Citizens from across the globe should use the lessons of the Covid-19 crisis as an opportunity to tackle inequality, climate change and capitalism, President Michael D Higgins has said. Addressing the OECD Confronting Planetary Emergencies conference on Friday, President Higgins said it is “no longer sufficient” to describe systemic failure and that we now “must have the courage to speak out and work for the alternatives”. In his address, delivered online, he said Covid-19 has magnified the “imbalances, inequities and injustices” within society. President Higgins said the world has now reached a point of multiple crises: democratic, economic, social, and ecological. “New ideas are, thus, now required and, even more, their communication to citizens – ideas based on equality, universal public services, equity of access, sufficiency, sustainability,” the President said.

Source: The Irish Times October 09, 2020 09:59 UTC