Opinion / Tyler Brûlé
Enough is enough
Over the coming days, many in the northern hemisphere will be shaking off the sand, shuttering summer houses and preparing for the great race to the year’s end. Or will they? While many are hopeful that schools will reopen and parents can go back to work, that companies will loosen their work-from-home policies and there can be a return to desks – not all businesses and governments have the same ambitions. For months we’ve heard from CEOs, heads of state, senior ministers and assorted policy folk, all talking about the need to get the economy going while ensuring “safe” environments (“Is any environment truly safe?” I hear you ask.) But nearly half a year into this pandemic, our hard-won trust is being eroded, confidence sapped and fundamental rights stripped – yes, Australia, you’re starting to resemble some former Soviet-era state.
Since March, Monocle has been living a tale of two cities. In London one part of our team has had to endure slow government responses, confused messages from the cabinet, scare-mongering media and a nannying approach to managing the population. In Zürich it’s been rather freer, with the possibility to gather, travel, and work from offices, and a fast-track approach to reopening all parts of the economy and society. Like Sweden, the Swiss route has not been without risks but, so far, it’s managed well and has done a good job to keep citizens on side by pushing as hard as possible to keep daily life looking and feeling normal. Over the past few days, however, the mood has changed. The arrival of a mask rule in shops in Zürich (from today) is seen as a turning point and has eroded confidence in all levels of government. From a previous position of being anti-mask (indeed, many in government are still against it and looking for clinical evidence about the necessity for use in shops) to now imposing the rule on shopkeepers, the formerly pragmatic Swiss approach is unravelling. It raises questions about why waiters don’t have to wear masks and why it’s OK to be in a busy restaurant without one. At the same time, quarantine roulette is becoming the new late-summer pastime as daily leaked government memos threaten more travel curbs for all corners of Europe and throw schedules into disarray. To be clear, this has to stop. Now.
Last week, Switzerland’s federal council took a “we need to live with the virus and move on” stance and it was met with positive nods up and down the country. The government in Bern now needs to come good on this. Other European capitals should follow with strong leadership and stop talking up a vaccine. As we heard from Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan on Monday, it’s time to settle in, adapt and move forward. Indeed, a vaccine might never come.
As the UK, Canada and the US head off on their big pre-autumn long weekender, the remaining French and Italians on the beaches fold up their loungers and the Bavarians wrap up their school holidays, we’ve assembled a few thoughts, provocations and truths on how we need to get things moving and rekindle what it means to have ambition, curiosity and optimism.
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We’re creatures of habit – we have good ones, we have bad ones and habits are hard to break. People need to socialise, interact and have fun. These are human traits that cannot be curbed indefinitely. Trust is already being eroded and, as one Swiss newspaper put it, “Adding mask rules is just a measure of last resort when governments have run out of ideas to show they’re acting responsibly.” Whatever happens next, the citizen needs to believe, not just adhere.
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Nothing adds up. When confronted with the absurd, all measures fall apart and are impossible to implement. “Please keep your distance in all walks of life but happy travelling in a packed TGV carriage.”
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Your company is not Google! Letting people work from home for over a year will not work for 99 per cent of companies or for society. Neighbourhoods will hollow out, property prices will plummet, the over-leveraged will default and on it goes. Having a five-year transition plan to “home office” working is one thing. Doing it overnight and then attempting to make it stick will fail.
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Fact: the pandemic saved the QR code. Hopefully a return to sanity will also kill it off as Perspex cubes that push you to download a menu are unlikely to be making much of a dent in curbing the virus. To this I would add the pepper grinder as well. I was recently told by a waitress at a fine hotel that I couldn’t have fresh ground pepper because of coronavirus. Really?
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Another fact: paper is not our enemy. That means that airlines, doctor’s offices and grand cafés should put magazines and newspapers back in circulation because paper is less likely than Perspex to retain the virus. I believe this because my doctor told me so. I have more faith in her than in the ever-changing roster of “experts” trotted out by governments.
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The imposition and abolition of quarantines that change daily across Europe make no sense. Why should the Swiss have a quarantine against Belgians and vice versa? If the infection rates are the same in both countries then it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference if you’re just as likely to get the virus in Ascona or Antwerp. And where is the leadership in this area? Is there not a Schengen executive who can explain that it’s problematic to shut national borders when regions are completely interlinked?
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Were you around in 1988? Remember Aids? Do you recall the fear and panic around the disease? We learned to live with it.
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Did you cross the street today? Did you manage to avoid the banana peel on the sidewalk? Did you overtake a car on the motorway at over 100km an hour? Life is full of risks. Yes, we work very hard to minimise them but being human comes with the thrill and threat of things going wrong. There might never be a vaccine (see above). We need to learn to live with it.
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If the WHO wants to redeem itself, it should pull Carla del Ponte (remember her?) out of retirement and start a special tribunal to put useless heads of state on trial for poor decision-making and zero leadership.
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Finally, let’s stop looking for silver linings and life-changing moments from this virus. Face it: not much good has come from these past six months. Yes, you might have lost a few kilos, discovered books, talked to your children and reacquainted yourself with extra features on the oven dial but we are not in a good place. So let’s accept that some positives have happened but we now need to pull ourselves together, find our groove and move forward. At speed.