Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

When I first heard about the massive explosion that obliterated the port of Beirut, my first thoughts went to the small West African country of Gambia, where I jetted off back in 2012 as a grad student in London. To my surprise, the country was filled with Lebanese residents. The Lebanese dominated the local economy, running everything from local shops selling imported goods to large logistics companies that made international trade to that remote corner of the world possible. Locals seem to be accustomed to the Lebanese presence, established over course generations of migration as part of European colonization.

There is probably no worse time for people looking for a career change. As COVID-19 continues to rage around the world and output data show double-digit declines across major economies and rising unemployment, employees are lucky that they still have a job. In a world in which employers are concerned whether they will have enough business to cover them for the months to come, none are particularly keen on expanding the number of employees at this very moment. For those who are currently stuck in jobs that are less than interested in and looking for a way out, it seems they are unlikely to be successful at it until COVID goes away.

The "Go to Travel" campaign was supposed to symbolize the return of Japanese tourism. In an industry that has been battered by a 99.9% decline in the number of foreign tourists, the government-initiated campaign promised to save restaurant and hotel operators around the country by subsidizing domestic tourists to make up for the shortfall. Yet, just a few days before the campaign was due to start, the government announced that trip to and from Tokyo, the epicenter of COVID transmissions in Japan, will be excluded as a target for subsidies, leading to a surge of cancelations of hotel and tour bookings.

At first sight, the massive two-floor Patagonia store in the heart of Tokyo sounds like a place where the fashionistas of the world would spurn. Ceiling-to-floor posters extol the value of independence and ruggedness, as beautiful men and women are pictured cooking, kayaking, and hiking in the resolute mountains of, well, Patagonia. The men and women in the posters are simply dressed, with durable dark-colored, simply designed coats, jackets, and pants, a far cry from the vibrant colors and thoughts put into the arrangements among clothes worn by the passersby on Tokyo's high streets.

COVID-19 has reiterated the importance of selling products online. As the fear of contracting the disease compels people to minimize time outside the home for as long as possible for many people, online shopping has become the primary method for many people to secure both their daily necessities as well as simply indulging in the pre-COVID habit of window shopping on the high streets, but only online. As materialism grips Asian societies , consumers increasingly find themselves unable to get away from the urge to browse what to buy next, even if it can only be done in front of a smartphone or a computer screen.

As the coronavirus epidemic continues to spread around the world, moving abroad to improve career prospects may be the last thing that many people are thinking about. But individual careers do not take a break just because parts of the world economy are temporarily shut down to help suppress the further spreading of COVID-19. Just as it was before the emergence of COVID, moving to a different country for work may be extremely helpful for career development. In particular, in the post-COVID world, Japan and South Korea may be two locations that prospective job seekers should examine.

As COVID-19 progresses, it has become a statistical fact that East Asia has fared noticeably better than many other world regions. While the likes of Vietnam, Taiwan, and Japan did not experience much of an outbreak at all, and China and South Korea, despite doubts about data and secondary outbreaks, largely kept new infections under control, the same cannot be said in many other world regions. Western Europe received the unglamorous title of the world region with the worst rate of infections for a time, before the US, Brazil, and now India and Russia well on the way to surpass the tolls of the epidemic in former hotspots like Italy and Spain.