School closures under coronavirus have raised significant risks for vulnerable students who face maltreatment and exposure to violence. Here are five priorities to address when reopening schools.
Significant numbers of key workers barely make the minimum wage.
A woman carries a bucket of fresh water to an informal settlement in Khayelitsha, near Cape Town. South Africa has the widest wealth gap in the world.
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A wealth tax on the top 1% of South Africans could raise R143 billion. This corresponds to 29% of the R500 billion COVID-19 package announced by the government.
Small businesses in Brooklyn closed during the coronavirus epidemic.
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
The pandemic magnifies existing imbalances in wealth, access to health care and workplace rights.
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.
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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.
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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.