I send for your consideration a short essay by Karel Noordzy titled “The Impact of Corona: Curse or Blessing?” on the challenges we now face in a time of inflection between one era, the Post World War II order, and another, as yet not fully arrived and so not fully perceived and understood at all. What will that new era bring to us or rather, what will we bring to that new era: hope and wellbeing or anger, exploitation by the strong of those who can be turned to their advantage, resentment and repression of the best in human nature?
Karel worked as a Senior Consultant at McKinsey & Company. He then ran Schiphol Airport in The Netherlands and came up with the strategy of reaching out to regional American airports to fly to Schiphol as their point of entry into Europe, which turned Schiphol into one of the most used – and most highly rated – airports in Europe. Karel then ran the Dutch railroad system. He has been a leader of the Caux Round Table for over 20 years. Karel has written a book on leadership, which we will soon be published in English.
Karel has given us a serious and I think correct analysis of our time. By listing our difficulties so forthrightly, he jumpstarts the process of our figuring out what we should do and how we should do it.