So here we go, after a long while penning my emotions.
I was sitting in office today for the weekly leadership meeting. One of the guys was sneezing and worst is he traveled into Texas, the previous day! I even nudged him politely stating it worries me that he is sneezing and that, may be, he should not be in office! But he shrugged it off and the other guy wasn't worried like I was.
During my presentation, the risk aware me, raised the potential risk of disruption due to COVID-19 and almost instantly the question from the two was like, what about it? I said, we need to come up with a BCP for it because it is spreading fast and it was question of time that we prepare for it. It was a pause for a moment and I was hoping that it was taken seriously. The answer was, a lot more silence!! Mind you, this was last week, when the number of cases around the globe was raising and Italy is at the kind of brink.
That evening when I was driving back, I could not help but think of the below and I thought I may want to record it and look back how this had panned out.
- This virus is gonna bull doze a lot of things.
- The world would have changed forever.
- Economy will go down a lot. A lot of us will lose jobs.
- Food shortage because of transport and/or famine.
- Across the globe, social unrest will be there. With no money and job to earn money, people will turn to looting and stealing.
This will not be an easy world going forward. I for one, feel a bit weird. I feel a lot scared, but have to pretend to be brave for the sake of my girls!
At the other end of the pandemic, we may have changed forever. Whoever survives the virus and the violence, may be can restore what we used to call as humanity!
Hope that I'm wrong. Generally am not this pessimistic, but 1 week into that discussion, my folks at office do not realize what is and why we need a BCP.
And so is the leadership of many countries. Some have kind of shut things down and some haven't. But to me this is not just about virus, but also about the world after that! I'm not sure if any country leader is thinking about it! What and how to go about the disruption and potential social unrest!
All I can do today is to hope! Hope is the first cure for all problems!
