Covid-19 compounds developing country debt burdens

‘Covid-19 is expected to take a heavy human and economic toll on developing countries, not only because of contagion in the face of weak health systems, but also containment measures which have precipitated recessions, destroying and diminishing the livelihoods of many.

‘The unique, but varied and changing nature of the pandemic and efforts to contain contagion, and the specific challenges of relief, revival and reorientation imply that neither ‘one size fits all’ nor other formulaic solutions, e.g., to address financial crisis, are appropriate.

‘Policy measures will not only need to address the specificities of the Covid-19 crises, but must also take into consideration the legacy of earlier problems, including the burdens of accumulated debt and debt-servicing.’

Read here (IPS News, July 23, 2020)

Vulnerable: The law, policy and ethics of Covid-19

The contents of this 649-page book ‘confronts the vulnerabilities that have been revealed by the pandemic and its consequences. It examines vulnerabilities for people who have been harmed or will be harmed by the virus directly and those harmed by measures taken to slow its relentless march; vulnerabilities exposed in our institutions, governance, and legal structures; and vulnerabilities in other countries and at the global level where persistent injustices affect us all. Covid-19 has forced us to not only reflect on how we govern and how we set policy priorities, but also to ensure that pandemic preparedness, precautions, and recovery include all individuals, not just some.’

Most of its contents are focussed on Canada, however, there are articles about other places. The last 100 pages e.g. is on “Global health and governance”. Even while being Canada-centric, many of the issues are relevant to other countries albeit developed ones.

Download here (uO Research, University of Ottawa, 2020)

Is Malaysia in desperate need of a Covid-19 bill?

‘Since the MCO, the government had implemented several measures to combat the impacts of Covid-19, albeit on piecemeal basis. For example, the Companies (Exemption) (No. 2) Order 2020 provided protection for companies from being wound-up for a period of 6 months after receiving a statutory demand, compared to the previous period of 21 days. The EPF Act 1991 had been amended to allow withdrawal by members for the purpose of “sustainable living”. Although these measures are welcomed, a comprehensive Covid-19 Bill is very much needed at this juncture if the issues caused by the MCO are to be sufficiently addressed. After almost 3 months of MCO and CMCO, it is imperative that the Bill covers all bases to assist businesses in rebuilding the economy and our nation.’

Read here (Malay Mail, May 30, 2020)

Patterns of pain: What Covid-19 can teach us about how to be human

‘Our institutions will need to be rebuilt with transparency, with heart and by learning from the people who have been staffing them, not just the managers and owners. Doctors, nurses, carers and delivery people have things to say about how their institutions could be better run. The body politic and the politics of the bodies that make up our world must be reconfigured, and we need to start thinking about that now.

‘I conclude with Freud: “The aim of psychoanalysis is to turn hysteria into ordinary human unhappiness.” That is an accomplishment for an individual and for a society. We cannot escape unhappiness. It is constitutive of being human, just as are creativity, courage, ambition, attachment and love. Let’s embrace the complexity of what it means to be human in this time of sorrow as we think and feel our way to come out of this, wiser, humbler and more connected.’

Read here (The Guardian, May 7, 2020)

For the record: Are Gates and Rockefeller using their influence to set agenda in poor states?

‘Study identifies Bill and Melinda Gates and Rockefeller foundations among rich donors that are close to government and may be skewing priorities... Ultra-rich philanthropists and their foundations have increasing influence on decision-making and are setting the global health and agriculture agenda in developing countries, according to a major study (pdf). Using their immense wealth and influence with political and scientific elites, organisations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and others are promoting solutions to global problems that may undermine the UN and other international organisations, says the report by the independent Global Policy Forum, which monitors the work of UN bodies and global policymaking.’

Read here (The Guardian, Jan 15, 2016)

Download report here (Global Policy Forum, November 2015)

UrbanFutures: Building a trust economy

‘In a time of crisis, trust is a key currency. Not just trust in the system, but as a foundation for economic recovery. Here, we look at the essence of what makes an economy tick, how this relates to the current Covid-19 crisis and its impact on the most vulnerable, and the role of government in building a bounce-back economy based on trust.

‘Developing the trust economy involves three key aspects: (1) An enhanced role for government (2) Hyperlocalism and digital infrastructure (3) Protecting the welfare of the people.’

Read here (The Edge, May 4, 2020)

Managing expectations on Covid exit is the new challenge

“Exit strategy” is a complete misnomer. Without a vaccine or a proven therapy there is no exit from coronavirus, only containment. And there is no settled strategy. Governments across the world are either persisting in lockdown or pulling themselves out in different ways and at different speeds.

Read here (Irish Times, April 29, 2020)

Strengthening preparedness for Covid-19 in cities and urban settings

‘This document is to support local authorities, leaders and policy-makers in cities and other urban settlements in identifying effective approaches and implementing recommended actions that enhance the prevention, preparedness and readiness for COVID-19 in urban settings, to ensure a robust response and eventual recovery. It covers factors unique to cities and urban settings, considerations in urban preparedness, key areas of focus and preparing for future emergencies.’

Beyond traditional recommendations—such as multisectoral collaboration, protecting vulnerable populations, and evidence-based policy decisions—the guidance also addresses 4 focus areas in the context of COVID-19 preparedness:

1. Coordinated local plans to address unique issues, characteristics, and capacities of individual cities; 
2. Risk communication and education to promote compliance with recommended actions, using media that can effectively reach target audiences; 
3. Contextually and culturally appropriate approaches to public health, including social distancing, enhanced hygiene, and respiratory etiquette; and 
4. Adequate access to care for COVID-19 and other essential health services, including prevent services like vaccination. The document also includes an annex with more specific details, considerations, and recommendations under each focus area.

Read and download here (WHO, April 28, 2020)

All-of-government, whole-of-society involvement needed to fight virus

‘To enhance efficacy and minimise disruptions, an ”all of government“ approach at all levels needs to be developed, involving much more than public health and police enforcement authorities. Human resource, social protection, transport, education, media, industry, fiscal and other relevant authorities need to be appropriately engaged to develop the various required transitions and to plan for the post-lockdown “new normal”.

‘Another condition for success is “whole of society” mobilisation and support. Government transparency and explanations for various measures undertaken are important for public understanding, cooperation, support and legitimacy. The authorities must also realise how measures will be seen. Singapore’s apparent early success, for example, was not what it seemed as it had overlooked official disincentives for possibly infected migrant workers to cooperate...’

Read here (IPS News, April 28, 2020)

Health and economy will suffer if MCO lifted too soon

‘Noor Hisham is straight forward about what is required to lift the MCO – six conditions to be fulfilled of which three have already been satisfied. The Academy of Medicine Malaysia concurs with him...

‘Detailed guidelines for a return to the workplace are necessary as well as the readiness of both employers and employees to abide by them. If, for instance, it is a crowded workplace, social distancing of a minimum one metre will be impossible to achieve unless, say only half the workforce or less, goes to work. As many people as possible still need to work from home...

‘Premature lifting of the lockdown can be disastrous. Let us spend some thought and effort into deciding what the new norm is, set clear unambiguous guidelines by professionals with no political doublespeak, announce them, and wait for feedback before implementation.’

Read here (FocusMalaysia, April 28, 2020)

We are living in a failed state: The coronavirus didn’t break America; it revealed what was already broken

'When the virus came here, it found a country with serious underlying conditions, and it exploited them ruthlessly. Chronic ills—a corrupt political class, a sclerotic bureaucracy, a heartless economy, a divided and distracted public—had gone untreated for years. We had learned to live, uncomfortably, with the symptoms. It took the scale and intimacy of a pandemic to expose their severity—to shock Americans with the recognition that we are in the high-risk category...

‘We can learn from these dreadful days that stupidity and injustice are lethal; that, in a democracy, being a citizen is essential work; that the alternative to solidarity is death. After we’ve come out of hiding and taken off our masks, we should not forget what it was like to be alone.’

Read here (The Atlantic, June 2020, preview issue)

Secret group of scientists and billionaires pushing a Manhattan Project for Covid-19

‘They are working to cull the world’s most promising research on the pandemic, passing on their findings to policy makers and the White House...

‘They call themselves Scientists to Stop Covid-19, and they include chemical biologists, an immunobiologist, a neurobiologist, a chronobiologist, an oncologist, a gastroenterologist, an epidemiologist and a nuclear scientist... This group, whose work hasn’t been previously reported, has acted as the go-between for pharmaceutical companies looking for a reputable link to Trump administration decision makers...

‘The group has compiled a confidential 17-page report that calls for a number of unorthodox methods against the virus. One big idea is treating patients with powerful drugs previously used against Ebola, with far heftier dosages than have been tried in the past.’

Read here (Wall Street Journal, April 27, 2020)

UrbanFutures: The marathon fight against Covid-19 and beyond

• ‘By all accounts, it looks highly probable that the pandemic and its direct consequences will be with us for a while, possibly for another 12 to 18 months, and its social, cultural and economic impact will be felt many years after...
• ‘To face this challenge, unified public health strategies should be implemented so that risks can be managed and, with a degree of regularity, brought into everyday life...
• ‘The Covid-19 crisis is going to redefine our lives, our economy and our future. We are in the early phase of a protracted slowdown and there is discussion in the international media about the possibility of global depression. The challenge is managing the economic shock and slowdown...
• ‘We should all be thinking about and having conversations around the type of future we want — not just for ourselves and our children, but for our friends, neighbours and fellow humans. More importantly, we need to have this conversation today, even as we manage the complexity of the first wave and its fallout.’ 

Read here (The Edge, April 23, 2020)

Coronavirus: Charting the way forward for Malaysia (Jeyakumar Devaraj)

‘The question is how can we weather these changes with minimum damage to our economy, to our society and to peace and stability in our country? This is what we need to focus our discussions on. He discuses the following: (1) Contain Covid-19 epidemic (2) Ensure basic needs of entire population are met (3) Enhance food security (4) Preserve the nation’s productive capacity (5) Consider heterodox economic policies like allow a much larger budget deficit, consider quantitative easing for the rakyat, use a consumption tax to combat inflation, and ban short-selling of currency (6) Green the nation and improve living conditions.

Read here (Aliran, April 23, 2020)

“Hammer and the dance” in Bahasa Malaysia

A UPM medical student translated Tomas Pueyo's The Hammer and The Dance into BM.

Read here (Medium, March 22, 2020)

Has the pandemic accelerated the growth of technology?

The global health crisis has opened the door for a bigger role of technology, assisting efforts in fighting COVID-19 and helping citizens adapt to a new way of life. As opportunities unfold, technology – being a double-edged sword – is also acting as a conduit for those wanting to take advantage of the crisis. Moving forward, cautious steps are vital as technological emergency measures could also expose citizens to vulnerabilities that violate human rights and privacy.

Read here (ISIS Malaysia, April 21, 2020)

The role of banks in a pandemic

Piyush Gupta, Group CEO, DBS Bank: ‘The scale of the pandemic is such that it cannot be left to governments to find resolution on their own. And the truth is that private sector corporations are some of the biggest actors on the world stage, and have an ability to carry influence across borders. There is also no real conflict between shareholder and stakeholder interests. The issue is one of timeframes. While there may be some trade-offs between maximising shareholder returns and providing societal benefits in the short term, addressing broader issues in society is completely consistent with shareholder interests in the long term.’

Read here (LinkedIn, April 21, 2020)

Coronavirus is accelerating eight challenging mega trends

‘...be in no doubt, as the long days at home seem to pass ever so slowly: in its effect on societies, politics and the distribution of power in the world, COVID-19 is on track to be the Great Accelerator.’

1. Eurozone existential crisis: ‘To put it crudely, Italians will not work as productively as Germans, and Germans will not agree to pay off the debts of Italians.’ 
2. Trans-Pacific tensions: ‘...the process of “deglobalisation” - more of what we consume being made closer to home, even if it is more expensive - will accelerate.
3. Greater rise of the Asian tigers: ‘[Asia] was already going to account for 90 per cent of new middle-class people in the next decade. Perhaps we can revise that up to 95 per cent now.’
4. Oil price volatility: ‘Countries dependent on oil production already faced forecasts that petroleum demand would peak and fall before 2030.’ We have in recent days seen negative oil prices.
5. Politics of inequality: ‘It will push to the forefront of politics fundamental issues about the taxation of wealth, the case for basic incomes provided by governments, and the responsibility of companies for their employees.’
6. Debts: ‘Political parties will campaign for debt forgiveness and write-offs, and for the cancelling by central banks of money borrowed by governments, with inflationary consequences.’
7. Data: ‘Once we are all carrying around an app on our phones to show where we have been and who we have met, pressure will grow to use that information for other purposes.’
8. Crisis as the mother of innovation: ‘More optimistically, they have one positive companion - the massive incentive this crisis provides for innovation’

Read here (The Age, April 21, 2020)

The hammer and the dance -- What the next 18 months can look like, if leaders buy us time

This second article by Tomas Pueyo, a follow-up to his ‘Coronavirus: Why you must act now’, is summarised as follows: ’Strong coronavirus measures today should only last a few weeks, there shouldn’t be a big peak of infections afterwards, and it can all be done for a reasonable cost to society, saving millions of lives along the way. If we don’t take these measures, tens of millions will be infected, many will die, along with anybody else that requires intensive care, because the healthcare system will have collapsed.’

In this article he deals with: (1) What’s the current situation? (2) What options do we have? (3) What’s the one thing that matters now: Time (4) What does a good coronavirus strategy look like? (4) How should we think about the economic and social impacts?

Read here (Medium, updated March 19, 2020)

Malaysia’s youth on the unemployed frontline: Five additional measures to effect reform

Story by Bridget Welsh & Calvin Cheng

‘These [existing] measures [to address the problems of youth unemployment] however are not enough. There is an urgent need to engage in meaningful reform to address underlying issues to ameliorate the negative impact of Covid-19. In keeping with our aim to offer constructive suggestions to address Covid-19, we offer five additional concrete ideas for consideration.

• First, the government can strengthen private-public sector partnerships through incentives to hire, retain and train young employees.
• Second, the government should consider ramping up training for younger Malaysians, not just those in the Klang Valley, but those in the states hardest hit by youth unemployment.
• Third, a rethink is needed on how to aid those young workers stuck in the low-paying jobs, with possible structured tax incentives for companies that offer training and advancement for employees to hire young workers who show promise.
• Fourth, while there have been important reforms in encouraging student debt repayment, including incentives for repayment, Covid-19 may provide an opportunity to consider broader measures of student debt relief based on need and debt restructuring.  
• Fifth, we need to appreciate that the social safety net in Malaysia is inadequate. The relief measures are tiny, compared to the scale of the economic downturn coming ahead, and the reality of being experienced now by those facing insecurity. 

Read here (Malaysiakini, April 18, 2020)