Reflections on a post-corona-time
Day-afterthoughts

Intellectuals and artists around the world on the social consequences of the pandemic

A virus is showing us how globally networked and yet how fragile our public life is. What does the pandemic mean to and for each of us and for society as a whole?

Here are some responses from intellectuals and artists around the world with regard to our present predicament and what lies in store for us afterwards.

Salvador
Tiago Sant’Ana, Künstler

There are only limited measures to protect poorer people. Campaigns to encourage donations and philanthropic actions will not be enough because we need more far-reaching, effective social policies - in both the short and long terms. We have a far-right government in power in Brazil, so I don’t anticipate investment reaching the social sector anytime soon.

Kigali
Assumpta Mugiranzea, Sociologist

It is for the first time, in decades, that Rwandan society is facing a “shared” crisis, the factors of which are entirely external. It will be necessary to analyse in more depth what has changed in the perception of oneself, of one’s country, in the relationship one has with one’s neighbours (26 years after the local genocide), of the citizen to the authorities, and of the individual to the institutional structures.

Prag
Petra Hůlová, Author

What we are all currently experiencing is pushing the boundaries of our imagination. We have always been told that we live in a system that cannot be changed, one for which there are no alternatives. Yet now we see how radically life can change within a matter of days.

New-Delhi
Amar Kanwar, Artist and Filmmaker

If every moment contains the possibility of being alive and being dead, could an acute awareness of every moment then also create an acute consciousness of living and dying?

Sofia
Georgi Gospodinov, Author

How will rituals of intimacy change as a result? How will we touch, embrace, get close to each other again? We’ll have a long way to go, inch by inch, to close the distance between our bodies.

North Essex
A. L. Kennedy, Autorin

In the UK we watch our government do nothing in good suits, listen to it lie and deflect when we need truth more than ever. We see – once again – huge policy differences and differences in public health between regions of the UK. And every day now, people die who do not need to be dead.

Wellington
Paul Diamond, Author

After a month of enforced rest from rampant consumerism, will New Zealanders keep doing the things they did while they weren’t shopping? More broadly, the pandemic will force a rethink of the whole basis of our economy.

Hongkong
Sampson Wong, Artist

The hegemony of the authoritarian Chinese regime is finally facing a huge challenge to its incessant rise to power in the last decade. People around the world will remember that the Chinese government’s cover up and censorship were crucial factors that lead to a global pandemic.

Athens
Detach, Επιμελητές

Η μορφή ψυχαγωγίας που μας έχει επιβάλλει ο ιός Covid-19 μέσω Zoom/ Skype/ Houseparty ή άλλων πλατφορμών βίντεο εξελίσσεται στη νέα μας πολλαπλή selfie. Μια νέα πολυκέφαλη Ύδρα σε πραγματικό χρόνο. Αυλαία για τη νέα δημοφιλή μαζική εντύπωση και κατανάλωση που τρέχει στις οθόνες μας.

Almaty
Dossym Satpayev, Political scientist

The crisis situation that has emerged is a new object of research and a case study on crisis management. It is also a case study on human psychology in emergency situations, when many are out of their comfort zones. In Kazakhstan, it is a new challenge for the authorities and society, a kind of indicator which revealed many problems.

Caracas
Génesis Alayón, Visual Artist

I can compare this to an endless play where we all act to be well. Since before I was born everyone was acting, “this is going to happen”. Many actors have left the scene and others were forced to leave the theatre. This pandemic has invaded the scene with an atmosphere of uncertainty, but this has to make us stronger.

Portrait of Yudhanjaya Wijeratne; he is sitting in a car and wears short hair and glasses

Colombo
Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, Author

If language is a way of denoting concepts and the relationships between them, the coronavirus has become the concept of an unknown future, plagued by recession, the retreat of freedoms formerly taken for granted, a world bending away from the rights of the individual and privileging those of the community.

Nairobi
Nanjira Sambuli, political scientist

The rug under which much of the country’s problems — mostly stemming from exclusionary politics and governance — had been swept, has been lifted. We must deal with the mess. The current administration finally has to work to survive.

Dan Perjovschi takes a selfie in a reflecting window; on the glass, two heads are drawn, underneath it says local and global

Bucharest
Dan Perjovschi, Illustrator

Free to think. Forbidden to move. It is a slowdown shutdown sort of wake-up. We will never ever stop by will. We stop only by force. Global quarantine? Who would imagine? Borders closed inside Europe? European citizens forbidden to pass en route to their home country?

Portrait of Georg Seeßlen, he has a white beard, wears glasses and a beig hat

Munich
Georg Seeßlen, journalist

The crisis can’t go on forever, otherwise it wouldn’t be a crisis, but the end. The crisis is an interruption; whether it is also a break with the past remains to be seen. All sorts of different forces are at work in it; it is a period in which some forms of action are curtailed or even completely prohibited, while others are expanding.

Portrait of Urvashi Butalia; she has long gray-black hair and smiles into the camera

Delhi
Urvashi Butalia, Author and publisher

As I write, there are hundreds of thousands of informal workers are crowded together at the border Delhi, waiting to go to their villages. They have no food, no water and they are fully at risk. The lockdown is a luxury the rich can afford, for the poor, there’s nothing.

Portrait of Anne Weber against a gray background; she has curly brown hair and is wearing a black sweatshirt

Paris
Anne Weber, writer and translator

President Macron spoke of war, a war that I, armed with soap and disinfectant, am supposed to fight mainly by holing up at home. Another war awaits me there: the war against myself and my fears, which no soap will wash away and for which there is no cure.

Square image of Eva Illouz against a brown backdrop; she wears short dark hair and holds a glas in her left hand

Jerusalem, Paris
Eva Illouz, Professor for Sociology

I think that, because of the corona virus, the young people who see and experience firsthand what the collapse of the world may look like will know how to monitor the world better. Short of that, there will no longer be a public or a private interest to defend. It will become nasty and brutal, as the Philospher Thomas Hobbes said, it is about the state of men in nature.

Head shot Oleg Nikiforov; he wears short hair and black rectangular glasses; in the background buildings

Moscow
Oleg Nikiforov, Publisher

My hope is a new unity of humanity, despising its “yesterday's” Babylonian scattering, in our laughing at the formal distinctions of races, classes, nations and historical circumstances. Indeed, the challenging power, opposing the mankind now as COVID-19, does not recognize these differences, – and why should we?

Portraitbild von Michael Zichy in Graustufen; Zichy trägt Brille und kariertes Hemd und schaut schräg aus dem Bild

Salzburg
Michael Zichy, Philosopher

The corona crisis has put the globally networked economic system on hold, thereby exposing its vulnerability; it is forcing states into massive debt and back inside their nation-state boundaries; and last but not least, it is plunging people into uncertainty, threatening their livelihood and subjecting them to extreme psychological pressure.

Danachgedanken
Reflexionen für eine Post-Corona Zeit

Was globalization not meant to be improving standards of living, eliminating poverty, providing health care for all, education for everyone and the upholding of human rights and social justice? May we ask what happened? Can globalization be defended as a continuing future form? Today, all our aspirations are being cremated daily and one waits for the devastation of the earth.

Day-Afterthoughts

To the project overview – read all contributions in German and in English.

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Reflections on a post-corona-time Day-afterthoughts

Salvador Tiago Sant’Ana, Künstler

Kigali Assumpta Mugiranzea, Sociologist

Prag Petra Hůlová, Author

New-Delhi Amar Kanwar, Artist and Filmmaker

Sofia Georgi Gospodinov, Author

North Essex A. L. Kennedy, Autorin

Wellington Paul Diamond, Author

Hongkong Sampson Wong, Artist

Athens Detach, Επιμελητές

Almaty Dossym Satpayev, Political scientist

Caracas Génesis Alayón, Visual Artist

Colombo Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, Author

Nairobi Nanjira Sambuli, political scientist

Bucharest Dan Perjovschi, Illustrator

Munich Georg Seeßlen, journalist

Delhi Urvashi Butalia, Author and publisher

Paris Anne Weber, writer and translator

Jerusalem, Paris Eva Illouz, Professor for Sociology

Moscow Oleg Nikiforov, Publisher

Salzburg Michael Zichy, Philosopher

Danachgedanken Reflexionen für eine Post-Corona Zeit