The end of the world as we know it?

Flaws laid bare: South Korea, which scored fourth lowest in the study that measured citizen sentiments, even voted overwhelmingly to reelect a president in the middle of the Covid-19 crisis. — AFP

IF you live in the developed world, the first 20 years of this century might have resembled the apocalypse in slow motion: from SARS to the global financial crisis, from Islamic State to the Sept 11,2001, terror attacks in the United States and the War on Terror, from technological disruption to Trumpian anxiety and now, the Covid-19 pandemic.

And yet, for many others, the 21st century has also been a revelation: Money to spend, real-time connections with the world, the Babylonian wonders of urban life and much more.