In moments when my mind tunes into an over analytical mode and it processes thoughts after thoughts, the one thought that currently overrides all, is the feeling that our lives today are a scene straight out of a sci-fi flick. Each of us quarantined in our homes, our gigantic bustling cities enveloped in an eerie emptiness, all because a single micro-organism exercised its power. What we are living today, and how it suddenly happened is beyond our imagination. And while we grapple with the situation, we witness a heartwarming ‘collateral beauty’ emerging.
Yes! ‘Collateral Beauty’.
By far we have witnessed how progress and development have casted a collateral damage. How our desires, quests for ambitions have led to a world that is characterized by inequality, environmental fallacies, war, violence and disparities. Now rewind time and take any old newspaper before COVID-19 happened to us all and you will find stories of divides and distaste, of conspiracies and hatred. And post COVID-19, gradually notice the change. A single adversity, common nemesis, a threat to our very existence has activated something innately human in us, and that is the virtue of being ‘truly human’.
Quoting the modern age genius, Yuval Noah Harari, the author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, https://www.ynharari.com/book/sapiens/
“Large numbers of strangers can cooperate successfully by believing in common myths. Any large-scale human cooperation – whether a modern state, a medieval church, an ancient city or an archaic tribe – is rooted in common myths that exist only in people’s collective imagination.”
Our very nature is to cooperate and collaborate. And here we don’t even have a myth binding us, but a truth bringing us together. It isn’t an attempt to see optimism in a rather grim situation, to notice this coming-together of humanity sans boundaries and social distancing is a subtle wake-up call. One that says, ‘Hey! We are beyond our pettiness, we aren’t fragmented, constantly bickering pieces of existence, we are One! One World, one race, one species, the only one who can fight a nemesis so strong.’
With COVID-19 came solidarity and cooperation. On March 23, 2020, UN General-Secretary Antonio Guterres urged warring parties across the world to lay down their weapons in support of the bigger battle against COVID-19: the common enemy that is now threatening all of humankind.
“The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war. That is why today, I am calling for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world”
And thus, Solidarity and Cooperation along with science and precautions became our armor, in a one of its kind fight modern humankind has seen.
Collating some unforgettable instances of solidarity & cooperation, of ‘Collateral beauty’, in these instances lies the code of the next leap of progress for us a species, for a future that is rooted to balance.
The collective applause and the united glow of India:
‘Go to your doorstep, balcony and applaud those on frontline’ On March 19, 2020 Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India addressed the nation of 130 crore.
Modi urged them to go to their balconies, door step and applaud or bang a plate and unitedly express solidarity and support for the frontliners. From doctors, medical staff, police to essentials providers who continue to work and serve in the face of threat. A request that led to the whole nation coming together, stitched into a sound tandem.
And then the nation united to express solidarity. At 9 am on Friday, April 3, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the public in a video message. Requested them to yet again come together at 9 pm on April 5, 2020, to challenge the darkness of corona and garner the power of 130 Cr citizens standing together. Urged everyone to switch off all lights and stand in the balcony or at the door with candle/ diya/ torch/ mobile flashlight for 9 minutes. A lit-up nation was truly a spectacle.
Sound of Music, Sound of Unity:
Italy one of the worst affected countries like a ray of hope used musical notes. People started to sing folk songs, pop songs, and even football anthems from their balconies after the country went under into a lockdown.
A video that captures people in the city of Siena, Tuscany, singing – “Canto della Verbena (And While Siena Sleeps)”. Another popular choice has been pop song “Abbracciami” (meaning “Embrace Me”), while Napoli football fans decided to sing together from their apartments on the night their match would have taken place.
Love thy neighbor
Across nations, the young who are able and free to provide practical help, community groups are mobilizing to deliver supplies to elderly people. They are coming together to help other vulnerable groups that have been advised to stay indoors to minimize risk of infection. Society members volunteer to cook for their security and the housekeeping staff.
In Seville, Spain, a fitness instructor pumped up the energy by conducting an exercise class for quarantined people in their homes, he led he class by placing himself on the roof of a nearby apartment block so that the entire block cold see him and follow.
Beyond Borders
Albania has sent a group of 30 doctors and nurses to neighbouring Italy to assist in the country’s battle against the new coronavirus. A group founded in London has raised over €40,000 in online donations just in a week’s time. The donations have come from as far as Australia and the United States to provide meals for frontline staff at one south London hospital.
And i believe that the Leaders as well as citizens of the world continue to extend their cooperation to rise against Covid-19.
This is just the beginning of what we can do as ‘One world’. At this moment no dispute or war seems relevant. What strikes a chord is the common cause to do all that we can to protect ‘Humans’.
It took one adversity, a global one to unlock our innate humane side. Too experience ‘Collateral beauty’, to be ONE WORLD. It is a lesson, a precious one. Will we learn forever?
Will our cooperation, collaboration, solidarity win even after the common nemesis is defeated? I choose to answer these questions with hope.
Hope we learn!
Optimist. Believer. Entrepreneur.
Founder @BigBrandTheory, Certified Change & Innovation Expert, ISB Hyderabad.
Follow Pravin Shah at :
