PINE as we may, we cannot return to pre-coronavirus times. And we should not.
It was an unequal, skewed world. The Covid-19 pandemic, which has taken over two million lives worldwide so far, will be remembered for how inequality rose in almost every country on earth at the same time and also showed that no state, no institution and no individual can take on such cataclysmic fights alone.
It also exposed and exacerbated the flaws of a world where millions lived in poverty and destitution even before countries were hit by the virus; although from 2015 to 2017, the number of people living below the international poverty line (of US$1.90 or RM7.70 per day) globally fell from 741 million to 689 million.