the UN second secretary-general, Dag Hammarskjöld, once said. The hell he had in mind, of course, was World War II and the Shoah, next to which most of today’s challenges pale in comparison.
In a year dominated by COVID-19, it’s perhaps understandable that we’ve neglected the most profound, existential crisis we face: runaway climate change.
The 6 January insurrection at the United States (US) Capitol lacked the gravitas of the storming of the Winter Palace, that much is certain. Incited by President Donald Trump at a nearby rally, where he encouraged his supporters to march on the US Capitol, the mob did succeed in interrupting a joint session of Congress to confirm the Electoral College vote in favour of President-elect Joe Biden.
The year 2020 was a harrowing one, with the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide economic reversals, widespread climate-related disasters, pervasive social unrest, and even United States (US) President Donald Trump’s phony claims about massive electoral fraud and calls among his backers for martial law. Yet, despite the grim news, the year also brought some powerful reasons for optimism.
The development and approval of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines less than a year after the start of the pandemic is a truly remarkable achievement, offering hope that the end of this devastating crisis may be in sight.
Kudos to the European Commission (EC) for finalising a new investment agreement with China. Europe’s active diplomacy also played a role in China’s recent commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 – a decision that was quickly followed by Japan’s pledge to decarbonise by 2050.
Public trust and confidence in the efficacy, safety, and appropriateness of a coronavirus vaccine to be procured and made available in a country like the Philippines is heavily dependent on the political context in which a potential candidate vaccine is approved and distributed. These are also contingent on the kind of information about the potential candidate COVID-19 vaccine(s) being dispersed by the mainstream media, medical practitioners, political personalities, and gov
Analysts and pundits didn’t foresee COVID-19 coming in 2020 and that the virus would accelerate the digitalisation trend – a seismic or tectonic shift in its own right – resulting from the fragmentation of physical processes and the emphases on a low-touch economy as part of compliance to the standard operating procedures (SOP) to break and contain the transmission of the virus. Not all digitalisation trends are precipitated (in the sense of having their momentum accelerated) by the
The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic shocked the world in the first quarter of 2020 with no clear end in sight. Severe impact on the economy globally as well as in ASEAN was inevitable. Gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the ASEAN region is projected to decline by 2.7 percent in 2020, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The Chinese government’s newly launched antitrust probe into Alibaba is probably warranted. The e-commerce giant undoubtedly has a dominant market share and engages in monopolistic practices, such as forcing merchants to make the company their exclusive online distributor or be delisted from its platforms.
In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was common to divide countries and their responses according to their political systems, with many attributing China’s success in controlling the virus to its authoritarianism.
One of the most important things in society that has been shaken by the global pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, SARS CoV-2, is the education sector. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the lives of all learners in the Philippines since March.
