A memo from Indira Raimberdieva, Director of the Peace Building Center, Kyrgyzstan.

COVID19 has undoubtedly become a powerful catalyst for an in-depth rethinking of humankind’s experience. We hope that this monumental and immensely difficult challenge will end soon and the only thing we as a society will need to do is to summarize our “impressions” of what has happened, make the right conclusions, contextualize them with existing social and natural systems, and take greater responsibility for both ourselves and the environment around us. 

While waiting for powerful and far-reaching practical analyses of the post-COVID19 pandemic situation from all concerned members of our society, we would like to share some preliminary thoughts and reflections on the current situation. 

In general, we think the pandemic has facilitated a quantum leap in peoples’ consciousness of disillusionment about both ourselves and the surrounding reality. In particular, as evidenced by our discussions with experts and local community leaders here in Kyrgyzstan and also in the Pamir, Tien-Shan and Sayan-Altai biocultural zone, all this has given us a deeper understanding of our own lives and the lives of our communities. 

We identified three major areas in which reflection in the context of COVID19 has begun: values (~humans), ecology (~nature) and globalization (~interconnection). 

Firstly, the pandemic has changed our worldview priorities. Society has turned to “natural” systems of values that appreciate family and kinship; recognize human vulnerability and dependence on nature; recognize the importance of practicality, thrift and self-sufficiency; consider moderation as a normal practice or even a prerequisite for survival; integrate the law of recompense and perceive compassion and love for neighbors and all other beings as a higher justice.

We now respect the efforts of livestock breeders, farmworkers, hunters, craftsmen and all others who create things with their own hands to the benefit of themselves and the others.

Society has moved away from “synthetic” values such as personal success at any cost and the enjoyment of “material comforts”, wealth, power and popularity that urges people to create their own laws instead of following the eternal rules of morality and inevitable laws of nature. 

Secondly, the pandemic has clearly and now peremptorily demonstrated that the environmental degradation has reached its limit, a point of no return, after which there will be nothing left but further degradation. The attempt to understand COVID-19’s root causes, which is now being made by all segments of society and covers a wide range of theories, from a worldwide political conspiracy to the simple weakening of our immune systems, is frightening because all these theories point to humankind as the key actor responsible for everything going on in the world now. In-depth investigation into more complex and important links between the current situation and many preceding years of anti-environmental and amoral human activities is yet to come, but its findings promise to be even more horrifying.

Thirdly, the pandemic has opened our eyes to hard-hitting implications of globalization. In particular, we can see now that globalization used to be grounded mainly in material interests and not in moral values or humanity; on the contrary, it has turned out to be a cause of major vulnerability for all of us. For instance, many countries with great agricultural resources and potential but low-performing, highly corrupt, short-sighted and irresponsible governments have faced a sudden and absolute absence of food sovereignty and internal food security in this crisis situation. Other countries that chose to rely on finance and other less material sectors and services in their economies are also going through difficult times now.

Many communities have realized that there is no escape from the never-ending need to survive at the level of local landscapes, local social networks and “natural” systems of values and priorities. 

All these are preliminary, but highly obvious conclusions. We are yet to understand who we are, why and how we live, and where we are heading. 

Many authentic spiritual traditions share a common idea which can be defined as follows: “Remember about death as it is the greatest destroyer of illusions”. Death has never been closer to the humankind than now and it does destroy our illusions. 

Take care of yourself and your loved ones!