Marah al-Bukai
The disasters that affect the world, the natural and man-made ones, will motivate the human mind to develop new mechanisms and methods to face the impact of those disasters and their negative effects on the lives of the people of the earth. Every time humanity faces major challenges, we find governments, concerned organizations and individuals involve in creating ways to sustain life and return it to its natural balance.
Today, the world is facing a horrific health catastrophe, the number of its victims has reached, since just three months until the date of writing these lines⁹òoooòu, to nearly 300,000 deaths in the world, and the number of those who have not yet recovered to four million infected. The epidemic, the terrifying disease that came to us from the Chinese city of Wuhan ravaged 188 countries, spreading death, fear and emptiness.
Yes, life after the pandemic will never be the same as before, and this matter will apply to all countries of the world, whether in east, west, north or south, between poor and rich countries, between developed and developing peoples or those closed to themselves, as long as coronavirus is able to reach everyone, without exception.
Following a preventative suspension of the activities of daily public, service, and governmental life, the closure of commercial stores and productive institutions except those specializing in precautionary or curative medical materials for patients, and the cessation of life outside the home, including businesses that need direct communication between people, the street movement was quickly compensated through virtual communication. Different names and services have become an alternative to the public gathering halls, conference halls, and official centers, in an attempt to follow the usual working life, albeit with a small amount of achievement.
Regarding the modern cities, such as the United States' capital Washington, where I have lived and worked for a quarter of a century, have never been determined to live behind the walls of homes. Rather, the exact opposite is right in a city of this extent of the momentum of the political, commercial and service movement.
However, millions of us here in the United States and throughout the countries affected by the pandemic, will not be able to return to work in their previous workplaces without making drastic changes in the interior design and reallocating offices, places of waiting and meeting to observe the instructions of physical-distancing, which is a prerequisite for preventing the spread of the infection pending the research centers and scientific laboratories to find a successful vaccine to prevent infection with the novel coronavirus. Public transportation, such as trains, subways, and planes, will be subject to completely new conditions in terms of the distribution of seats and distancing between passengers, the nature of services and meals provided during travel, and medical tests that will be mandatory for every passenger underway on his flight.
The protocols in public places will be unified and essential, and will apply to public facilities, from restaurants, barbers and beauty centers, gyms and cafes to nightclubs, party halls, cinemas, and theaters; Where wearing masks by the people who go to these places will be for granted, and they will carry sanitizers regularly in their handbags, and they will have to wash hands dozens of times while avoiding touching the face before sterilizing the arms to the elbows, exactly as the surgeon does before his scalpel touches the body of his patient.
In the realm of education, the period in which schools and universities switched to giving lessons (online) has proven that the ability of focus and follow-up has become higher for most students, and that they are investing time more intensively while receiving lessons from their teachers through computer screens and interactive media. The flourishing of distance education may be one of the rare positives coming from this ugliness, as it became more likely that the world will move towards expanding its system even after returning to a new normal and attending lectures and obtaining academic degrees online.
It is striking that the pandemic helped flourish small business projects that do not need a large number of employees and that can be managed alternately, remotely via the Internet, and being present in person for some time on the job site when needed. These small enterprises will be able to stimulate the wheel of production that the pandemic stopped, and will accelerate the cycle of economy in modern and dynamic societies that need urgent daily services which can be provided by local service businesses.
With the relaxation experienced by people while they are forced to stay at home, it seems that formal and sometimes costly social aspects will begin to fade away slowly. The money spent by supermarket customers on precious tight clothes, high-heeled shoes, and cosmetics will be transferred to the Internet market, where those luxuries are replaced by buying household sterilizers and looking for the best protective masks and the softest single-use gloves to acquire. Comfortable shoes for walking and jogging after long hours of sitting at home, as well as comfortable clothing, will be at the forefront of the options of the residents of the "new natural" world.
However, what we will miss will suffer our conscience for a time, is the warmth that runs in the veins when we hold the hand of a friend or embrace a lover when back after long absence. When physical distancing becomes a habit outside our choice, we will be completely alone in our “new normal life”, if we assume that this life will be truly normal.