The indomitable human spirit

It was 4.5 billion years ago when a tiny object took its rightful place in the Universe. Compared to the gargantuan size of the Universe, this object seemed no bigger than a grain of sand on a beach, but revolving around the Sun in the Milky Way Galaxy, this object literally means the world to us, no pun intended.

By now you must have guessed that the tiny object that I am referring to is planet Earth. But it has not been all smooth sailing for our planet. Throughout the last few billion years of its existence, our planet has seen several disasters, that have struck it with great regularity. With the little understanding that humans have about planet earth, scientific evidence has pointed out that one of the worst mass extinction events in the planet's history, wiping out up to 96% of all its inhabitants, took place around 252 million years ago. Then about 201 million years ago, another disaster struck and this time around 80% of species disappeared off the face of the earth. No one is sure about the cause of these events, but huge volcanic eruptions may have been to blame. 65 million years ago, a large rock from outer space smashed into the planet and the resulting dust and debris blocked out sunlight for years and Earth suffered another mass extinction. The dinosaurs were the most conspicuous casualties.

Of course, all these events occurred before the appearance of the current dominant species on the planet. The homo sapiens species could never have imagined the unpredictable world that they were introduced into some 200,000 years ago. One of the first major challenge was thrown at mankind about 74,000 years ago when the Toba super volcano in Indonesia erupted, plunging the Earth into a cold and dark era for several years. Similar volcanic explosions appeared with great regularity across the globe wiping out large sections of the global population. Add to this, the pandemics that have swept the world throughout history. The Justinian Plague appeared in Egypt in 541 A.D and spread through the Middle East and into the heart of the Roman Empire in Mediterranean Europe altering the plans of Roman Empire and changing the course of the political landscape forever. The plague ate up about 50 million people over 2 centuries. In 1350, bubonic plague more infamously known as the Black Death was responsible for the death of a third of the world’s human population. In 1520, the indigenous South American Aztec population was all but destroyed by a tiny smallpox virus. In these CoVID times, we have been regularly reminded about the last pandemic that struck the earth in the 20th century when the Spanish Flu resulted in 50 million deaths worldwide in the 1918 flu. Though the Corona Virus stats of around 450,000 deaths is a mere trifle in comparison to these gargantuan figures, it is not just the 7 million people that have tested positive for the virus that have caused the major issue for human beings but the economic fallout.

Perhaps one of the best-known examples of a survivor is the Jellyfish which is known to have been around for more than 500 million years. Yes, that’s right! The jellyfish actually survived all the disasters that I just mentioned!

Today, the COViD situation has thrown life out of gear as we know it for billions of people. But everywhere we are hearing about incredible stories of survivors who beat the virus.

When was the last time life threw a curveball at you - when you had to rise like the proverbial phoenix out of the ashes and rebuild your life? A few days ago, I was watching the movie Wolverine where the chief antagonist Yashida watches in horror as the city of Nagasaki is buried under rubble in a nuclear strike by the US. But Yashida who epitomizes the indomitable spirit of Japan rebuilds his life and fortunes to eventually become the most powerful person in Japan.

So, let’s look at a few basic steps to survive the COViD-19 conundrum and be another Yashida:

1.      For starters, focus on your debt. It’s that time of the millennium when you have to talk to your bankers about moratorium, longer tenors, and probably even negotiate an interest rate reduction or restructuring.

2.      You may want to look at increasing your emergency cash by liquidating high value assets which are not really necessary at this point in time, saving maintenance costs as well.

3.      We are seeing bouts of revival in stock markets around the world and it is a good time to cash in on investments that have already made the cut and achieved profit objectives.

4.      It goes without saying that now would be as good a time as any other to alter your lifestyle to cut down unnecessary spending and stick to a budget.

5.      Use your time wisely during these CoVID times. Physical fitness would most probably have taken a beating and a mushrooming of online yoga platforms are an indication of the ‘Laissez Faire’ principles of Adam Smith. But it is not just the physical fitness that has probably taken a toll. The World Health Organisation has, in addition to recommending simple daily physical exercises, also advocated to minimize news feeds and screen time – thus focusing on mental health as well. Maintaining a regular schedule can avoid the ‘work from home’ stretching to late night hours.

6.      Use this once in a lifetime (hopefully) opportunity to upgrade your skillsets and technical education in your line of work. Catch up on your reading and watch all the Oscar classics that you’ve missed.

Today life has seemingly thrown a curveball straight at us, just when we least expected it. How are we reacting to this situation? Will we be like the dinosaur which just simply became extinct or the jellyfish that has stoically remained unmoved and unaffected as it coolly adapted to its new normal?