Articles

Nigeria stands at the very brink of its own COVID-19 epidemic. However, the country has been in the grips of serious crisis for weeks: the collapse in oil prices has led to brutal budget cuts and provokes a recession in the country, which depends heavily on oil exports. The timing could not be worse in view of the forthcoming pandemic challenges.   

The Covid-19 pandemic exposes the care crisis and underlying class and regional inequalities — which the new strategy does not equip us to handle.

President Bolsonaro’s irresponsible approach to the coronavirus crisis has led to conflicts, also within the government. Meanwhile, civil society organisations are distributing food in poorer districts.

Benjamin Netanyahu could not even win the third election held within one year. Now, he is using the coronavirus crisis to profile himself as an indispensable statesman and secure his power – to the detriment of Israeli democracy.

With only three day notice, South Africa went into full lockdown on the night from 26 to 27 March. What happened in the three days leading up the lockdown is highly impressive. Instead of everyone following the instinct of making provision for themselves, neighbourhood solidarity networks sprang up spontaneously.

With a series of digital measures introduced in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Morocco is creating a trade-off between ways to provide rapid support and the parallel development of digital control.

All three countries of the South Caucasus have weak social systems. Many people work in precarious jobs in the service sector, tourism and agriculture. 

In post-Brexit Britain, the coronavirus crisis comes amid a crisis of confidence in its political leadership. The British public is now watching the National Health Service (NHS) trying to rise to the challenge after a decade of austerity.

Not only has the new coronavirus catapulted us out of our everyday lives, but the way the EU is handling the Covid-19 pandemic has made its inability to take action in times of crisis painfully apparent. Just as people are stranded at airports and railway stations, any hope that Europe is capable of pulling together has also been stranded in the last few weeks.

The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 disease has brought about an extraordinary situation. Although the past decades have brought numerous challenges like terrorism or the climate change, the global spread of a disease for which there is neither a cure nor vaccination available is something that political leaders have no experience in tackling.