– The world is being reshaped now, and we can choose how – NRK Urix – Foreign news and documentaries

All crises offer great opportunities. The same applies to the crown crisis, says author and historian Yuval Harari.

– The world is being remodeled now and we can choose how. Now it is governments deciding who will benefit from the crisis packages, it is now that monitoring technology is being implemented and international cooperation is now being established, Harari told NRK.

Yuval Noah Harari (44) is the author of the books “Sapiens – An Introduction to Human History” and “Homo Deus – A Brief History of Tomorrow”. The books have sold over 12 million copies in 45 different languages ​​and have been on the best-seller lists worldwide. From the central office in Israel, Harari asks all citizens to get involved in what is happening now.

– It is extremely important to monitor, not only the number of infected and dead, but also the political decisions that are being made now. It is now when we decide how the world will be after the crisis. A new global order is taking shape now, Harari told NRK.

Next year, it is too late.

– Being prime minister in 2021 will be like coming to a party after it’s over. All you can do is wash the dirty dishes. This is now the case, and we must be vigilant, says Harari, who is particularly concerned with three things: surveillance, international cooperation and the economic crisis.

I can’t win each one for us

– We are at a crossroads. We can choose solidarity and international cooperation, or we can choose nationalist isolation, says Harari.

Right now, it seems that most countries are more concerned with themselves and their own. But there are examples to the contrary: Norway is sending a team of health professionals to Italy this week. Cuba has already sent doctors to northern Italy. So has China. There is a lot of collaboration at the medical level around the world. Harari hopes that we will soon see similar cooperation between governments in different countries.

– Our most important weapon is information. The virus cannot speak, but we can. What a doctor discovers one morning in Seoul can save lives in Norway that afternoon, Harari says.

It is not possible to win against the pandemic separately, says Harari. He believes that the United States no longer has an international leadership role, which means that more countries can and should take responsibility together.

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You must protect everyone

– As long as the virus continues to spread in other countries, no one will be safe. Viruses can mutate and become even more dangerous, as happened during the Spanish disease in 1918. So it is not enough to provide a good health service to people in Norway or Israel. To protect ourselves, we must protect the entire world, says Harari.

He says the worst is yet to come: so far, the coronavirus has affected relatively wealthy countries: it has spread from East Asia to Europe to the United States.

But when the virus severely affects Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia, billions of dollars are not found in rescue packages and medical care is lacking, says Harari: So rich countries must intervene.

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Monitoring both ways

Several countries, including China, have used expanded citizen surveillance to get an overview of infection and movement patterns in the population. In Harari’s homeland, Israel, they now use technology that is generally reserved for fighting terrorism to control coronary infections. Many Norwegians were shocked when it turned out that authorities could see who was in the cabin by tracking mobile data.

Harari is concerned with how technology is used in times of crisis, to quickly normalize changes in times of crisis.

– Monitoring is not bad if done correctly. Authorities can collect health information as long as it is with health authorities and it is only used to combat the pandemic.

Equally important is that the authorities open up and allow citizens to see budgets and how decisions are made.

– We have to build a system that goes both ways. Now, rescue packages of billions of euros and dollars are being sent. Show us who receives the money and what criteria are used, says Harari.

He believes that it shouldn’t be more difficult to openly budget the budget than it has been for universities around the world to digitally transform teaching or for much of the workforce that has changed the way they work.

“A classic sign of authoritarian states is that they know a lot about me, but I know little about them,” says Harari.

Big opportunities

Harari is concerned about how biometric monitoring can be abused and that there is no need for such cooperation in the world. But a crisis like this is also full of opportunities, he says.

He hopes that the crown crisis can restore some of the confidence that has been lost in recent years.

Throughout the world we turn to professionals to understand what is happening. In the United States, government infection control doctor Anthony Fauci has almost become a people’s hero.

How do we build trust?

– We see tremendous confidence in medical science in all countries. Here in Israel the synagogues are closed, in Iran the mosques are closed. Throughout the world, Christian leaders are asking people not to attend church. It is not enough if half the population believes in the recommendations on social distancing. I hope that confidence in science survives the crisis and can be transferred to climate change, says Harari.

In the United States, a Republican president sends checks to the entire population and promises free medical care (no one knows how the follow-up will be done, he notes).

In Spain, the authorities have said that they want to continue with the civil payment even after the crisis. At the same time, millions of people have moved the workplace home almost overnight. Millions of people have lost jobs and income.

This shows how fast things are changing and how important it is to keep up to date, says Harari.

– How can social safety nets be provided to workers if traditional employment contracts disappear? Is it our way of organizing work last day? These are also questions we need to think about.

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