Najam Discusses the Post-COVID World in Gizmodo
Adil Najam, Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was featured in Gizmodo‘s Giz Asks – a series that explores questions about everything with answers from a variety of experts – discussing the aftereffects of the global coronavirus pandemic and what the new post-COVID social reality might look like.
In his remarks, Najam said that there is no more waiting for a world “after” COVID-19; we are already living in the new world. He argues that the idea the we’re simply in a holding pattern and will come out on the other side of this pandemic to a world reflective of how it was at the start of 2020 is ridiculous. However, Najam also questions whether we want to go back to the world as it was just before COVID. According to him, this pandemic is an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the past and create a better world.
An excerpt:
Right now, we might think that we want to go back to how things were, but do you remember March? Do you remember January? It wasn’t that good. We didn’t live in a world without trouble where everyone was happy. Far from it. We have this opportunity, now, to create a new world; I’m not sure I want to go back to the old one. I want a world that’s better than the one we have now, but better, also, than the one we left behind in March.
The full Gizmodo article can be read here.
Adil Najam is a global public policy expert who also served as the Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan. He is the Inaugural Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and was the former Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). Currently he is hosting a video expert interview series called #WorldAfterCorona for the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. Read more about him here.