COVID-19 Special Edition #7

Our highlights from the hundreds of excellent pieces our system uncovered during the week.

"This moment is an opportunity to envision the education universe anew and to prioritize a culture of teaching, learning, and knowing that is equitable, collaborative, ethical and accessible."

"As we battle this disease, will we also work to find a solution to the underlying condition that plagues our country? Will we finally tear down the structural inequalities that prevent the Manchesters, the St. James Parishes, and the San Bernardinos from escaping the chokehold of industrial pollution?"

"The disintegration of the global economy left the most uncompromisingly neoliberal economies, especially the UK and the USA, exposed as being unable to produce enough face masks and personal protective equipment for their health personnel, not to speak of ventilators to keep their hospitalised population alive."

"Which is why it’s important to remember that it’s not the all-powerful state that is saving people’s lives from this horrible virus. It’s the everyday people showing up to work in hospitals and supermarkets, and doing shifts delivering food. It’s the millions of people who are doing their best to keep their distance, washing their hands, and trying to avoid transmission, while caring and educating others."

"Covid-19 might be devastating to many countries – including their people’s health and livelihoods – but it seems that pandemics are good for some companies and their stockholders. Riding the pale horse of apocalypse are companies that hold patents on N95 masks, life-saving medicines, vaccines and more."

"Estamos padeciendo en nuestra propia existencia el famoso ‘efecto mariposa’: alguien, al otro lado del planeta, se come un extraño animal y tres meses después, media humanidad se encuentra en cuarentena… Prueba de que el mundo es un sistema en el que todo elemento que lo compone, por insignificante que parezca, interactúa con otros y acaba por influenciar el conjunto."

"Sauver des vies ou sauver l’économie ? Faire passer la santé avant l’économie, ou relancer l’économie au détriment de la santé ? Cette alternative est un piège mortel. Et ses origines sont métaphysiques."

"Da tempo, in tanti ci chiedevamo: quale sarà il primo grande shock della crisi ecologica? Pochi si aspettavano che sarebbe stato un virus. Eppure così è stato. Lo shock è arrivato, e me ne rallegro."

"Quando a pandemia da Covid-19 eclodiu, e o mundo todo começou a se fechar em casa, levando as economias nacionais a desabar, já estava claro que o Brasil não teria futuro se persistisse no rumo que vem seguindo há muito tempo. Mas a crise —que, no seu impacto mundial sobre o produção e o emprego, tem precedente apenas na depressão da década de 30 do século passado— fortalece e acelera os fatores que já haviam condenado ao malogro o caminho que temos trilhado."

"Wer an einem Roman über die Pest von 1901 arbeitet, entdeckt zwangsläufig Parallelen zur aktuellen Pandemie. So groß unsere Angst sein mag: Sie ist auch weise und vorausschauend."

If you'd like more such high-quality materials on the COVID-19 crisis, head over here.