Our greatest challenges do not recognise borders

Some of the greatest challenges that our humanity currently face do not recognise borders. Among the plethora of challenges and problems that we, as the human race yet need to overcome, would require us to look beyond our fragile fences. So what are some of these challenges? And do they truly completely neglect and dismiss the idea of borders?

The outbreak of Covid-19, was without doubt a global emergency that truly put the world to a complete standstill. With cases in almost all the countries in the world, the pandemic showed no remorse for a single state. If we leave the Covid-19 craze aside and go back just over 100 years ago, the outbreak of the Spanish Influenza saw far more deaths and chaos than what we are currently facing. The Spanish Influenza outbreak resulted in the death of approximately 500 million people from around the world. The most affected regions were the United States, Europe and China. Global health continues to be a major challenge for humanity.

Climate change, if not treated and dealt with at present is going to be the pandemic of the future. While I might not be a climate expert, it does not take one to realise and understand the possibilities of climatic spill over effects. Poor air quality levels in countries such as Vietnam, India or China, would have an impact on nearby neighboring countries. The depletion of the ozone layer, poor air quality and the melting of glaciers will eventually have an impact of millions of lives across the globe.

Photo by Emeric Deroubaix on Unsplash

The challenge of economic inequalities too tend to be stark throughout the world. The gap between the wealthiest and the poorest is only further widening. More than half the population in the world live on less than $5.50 dollars a day and each year, about 100 million people globally are forced into poverty due to lack of healthcare and basic necessities. There needs to an effort both on all fronts, from the policy front to the supply chain to provide basic necessities such as drinkable water, hygienic food and access to basic healthcare to the poorest of the poorest in order to shorted the gap between the rich and poor, in order to make the world more equitable and just.

It would be a little ignorant for me to propagate that all the challenges we face ‘do not recognise borders’. The ever growing concern of certain challenges such as populism, poverty, gender equality (to name a few), do tend to be worse off in some countries or regions in the world. Although, we do need to act collaboratively in order to harness peace and a sense of community.