COVID reflections: 10 things we must do better in 'AC era'

COVID-19 is a turning point for mankind. That isn't an overstatement as some are already talking in terms of the BC (Before Coronavirus) and AC(After Coronavirus) eras.

Given the prognosis, it appears that a seemingly indeterminable transition from the BC age to the AC era has begun. What if the future is just one endless transition, and the AC era a chimera?

Survivors may want to do two things: 1) use the transition to review and reflect on the BC age (getting restless, desperate or even despondent to "return to normal" is optional and futile); and 2) envision the AC era.

Here's my AC wish-list, based on BC experiences:

1) Multilingual content: Decades-old globalization has relocated people, and places are more cosmopolitan and high-tech now. Nothing can justify anymore digital content－news, information, apps, websites, information, communications, data, research, e-commerce, entertainment or software－that continues to exist or be made without a multilingual option. Owing to COVID, there's global thirst for knowledge; there's urgent need for understanding, amity and information-sharing among people. A multilingual e-tool that can be seamlessly incorporated in all existing and new digital content is a sine qua non.

2) Stricter governance: Be careful what you wish for. Rest assured, I'm careful. We need governments the world over that can monitor people more effectively and ensure the latter behave responsibly and in a dignified, graceful manner, particularly in public places. I'd rather not see people violating lockdown guidelines merely to crowd pubs, restaurants, raves, beaches, or sneezing without a mask on, or drinking, eating and then vomiting and micturating shamelessly on sidewalks.

3) People-level globalization: Time for global integration; out with nationalism, regionalism, protectionism, racism (and closet 'supremacistism' and 'jerkism', to coin two new words). We need to quickly evolve beyond economic, trade, business and market globalization. We need social, societal, cultural and moral globalization as well.

4) Just dues for key people: Medical professionals, deliverymen, logistics staff, maids, nannies, rubbish-removers, cleaners are key to our survival. As a society, let's recognize and reward them better. E-commerce platforms and hospitals/clinics should raise their remuneration. Consumers should be enabled to e-tip them directly.

5) Innovative cinemas: Hyper-customization, private group-screenings can revive cinemas, if they guarantee social distancing, COVID safety and options for movie fans to choose what they want to watch and when, with custom subtitling and dubbing, irrespective of the original language of the content. Not just feature films, even documentaries should be screened.

6) Enthrone the customer: Make the BC age fiction－"customer is king"－an AC era fact.

7) Responsible Big Tech: Ignorance and helplessness of lay users should not be exploited to marginalize them, or to invade their privacy, mine personal data unethically, amass profits, flout rules, evade taxes, create monopolies or cartels, influence elections, destabilize governments.

8) Reflections: There's more to life and living than consumerism, pubs, raves, beaches, incomes and profits. New hectic lockdown routines within the four walls of home don't mean resilience and adaptability, but surviving, existing mindlessly, like slaves of manufactured busyness. Meditate. Breathe. Calm down. Be grateful. Recognize life's fundamentally finer aspects.

9) Reject destruction: Whatever the cause, don't destroy that which we have all helped create assiduously. Resources are finite. Let's not misapply "creative destruction".

10) Community, society, environment, climate and planet: Let's take them more seriously.

Postscript: Has the BC-to-AC transition come and gone already? Are we now in the initial stages of the AC era? Are we in denial about the passing of the BC age, and madly, irrationally longing for its return, little realizing that the past can't be re-created? Is coming to terms with, and embracing, the AC era the only option available now?