Bidding farewell to the black swan
A black swan is an unpredictable event beyond what is normally expected of a situation and has potentially severe consequences. As commonly used in the world of finance, black swan events can cause catastrophic damage to an economy by negatively impacting markets and investments, but even the use of robust modeling cannot prevent a black swan event. (investopedia.com)
The year 2020 is the year of the black swan, the COVID-19 pandemic that caused the death of 1.75 million people and infected 79.8 million people worldwide. As the black swan spread her wings, the Earth stood still as governments shut down their countries’ borders, limited the movements of people, shattered the most cherished traditions of humanity, and grappled with the difficult choice of protecting public health or saving the economy.
The year 2020 is the year of the great disruption. Schools were shut down, forcing the education stakeholders to adopt online classes and other alternative modes of delivery despite problems with internet connectivity and the teacher’s absence to supervise learning. The black swan spread the wing of misfortune to several businesses, forcing owners to closed shop and causing global labor income to decline by 10.7 percent or US$3.5 trillion for the first three quarters of 2020. As of December 17, 2020, around 3.8 million local workers and over 550,000 OFWs have so far been displaced by the pandemic, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). In the education sector, the pandemic shuttered 865 private schools while close to 4 million learners were forced to quit schooling.
With barely four days before the dawn of the new year, we hope to bid farewell to the black swan. We hope to bury the memories of the year 2020 when our freedom to travel was severely restricted by the government, when our unsung modern heroes were greeted with the most stringent quarantine rules, and when even the last chance to say goodbye to departed love ones who died of the disease was robbed from the mourning family members.
As vaccines become available as one of the weapons in the fight against the dreaded virus, we hope to end the pandemic soon and redeem our lost lives.
Despite all the fears, the struggles, and the tribulations, we are still thankful that we have survived the most challenging year in recent history.
As we greet the new year with the hope to come out from the darkness to light, we hope and pray to God Almighty that this pandemic will end. Soon!Let us not stop hoping. Let our optimism drive us to a more promising year 2021.
Happy New Year!