Weekend long reads

Here are three weekend long reads showcasing different perspective of life under corona:

The 1755 earthquake and tsunami devastated the Portuguese capital, Lisbon. Engraving from A Popular Description in the Movements in the Earth's Crust (1887).

After the disaster, Europe needs miracles

Large collective experiences sometimes create space for new ideas. Economically there is now decisiveness. But will there be another Europe to save, asks Geert Mak (In Dutch).

Illustration Dom Mckenzie

Amid our fear, we’re rediscovering utopian hopes of a connected world

Utopia makes a comeback in this opinion piece by Alan Rusbridger (In English).

Liebe Leute, wollt ihr denn ewig leben? (Dear people, do you want to live forever?)

The corona crisis awakens new powers in us. The world is getting better. The progress continues. In the end there is not a victory for survival, but for life. Notes from a quarantine philosopher (In German).

How did the E.U. get the coronavirus so wrong?

Western Europe, currently the center of the pandemic, has had its share of poor preparation, planning, and coordination, and has been hit hard. In the opinion piece by Scott L. Greer, a scholar of public health questions what it can the EU do right next time? (In English)

'North to South' no longer applies in the EU: even Merkel is more southern

In this analysis of political relations by Caroline de Gruyter she dives into how the European political game is different now that the crisis revolves around life and death. (In Dutch)

The horror films got it wrong. This virus has turned us into caring neighbours

Across the world, Covid-19 has triggered community action on a vast scale. It’s a powerful riposte to both government and private money.

China Bought the West Time. The West Squandered It.

In this opinion piece by Ian Johnson from the New York Times dives into the US and much of Europe’s reactive attitude towards the Coronavirus outbreak. And asks the question “Why did so many countries watch the epidemic unfold for weeks as though it was none of their concern?”.

The corona pandemic blows the lid off the idea of Western superiority

In this op-ed originally written in Dutch, Olivia U. Rutazibwa looks at the spread of the corona virus in Europe from a great distance as she is on a writing retreat at the Johannesburg Institute of Advanced Studies (JIAS) in South Africa, where a national total lockdown was declared on March 26th. While she’s there to write and dig into books and the past, she sees how in these extraordinary times, it’s the outside world, and especially the ones beyond the West, that will teach us about alternative solidarities.