Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Andrew Wear, Black Inc., $29.99.
In crisis lies opportunity. Let’s build back better. Often, we’ve bounced back to create a better future. Confidence and resolve remain supreme. We need to believe and to act. The desire to accept that disaster contains within it a seed of possibility is a reflection of human optimism.
Andrew Wear is the director of Economic Development at the City of Melbourne and he’s been looking at how places around the world recovered successfully from plagues, wars, recession, pandemic, economic collapse and natural disasters. History is “littered with examples of interesting things happening after” a disaster.
COVID-19 is a crisis of enormous scale. “In many parts of the world, it has also been accompanied by a crisis of democracy, with governments letting people down badly. In the midst of such bleakness, this book is a reassurance that after this intense period of turmoil, we can recover. It explores how we can rebuild physically, economically and psychologically for what seems like serious setbacks. By learning the lessons of other recoveries we can shape the path ahead. With the right choices, a bright dawn beckons.”
Andrew has spoken with experts, policy makers and community leaders to find out what went well and what didn’t work in the aftermath of a crisis. He found that after the pandemic, Australia was experiencing a moment of opportunity – and we shouldn’t miss it.
This book is infused with a resolute focus on action. The need for this book became “overwhelming almost six months into the pandemic”. This “was a project imbued with a driving purpose. Whereas the pandemic has been a dark and overwhelming experience, this book has a bright sense of optimism running through it. That’s because in each of the recoveries I investigated, cities and nations have been able to rebound strongly. Recovery was not always easy, of course. But looking at the outcomes with the benefit of hindsight gives me confidence that – if we make the right choices now – we too can recover from this historic moment of crisis and build a better, brighter future.”
