On Monday, citizens of Belgium engaged in demonstration in protest over the harsh economic conditions brought about, essentially, by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukraine conflict.
Seventy to eighty thousand people, including workers and unions, were said to be involved in the action that was widely reported by the international media.
The action comes at a time climate change is wreaking havoc on several European, Asian and even African countries that are caught in battles to intervene in evacuation exercise occasioned by flooding.
Without any shred of doubt, this is no time to envy the politician. Yet, we are required as citizens to have hope and innovate, whilst government seeks abiding solutions.
Responsible public responses
Scanning these reports on how citizens of various nations are reacting to the spectre of crisis the world has been caught in, nowhere do we find demonstrators burning tyres or looting or attacking policemen and journalists. Again, nowhere do we find angry youth consciously engaging in clearly ill-motivated subversive activities.
Yes, we saw placards that carried relevant, even if pungent, political messages. But such messages are intended at getting governments to innovate and act fast.
The need for such responsible responses is the reason why the Minister of Finance, for instance, is expected to be in Parliament to tell the nation, through its honourable representatives, how far we have come and the hurdles we collectively have to surmount.
Global partnerships
On a larger plane, however, because the crisis is global, and we need sustained partnerships that proffer sustainable solutions, multilateral institutions are daily interacting and constructing structures to address the issues to impact the ordinary citizen.
That certainly is the reason why agencies of the European Union, World Bank and IMF as well as the Africa Development Bank and agencies of the UN have been busy conferring and consulting to design and coordinate relevant strategies.
It is also the basis for the President having to fly out to attend the 15th edition of the European Development Days forum in Brussels, Belgium, and top that up with another session of Commonwealth Nations coming on in Kigali, Rwanda.
Again, that is the reason why Israel is signing an agreement with other EU entities to help rescue the international community in the matter of the rising fuel costs at a time Ukraine has just been threatened by Russia over grain exports to importing countries.
Staying on board
At this point, the prudent and positive thing any people or nation can do is to develop partnerships, and share ideas and experiences in scooping a collective victory.
Every captain of a ship or crew or passenger knows that when they are confronted with a storm, the natural thing is not for each party to jump off the ship. It is time for each to deploy brain and brawn in managing the situation so they can collectively sail to safe harbour.
That, in the opinion of the Daily Statesman, is what our people’s representatives and the Executive must do at this critical point in the nation’s history, in collectively taking decisions and implementing measures to surmount our current challenges.
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