Now, that’s a brain-teaser and a bewildering new
subject matter for researchers, in the context of disaster mitigation!

What is going so wrong in Italy?  The European country is the epicenter of
Covid-19 with its deaths catastrophically outnumbering that of China where the
contagion broke out.

China’s Wuhan city will be remembered for its
draconian lockdown of 11 million people as the new corona virus sent shivers
around the world. Reportedly, just two months later, the city is opening up to
a new lease of life.  Meanwhile, in
Italy, many weeks after a lockdown, but with a coating of democracy, the death
toll is only rising with ferocity.

Also in England, a champion of democracy, Premier
Boris Johnson, struggled to take away people’s liberty with its own concept of
lockdown enamored in democracy.

In Sri Lanka,
with a former military wizard at the helm of its democracy, an impressively
effective handling of the crisis is seemingly only getting more effective as
military top brass runs the show with retired officers being appointed to many
key positions.  Perhaps, unlike China,
Sri Lanka looks to be balancing democracy better with its tough handling of the
situation.

In this
backdrop, as well as, socio-economic situations pre-Covid, an argument for
democracy’s fatal deficiencies or a case for authoritarian rule with the face
of benevolence is rising.  However, the
focus of our research is how a raging national disaster may be handled – to
save lives and economies from peril!

Published 2nd Of April 2020