Who would have thought that a time would come when the price of oil would be below zero, once mighty countries would crumble, and humankind would be brought to its knees? And all because of a microscopic strand of RNA.
The contagion has provided individuals, communities, countries and the world a chance to mend our ways, to live more frugally and sustainably, to be humble about our inventions and gadgets, and realise how ephemeral our preoccupations are in the eternity that is nature.
Pandemic is a chance to rethink development, Ivan G Somlai
We naturally appreciate doctors and nurses knowing that we may have to see them some day, but we need farmers to grow our food in all seasons. One way to change after this crisis would be to bless our grandchildren to become farmers. Not just engineers and doctors. The other way to transform ourselves and the nation would be to go back to the village and change our attitude towards the land and natural resources.
There is cash in the city, but not much else. This crisis has woken up urban consumers to the fact that there are producers of food and essentials in a supply chain that they took for granted. The cheese for the pizza that was home delivered came from Jiri or Langtang or even Gujarat’s Amul cooperative. The walnut is from Jumla, the large beans from Khumbu, the mutton is from the hills, and rice from the Tarai.
This pandemic gives us a chance to identify where the supply chain is weak and what we need to do to secure them for the future. Not just for a future crisis, but for a future normal. Where is food we consume grown? How do we pay for its import? What is the real cost of producing it? Where are the warehouses, the cold stores, aggregation, processing plants, management of wholesale markets. Who are the ‘middle men’ who control the supply and prices?
The world is now learning from people like Kamal Tuladhar that Newa traders who went to Lhasa 150 years ago had to be quarantined for 14 days upon their return to Kathmandu because of the diseases that they might have brought back. Our ancestors survived famines and knew the value of sun dried and fermented food for difficult times. Gundruk, sinki, churpi, achar, tama, lentils and beans were literally life savers during food shortages following epidemics. We need to protect these recipes, and the processes to make them. Food does not grow in a supermarket. Milk does not come out of a carton. Chicken does not live in a freezer.
Much more than dal bhat, Anil Chitrakar
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has become wildly popular for daily press show where he mixes his warnings with hope. He appeals to people to take this opportunity to re-imagine the future. This applies as much to New Yorkers as to Nepalis: every crisis provides us a chance to do things differently. At least one member of the family henceforth should be a farmer. Or a barber.