Writing through Pandemonium

There is no aspect of life untouched by this global pandemic, whether health, environment, inequity, corporate responsibility, urban planning, food security—and much more. As we and our organizations each search for the most effective ways to respond, op-eds offer a crucial venue for raising new perspectives, shaping public conversations and illuminating the way forward. And new perspectives are vitally needed.  

The Aspen New Voices Fellows are a group of exceptional thinkers and leaders who spend a year teamed up with mentors to to use opinion pieces, public speaking, social media and storytelling to help shape national and global debates on crucial issues.  Throughout this health crisis, they continue to write with clarity of purpose in the midst of pandemonium. 

Criminalizing contagion  One op-ed by lawyer Safura Karim calls attention to the dangers of criminalizing the spread of disease. In South Africa charges of attempted murder, in the United States charges of terrorism have been raised for intentional contagion. Karim draws on the history of dealing with HIV/AIDS to explain the pitfalls of such an approach, despite its potential appeal. 

From costly indulgence to essential policy Aspen New Voices Alum Maxwell Gomera grew up in a village in Zimbabwe observing local wildlife and is now Director of the Biodiversity and Land Branch at UN Environment. He argues that “to prevent future pandemics, we need to stop two far more pervasive human practices: the relentless destruction and conversion of wildlife habitats to croplands and the uncontrolled harvesting of wild species.” Rather than seeing investments in nature as “costly indulgences,” we should understand them as a critical first step to protecting human health.

Surving Ebola to fight Covid-19 Adaora Okoli, a medical doctor who survived infection with the Ebola virus in Liberia, writes about how the Ebola outbreak of 2014-16 underscored two truths of global crisis response: fundraising during emergencies seldom works, and the UN's general emergency-response fund is inadequate to pick up the slack. She calls for the creation of a separate global fund, focused on disease outbreaks, to prepare for the next pandemic. 

I have been honored to work with New Voices Fellows as a mentor and coach since the class of 2015. I am continuously inspired by their courage and determination. It is time to take a breath and realize that however vulnerable we may sometimes feel, we are not powerless.  Like the Aspen New Voices Fellows, we can use our voices to influence both the course of this pandemic and the future of our communities, our countries and the world.