Helping the WHO to focus is what the G20 is about
19 April 2020
President Donald Trump attacked the World Health Organization (WHO) this week, announcing a 60-day freeze of U.S. funding going into the organization. He said the WHO has “failed in its basic duty.” The president is an unashamed populist, and it’s almost inappropriate to take his words as a reflection of his thoughts. What is important here is how international organizations are going to come out of this, and two of the most important I’m thinking of here are the World Health Organization (WHO) and the G20, both of which are vital in this crisis.
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A different kind of recession
12 April 2020
COVID-19 is now stopping economic activity all over the planet. It is not the infectious disease itself that causes this effect, but the social distancing measures we have taken to buy us time. This is “the worst economic fallout since the Great Depression,” said Kristalina Georgieva, the Bulgarian economist who is now the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). We are used to have sudden stops in economic activity before in our part of the world, but this one is totally different.
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Do you believe in COVID-19’s transformative power?
05 April 2020
It seems like a deep thing to say: Nothing is ever going to be the same again. The times they are-a changin’. I don’t like it. Are we talking good change or bad change? And aren’t things changing all the time anyways? Sometimes we notice, sometimes we don’t, and it seldom has to do with the suffering people go through.
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