WHEN WE COLLECTIVELY SET FOOT ON STREETS AGAIN by Juan SEBASTIÁN MORENO
I. This piece was originally about how cities in Latin America were dealing with the climate crisis – a challenge not of their own making, but rather one forced upon them. It was about the precariousness of urban life, about the everyday manifestations of colonial power that still want to civilize the Other. Finally, it was about the fluid meaning of the concept of emergence in the Spanish language, an apt metaphor to describe how these cities can address the uncertainty ahead of them. Little did I know about uncertainty. After withstanding three decades of neoliberal assault by the Washington Consensus, healthcare systems in cities of the global South – so different in shape, size, smell, yet so united by a common plight – are slowly but effectively being ravaged by the effects of a pandemic. Were the situation less dire, I would find some delight in the irony of a virus bringing the world to a halt, of all frameworks to discuss emergencies being shattered. A temporary consolation, however, is that at least the amorphous effects of global phenomena – so hard to pin down when talking about local droughts, or floods, or famines – are now drawn before us with absolute clarity. An enemy has been named, and we are constantly being invited to watch carefully how this war is being waged. I digress. Thinking about military discourse to fight an illness is another problem in itself. For now, with enough attention, there is perhaps something to be learned from the chronic and painful asymmetries that a virus has laid bare.
II. I will not to let a good analogy go to waste, and I intend to salvage at least one component of my initial thoughts. In Spanish, the word emergencia carries a triple meaning: first, it means emergence, the creation or germination of new things or ideas; it can also represent a calamity, an unexpected accident that produces an uncertain state of affairs; finally, it conveys a sense of emergency, of
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