COVID-19

Green recovery. Social protection. Smart containment. Decarbonisation. Putting progress in climate action at par with measuring GDP. Creative capacity. These phrases have been running through conversations these days around changing Southeast Asia's template for development in the post-COVID era.

Over the last three years, Timor’s public discourse in Timor-Leste has been concentrated on the power struggle among the Dili-centered elites on the legitimacy to govern the country. The economic impacts of this political development is the economic stagnation, reflected in the GDP decline. COVID-19 adds another layers to the multitude of challenges that already existed.  

While media reports have highlighted increases of reported domestic violence in countries around the world due to the lockdown stresses, the situation is unclear in Thailand. Although many women in Thailand seek out services from non-government organizations, there is widespread belief that a large number of abused women here suffer in silence.

Before COVID-19, seafarers were sought out by family, friends and community members, bearing presents and money, when they came home. But amid the pandemic, returnees have become suspect to their own communities, who see them as outsiders who potentially bear an unseen, dangerous pathogen.

Now that Malaysia has moved from MCO to a ‘conditional MCO’ to a ‘recovery MCO’, life is getting back to some kind of normal. But as Dr Jemilah warned, society must understand we can never return to the "old normal". "That innocent and simple pre-COVID-19 world is in the past," she said. We can't think of "after the pandemic" as it is here to stay. We have to think about how to live with COVID-19.

From all indications, Vietnam has succeeded in managing the pandemic, an achievement that has drawn a lot of news coverage, some envy by countries in Asia and beyond, and praise from international organizations. But while there has been much analysis from outside about Vietnam’s response to the pandemic, what do Vietnamese themselves think?

Across the banks of the Mekong River, by the sprawling grounds by the majestic Royal Palace, Cambodians are sitting on the grass or strolling about, sipping coffee outside the cafes that line the riverfront, as motorcycles and ‘tuktuk’ zip by. Traffic on Phnom Penh’s roads is returning to pre-COVID-19 levels of congestion. Many are heading to coastal provinces to reconnect with friends and family.

Two months ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a pandemic with 4,801,202 cases and more than 318,935 deaths as a result of the coronavirus as of current writing. The last few months have been daunting with COVID-19 almost paralyzed the entire world with various countries putting different areas under their jurisdiction in lockdowns.

The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the global economy are dramatic. The virus is shaking all major economies simultaneously. At the same time,  the crisis is acting as an accelerator for the developing countries that were already highly in debt. An interview with Barbara Unmüßig, President of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, on the latest developments.

A virus riding on another virus. That is how the ‘infodemic’ is raging in online spaces around the outbreak of the novel coronavirus called COVID-19, which has been on just about everyone’s radar since late January 2020. As grave as the quest to manage the respiratory disease and cure those ill with it is not only the challenge of using facts versus fear - but how to create and keep avenues of information that withstand the unrelenting drip of skewed, confused, partially true to totally false information, to racist and prejudiced views, or a cocktail of these.