Ever since the outbreak of the still persisting COVID-19 pandemic and the stark revelations of existing social inequalities and bold biases among humanity, I've held that explicit knowledge of the carnage of the deadly disease would compel humanity in the post COVID-19 era to adopt the the means and ways necessary to restart human relations from a point of expansive empathy and global equality.

In addition, being more of a socialist, I've also held onto the dream that the post COVID-19 era could be one of atonement for those actors responsible for historical wrongs perpetuated upon humanity from slavery to colonialism and to occupation of foreign lands - the destruction of a Black race of families; the plunder of distant lands and the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands.

Whenever the COVID-19 pandemic retracts its deadly and infectious grip from the operations of the world, humanity will emerge as a scarred species having been humbled by an invisible enemy that persisted only because humankind was an ideal host.

With global infections numbering 18,364,694 cases so far and with deaths approaching 700,000 victims worldwide, according to data from Johns Hopkins University at time of writing, the Novel Coronavirus disease has certainly made an unprecedented mark upon modern humanity that will affect multiple facets of life, including education, entertainment, employment, retail, health care and other areas for the foreseeable future.

Given the persistent severity and continuing spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in too many communities, some people may find it very difficult to peer around the corner at a post COVID-19 world. Yet, that time will come, preferably sooner rather than later, but in reality in a longer than liked period.

Via a likely viable and affordable vaccine or after more gruesome deaths and even greater infections of COVID-19 to reach a global herd-immunity, humanity will emerge on the other side of this Novel Coronavirus pandemic.

Democracy remains the most ideal of today's political systems. Yet, it has, and it wrongfully continues to get a bad critique from far too many people, myself included, who have erringly sought to condemn democracy, even though the representative system has not changed, but has severely been victimized by a bunch of bad actors leading to democracy receiving a bad rap.

Therefore, all attempts to blame democracy for any of today's failing systems or declining states, are fallible. Democracy remains well and potent as a purveyor of life, liberty, happiness, equality, opportunity and the rule of law.

All the world's people - all 7.8  billion of us, who live across the defined continents, stand exposed and vulnerable to the deadly and highly contagious COVID-19 pandemic, which has already infected 16.8 million people worldwide and killed more than 662,000. 

The Novel Coronavirus, in lieu of any viable vaccine to fight the pesky pathogen, has demonstrated that it could strike at humanity wherever and whenever it readily finds hosts and to leave in its wake, events of frightful infections and gruesome deaths.

I telephoned the Barbados Ambassador to the United States (US) Noel Lynch, an associate of mine, earlier this afternoon to express my condolences at the passing of his dear friend, Owen Seymour Arthur, the sixth Prime Minister of Barbados, which gained independence from Great Britain, November 30, 1966. 

Arthur died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Bridgetown, Barbados, about 12:26 a.m. July 27, 2020, according to the Nation News, a daily newspaper I once penned for on the island, my birth land.

The Novel Coronavirus and its associated COVID-19 pandemic, continues to wreck modern day unprecedented devastation upon humanity with soaring infections and gruesome deaths across the globe amid no scientific evidence suggesting the highly contagious disease would disappear anytime soon. 

At the time of writing, according to data supplied by Johns Hopkins University, worldwide confirmed infections of the contagion numbered a staggering 15,594,551 cases with a grim death toll of 634,594.

Thus far, the wealthiest nation on the planet, the United States (US), has recorded the greatest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths: 4,073,243 infections, and 144,780 deaths.

I had no intentions to opine on any actions by the People's Republic of China (PRC) toward its Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong nor on any allegations made in Xinjiang. I made my decision - an evolved, more mature and realistic analysis, based upon a belief that the matters referenced were Chinese domestic issues, best settled between the people and their government, and under a shameful knowledge of continued racial inequality, social injustice and division in the United States (US), as well as the thought that "one needs to wipe the cold from one's own eyes before attempting to wipe it from another's eyes".

A good man, a decent man, a humble man and a definer of modern America died yesterday. John Lewis, the great Civil Rights icon and a member of the United States (US) House of Representatives for the 5th Congressional District, in Georgia, has died at age-80 following his revelation last December that he was battling stage-four pancreatic cancer. 

His compassion for humanity was unmatched and his entire life was spent in the advocacy, protection and work for not just civil rights, but all human rights.

Given the persistent, infectious and deadly prevalence of COVID-19 amongst humanity, the responsibility to containing the pesky pathogen rests with the people in spite of any obligation of government, or the lack thereof, towards snuffing out the destructive disease.

With growing worldwide COVID-19 infections surpassing 13-million cases and with deaths exceeding 574,000 amid continuing rapid disease spread in the Americas and re-flare-ups in Asia and Europe, humanity faces the daunting task of still trying to contain the highly contagious pandemic under an atmosphere of political indifference and societal stupidity in far too many jurisdictions.