The latest pandemic, COVID-19 has brought the long hidden fault lines on the surface of the global social hierarchy. Everyone has great fears and hopes on how the world can and should change. The speculations on the competence of military, political and philanthropic leagues have metamorphosed into either a conformation or a rejection. All strengths and weaknesses have been revealed: the dearth of ventilators, weak policy making of governments, lack of support within European Union and unhygienic conditions of China. With this, all bets are off. Alternate lifestyle, remote working and distance education are the new rubbers on the road. Their strength is yet to be gauged, nevertheless the variables of the equation of life have changed.
The world continues grappling with the RNA damaging COVID-19 Corona virus and very few efforts seem to be working. Traditional measures of managing crisis: medicines, policies and blaming have all rendered failure surrendering to the COVID-19. Pandemics, including COVID-19, and other such extreme events are significant not because they could not have been forecasted but because in spite of forecasts, and gradually increasing warnings (such as SARS, MERS and Ebola) the system, in multiple ways ignored the impending doom of an over consuming life style. Policy structures, institutes and law have tried to protect the corporate interests at the expense of a common man’s health and freedom. Resultantly the structure of the dominance hierarchy has come down altogether. Some people believe that they will resume their lives exactly where they left it before the lock downs, preparing themselves to do a better job this time. Others know life as we had known is gone, although we will be witnessing some dysfunctional and semi functional reminiscent of it as we resume life post COVID-19. Oil and cash: the currency on which the world thrived have been completely stagnant for weeks. On the contrary, timely information is gaining control as the emerging currency. Countries that had a disciplined structure to impart and regulate information have been able to control the spread of COVID-19 much effectively than the ones that handled information poorly and in case of USA, immaturely. The world will neither forget nor forgive WHO for misinforming the world about the nature of threat imposed by COVID-19 on time, furthermore WHO misguided people to ease on social distancing, wearing masks and other preventive measures. The claims of human less medical support using super intelligent diagnostic systems did not prove itself worth the claims. Amidst the chaos and confusion, it is evident that the world can only be improved by correct, reliable and fast information dissemination by the relevant authorities. Information is no more a luxury, we need to quickly acquire the skills of understanding, using and securing information with responsibility in order to come to the forefront as an emerging leading nation. We should introduce responsible and intellectually sophisticated frameworks for information transmission across different sectors. Playfulness of selfies and random funny moments of someone’s privacy should be replaced by socially responsible sharing of data. Pakistan must collaborate with like minded technology organization to ensure that at the end of the COVID-19 lock down, we come off as stronger than before. A quick shift towards data centrality will also generate job openings to fill up the gap caused by massive layoffs in the country. We can reintegrate the shed off workforce, and provide a stable structure to earn and run the country. The need of information management entails equality based on hard work juxtapose to the culture of securing the interests of private companies and influential individuals.
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