Wednesday, April 8, 2020 - 09:23 Leo Olivero

The turn of events, regarding UK premier Boris Johnson health who remains in intensive care at St Thomas hospital in London, after his condition worsened. Should be a stark reminder to all of us ‘that the coronavirus will spare no one’ no matter who they are in life, including leading politicians!

The news yesterday, of Boris Johnson reverberated around the world. It also confirmed, that although the virus spares no one:

It also highlighted, the important role politicians, especially political leaders, play in our daily lives, much more than what many people can possibly imagine!

Life After Covid-19 is Yet an Unknown Factor

The reality of life, of a post-Covid-19 is not yet known. Particularly, the consequences for (our) businesses, organisations, the economy, and society as a whole? Even, how things will unfold in the many months ahead during the rest of 2020 and beyond.

What Gibraltar, including the many other global nations needs right now, is serious shrewd, value-driven, and intensive leadership. Like the saying goes, “A crisis does not build character, it reveals it.”

Last week, in a related Covid report, I highlighted we were all in ‘uncharted waters’ there’s no political rule book, road map or any political leadership glossary when the stakes are high. There’s certainly, no playbook for what to do in the face of this 21st Century pandemic in an age of global technology?

Contrasting Global Responses to the Crises

Already, we have witnessed, some contrasting initial political responses to the virus from across the world. One, that stands out, was the way Donald Trump after weeks of ‘twittering’ on his presidential phone, someone in the ‘Whitehouse’ manged to get through to Trump and convince him that this is an emergency, but probably did so, somewhat belatedly, particularly, if you’re an American and are witnessing in real-time, how many of your fellow countrymen have died to C-19 in such a short period of time.

Trump, at various points, sent loads of useless online messages, which themselves, further alarmed the world’s money markets. He even declared himself a “war leader”, but even today, fails to convince. And all this, after many thousands of Americans are very sadly dropping like flies. And while this is happening, Trump is seriously talking, getting things back to some normality - soon!

Responses, by heads of governments to the C-19 have been strikingly varied, some have dithered and denied, with others, motivated by personal interests, distrust of science or fears or of causing economic chaos. The latter issue on economies, most countries have accepted to be one of the most important post-Covid top priorities!