No revival or turnaround can take place unless some people believe that it can happen. The WEF’s report is a nudge in the right direction
Finally the commentaries in the printed and the audio-visual media have begun to change from what it is today, to what a year it has been and how things will be in the year to come. Whereas nothing on the ground has substantially, changed (and indeed many territories of the world are still passing through very demanding times even for the Covid-era,) there is a growing realisation that hope is a no choice situation. Of the many basic truths of life, the biggest is that one gets tired even of despair. Fantasy is born in many seedbeds and one of them is excessive despair.
The global havoc caused by Covid-19 will someday be assessed. As of now, some are still trying to swim underwater and there are others trying to build a fortune by fishing in troubled waters. They are doing remarkably well as they understand that people pay and pay disproportionately high (if they can afford to) when the going gets tough. This cannot be an occasion for pontificating. One can only say: To each his own! Meanwhile, strained relationships in families, misconstruction and misunderstanding of otherwise simple activities are taking a toll. This is bound to happen if there is refraction of meaning through an overstrained mental capacity. Be that as it may, one of the brighter signs on the horizon is the strong mind of some people who still make sense through their sheer capacity of mindfulness. The first defining characteristic of mindfulness is recognition that one cannot project one’s insecurities on others. No matter how wonderful or strong the foundations of the relationship, no one can carry anybody else’s burden endlessly. Especially of those people who do not know how to control themselves.
This has nothing to do with the uniqueness of the Covid-era. It is a common human feeling which behavioural scientists have not offered many solutions to, perhaps because the indicators are weak and defences which people put up are formidable. Along with that comes the propensity to hold on to one’s frameworks of reference and plans. The reality perception of many can be weak. An amalgamation of such propensities creates a devastating cocktail.
Perhaps, the problem could be handled by an approach which travels from outside-in rather than inside-out. Plus, we need to grant that humans are complex beings and there is real difficulty in even understanding oneself, let alone others. Any attempt at “understanding” should be the end of a process rather than the beginning. The thought of travelling the route of understanding from outside-in creates a hierarchy of efforts which helps to make it progressively more effective and capable of handling increasingly more complex situations. Applying that frame of reference to the present situation of human reaction to the pandemic (and often intractable complexity and anxiety) leads to some possible conclusions. One of them is to start understanding possible responses of the economy to material conditions and then gradually move to inner layers.
Mercifully, that process seems to have begun. The World Economic Forum (WEF) has come out with a special edition of its Global Competitiveness Report: 2020. It ostensibly talks of how countries are performing on the road to recovery. It will be read and reread over its 90 plus pages as indeed it deserves.
In the limitations of space of this column it is not possible to provide a substantive critique. In India the partner to this effort was an institution which is not so widely-known and yet seems to have collaborated with competence. Territories from Albania to Uruguay have contributed through some institution and that itself is a commendable canvas. The partner institutes helped to administer “the executive opinion survey and advance the competitiveness agenda in their respective economies.” There were other institutions which pitched in with different competencies including what goes into composing the WEF’s index. From collecting the data to analysis and more, was a huge organisational exercise. That itself deserves high praise. More substantially, the contents while not being revolutionary, have helped to redefine the meaning of competitiveness in a changed world context. It was pleasing to see that disruption and resilience were treated in the same section. The concept of the pandemic has made its mark on the literature on economics. More efforts in the genre will surely come. For the present it may suffice to mention that it is a great attempt of analysis of the past decade and of future trends. The pleasing thing in the WEF’s report is the focus on the idea of the “road to recovery.” Obviously, for any meaningful journey, it must begin somewhere. No revival or turnaround can take place unless some people believe that it can happen. The WEF’s report is a nudge in the right direction. The scientific method would require some instruments of measurement. All that would involve a cushioning crucible of faith and belief in it being possible. This should be not only an interesting but a worthwhile journey.
(The writer is a well-known management consultant of international repute. The views expressed are personal)
