Thursday, May 7, 2020 - 10:02 Leo Olivero

In a 1959 speech, John F. Kennedy famously said: “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis is composed of two characters’ one represents danger and the other represents opportunity.”

Experts in the field of work of national security spend their working life advising and attempting to predict, prevent, and prepare for potential crises across all spheres of national security: from political, economic; in the military arena and terrorism. There are also organisations like the World Health Organisation who do a similar type of work.

During my professional working life, I had occasion to know and work with such people. Really good security advisers stand out, they are a breed apart from the rest when discussing and planning these sensitive issues round a conference table or out in the field.

Crisis and Rise of Unexpected Talent

I know from experience, that a crisis, (though not one on the scale as the current one) has a way of letting the cream rise to the top, so to speak. During a crisis, those with the right skill sets and talent, even if they are not the recognised or known expected leaders or top performers, have a way of rising to meet the challenge, creating a self-motivated environment enabling others or a group to grow closer and work better together. It does however also have an opposite effect on others.

The Coronavirus pandemic is a crisis of gigantic proportions, considered as a “perfect storm” where globally, it should have helped to see better and to decentralise many national problems into a more global context, generally, to better understand the pandemic from an international perspective.

Government feverishly Planning

Crises like the current one, are generally viewed as dangerous, expensive, and detracting from the national and world agendas and priorities. However, a look back in history confirms that a crisis and severe threats to life, economies and people’s way of life, can also be valuable for directing a country and the world to another way of life… if planned for the right reasons?

This, is much of what national governments, very much like ours, are currently feverishly planning. Where already, changes are slowly being announced in a phased manner, with the hope, it will potentially bring Gibraltar out of the crisis.

The magnitude of the response must match the scale of the crisis. Gibraltar has done well in this response. The Rock moved decisively from the containment phase of the policy response to protecting the vulnerable and mitigating the consequences.

Already, its abundantly clear, that this crisis is not confined to public health. Gibraltar, like all other societies, is undergoing a multiple endurance test for all the systems that make up our modern existence. This week, we have heard how the Government intends to bring us out into a new post-crisis Gibraltar!

It’s also, where if the early salvos announced this week are anything to go by, ‘questions’ need to be answered as to the magnitude and thinking behind the Governments early response?

Although, what we have heard so far this week, few things make sense. In fact, they appear out of proportion, when you think the heighten emergency health stance still remains in place!!!

As companies, organisations and industries race to adapt to the ever-changing climate that Covid-19 thrust on them and the world, one thing is clear: disruption and sacrifices of the last few months is still our new normal. Now we have been landed with more, while still in lockdown and indirectly warned. Prepare for the more!

As the title of this report suggests, ‘Government vision of easing us out of lockdown is ‘questionable’… of course it is?