Wade Watts becomes a better global citizen when he reconnects to the real world in Ernest Cline’s novel ‘Ready Player One.’ Tye Sheridan stars as Watts in Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation.
(2018 edition of 'Ready Player One'/Penguin Random House)
The bestselling novel turned film exposes paradoxes of fixing a broken system with its own tools. As we collectively meditate on the world’s problems, why not imagine better worlds?
When restricting the movement of their citizens to slow down the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, low income countries should tailor measures to local socio-economic circumstances.
Franz Xavier Winterhalter’s ‘The Decameron’ (1837).
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If the government seeks to reduce its massive deficit by cutting public spending after the pandemic subsides, this will burden the poor and public sector workers, increasing inequality.
Staying home is easier for some than others.
Jane Barlow/PA Wire/PA Images
Research shows teachers in US private and privileged public schools inflate grades due to pressure from students and parents. This could happen in Australia if we cancel year 12 exams.
Children play in the Blikkiesdorp township in Cape Town.
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
South Africa won’t flatten the COVID-19 pandemic curve unless all citizens have the means to stay at home. But for many, it’s either they stay at home and starving, or go out to make a living.
Health of society depends on a decent social welfare system, absence of extreme poverty and inequality.
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COVID-19 has brought to the fore the interdependency of business and society. It’s time for amendments to the social contract that underlies societal support for business.
An unemployed man in Diepsloot, Johannesburg, collects trash for resale before South Africa went into a Covid-19 lockdown.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
Ian Goldin, University of Oxford et Robert Muggah, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)
The consequences will be far more severe and long lasting in poorer countries.
South Africa’s Alexandra township in the foreground, where the majority live in squalor, and Sandton in the background, representing the most privileged
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Most consumers in South Africa aren’t able to fill up a trolley of groceries for their daily needs, let alone join the panic buying induced by the COVID-19 pandemic.