APRIL 16, 2020
KARO-NA! Judgement Call
The world is fully consumed by COVID-19 and there is no geography on this planet which is isolated and there is no human being not affected by this virus in one way or the other. We have left our “normal world” way behind in eight weeks and started in this cloud called Corona. In the ordinary world everyone is judged by their performances in the task assigned to each one of us. Starting from leaders, actors, sportstars, teachers, students, lawyers, housewives etc; the judgment barometer is election results, hit or flop, winning matches, saving patients, winning cases, scoring good marks etc. It was simple and life was hunky dory.
In this new world, we all would be judged by the way we handle and deal with the COVID-19 situations in our respective zones of life and work. How leaders lead their countries, states, counties and how heads of school, college, university work during this hour of crisis is going to resonate in their report cards.
The beauty of being human beings is, we all live in the moment and our ability to disconnect with the past and future in the hour of crisis. Six weeks back Korea was the newly designated centre of COVID-19 and President Moon was in dock due to his dove approach towards North Korea and China. This week, 29 million Koreans in the country's legislative elections voted Moon’s Democratic Party to power with a clear majority of 163 out of 200 members of the National Assembly.
Why?
Four weeks of efficient handling of the COVID situations and people with sanitizers in hand, disposable gloves and masks, voted President Moon to power. This is the new judgment parameter!
Why?
Who in the world knew Andrew Cuomo six weeks back - New York Governor. Today, he is a poster boy who ordered New York residents to wear masks and they obeyed with a smile. Whereas President Trump refused to honour the motley piece of cloth. Why? Governor Cuomo is the man on the ground and often seen in hospitals encouraging frontline workers, asking other states to deploy doctors in New York, pleading China to supply masks and ventilators. Again, the test is how one is fairing in the COVID fight. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the nation on March 24, requested all Indians with the folded hands to stay indoors for a period of three weeks. Indians not so gleefully obliged. The result today is, the Prime Minister basking in glory of his decision to lock down 1.3 billion people indoors. Again, COVID is the reason.
So, how we all would be treated in the coming months would depend on how we perform today in this COVID situation. Since we are not in the normal classrooms with normal settings, and we are grappling with this new system of learning online. This certainly is not going to be an excuse for our future steps as judgement would be based on how we handle and perform during this hour of crisis. As a student today, I am conscious that the judgement call would be based on my performance in this hour and not on any other factor of our “normal world”.