Welcome to The Global Telescope | By Vikrant Sharma

Welcome to The Global Telescope

By Vikrant Sharma, 
Founder-Editor, The Global Telescope

The world is going through a time of rapid change. No, not because I have launched this blog, even though I would like to imagine so. It’s because of the dreaded Covid-19 pandemic. Streets are empty, stores are shut, and a majority of the people have no option but to sit at home.

At the onset, it’s important that I mention this isn’t a quarantine hobby. It is not even a pastime, neither is it a fancy way to prove to Instagram that I write. It is an endeavor to foster ideas from people I know. Often, I find myself sitting with a friend and discussing matters of global importance, and even though I am looking at news virtually every waking minute according to my friends who are annoyed of it, I am regularly surprised at the different perspectives I get. People seem to have so much to say and so much to analyze. However, in the myriad practicalities of human existence, we rarely find time to regularly write the views we might freely express over a cup of tea or coffee (now you know why I insist on buying people coffee- I like your views).

One day, thinking as I often do, I figured- why not make a platform to give a legitimacy to these views? That was the birth of The Global Telescope. Upon sharing this idea with people who I knew were interested in writing about world affairs, the response from them was heartwarming. I was flooded with messages of support and encouragement. After much research and work, it was started. And now, I find you here today. Keep reading, I shall talk about you later (yes, I am playing on people’s vanity to keep them reading, hahah).

We start writing about the world while it is going through a seismic upheaval. While I admit I have often dreamt of the Second World War as a history enthusiast, I did not imagine the next crisis of global proportions would involve me sitting at home and not going out for months. The United States is facing tens of thousands of deaths (60,000 deaths by the end of the crisis as per latest estimates at the time of publication), Italy and Spain have been left ravaged by a catastrophic crisis which nobody could have dreamt of, the Prime Minister of United Kingdom just got out of hospital after being in the ICU for a couple of days, the EU has been struggling to manage the long-standing North-South fault line within its members, and India, a country of more than 1.25 billion people, has been in complete lockdown for weeks (bar essential services).

This is the picture from the eye of the storm. What happens once it has passed- no one knows. It is a grim picture- IMF says it is going to be the worst financial crisis in the last 90 years, since the Great Depression of 1930. It is pertinent to remember that the economic crisis of 1930 was one of the reasons that led to the rise of a certain Adolf Hitler in the aftermath of it, albeit along with many other prominent reasons. A national crisis carries with it the power to rally people around a particular individual who promises to get them back to the days of glory. The crisis itself can become a uniting factor and lead to the birth of a tyrant. While the economic danger looms like a sword over the world’s head, it shall inevitably have to manage the political risks that come with it too.  How the world deals with this will be interesting to note once this storm has passed.

In addition, I have observed a rising anti-China sentiment around the World. While most view it as a political development, it shall have much greater social consequences. China has millions of its citizens living abroad, and there is a huge population around the world who are descended from Chinese ancestors. Most of these people live peacefully around the world, following the local laws and customs as any good citizen and member of society would. However, I have a growing unease that racist attacks on such individuals, through absolutely no fault of their own, might increase in the upcoming days, months and maybe years. These could be verbal or even physical attacks. How countries deal with these attacks will also reflect on how truly democratic they are. You see, democracy is not a number or a stat. It is who the society is as a whole. If the Chinese authorities were deliberately negligent, and if the senior leadership of the WHO supported them in this, then there should ideally be consequences. But the hate should not, under any circumstance, be justified against the regular folk who have suffered just as much as anyone else.

The world has much to navigate in the next few months. For opinions and perspectives on how it does, it gives me immense pleasure to launch The Global Telescope. Keeping my promise from above, let me now come to you.

You, the reader of this blog, are its greatest asset. The fact that you chose to open this webpage proves the curiosity within you lives on undying in this age of rapid information. And that, I say to you, is worth protecting. You shall find many fitness sites to tell you to be in physical shape and many articles on mental health to guide your mental peace. Both are important, of course. But I also want you to remember to protect the curiosity that led you here today. The deep, primal human desire to constantly learn more that sets you apart. That makes you special.

Thank you, dear reader, for being here. Until next time.

Yours Truly,
Vikrant Sharma
Founder-Editor, The Global Telescope

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This article is dedicated to the people who have passed on from Covid-19 over the last few months- your memory shall always live on. It is also a tribute to the frontline workers around the world who show us every single day the best that humanity has to offer- selflessness, kindness, and love. We shall not forget your resilience and dedication.