Penescu Bogdan Petru & Umer Farooq
The coronavirus continues to ravage the whole world emerging out as defining global health crisis of our time. Every country has devised its own strategy to curb the infection keeping in consideration its socio-economical profile, geo-political scenario and religious affiliation. Resultantly, at the moment, part of the globe is easing the coronavirus lockdown, others are maintaining same strict patterns, and still others are witnessing protests by the public against the lockdown. The commoners in the whole world await next strategy/policy by their rulers/people in-charge. The virus has hit so hard that the post-corona world might not be in a shape as it used to be. Our systems, norms, cultures, social issues and rituals will altogether be shaken. Policies and strategies will have a different direction. The TORs for teaching, learning, conducting businesses, travelling, jobs, per se all aspects of human species will be altered. Better not underrate the effects on all other living species of the planet as well. The ‘Coronavirus Recession’ also being termed as ‘The Great Lockdown’ is being dubbed as the most gigantic recession ever witnessed by the world. Plausibly, the future may depend upon policies taken by the people in-charge/governments against this pandemic (and future pandemics), and upon its economic aftermath.
While navigating through enormous published material on coronavirus, our eyes landed on an eye-opener for all readers in general, and for academia, intelligentsia, researchers and literati in specific. Titled “Corona- Our Debt to Darwin” by a firebrand columnist and a Physics professor from Pakistan, Pervez Hoodhbhoy (a staunch advocate of science and scientists) was published in one of the renowned Pakistani dailies. It seriously got us on our edges and the resultant mind-boggling questions that surfaced up were: Are We in the Right Hands? Are our present day’s global religiopolitical leaders capable enough to shape the world in a better, peaceful, economically sound and equally-poised manner? Do we need a change in our global in-charges?
The main players and actors of today’s world are mainly politicians and religious clerics who are spinning the world with a notion of ‘sole proprietorship’.
They attain a hierarchical superiority over the scientists. Human emotions which were supposed to be taken in a light manner have been ignited into their fiercer forms because of various religiopolitical issues/leaderships of a country. Resultantly, human race faces impatience, loss of religiopolitical tolerance, and extremism in its numerous forms and features.
The general public in most of the countries is either fed up of their rulers or is in a phase of wanting a change. So, are these the appropriate times for asking a change in our global in-charges?
What better options are we left with in whose hands the global reins could be handed over to? For the sake of discussion, let’s presume and look upon at the scientists of the world as most appropriate choice to lead the world in times to come by. Science/and scientists have surely decreased the tolls of endemics/pandemics upon human race and the impacts are far lesser than those in pre-scientific era. In fact, we owe each and every beneficial breakthrough for human race to science and scientists, no matter what part of the world they emerge from or what shape of disaster it may be for. Taking endemics/pandemics into perspective, be it the basic concepts of quarantine, isolation and epidemiology or the intricacies of immunology and vaccinology, all seems to be the sprouting of science and its advancements.
If such innovativeness is accomplished by scientists of highest prestige and repute, why cannot they rule the world in a far better way than today’s politicians and religious clerics?
In historical perspectives, Margaret Thatcher- the globally famed British Prime Minister- was a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from University of Oxford. Her expertise was in X-Ray Crystallography under the mentorship of Dorothy Hodgkin, who went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. The American President Jimmy Carter was a graduate in engineering from the United States Naval Academy, and had a profound experience in the career of engineering. If doctorate (PhD) may be considered as the most legitimate scientists (which they surely are), President of Greece (Karolos Papoulias) had a PhD in Private International Law and served Greece for ten long years from 2005-2015 with directional approach towards policies of law and justice in the country. Turkey’s 11th President Abdullah Gul who served for seven years, is a PhD in Economics and Mrs. Ameenah Gurib Fakim, 6th President of Mauritius, has her doctorate in Biodiversity. And the list goes on and on.
Even today, interestingly, many serving political leaders of the world have their doctorate degrees in various fields including Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, President of Turkmenistan (PhD Medical Sciences), Xi Jinping, President of China (PhD Law), Hassan Rouhani, President of Iran (Phd Constitutional Law) and Angela Merkel, German Chancellor (PhD Quantum Chemistry). Their political stability and governing efficacies in their respective countries can be ascertained through media, public and other valid statistical tools.
Professor Emma Johnston, a leading authority in marine ecology from New South Wales University, Australia has lately been convincing that people with scientific minds need to govern the world.
She endorses that incorporation of science, technology, engineering, biology, mathematics and medicine oriented politicians could lead to better problem solving for the masses. Though, such endeavor could come with consequences which might need detailed discussions, relative policy-making and substantial strategies. The present day coronavirus pandemic has substantially unearthed the positive and goal-oriented approach of scientists.
Even the ultra-conservatives and science rejecting people now believe that science/and scientists will ultimately get us through this pandemic. Today, the newer curative and preventive strategies are awaited from the labs of the world and not from the magnanimous and royal realms of religiopolitical personnel.
Maybe now is the time for the world to pay a serious consideration towards under-representation of scientists in the parliaments. People now have visualized that almost every political strategy or law drafted by today’s rulers is, in fact, governed by one or other laws of science.
The visionary approach, ability of problem-solving through systematic protocol, and long-term planning by the researchers and scientists may result in our generations being better problem-solvers than us. Let us rethink!
Penescu Bogdan Petru, Graduate in Juridical Sciences, Bucharest, Roma-nia
Umer Farooq, PhD Physiology, Associate Professor, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan.
