Covid-19 as a Chance?! Participatory Podcast Project

Good evening, Osnar Ascurinaga is speaking to you from Bolivia, from the sacred mountains of the Andes, the Apus Achachilas. We talked enough about the negative aspects and this seems like a chance to talk about the positive outcome. Well, first of all as we isolate ourselves we are forced to take responsibility for things that were there and have procrastinated by saying “when I have time, I'm going to take care of this”. In the end, the world made it so that you had all the time to dedicate yourself to those things you were escaping. The learning that I see is related to some belief that have roots in the Andean worldview, coming from the Aymara and Quechuas civilizations. The Andean worldview is very particular: there is nothing good or bad in the world. The moments when you are excited about life are not necessarily considered good, it is a moment in which you vibrate high. The times we are sad, afraid, are not a bad thing either, but are an apprenticeship. The Andean worldview divides time, you might have heard of Pachamama, a word that has sometimes been misunderstood. Pacha means time and mama is not referred to mom but it is a creative energy. So pacha-mama, time of the creative energy. According to this worldview, we live many eras, one pacha can even count thousands of years. The history of humanity is made out of many pachas and here and now, we are in the Pacha-cuti. Where cuti means return, this is the Pacha of the return. The time in which the ayayus, the spirits are going to meet again and there will be chaos. A long time ago our spirits have fought, my ancestors against your ancestors. So energetically we have something there between us that does not let us go. But this Mother-earth, the Universe, or God, as we want to call it, is grabbing it all to make us meet again so that we look in each-other’s eyes, that we see each other, so that we feel the hunger that the other feels, so that we give courage to the person who needs to face their fears. I think that it is something very wise that Pacha knows. Unfortunately, as we are simply one more element of nature, we still think of “me”,everything revolves around us, but it is not like that. When you connect with that creative Mother in this privileged and beautiful place, you will realize that we are a little a grain of sand in this vast universe. This makes you more humble. Many people in the world, especially in Europe have slaughtered mother earth which is why those who have harmed the earth the most are somehow those who are paying the most. That is what the conscience talks about and I don't refer to those who suffered loss on an individual level, many innocent people were victim. It speaks more to the ancestors who have lived in your land to get to where we are today. I am lucky that my ancestors, through mountains, plants,  still live and send a message that goes beyond time and space. Plants have been here for thousands of years, much longer than human beings and therefore much wiser than us. They have the planetary cosmic information of what has happened, of what is happening, and of what will happen. They embody the spirit of nature and prepare us for those moments.The times that you have fought with your friend, that you have insulted, that you have felt fear those have been the moments of great change.When you are in chaos and you don't know what the hell is going on,  this is the moment in which you are evolving and that is a message that I would like to convey to you: to see behind the curtains. If we focus on what we see on the screens, there is a being who feeds on fear and while you continue to radiate fear you give that monster more strength. What is the strongest way to fight fear? Well love, right? I think that these lands that vibrate the energy of love are a good place to start to love each other. 

So, my contribution to your questionnaire with regards to the changes or opportunities that this COVID-19 can offer for myself and for my community. So, for myself, I am starting to now settle, and I think I will finally have time to be with myself and I think that is probably the opportunity that the COVID-19 is offering me. To go internally and to not be as much caught up in that spin of external pressure that I was and maybe to have time for myself and to rethink some of my options in life. And, obviously, I can only do this because I have enough support because I have enough privilege that I do not have to worry with economics, right? 

Now my practice is all moved online and so the same has happened with my community, my colleagues of mental health practitioners. We are all moving online and working from home. What it seems it is going to happen, at least for quite a few of my colleagues, cause they are enjoying it and their clients enjoy to receive psychotherapy online and so, some of my colleagues are dropping their offices are leaving their offices and they will start working from home. Maybe, even after the COVID-19. 

Now, in terms of others changes it would be in terms of my clients I feel this context of the COVID-19 has given us an opportunity to address unresolved issues from the past that are emerging now in this context of uncertainty and fear and this is really rich for all those unfinished problems, unresolved trauma to emerge and we have a chance to work that now and to resolve those unfinished issues from the past. And maybe in terms more of a broad comment; I think that there is a hope that, at least from some of us, we will shift more from this individualistic position that we have been operating to more of a sense of community. What I have been experiencing is, amongst my community of mental health practitioners, there is a coming together, there is a lot more support that we are offering each other and a lot more solidarity. So, maybe, we will move on to something more community based.

Hello, everyone, here we are again, this time I will contact you with a message in Italian. So thank you once again for this opportunity and the question what are the positive aspects that this coronavirus is bringing to our lives on a personal, community and even global level. First of all, at the world level, I would not expand very much, I would not want to generalize on information that we already know, if I think about the effects on climate change, in the sense that we have not solved the aspect of solving the problem, but we certainly have contributed with a lifestyle that fortunately led us to stay at home and instead face the situation while staying at home, and therefore in fact reducing consumption which can worsen the situation from the point of view of climate change. So in terms of the climate aspect, the other positive aspects that I can mention worldwide ...   

I would like to mention and talk about my housing reality. I live in a social housing or co-housing, which is a residential site that wants to recover the old relationships of mutual aid, mutual aid between inhabitants. We share common spaces inside, once called the old court, and we recover in this way, rediscovering a sense of community that we previously took for granted. My social housing is social by definition and therefore we often organize events, remote aperitifs, or flower and nursery activities, in shifts of course, because we have vegetable gardens, planters in common. We improvise conversations between balcony and balcony, as was done once with the old railing houses that are typical of northern Italy, or as was done in southern Italy, the tradition of small villages, small towns. Each family usually went to the elderly, sitting on the doorstep, until late evening or night. We celebrated, we spent time, we also organized jobs, or we continued to do housework, that's what I discovered - rediscovered being among us. 

Clearly the virus has taught us something not only from this point of view but also from the personal point of view. So I go down to the personal level, the new self-knowledge, the dialogue that a person can make, rediscovering his many souls. Rediscovering the many souls that animate the house too, therefore that dialogue is not only with his own if, but many members of the house and personalities. 

Other opportunities lie in the public point of view, such as the dematerialization of offices, and paper, the digitization of public administration and the very important role of smart working or smart school, which unfortunately we discovered with an unforgivable delay compared to other countries, especially northern European countries that used it already. Now it finally arrived in Italy. Or the infinite possibilities of online communication that have always broken down barriers. So these are all the opportunities that this virus has left us, as a rich legacy, which is making us discover the tradition of the new concept of community flanked by technology that supports us and keeps up with modern times. 

Here I hope I have answered your questions and if there are other opportunities, I am available, I am Vincenza, I am calling from Milan and we are still at home, in quarantine. A hug to all of you. 

I am rather pessimistic and have little trust in the possibility of changing our economic system, which imposed its principles also on our private lives. When the pandemic has begun many people around me started to see in it a chance for humans to wake up from a consumer lethargy, and for the system to change. I saw it from the beginning rather black and had dark thoughts. They confirmed partly by some of my friends, who had complained about the inability to go to the store like Ikea and buy something new for home. On the other hand, also because of what is happening in Spain, the people are obliged to buy in the nearest supermarket, which means they are unable to support for example food cooperatives or small ecological stores, which are located in another district. So practically the entire food market is focused on large supermarkets, which once again shows that the crisis will lead us to strengthen those units, those institutions, that were already strong and had capital, but destroy these small institutions, small businesses, small farmers. 

As always, simply those who are big will come out of the crisis unscathed, while the fall will affect the smallest and most vulnerable. I hear however that more and more people start to grow their own food, that the market anxiety and the uncertainty whether in a month or two months it will be possible to buy lettuce or cucumbers in the store, makes people reach for seeds, reach for their own gardens and start their own cultivation, what is positive. Also, some countries are already closing exports of their own food products, e.g. Romania and Serbia, trying to protect their own market. And in Poland it is going to be difficult anyway, as the drought, which is said to be the largest in past hundred years, is ahead of us - we see its consequences already, it will be very difficult to grow food. 

The crisis is to me a sad possibility to violate human rights as well. When the main media keeps dealing with pandemic, the weakest and their needs are being forgotten, it is not being told how their rights are violated. Whether the crisis will be a chance for a change or not depends on how the society behaves, what I unfortunately see pessimistic. 

I feel that after the crisis, when we will be finally able to leave our houses freely, some fights will start: fights for jobs, private fights, between private individuals, rather individualistic than collectivist thinking (will dominate), while collectivism could lead us to a change in the system and taking power in societies own hands. And I think that this crisis will cause more gathering of power and capital in large institutions. "

Hi, my name is Flora, I'm 9 years old and I'm doing this message with my mom. The good things right now are family games and quizzes during confinement, which is actually a preventive measure to avoid the spread of the virus while waiting to have masks to protect us. Indeed, apart from these masks that we are impatiently waiting for, it would be good to stop the relocation of companies. Delocalisted production explains the delay in the supply of masks for all French people, while we would be able to manufacture them in France too. Then, another positive point is the consumption of local French products, fruit, vegetables, meat etc.

I am Maria from Brazil, living in Sweden. What positive things did Corona bring to me? It is tricky to say because a lot of people are suffering and you kind of feel guilty about feeling grateful in a situation where a lot of people are feeling sad. But for me, the whole situation brought a lot of light into my life, a lot of things became more clear to me: what are the important things, and what are the non-important things? I heard that quote that said: "When everything is uncertain, the things that are important become more clear". And I think for me, that is the Corona-crisis. It made me forget all the chit chat of life, and all the nonsense that sometimes you focus on. It made me reflect and realise: what do I actually want to do with my life and who do I want to do it with? I am not sure how things will be after this, but I definitely will not look at my life in the same way.

Ok about the Coronavirus...What is the positive thing that this virus or this Pandemic created is that you get to slow down. You get to just stay at home realise what are those things that you deprive yourself from doing if you are a very busy person. You get to cook for yourself you get to be with your loved ones just at home. Things that you do not realise while you are very busy with your career, with what you usually do every day. This crisis gave you the time to reflect on the things that... Oh, I have never done this, I have never done my laundry, I have never been this productive for a day. While on the other hand, the major opportunity is that it is very obvious that the world is not prepared for anything that is as bad as this. No movement in the economy and financially everyone is struggling. Well not everyone. Financially it greatly affected everything. Health. Even the most advanced health system can be crippled by a pandemic that is not excepted to come in the first quarter of the year. It shows there the balance between the advantages and the disadvantages. Basically, we have learned how to see the bigger picture because this involves the world.

My name is Maria, I am 28 and I work as a language teacher in Berlin. I see many things in these times that can positively influence our society.  I think, for example, that we normally live in a very routinised world, getting up, going to work, to university, studying, etc. This crisis, this quarantine, has pulled us out of it and held a mirror up to us. Suddenly, all the problems that our society has had are much more visible. We suddenly see the homeless, the loneliness and the fragility of the old people in the elderly homes. Suddenly we see the loneliness of children who cannot cope alone without the help of adults, without the help of teachers to learn. I believe there is a great room for development and improvement in our societies. I hope that after this crisis we continue to think about the vulnerable people, the so-called "group at risk". That we do not ignore them. Myself, I write postcards every week to my friends who are isolated in elderly homes. The big challenge is to continue to maintain trust and solidarity after the crisis.

My name is Gabriela, I'm from Chile, I was living a little more than a year in Portugal, and in January, February, I moved to Germany, on a working holiday. I went back to Chile to leave my things and to see my family two months to later go back to work, and unfortunately or perhaps for the better, the coronavirus situation happened while I was here. I am from Valparaiso, and well I am very grateful that I have been here with my family. Obviously going to Germany and starting from scratch with little contacts there, the situation would have been perhaps less easy, so this is a very positive aspect. And the rest, really, gives material to a lot of analysis, everything that we are living, on a political and social level... I do hope that this situation serves to rethink things, on a personal level, because obviously the other situations, rather political aspects and more, is beyond our reach, but internally I think it is a favourable moment to reassess ourselves, make decisions, and try to see what aspect we can improve, taking advantage of all the time we have available now. So my message is that, that we take a little time to analyze what we want, what we can improve and be grateful for the time we have now with our loved ones.

Hi! My name is Aida, and I am originally from Colombia. Right now I am doing an internship at the United Nations Organisation in Copenhagen, Denmark. Personally I think that the Coronavirus is giving us an opportunity, in my field, the aid industry, to focus on local people and local staff. In the development sector you see a lot of foreigners, usually from the Global North, going to the Global South to collaborate and support infrastructural, or educational projects, children rights etc.  Right now, this so-called crisis is allowing us to see how important the local staff is, which is another way of empowering the professionals, the people that have been working within and for the community. If COVID would not have taken place, things would remain business as usual. People go travel to work, and several times local people are not taken into account, because simply the foreigners have more skills or more experience. It is very important to support, assist and see with different eyes the way of how development works.  I also think that it is a great opportunity to see business as usual...not as usual. Meaning what? Meaning that the normal was wrong. That the way we were doing things is not the way we shall do. We were used to have some behaviours and beliefs that hurt the nature. And now you can see that a new normal is taking place with this Coronavirus. Perhaps there are a lot of opportunities. Of course, sadly, there are victims, people suffering. For example in my home country, a lot of people are starting to be hungry, because there are not enough jobs, there is not enough basic needs supply by the government. Of course, there is sadness around, there are victims, but this is an opportunity to learn, I believe.