Chance to create new world order

The current global crisis exposes the need for a global rethink and reset. It creates new opportunities, but also new challenges.

The question is: will there be a real effort in the wake of this pandemic to right the wrongs of the past; to address the fault lines of societies globally; and to create a fairer and more equal world. Or will the rich and the powerful find ways to again cement a system that serves them best.

What the world needs right now is global thinking as opposed to narrow group or tribal thinking. The world needs leaders with inclusive world views.

Sadly, leaders with those qualities have been rare throughout the ages.

It takes a special brand of people to be able to see the world through the eyes of those outside their own herds or tribes.

In South Africa we had been blessed by people such as Nelson Mandela and Beyers Naude. The worlds in which their minds were shaped equipped them with the vision and mental strength to feel comfortable outside the boxes erected around them by ideology, religion and politics.

During challenging times the natural instinct is to adopt a herd mentality and withdraw into a laager. We are already observing a tendency towards nationalism, tribalism and isolationism in many countries.

The current pandemic has once again underlined the interdependence within countries and between countries and the need to work together across divides.

In an interdependent world, leaders capable of thinking global are also better equipped to act local.

Dawie Jacobs Sterrewag, Pretoria