COVID-19 Pandemic: Unmasking the “fallacy” of global leadership ―Part 2 of 2

BY ERROL A. GIBBS

The first inclination of this writer was to look back at the panorama of the COVID-19 for perspective regarding the failure of global leadership ―pandemic preparedness in the postmodern era. Rather than a statistical probability, it was a scientific certainty that given the history of the world, a pandemic would visit the Earth sometime in our postmodern. Moreover, several potential cataclysmic events would visit the Earth as well.

The second inclination was to wait until some semblance of normalcy return before responding with observations. The world is about to enter the third phase of a three-phase COVID-19 pandemic cycle. Pre-pandemic ―Phase I, Pandemic ―Phase II, and Post-pandemic ―Phase III. Global Experts in medical sciences tell us that it could be 12-18 months before a vaccine is available to the world to end the scourge of COVID – 19, but the science seems imprecise.

People throughout the world are anxious to return to some routine activities, tempered by fears of a resurgence. Arguably, this catastrophic event requires precise preparation, analysis, evaluation, mitigation, management, and elimination. Praise to the global medical scientists for their diligence in striving to manage these complex issues simultaneously. The world has learned many lessons that demand synergy with the international community, and not necessarily for the elevation of world leaders.

Phase III demands significant deliberation, given the somewhat befuddling response to Phase I and II. Looking back at the panorama of the pre-pandemic Phase I, begs the question: “How secure is human life in the hands of global leaders?” “Should the economy rise to higher national precedence over humanity? Couldn’t there be an “intelligence balance?”

Did God not warn humanity of the incompatibility of serving Him and “Mammon” (Matthew 6:24)? The great fear of global leaders is the devastation of a fragile economy underpinned by a “digital foundation” that the globalists’ could collapse at will. Fundamentally, what are the factors that motivate global leaders? Is it conceivable that global leaders hold a worldview that their needs are more significant than the rest of humanity?

The evidence globally ―seems to indicate that the wealthy and powerful of the Earth (the 1, 10, 20 percent) have engineered the worlds’ ecosystem to benefit themselves. How could it be that global leaders did not comprehend the inherent vulnerability of elders? Are there diminishing returns to human lives, especially the aged? The COVID-19 pandemic is a “revealing” that global leaders have positioned the lives of elders at the outer perimeters of the “human ecosystem” ―intentionally or unintentionally.

There is also a “fallacy” of the diminished economic returns to society by the aged. Arguably, their immeasurable contribution to humankind is the testimony of hundreds of millions of children and young adults. They testify to their grandparents and great grandparents as the “salt of the Earth” (Matthew 5: 13 – 20). What shall humankind do after God removes the “salt from the Earth?” How shall we continue this perilous journey without some elders?

Our elders are the souls that made sacrifices to ensure the sanity and stability of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They defended humanity in “carnal wars” ordered by global leaders. They are the source of “intelligence balance” between divine knowledge, wisdom, and understanding and a “materially based” postmodern era of “educational sophistication,” which pales in comparison to their vast knowledge. Do postmodern human beings have the capacity to face new challenges of a greater magnitude than the COVID-19 pandemic without elderly guides?

Repeated patterns of failed leadership have had less to do with scholarly achievement, charisma, or courage. The foundations of these enormous human tragedies lie in the failure to learn from the lessons of history. What is the most critical lesson learned? Another fundamental lesson learned is the need for a massive mobilization of a supply chain management strategic response to global catastrophes. There is also a need for leaders to revisit “blanket impunity” that tends to stifle critical and decisive decision-making.

A state of perplexity ought to overcome all of humanity. Global leaders, in particular, should ask themselves: “Why did God allow so many elders to pass without bidding us goodbye and “vice versa?” Observe how people throughout the world with confounding looks, grasp for a few moments to say goodbye from behind glass windows and doors.

There is a desperate need to engender a new world order that looks at life through a broader spectrum of moral and ethical prisms, and not predominantly economic lenses.

A post-COVID-19 world could be a “great” world, with great promise in the twentieth century, and the new millennium. Humankind has always used its genius to overcome challenges. Pharmacologically, modern medicines have all but eradicated and brought under control such diseases as smallpox, the bubonic plague, yellow fever, and even polio (poliomyelitis). The formidable challenge is to find a cure for the aberration of the human mind that seems unable to grasp the lessons of history or rise beyond after-the-fact responses to calamities, with devastating impacts on the most vulnerable ―visible minorities, indigenous peoples, homeless, mothers, children, and the elderly.