Friday, May 1, 2020

NilavroNill Shoovro


WELCOME
TO
OUR POETRY ARCHIVE


FROM THE EDITOR

So, now we are living in a pandemic world of COVID-19. Locked down at home or in isolation at quarantine centre or fighting for life lying on the hospital beds. The term “pandemic” has a long history, it is still not been defined by many medical texts, and the conception is still changing. But there are some key features of a pandemic, including wide geographic extension, disease movement, novelty, severity, high attack rates and explosiveness, minimal population immunity, infectiousness and contagiousness, which help us to understand what pandemics are. The negative impacts of pandemic are serious. Pandemics can infect millions of people, causing widespread serious illness in a large population and thousands of deaths. All these are the realities of this COVID-19 pandemic with high morbidity and mortality around the globe. A security threat of pandemic influenza as is not a recent phenomenon. Global security is threated from pandemics, in terms of lives and economic stability An effective and efficient emergency response can reduce avoidable mortality and morbidity and reduce the types of economic and social impacts. How to have an effective and efficient emergency management will be a critical task of governments to deal effectively with disease outbreak and a pandemic.

The social impacts of pandemics can be severe, include travel is strictly limited, and schools are closed, markets and sporting are closed. All these are the everyday reality in this pandemic with true potential for high morbidity and mortality. Population mobility is also a key factor. Movement is difficult and the travel including visiting families, carrying goods to markets are restricted by military check points. The closure of airports and cancellation of flights affecting people’s travel, livelihood, and family life. With the rapid development in worldwide aviation over the last two decades, the risk of global pandemics has escalated with increased passenger traffic. Closing the airports harms the economy of the affected regions. School closure is often considered the first non-pharmaceutical intervention for implementation in a pandemic, as students are effective in spreading the virus. Timely school closure and cancellation of public gatherings is significantly associated with reduced mortality related to influenza epidemics. With the disruption of food supply in the cities, people cannot find necessary food and living things because market and shops remain closed. This also can cause a long-lasting change in people’s diet. Pandemics are no longer simply the domain of public health and clinical medicine, but are a social issue, a development issue, and a global security issue. Pandemics cause devastation to human lives and livelihoods much as do wars, financial crises. Pandemic prevention and response, therefore, should be treated as an essential tenet of both national and global security – not just as a matter of health.

Pandemic influenza represents a serious threat not only to the population of the world, but also to its economy. The impact of economic loss can result in instability of the economy. The impact is through direct costs, long term burden, and indirect costs. The direct costs of dealing with the disease outbreak can be very high. The long-term burden is also severe. One of the main burdens is from the loss of earnings of those who have died. Indirect costs are also very heavy. They include everything that contributes to a decline in GDP. Some sectors of economy may be more heavily affected than others. Thus, pandemics have both immediate and long-term effects that can damage the economic life of a nation for many years to come.

So, the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has created a global health crisis that has had a deep impact on the way we perceive our world and our everyday lives. Not only the rate of contagion and patterns of transmission threatens our sense of agency, but the safety measures put in place to contain the spread of the virus also require social distancing by refraining from doing what is inherently human, which is to find solace in the company of others. Within this context of physical threat, social and physical distancing, as well as public alarm, what has been (and can be) the role of the different mass media channels in our lives on individual, social and societal levels?

Mass media have long been recognized as powerful forces shaping how we experience the world and ourselves. This recognition is accompanied by a growing volume of research, that closely follows the footsteps of technological transformations. Are media still able to convey a sense of unity reaching large audiences, or are messages lost in the noisy crowd of mass self-communication? Do social media provide solace or grounds for misinformation, (de)humanization, and discrimination? How can different media industries and channels for mass communication promote adaptive responses to foster positive health attitudes and adherence to preventive measures? How media impact the dynamics in the private domain (e.g. strengthen family bonds versus domestic conflict and violence)? All these are to be watched closely now and throughout the upcoming times.

We think mass media should play a key roll to keep us united in the name of humanity and solidarity. We also think web journals as well as literary activities around the world can also play a definitive roll to guard us from phycological as well as mental problems in this horrific time. It can also help us to communicate with our inner souls and can keep us engaged with creativity to harness our individual potentialities. Even during this locked down period this will help us a lot to shift our imbedded fear of deaths and the overwhelming anxieties of upcoming economics hurdles into some more prosperous and creative activities.

So, with this vision we at OPA has prepared yet another monthly edition of Our Poetry Archive. May 2020. We are really excited to introduce poet Hela Tekali of Tunisia as the Poet of The Month. Dr. Aprilia Zank the distinguished member of our editorial team has taken an exclusive interview of the poet. Personally, I remain obliged to both of them for this present edition. We hope our readers will enjoy this edition even more in this locked down period.

Like the previous years, this year also we’ll publish the yearly OPA Anthology Of Poetry 2020. This year we have selected the topic as “Striving for SURVIVAL”. We are glad that more than hundred poets around the world have already submitted their poems written on this special topic. Any poet can also participate in this upcoming Anthology with at least 3 poems written in English, only on this topic. To submit poems, one has to send also the recent profile picture and a short BIO written only in 3rd person narrative. The submission address for this Anthology is opa.anthology@gmail.com

Poems submitted in .pdf files will not be accepted. The last date of submission is 30th May’ 2020.

From The Editorial Desk
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1 comment :

  1. wonderful explanation about pandemic situation around the globe. loved this. wish you more success dear editor.

    ReplyDelete