Coronavirus
Philippines: Covid-19 will devastate the poor
Flaviano Villanueva was in tears last Thursday. It was day five of the “enhanced community quarantine” in Metro Manila, where the priest runs a homeless centre. The sprawling…
Pandemic peace or anarchical world?
A number of leading thinkers have expressed optimism about the political and social implications of the Covid-19 pandemic, predicting everything from a newfound civic nationalism…
In India, praying the Covid away
Crises have a way of shining a penetrating light and exposing the fissures in a society – or conversely, the exact nature of what holds it together. It is something we are seeing…
The many prescriptions for isolation
Among the weapons Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison has deployed in the early stages of the battle to slow the spread of the coronavirus was an appeal for the assertion of…
Covid-19 and migration: Europe must resist a populist pill
Last week, the European Union closed all Schengen area borders in an attempt to stem the coronavirus pandemic, of which the Old Continent is now the epicentre.
This drastic…
Three years working in self-isolation – what I’ve learned, so far
Of course, we never called it “self-isolation” before now. Colleagues would instead joke down the line, “How’s shed life?” in reference to Interpreter HQ. You see, while the Lowy…
Commentary
China is rewriting coronavirus history and nobody will stop it
In an opinion piece published in the Nikkei Asian Review, Natasha Kassam argues that China has leapt on the opportunity to shape the global narrative about its response to…
Coronavirus and the Hong Kong protest movement
For authorities in both Hong Kong and in Beijing, there must be, in some circles, something of a sense of relief. The pro-democracy protests that defined 2019 had become a deadly…
Commentary
West must face its viral demons
It may be the global politics of the pandemic, rather than COVID-19 itself, that proves our undoing.
Originally published in the Australian Financial Review
Commentary
Vital to focus on fiscal policy as recession inevitable
It goes without saying that the medical response to the pandemic should have the highest policy priority ... On the economics of the pandemic, initial reactions have been…