International webinar on COVID-19 crisis – 15 June 2020
अनुक्रमणिका
International webinar on COVID-19 crisis
YouTube link to the video recording of the webinar – https://youtu.be/QBEF1BILZp0
An international webinar was organised on 15th June from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm with the title: – “The COVID-19 Crisis – International Experience – Common Man’s Perspective and Expert Opinion” “The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), as we all know now, is a communicable respiratory disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus that causes illness in humans.
Scientists are still learning about the disease, and think that the virus began in animals – bats and the pangolin particularly. At some point, one or more humans acquired infection from an animal, and those infected humans began transmitting infection to other humans. Of course there are many other theories…
The disease spreads from person to person through infected air droplets that are projected during sneezing or coughing or even while you talk. It can also be transmitted when humans have contact with hands or surfaces that contain the virus and touch their eyes, nose, or mouth with the contaminated hands. COVID-19 was first reported in China, but it has now spread throughout the world.
After infection, many, particularly in India, remain asymptomatic, and recover early, others show a few symptoms such as fever, cough, sneezing, tiredness but recover after symptomatic treatment and rest and still others are not so fortunate, they succumb to death.
In India we began to challenge the crisis, with a few steps taken right from the end of January this year, our response changed as the situation went on changing. We did some experiments to increase positive energy.
Then during the first few days of the lockdown there were news items lauding the clean environment because of the absence of two major pollutants. All industries were shut down and there was no traffic on the roads.
And then came the environmentalists who criticised these news items and said that they don’t want a clean environment at the cost of human lives – lives lost due to job losses, hunger, heat and other diseases.
Here in India, jobless workers along with their families consisting of elders and children walked more than 1000 kms barefoot, to their native places in remote villages from all megacities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Surat.
Then there was Arogyasetu and some related controversies whose significance was diminished by the prevailing circumstances.
We heard some stories about the abduction of young girls on the highways. There must be many more unheard stories of injustice, unfair behaviour, atrocities and traumatic experiences involving politicians, administrators, medical practitioners, hospitals, police, businessmen and all sorts of anti-social elements.
These are unprecedented times in human history. Each one of us has gone through curious experiences and hardships. Different communities and countries followed different paths to counter the crisis. Some have utterly failed, others succeeded.
Some say that USA and Brazil are paying for their initial negligence, UK suffered the consequences of oscillating between lockdown and no-lockdown policy, Germany also faced hardships, though the number of affected people and actual deaths is less than other countries in the region, Finland is known as the prepper nation – and made preparations actively to counter the challenge. The virus was capable of dodging for some times the otherwise successful use of information technology in South Korea. A claim was made that countries led by women came out clean or handled the crisis better. New Zealand, Finland and Germany were the cases in point.
This webinar discussed all these points from the common man’s perspective. Highlighting the common man’s perspective and making it politically significant was one of the main objectives of this webinar. Parth Bhave from USA, Sanyukta Buwa from Germany, Reichelle Peace from Canada, Chinmay Dhawale from Australia, and Lorenzo Berio from Italy talked about their respective national and personal experiences
Mr. Lealem Berhanu Dinku, currently working with the UNDP in Nigeria, ACP Gopika Jahagirdar of Mumbai Police, now working in the UN mission for peace in South Sudan and Police Inspector Dhanashree Karmarkar, currently working with Mumbai Police, provided their expert comments.
Principal V. B. Rokade, in his inaugural speech, welcomed about 347 participants and guest lecturers from the nine countries of India, Cambodia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, USA, Canada, Italy, Australia, Germany.[1]
Following was the schedule of the rest of the programme:-
- Keynote address by Mr. Lealem Dinku Ethiopia
- Dy. SP Gopika Jahagirdar Currently attached to UN MIssion in South Sudan talked on COVID-19 crisis in a war-torn country
- Personal experiences by American experience – Parth Bhave – Senior software engineer, J B Hunt Transportation Services Inc, Lowell, Arkansas, USA
- Italian experience – Lorenzo Berio – Business consultant and founder “Manager Service (SRL)” – Milan, Italy
- Australian experience – Chinmay Dhawale – Senior Information Security Analyst, Cubic Transportation System Private ltd., Brisbane, Australia
- German experience – Sanyukta Buwa – Working under German government volunteer programme at an old age home in Hamburg, Germany
- Canadian experience – Richelle Peace – Social Media Specialist at Harvard Media, Saskatchewan, Regina, Canada
- Consolidated remarks by Dhanashree Karmarkar Police Inspector attached to Office of Director General of Police, Maharashtra
- Question & Answer session – Coordinator – Vice Principal Krishnan Nandela & Dr. Prakash Sawant Vote of thanks – Dr. Ashwini Torane
- Anchoring was done by – Shubharaj Buwa
The webinar – online seminar – could not have been possible without the contribution of our liberal, cooperative, understanding Principal who is an administrator with a human touch. Along with his own life, he has enriched many other people. I am one of those fortunate beneficiaries.
Keynote address
Lealem Berhanu Dinku is the Deputy Resident Representative (Programmes) for UNDP Nigeria Country Office since 12 August 2019. Before that he has worked in Sudan from 16 2016 to 2019. From 2012 to 2016 he served in South Sudan.
Prior to joining UNDP, Lealem served as County Director of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), Ethiopia Country Office from 01 August 1999 to 31 December 2005. From 01 April 1994 to 31 July 1999, Lealem served as Capacity Building Advisor for Ireland AId- Ethiopia and also Director of Furra Institute of Development Studies, at Yirgalem town, Sidama Zone, Ethiopia.
Mr. Lealem belongs to our fraternity, as he was a lecturer in the Department of Management and Public Administration, Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia) from 01 September 1983 to 31 March 1993. As a Lecturer, Lealem taught many courses including principles of Management, Organizational and Development, Organization and Management, Money and Banking, Operations Research, etc.
Lealem holds a B.A Degree in Management and Public Administration from Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia) and M.A Degree in Public Policy and Administration (Development Studies) from the Institute of Social Studies (ISS), The Hague, Netherlands.
In his speech Mr. Dinku emphasised on international cooperation while dealing with this grave crisis, besides his experiences in the African countries.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Gopika Jahagirdar
In Sep. 2019, five women police officials were conferred the UN medal for their commendable services in the world body’s mission in South Sudan. They protected the lives of millions of civilians. Dy. Sup of Police Gopika JAHAGIRDAR, working as head of the Crime Against Women and Children ,for Maharashtra State was one of them. On 16th August 2019 she was honoured with the President Police Medal .
She is currently working in South Sudan,representing India in the United Nations Peacekeeping Force since April 2019.
She had communication issues as she was in the field somewhere near Juba, the capital city of South Sudan. Still, she managed to convey her message. She was very much hopeful about handling the covid crisis in Sudan.
This was followed by personal experiences.
Riechelle Peace
We started with the Americans as I said they are here just after the stroke of midnight.
First the Canadian lady Riechelle Peace. She stays in the Regina city of Saskatchewan (सॅसकॅच्युआन) province of Canada. She works as a social media specialist in Harvard Media. She completed her studies in Journalism at the University of Regina in 2017 – a fresh graduate. She organises media campaigns for her organisation and understands the nitty gritties of ubiquitous and ever evolving, engulfing world of social media.
She emphasised the extensive use of social media in a creative manner to tackle the covid crisis.
Parth Bhave
Parth is now working as Senior software engineer, J B Hunt Transportation Services Inc, in Lowell city of Arkansas, USA. He has been there for the last few years. Son of our talented, multifaceted, versatile, sensitive, subtle, and insightful former Vice Principal Dr. Anjali Bhave. Like the list of these words of praise, It will be time consuming to mention a long list of her academic qualifications so I avoid that for the time being. She retired in January this year.
Parth has command over the English language and has a versatile, caring personality and particularly has an eye for the details.
Parth was worried about the carelessness of common people as the roam around without masks and don’t take necessary precautions.
Lorenzo Berio
Lorenzo is a good friend, we have spent a lot of good time together along with our families. He is in his early eighties, still very active practicing as a business consultant. He owns an independent consultancy. He is an avid traveller, often visits India, likes to experiment with Indian cuisine and dresses and knows details even about infrequently visited destinations in India.
He talked at length about the grim Italian experience. Up to May 2020, more than 1 lakh 20 thousand Italians lost their lives. He praised the Italian government for its efforts in the management of this disaster.
Chinmay Dhawale
Another enthusiastic personality, always cheerful. He started off as an ethical hacker and now works as Senior Information Security Analyst Cubic Transportation System Australia Pvt. Ltd. in Brisbane, Australia Besides his personal experiences he may throw some light on the contact tracing apps – of course it may be subject for a separate seminar / webinar.
Chinmay was satisfied with the response of the Australian government and hoped better future for fellow Indian
Sanyukta Buwa
Sanyukta completed her graduation in Economics from Ruparel College, Mumbai. While in college he was attached to AFS, an international NGO running student exchange programmes all over the world. He completed a C1 level course in German language conducted by the Maxmueller institute. After graduation AFS gave her an opportunity to work for their German branch in Hamburg. Currently she is working in an old age home as a volunteer. She has a lot to talk about the German experience.
She explained in detail the measures adopted by the German government and how the government is providing financial help to its citizens and also talked about the robust German public health system.
Police Inspector Dhanashree Karmarkar
A magnificent personality, ever ready to help. We had the honour of listening to her ideas about the South Sudan conflict in our College on 10th December last year. The large student gathering was spellbound for one and a half hours. You can see the details of this lecture here. [2] on our College site. She worked in Mumbai Police, CBI, ACB, UN Mission in South Sudan. She also worked for the UNDP and has tremendous field experience. She has conducted local elections in South Sudan villages where bullets and missiles were being fired from all directions and where the national law and order system had completely collapsed. She, with her multilingual and multi national team, successfully restored law and order. Million lives were saved. She has also received the President’s medal this year. PI Dhanashree Karmarkar enriched the gathering with her insightful remarks.
Question Answer session
Q&A session will be conducted by our Vice Principal Krishnan Nandela and Dr. Prakash Sawant. Prof. Nandela is a self-made man, started with a job in Indian Navy, has good political connections and a good understanding of Indian politics and economics. He is an alumni of our College, student of the first batch of our College which started in June 1984. Dr. Sawant has an exemplary rags to riches story to tell, he came from the rural areas of Pandharpur Taluka of Solapur, also my native district. He recently completed his Ph. D. in Commerce.
Participants asked curious questions and the guest lecturers satisfied them with appropriate answers.
Finally, before the Vote of thanks…
A final word, never to be missed, as once PI Karmarkar had mentioned, a great amount of credit for organising this webinar also goes to my beloved wife Police Inspector Renuka Buwa. Because of her, I encountered PI Karmarkar madam and then she helped to organise this event. She has a Lion’s share in all the arrangements.
On a lighter note, as we come to an end, what I feel is these online webinars and meetings lack something. There is no physical presence and personal warmth, no abundant flow of Chai by the Chaiwala or the College peon, no lunches and dinners, no canteen visits, participation of young and enthusiastic students, arranging chairs and halls during the preparation process…the bots are taking over and they are here to stay. Everything has its pros and cons. The best thing is we came together, so many people from so many places…
Vote of thanks
Dr. Ashwini Torane, head of the Marathi department of Dr. T. K. Tope Night College. Congrats to her as she has also recently completed her Ph. D., a caring personality, a seasoned orator, great aggregator, with an ability to crack great jokes with a straight face and tranquil voice. She finally delivered the vote of thanks.
YouTube link to the video recording of the webinar – https://youtu.be/QBEF1BILZp0
[1] A complete list of registered guest lecturers and participants can be seen here – https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11oVL8inLWz7SAXP4LOYgLOdyx1daE1lmuPhlPVIIvFY/edit?usp=sharing
[2] https://www.facebook.com/shubharaj/posts/10220934536135870 Lecture by Police inspector Dhanashree Karmarkar on her experiences in South Sudan.
