Covid-19 and now war: Global economy collapse is looming – Monitor

When disaster strikes on such a large-scale level as Covid-19, it has the power to make mankind kneel before it. Such is the story of the coronavirus which was declared a matter of international concern on January 30, 2020 and declared a pandemic on March 11, 2022. It took time to sink in before we knew what was happening and its mammoth impact on the times then and now. 

The world came to a standstill and stock markets began to tumble, and globally, interest rates began soaring. However, as the resilience of the economy was tested and GDP growth in most countries reported in red, the power of collectivism enabled us to get back on our feet and take up the helm of our planet, and each individual cheered our collective race on to a stage where we have survived.
Almost a century ago, the Spanish Flu which lasted from the beginning of 1918 to 1920, wiped out a larger proportion of global population, owing to lack of connectivity, transportation, biotechnology and every bit of development that human race has achieved since then. 

The death count of the Great Influenza is not exactly known but it seems much worse than what we witnessed with our times’ recent coronavirus. This pandemic has succeeded in wiping out a smaller percentage of the global populace and the death count stays at around 7 million people, with a large number of unreported deaths. 
Optimism, collectivism and humanism; three strong pillars of a situation like that led us out to victory over death. Economies are back to their robust path to recovery and the efforts of our Covid heroes deserve a special mention to get us here.
In February last year, Russia declared war on Ukraine due to geopolitical reasons and once again, we see a cause for worry as the threat of World War III is looming. For a large part of my life in the last decade and a half, I have made my peace with what happens outside, as I cannot influence anything, but we all wish things like these didn’t happen. 
A country called Ukraine is shut since a year, derailing global attention from important topics to do with health and happiness of 8 billion people who live on this planet, to a bloodbath where people don’t know whether there will be light ever.

Stock markets are tumbling once again, there is a heavy economic imbalance and sentiments of the people are getting from bad to worse. What if there really is a nuclear strike? What if Nato gets involved directly and there are clashes causing people to die, starve or are render homeless?
In the end, we are all losers, as with high inflation, high energy prices, volatile stock indices and a year later, no sign of hope, it is just a matter of time before markets begin to collapse. 

That can be a huge problem from the point of view of corporate debt defaults and liquidity crunch which can follow. This can happen all over the world, and due note should be taken that there is no alarm bell to wake anyone out of this one, if it gets from bad to worse.  Remember, people have just seen a great reset after the pandemic and this doesn’t seem like an ideal world to remorse in, or delve in. Let us hope for peace soon because there are never winners in a war! 
                Phillip Kimumwe,        [email protected]