COVID-19 & CREEPING AUTHORITARIANISM; THE DEVIL OR THE DEEP BLUE SEA?

As COVID-19 infection numbers all around the world continue to soar, trepidation and consternation amongst global citizens ensuingly continues to heighten. It is not the case however, that everyone, everywhere is equally petrified, as quite visibly, the crisis is laying bare the desperation and ambition of certain leaders and the extent of our tolerance, not just as citizens but as ordinary people, with strong emotions, fears, insecurities and above all the love of life.

We are experiencing a ‘democratic backsliding’ and this is being swept under the rug because what appears to be a more visceral problem keeps escalating by the day. The devil is COVID-19, a relentless virus on a swashbuckling global tour and derring-do infection spree and the deep blue sea is authoritarianism which is clandestinely creeping into democracies all over the world. The devil is of course more palpable, making his threat more visceral and immediate but the deep blue sea isn’t any better, there is a chance of cascading through it, but before we all hastily jump into it to ‘save ourselves’, we must be aware that seething Sharks lie beneath.

In recent months, to curb the spread of the novel Coronavirus, governments all over the world have taken extreme measures. For example, the Israeli government apart from declaring a nationwide lockdown has implemented draconian measures including cellphone surveillance, sending tailored texts to alert citizens of their proximity to confirmed COVID-19 patients and also aggressively tracking the movements of people. South Korea and Singapore post travel logs of COVID-19 patients, retracing their steps using tools like GPS, phone tracking, credit card records and surveillance tools. China utilizes high scale facial recognition technology and the Communist Party’s neighborhood committees have been mobilized, while in Russia everyone must fill and submit an online questionnaire before being allowed to step out of their houses.
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