People are starting to make a difference by shaping local policy.

One of the things I've noticed, and found quite interesting, is how people have become a lot more proactive not just holding each other about their actions; but also their local government and other representatives about their handling of the pandemic.

Not only that, in some cases they were at the front of not only proposing what actions to take, but of actually taking them before an official came out to enact such actions. People are becoming not only more socially conscious about the needs of their local neighborhoods, they are actively shaping policy and how it is enacted.

 

People finally become active participant not only sharing important information among themselves, but actually having a hand in shaping how governments respond. It is becoming quite hard for governments to hide what they respond, and how they do it.

Finally it seems that more people are becoming conscious that they can wield the power to shape the response of local governments. And this is a very significant, since the best place to see how much importance has civil participation, and where the results can be seen more readily and faster. There is no better place to set the example that people can actually make a difference in all aspects of our lives, and we should be the ones having the biggest say on how the government does things.

One of the most lasting effects of the pandemic, and one of its most positive ones, is create a precedent that what people does matters.

Home office might finally become more widespread.

One of the things that it seems could change significantly after the pandemic, is the way we work and collaborate with each other. With employers asking a higher percentage of their workforce to work from home, and the amount of time that people will have to fulfill their jobs this way, it quite likely that a significant percentage of the workforce might just keep working this way.

This could be beneficial not only for employers, and the employees, that fall in this arrangement. This could mean less people having to move on daily basis to their workplaces, alleviating some of the congestion we have on our cities, but also it could mean that by staying home they could spend a larger percentage of their income on local businesses of their neighborhoods. Not only that, quality of life could greatly increase by not having to commute and sharing more time with their families, or friends.

Not only employees could save money, and increase their quality of life. Employers could see the benefits of an increase profits by not having to support offices for all their staff, and more productivity by having happier staff working more effectively.

Not everyone will benefit directly from this, but in the long run this could be a better way of conducting business. The technology was already in place, but there was no real incentive for companies to implement remote working. Actually, many where reticent of doing so out of fear that their employees would abuse it. But now that everyone involved has to make it work, it might help to make the case that its a real option to move forward.

While we might still have to see how it pans out, home office might finally become more widespread.

No country is fully standing on its own.

One of the things that the outbreak  of COVID-19 has demonstrated, is how interconnected the world has become. It highlights how much people move around, not only for tourism but also for business.

Very few things are completely manufactured in one country, or any country produces all the products that move their market places. Economies are interconnected in various degrees, directly or indirectly. There is no country that is fully insoleted from what happens on other countries, it has become a question on how much it will impact them.

For better, or for worse, we have built a world where we share a common fate. This is why we need to start demanding governments to start working together in such a way that allows people to work together in a more effective way. Closing borders is no longer a viable option to make the best possible future come for us.

Such integration is not out of the hands of the those who want to stop it, now we have to work to make beneficial to as many people as possible. We adapt to the new reality, or will be left behind.

We stand together, and on own we fall.

New brave world, we can choose if it will be for good or bad.

For me, one of the thing that is more underused, and underrated, about smartphones, is how easy they make for us to access any information(and content) at any time, anywhere we are at the moment. Not only we can access it, but we have the opportunity to be active contributors to the pool of knowledge not just passive consumers of it.

This fact marks a flexing point in human history, when the traditional gatekeepers of what went into that pool, and who could access it, are losing its power. Now, that role has been spread into more hands, many of which would be even considered possible. Old barriers have been broken, new ones come and go as we are still learning how to use this new power.

Now, we need to learn the tools needed not only to find the information we want, or learn new skills. There is a need to learn how to filter trough until we get to the relevant information, and to process it in order to use it effectively. We are now directly responsible to find, and use, more of the information we need for our daily activities.

Also, we have a bigger say on the content we consume, while being able to create and share our own. We can now be as active, or as passive, as we choose to be.

While, both as a society and as individuals, are learning how to be active participants of this new brave world, I've hope that'll have a positive impact for all of us.

No silver bullet for complex problems.

The fact that there are no simple solutions to the problems we face, is something that most people don't seem to be able, or want, to coupe with. So much so, that people seem more than willing to over simplify things just in order to feel comfortable with the world around them.

Add to that, it seems hard to make sense of things with all the information we are constantly bombarded with continuously it make harder to make sense of things. It hard to filter what's information is relevant to solve any given problem, not to mention that its even harder to determine what is true.

Without the tools of critical thinking, is hard to recognize what information is actually relevant to solve any given problem. To make things worse, not everyone receives the education needed to have the tools needed for critical thinking, much less how to use them. This complicate things, because it makes it hard to communicate that the solutions we need are complex in order to actually solve things in a way that its actually beneficial to as much people as possible.

There is no silver bullet, or simple solutions, to any of the problems we face. Yet, there is hope. Access to information by an ever increasing number of people has never been easier, or cheaper. Not only that, there ways that people can access to better education, and skills, to be better prepared to help move forward solutions.

What is needed in order to do so, is more people to willing to take responsibility to help bring solutions to the table. Also, work to make those solutions happen. All of these, being conscious that there always be new problems to solve.

If we want to make things better, we need to be part of the solutions.