Antonio Navalón
Undoubtedly, the following change of season is destined to be a very particular and different one from those seen previously. Not only because, as William Shakespeare once said, it may be the winter of our discontent, but also because, basically and as things are being planted and developed, it may be a winter in which the historical qualitative leaps we face will make it not only a winter to remember but a particular period. To begin with, it will be necessary to analyze the fringes, the adaptations, and everything that manages to survive the experience of Covid-19, a virus with its own intelligence that also knows how to act autonomously and has caused – up to now – more than four and a half million deaths and approximately two hundred and twenty million infected people.
Covid-19 had caused a situation in which, eighteen months after it began to spread around the world, we still have no certainty as to how, when, or where did the transmutation occurred of DNA from a vampire to the construction of a virus that has done more damage to our civilization and concept of the world than our memory allows us to recall. As if all this were not enough and as a sign that I am still an optimist, I am amazed at the capacity for survival that we human beings have. Despite the multiple onslaughts and relentless variations of the virus, we have managed to get back out on the streets and continue – as far as possible – our lives.
If no one knows why or has an explanation that fills in the gaps that this whole scenario has brought with it, we will either magically stop getting infected, or the damage will get deeper and deeper. If we have gone from total confinement and not being able to share anything other than distance to filling soccer stadiums, movie theaters, and so on, the big question that arises is: how can we survive in the face of something we do not know?
If all this were not enough, if it were not enough to live with that sword of Damocles over our heads, if it were not so shameful to have to wear a distinctive emblem like the Star of David was once with the Jews but is now represented by a vaccination card, we now have to get used to living under other conditions of life. To give an example, the absence and the crisis that is being experienced in the energy sector, both because of the lack of supplies and for the damage that fossil fuels and the like are doing to the planet, is forcing us to change everything from the way we consume or even the way we light the stove in our homes to large production structures.
Sooner rather than later, Europe will have to remember its naivety vis-à-vis the Russians. They allowed them to go straight through the heart of the European continent and depend on their gas. Much of the primary and daily activities of Europeans go through the tap opened or closed by Vladimir Putin, who – unlike other rulers – is a character who is worthy of a certain level of trust in the sense that he has not abused his power by using it against and to the detriment of Europe. Can you imagine what it would mean to fight in the middle of a harsh winter without having the capacity or resources to keep our homes warm while fighting this silent enemy, also known as a coronavirus?
Suppose you mix and match what is happening with Covid-19 with the general health situation. In that case, you will realize that in the coming months – in addition to the already disastrous virus and as a consequence of it – several related diseases will reach an apotheosis for the simple accumulation of time. I mean, can you imagine what it would mean if the so-called development killed the Koch’s bacillus and people stopped dying from tuberculosis? It is necessary to reflect on what it means that Covid-19 has come to displace diseases that have been around for centuries.
I promised to be an optimist, and I want to keep it. I belong to a generation that has bravely survived everything, starting with world wars, influenza, flu, nuclear attacks, and – this time – even a global pandemic. But most of all, we have survived human beings themselves, and the one thing that seems to have no clear purpose: being a universe impossible to quantify and imitate, which is human stupidity. Countries like England – which again I am convinced will survive – is an example of a nation that sooner rather than later will be able to emerge from this great crisis and will also benefit from its exit from the European Union.
In any case, beyond any faceless fear, any shadowy attempt to conquer power by other means, beyond any policy that makes comic book and superhero nightmares become a reality, what is evident is the substantial and vital change taking place in the imbalance of leaderships around the world.
The Chinese have the position they have in the world – earned no doubt thanks to their own work – and the convenience of the others. The Russians have been trying for many years to find a system that allows them to be politically acceptable, but without giving up the essence of continuing to administer the largest country on the planet with a clearly hegemonic vocation – not only in an ideological sense – but in the sense of the presence and repercussion they have or may have in the world. In the face of these leaderships defined by facts, we find not only that the horse herd is feeble on the Western side, but the reality is that we do not have a clearly defined leadership.
Donald Trump was debatable and, by some, rejectable, but he was a leader to his people. Up to this point, the Biden experience is one that not only has not succeeded but seems to be headed for a catastrophe similar to that of former President Jimmy Carter’s administration. And in the midst of all this, there is also the question of viruses, gas, and the confessed demonstration by the Chinese of having discovered the supersonic missile capable of circling the globe undetected and with an unimaginable capacity for destruction.
The winter of our discontent must be nursed – as if it were a Shakespeare’s play – by the summer of our happiness. But for that to happen, we first need to find balance in the leaders and then clear and objective directions that will allow us to have a sense of order in the face of the problems we face, but above all that it is feasible to get out of the situation in which we find ourselves.
America has returned to the other America, to Latin America, to the one that does not speak English and is immersed in a race against the clock to come back into existence in countries that have already been thoroughly undermined in the background with substantial credits from China and with some episodic, but highly representative, military presences by Russia. In other words, the balance sheet, the one that allows us to know to which part of the world we belong and who are ours, at this moment is being reconfigured with a problem that is clearly superior to the others. This problem is that our leaders are missing or have an absence of proposals that allow us to even the overall balance.
The tariffs imposed by Trump have not prevented the confrontation, nor have they helped establish a starting point from which to improve the China-U.S. relationship. And at this point, if we do not manage to reach an agreement between East and West, there will hardly be a promising future.
We have the problem, and this winter is not only harsh because of viruses, misfortunes, or deregulations caused by the price of energy, but more than anything else because it is a winter of an absence of leadership. With these situations plus the economic crisis unleashed, but, above all, with the world bewilderment caused by our naivety, how can we face a situation like the current one?
The ideal and optimistic situation would be to defeat and eliminate Covid-19 once and for all. But what will happen next? The perfect and optimistic scenario would be to obtain the raw materials to be able to heat homes. However, who will be able to pay for it and keep the industries running or afford prices that have gone beyond the parameters? Finally, I do not want to be a poor white westerner without a leader, and that in addition, the only thing he has is the proof of having paid taxes all his life to some inept people who give as a final result what I am depicting. And the fact is that the enemies, the usual ones, in the end, are the ones who are winning. And in the end, I am convinced that this winter will be one to remember and very difficult to forget.
