Hi ,
When I finally started writing for Fierce Kindness in early February, none of us knew what lay ahead re: COVID, lockdown and the upending of our lives.
We're all doing our best to navigate this new world.
This week I've been reflecting on how our world has changed. So this email might get a little political (with a small p - no party politics!).
So, if this isn't your thing, you might want to wait for next week... And if you're curious, here are my thoughts (which you can also read online
here):
The COVID crisis has highlighted systemic inequality in our societies as the poorest are hit hardest. This is often, but not always, people of colour and immigrants.
We've seen that some world leaders have handled the COVID situation significantly better than others. And some have sought to take advantage.
Right now, there are challenges to democracy as some countries and leaders attempt to grasp more power - Hong Kong and Hungary to name a couple. The distraction offered by the crisis has also allowed authoritarian presidents like Bolsonaro in Brazil to step up his deadly campaign against remaining indigenous tribes that block logging of the Amazon rainforest.
In addition, the state of uncertainty is compounded - especially in the US - by the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery and more - because of the colour of their skin.
And it's not just America.
In Canada for example, the deaths of Regis Korchinski-Paquet and indigenous woman Chantel Moore at the hands of the police leave (so far) unanswered questions.
All this comes on the heels of the #MeToo movement which highlighted deep-seated anti-female prejudice - and showed that people in power will happily abuse it.
On a positive note, it's interesting to see how governments have managed to house the homeless, give out payments to support people and businesses who have lost income during the crisis.
And it's been wonderful to see the positive results that cutting back on industry, flying and military operations have had on the environment. (Did you know that the military are one of the biggest producers of carbon emissions?)
And what I see in the last little while is that people around the world are waking up. We are all more politically aware now than we were before COVID. How could we not be?
