Two sides of humanity.

As the COVID-19 rages on, it seems that people can be fit into those willing to heed the warning of the medical experts, and do they can to prevent the spread of the decease as much as possible. Meanwhile, others seem to ignore all efforts to defeat the virus because they are inconvenienced by those efforts.

It seems that for the second group of people, their rights are all what matters and everyone else should act according not for what is needed, but for what they want to do. It seems that they cannot see beyond what they want now, in order to prevent the spreading of a decease that has proven to be deadly.

The idea that the lock downs, social distancing, and wearing mask is to prevent as many people possible from getting COVID-19 to begin is something those people don't seem to understand. People will get it, and some will lose their lives to the virus, but all the measures put into effect are meant to make them as few as possible. If all those measures are follow, also means that they can be lifted sooner since the virus will be control in a shorter period of time.

What make things worse, is we all have access to all the information needed to know why the measures are put into place work, and how they work. Yet, some choose to ignore them, all call them lies. As is by calling them lies will actually make them lies.

It would be foolish not to admit that there has been some mismanagement, and that there is misinformation being spread in social media and news outlets. But, those are not valid excuses not to do what we can to help combat COVID-19 and actually do some effort to look the information that is useful and sharing with those around us.

The more we do to flatten the curve of the spread of the virus, the sooner we all are going to be able to return to the lives we want.

A lack of critical thinking is hurting all of us.

One of the things that things that are sourly lacking in society, is how to critically think and how to process new information.

Sadly, it seems that many of the educational systems in place in many countries aren't focused in helping people to think critically in an independent way. Why information needs to be memorized, focusing in doing only that is not really helpful in the long run if people can take that information to brake it down to the base data to make new information when circumstances require it.

Pure memorization is only useful for particular circumstances, or take standardized tests that measure just that. But going on in life, it requires to be able to take that information to compare it to new one we receive in daily basis, and adapt both our beliefs and actions according to our new surroundings. Not being able to do so put not only those individuals at a disadvantage, but the whole society since we need all to be able to be capable to independently do so.

We need education systems that give students the knowledge they need, the ability to keep acquiring it, and to think critically by themselves. As we move forward as a society, there is a bigger need not only memorizing facts, but the ability to get to them by ourselves. If not, people won't be able to correctly react to new situations, or be able to understand why they are asked to act a certain way.

In the long run, we all will win by teaching most people to think critically.

Time is starting to drag on.

As the shelter-in place orders keep dragging on, things feel like they aren't changing that much lately. News seem to turn around the pandemic, with few other things seem to be happening.

Political events that could change the landscape, or business deals that could mean a big change moving forward are all focused on containing the pandemic. The economy not being kick stated out of fears that the pandemic might get worse, and as time goes on it will take longer to restart it.

The usual thing that people could do to distract themselves, are put on hold since sport and entertainment venues are closed. Not only that, places where people could gather or just get to for some distraction are not available.

Though with the content in the Internet and the ability to contact our loved ones without having to leave our homes has helped somewhat, they are not full substitutes for actually going out to meet people or distract ourselves from our daily routines.

Even for the few of us that still have the chance to go to work at our normal places, days seem not to be all that different. There are not much options for actually doing something to take us out of our daily routines.

All we can do is to keep doing our best to shorten the quarantine, by following the advice of doctors and nurses.

New opportunities are coming, but not all are going to be able to benefit from them.

The economic downturn that the COVID-19 shutdowns brought, are creating a lot of new opportunities in business and technological development. How many will be able to actually benefit from this new opportunities, will the ones who are positioning to take them as soon as they can.

Most of those who can actually able to take those positions, are the ones who already are in that position and those who have the flexibility to take those position in a timely manner. Those who will be most likely to do so, are those who are small enough to adapt to the new situations, and have the finances to be able to take them.

Not all small businesses could be benefited though, since they have been some of the hardest hit by the shutdowns. This means, that many of those who survive the shutdowns possibly won't have the best financial position to make the best of the new opportunities.

Freelancers on the other hand, could benefit greatly of the new opportunities. They could approach them in ways that businesses could not, allowing them a better shot to position themselves to take advantage of the new opportunities as they show up.

We are in a turning point, but with all the changes coming our way we might not see where this changes will take us.

The Internet is a public utility.

One thing that the COVID-19 shelter-in place orders have proven, is that people Internet access is vital to keep working and for children have to have keep getting an education.

No one can argue that access to the Internet is a luxury, since an access to an education and to work are considered human rights. For many people, having access to a Internet connection is the only way they can receive an education, or have a work that allows them to maintain themselves and their families. As such, access to the Internet has to be at least affordable for those people who need to be readily available to them.

It might not mean to have free access to the Internet everywhere, but it means that price of to such access can not be so expensive that it cut anyone to be able to access it.

Other thing that the shelter-in place order can prove to many employers, is the feasibility of many roles can be done remotely. This can have the consequence of more people working from home than ever before, since this could be a much better arrangement for everyone involved for many reasons.

On the education side of things, the Internet has already been an important complement for a vast number of students. What the shelter-in place order did, was highlight how important it is by making it the sole way students could not only have access the tools they need for homework, but the whole material since it is the only way teachers could actually give students the material they need to complete they classwork.

It has been proven beyond any doubt, that the Internet is a public utility, and is time to classify it as one.

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.

Change has become a tool in the hands of the people.

It's interesting, and somewhat irritating, that every time changes come our way people tend to forget that things haven't been a certain way. Specially in the last hundred years, we have seen changes come with unprecedented speed and scope.

For the looks of it, things will continue to keep constantly changing in the short and medium terms. Only the speed of these changes might change depending on the area we are talking about, but things will be changing we like it or not. We'll have to adapt, and solutions found to the new issues that those changes bring.

At the end of the day, people will have to learn to adapt to change and make the best out of it. For the look of it, the new generations are learning not only to cope with change, but actually be a part of it or be who makes change happen. More and more people are not willing to see change, but to change things by themselves.

Change is becoming a tool, and not a problem. People are learning to see change as something to be desired, specially when people takes control of it with the communication tools we have now at out disposal. Things like smartphones, and the social media they allow us to tap into, means that organizing for change at the glass root level is becoming not only easier, but actually affordable for an even larger portion of society.

The question is how long it'll take us to master this power for change, so to make it more effective to change thing in our favor. I'm still hopeful that is more of a when it'll happen, and not if it'll happen.

From this time forward, is time to take a more active participation on building the future we want.