Let’s recognize that we are in a great crisis in Dominican Republic and on a global level

The pace of the COVID-19 pandemic, without distinguishing countries or people, will take more human lives than any modern warfare of our time.

The bleak picture is completed with the foreseeable economic debacle, the realm of collective uncertainty, and the risk of losing the stability gained. In short, we are in the midst of a great crisis unprecedented in history.

Now that a new government, the result of the electoral contest of July 5, will take over the country, recognizing this special local and global circumstance, with all its derived consequences, as if it were a tacit national consensus, is the first step in the process of solving the present great crisis.

In the opinion of the experienced North American professor at the University of California, Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize winner, in his most recent book: “CRISIS: HOW COUNTRIES REACT IN DECISIVE MOMENTS,” which is very timely to read in the current moments of pandemic crisis and changes politicians, in a relationship of 12 factors that influence the outcome of national crises, states as first: “The national consensus that the country is in a crisis situation.”

Although Diamond published this last book in November 2019, and the virus was officially recognized in late December of the same year, in a recent interview he stated that the arguments put forth in his work “can be applied to people, companies and countries alike, both in daily life and in these pandemic times.”

He is also the author of the world bestseller “Weapons, Germs, and Steel,” where he expounds on global problems that pose threats to the survival of the human species, such as nuclear risk, climate change, the depletion of natural resources and inequality, reaffirms that the coronavirus “represents a global crisis that demands global solutions, but those who seek to resolve separately without coordination make mistakes” their containment or elimination.

And he clarifies with an example in his dialogue with Hugo Alconada Mon, of the Argentine newspaper La Nación, from Los Angeles: “Even if Argentina manages to eliminate the coronavirus within Argentina, Argentines would become infected again just by receiving flights from Peru, Mexico, Spain or China.”

“To this is added that COVID-19 will not be the last great epidemic that we will face, he anticipates, but even so, it is very likely that it will take us by surprise again unless we learn not to stumble over and over again with the same stone, how two countries as dissimilar as Vietnam and Finland came to understand this.”

What are the twelve lessons that Jared Diamond teaches in his book to face a crisis? “Recognize that you are in a crisis; take responsibility, avoiding victimhood and self-pity; delimit and define which areas should be corrected for the better and what other areas are out of the discussion; obtain material and emotional help from other individuals, groups or countries and adopt reference models to solve problems.”

“Strengthen personal ego or national identity; face an honest self-assessment; learn from past personal or national crisis experience; be patient in the face of failure; promote a culture of flexibility; reaffirm and uphold the fundamental values, whether of the person or the country; and free oneself from personal or institutional conditioning that may hinder the necessary changes.”

Let us recognize all Dominicans, government, and society, that we are facing a great crisis and, united, we act free of political or social ties to overcome this virus, since nothing is more important in life than life itself.