Before i start to pen down my thoughts on the subject, a disclaimer that this article may not be concise, is neither going to be spicy nor pave any room for discrimination. A sincere attempt has been made to resist the impulsive urge to address the superficial factors on Covid-19 and address the real underlying problem/s that fails to be addressed or “Neglected”.
So what is the real problem: Simple! Threat to Human Well-being.
Hopefully we are on the same page and agree to the above underlying problem, let us now focus our attention on the unbiased real cause of the problem.
Say what now!!!! Relax. I promised to keep it simple.
Motivational ignorance in my words is suppression of valuable information from Public.
First, lets take a relevant example to understand this powerful concept.
Examples of Motivated Ignorance:
a) Wildlife Trade I would be shocked if any of my audience rejected the hypothesis of wildlife trade not to be one of the root cause of this man made disaster originating from China. Why is there no Global Ban on Wild Life Trade yet nor any mention of future prevention even after three months of global chaos? Some Big pockets involved?
b) Global Dominance: When you deep dive you hear some disturbing content of Human greed. 1) During the unfortunate outbreak of Covid-19 in China, keeping Wuhan aside, the overpopulated business hubs such as Beijing and Shanghai reportedly seems to have dodge the virus well, with hardly 500 cases of infection each and now there is a state of normalcy when the entire world is Infected. 2)Delayed response (some term it bias or favored capitalism) from WHO to alert the global community has raised eyebrows. 3) Hostile takeover of distressed companies in Australia. 4)News about Land grabs. While i so much want to stay unbiased about any country, i only ask global leaders why is there still so much dependency and Ignorance on the non logical actions of a particular country?
c) Some news back home which can resonate across the globe. There has been request from state ministers and well known celebrities to relax Liquor Ban during Covid-19 lock down.. Justified? I dont think so. Consumption of Liquor as we all know would impact immunity,possibly trigger domestic violence, compromise women safety and curb the effectiveness of lock down. I seek actions from my Leaders to discourage such requests, curb black markets, and raise awareness on the side effects of such sin stocks. Employment and excise duty should not even be factors of debate at any stage to promote such sin stocks. It is time government promote alternate forms of employments with PPP (Public Private Partnership) if needed.
d) Climate Change: Okay i am not going to get started. You got the point!
Now what is “Black Swan”. Keeping it simple, this term “Black Swan” was coined by one of my favorite author Nassim Nicholas Taleb which refers only to unexpected events of large magnitude and consequence making history.
I strongly feel Covid-19 would justify Black Swan Theory however based on some examples above of Motivational ignorance and similar events (SARS, MERS, Swine Flu) in the past along with risks in future crisis with rapidly growing concerns around Climate Change it would not be wrong to say that real issues or lesson learnt were never addressed or propagated.
Hence the Title a “Neglected Black Swan!”
In a nutshell, it is the duty of the every Global Leader (G7/G20/”everyone”) to Stand united, unbiased and create global policies to prioritize Human well being First (Climate Change, Healthcare, Disaster Management, counter Terrorism, Universal Public Income, etc) and As a citizen, to act responsibly, elect responsible leaders and stand united against false propaganda.
Finally, I am neither a Scientist nor a subject matter expert in Psychology (a science of mind and behavior). I try to learn from my mistakes and based on first hand experience of the chaos around Covid-19 and articles of SARS/MERS/Bird Flu from the past, i have to admit with hope that it is not about criticism or discrimination towards any country, but an eye opener to the fact that:
“WE” as responsible Citizens and Leaders still prefer to stay Immune, Ignored and Irrational towards these Red Flags time and again, which are an indicator of many more such disasters in the making. I call it….
“Human Extinction in the making by Humans”.
Finally, as my belief goes, it is okay to be unsuccessful, but never okay to be Inhuman!
p.s The author is a data engineer passionate to solve problems with Empathy, Creativity and Common sense.
