World of research and equity

Just 25 doses of vaccines against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have been given to one of the lowest-income countries in Africa 

Wednesday, 31 March 2021

We are living in the 21st century in which people are always concerned about ‘individual’ identity than ‘the identity of the world’. This is being observed as ‘identical’ across countries, regions, nations, cultures, ethnic groups as well as religions. The repercussions of this can be seen from the point of view of violence and conflicts. 

At the moment all of us are experiencing a disaster with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. As World Health Organization (WHO) reports, “The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide and presents an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems and the world of work. The economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic is devastating: tens of millions of people are at risk of falling into extreme poverty, while the number of undernourished people, currently estimated at nearly 690 million, could increase by up to 132 million by the end of the year (WHO, 13 October 2020)”.

In this context, we have to question whether the researchers are addressing the manifest problem rather than the latent problem which can be considered as important for investigation. The research architecture in the world should be governed by the agenda which always deals with something that should touch the Hearts, Minds, and Souls (HMS) of people in terms of Governance, Conscience as well as Relations (HCR) regarding the wellbeing of Human, Animal, and the Earth (HAE).

As an example, BBC in the article published recently titled “Covid: Rich states ‘block’ vaccine plans for developing nations” discussed one of the important facets of the problem. According to BBC, “equitable access to vaccines is essential to prevent cases and deaths and to contribute to global population immunity”. And also, Jishnu (2021) in the article “COVID-19 vaccines: African countries get very few doses at very high prices” cited following interesting remarks: “This is a number of shame and disgrace: 25. Just 25 doses of vaccines against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have been given to one of the lowest-income countries in Africa. Not 25 million, 25 thousand, or even 25 hundred. A total of just 25! A shaken Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Head of the World Health Organization (WHO), told the executive board meeting of the organisation in January. It was later revealed that the country is Guinea, one of the world’s 29 low-income countries, all but five of which are in Africa (Jishnu, 2021)”.

The same pattern of thinking of ‘own identity’ among ‘nations’ can be seen in ‘individuals’ as well. The wellbeing of Human, Animal, and the Earth (HAE) has been ignored purely because of the ignorance of universal law. The COVID-19 has issued a message for the world on this ‘ignorance’. But people misinterpret this just focusing on their ‘own-identity’.

The time has come for everyone to reflect and align their practices with HAE. Which might be one of the best practices in sustainable mindfulness as well.

(This article has been prepared based on the message sent to Second International Virtual Conference on Development Education (IVCDE 2021) organised by the Asian Society of Teachers for Research, Philippines.)