First up – Thanks Thala for the recommendation. The author is one of my fast favorites since Sapiens and I relish the thought processes he brings into his books. This article had 2 parts, one about surveillance ( privacy of the individuals vs “greater common good” at times of pandemic) and global solidarity vs nationalism. Each of them being my favorite topics of discussion I was naturally very curious to read
About his views on the same. In a nutshell, his views sounded bit dystopian and utopian respectively on the topics.
Realistically, the surveillance tools have decreased in size, increased in processing capability and have fast gone beyond the stage where governments even bother to acknowledge it as a breach. There used to be a time when in novels and movies the chief or the lawyer will reject any evidence by the detectives as inadmissible if they were gathered without intimation. Nowadays I guess no one can distinguish between what is available in public vs private. In fact, most of the calls that I’ve received ever since I started owning a mobile phone have been infringement of my privacy. I have more blocked spam numbers than contacts. The level of intrusion has creeped and has become so deep rooted that at times it has got accustomed as way of life!! In countries like India where internet usage is spreading quicker than corona and is as unregulated, people are yet to have that sense of what is private vs what shouldn’t be even shared on public domains!! It will take a couple of decades at least before people realize this aspect and get it legally addressed. With this mindset, I feel that the sense of fear with which the surveillance aspect of that article had been addressed to hardly raise any eyebrows in Indian setup. Nevertheless, it is a serious cause for concern and like every other major disruption, our government and higher ups will wake up to it one fine day, hopefully.
The second part of the article, which calls for globalization to realize its true spirit and demands, if not request, the financially and infra wise stronger countries to take care of their weak/poor cousin countries. Again, at the risk of sounding extreme pessimistic, it may never really happen. To prove my cynicism, saw an article on today’s paper that, certain countries are calling to patent the medicine for this pandemic and India is countering it on WTO. Imagine the sick minds at work, who wouldn’t let go of any chance to make money on others misery. It is heartening to see the role played by India in this context where in millions of doses are shipped free to many nations. Whether the medicine will work or not is a totally different question. But the intent can never be mistaken. But such a generous nature is often met with skepticism by the capitalist western world as a borderline socialism. Everything about communism can’t be seen with the same lens and at times, the greatest common denominator called humanity out trumps every “ism”. This is definitely not a time for people to mint money and I wholly agree with the concept proposed.
Thanks once again to thala for such a refreshing topic to read. Link as below for the benefit of rest
https://www.ft.com/content/19d90308-6858-11ea-a3c9-1fe6fedcca75
Comments
A country like the UK, which you may not expect it, has the greatest number of CCTV cameras per capita in the world. You are filmed all the time. If it sounds like the dystopia of 1984, it is.
On globalisation, this is one area where India stands tall. It is the largest maker of vaccines in the world, a supporter of the global vaccine initiative Gavi and the country which has sent vaccines to many poor countries in the world. There is some humanism left after all.