SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
COVID-19 Has Blown Away the Myth About 'First' and 'Third' World Competence:
One of the planet's – and Africa's – deepest prejudices is being demolished by the way countries handle COVID-19.
For as long as any of us remember, everyone "knew" that "First World" countries – in effect, Western Europe and North America – were much better at providing their citizens with a good life than the poor and incapable states of the "Third World". "First World" has become shorthand for competence, sophistication and the highest political and economic standards.
[...] So we should have expected the state-of-the-art health systems of the "First World", spurred on by their aware and empowered citizens, to handle COVID-19 with relative ease, leaving the rest of the planet to endure the horror of buckling health systems and mass graves.
We have seen precisely the opposite.
[...] [Britain and the US] have ignored the threat. When they were forced to act, they sent mixed signals to citizens which encouraged many to act in ways which spread the infection. Neither did anything like the testing needed to control the virus. Both failed to equip their hospitals and health workers with the equipment they needed, triggering many avoidable deaths.
The failure was political. The US is the only rich country with no national health system. An attempt by former president Barack Obama to extend affordable care was watered down by right-wing resistance, then further gutted by the current president and his party. Britain's much-loved National Health Service has been weakened by spending cuts. Both governments failed to fight the virus in time because they had other priorities.
And yet, in Britain, the government's popularity ratings are sky high and it is expected to win the next election comfortably. The US president is behind in the polls but the contest is close enough to make his re-election a real possibility. Can there be anything more typically "Third World" than citizens supporting a government whose actions cost thousands of lives?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 18 2020, @12:08PM (4 children)
My concept of "typically third world" is not where citizens support the government but rather where governmental power flows from the barrel of a gun, foreign aid is intercepted and hoarded by the ruling elite, and the people of a country are a resource to be exploited, or meaninglessly slaughtered, or simply ignored.
The U.S. and Britain (and much of Europe) seem to be in various stages of post-imperialist decline, where the citizens are delusional about their country's actual power and wealth and somehow expect things to go well for them just because they are British, American, or whatever.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday May 18 2020, @01:45PM (3 children)
> are delusional about their country's actual power and wealth
Woah there cowboy! US and Europe are not doing badly when it comes to power and wealth. In this case, the delusion aint so stupid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) [wikipedia.org]
United States 21,439,453
European Union 18,705,132
China 14,140,163
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP) [wikipedia.org]
China 27,804,953
United States 20,289,987
European Union 18,377,114
(I wonder if SN/html does tabs?)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 18 2020, @02:14PM (2 children)
Being on top of the dung heap doesn't make it any less of a dung heap.
We've got power yes we do, we've got wealth, yes we do, we're also a tiny minority of the world's population and strutting around like everybody is going to just fall in line because we say so... historically that tends to burn out after 50-200 years even when you hold the superior weapons technology.
And, all that wealth that "we've got" doesn't seem to translate into much meaningful for the masses, except a carrot to dangle in front of them and tease them that they could have more of it if they'd just abuse the foreigners some more.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday May 18 2020, @04:28PM (1 child)
> historically that tends to burn out after 50-200 years
I take your point, and realise that e.g. French cooked for abouit 100 years 1660 to 1760 (or so), Brits took up the baton 1760 to 1910 (or so), US (1910 - 2010?).
As counter examples
* The (Eastern) Roman empire arguably kept on right up until early 20th century, though it changed name, culture, language, religion, through Byzantine, to Ottoman empire. Probably one could say that from 1800 or so it was a spent force. But there was a continual military power centred on Istanbul for around 2000 years.
* The Chinese empire kept going and is still going, relatively without interruption, since roughly 0 AD.
In terms of the long term, it seems likely that Europe and America will continue to hold significant power for the next couple of millennia, in some form or another - though they may have to share with China.
> tiny minority of the world's population
Just to be clear:
Europe is about 400 million
US about 300 million
That's about 10 % of the world population. I don't think one can class that as a "tiny minority". I guess the content of your comment was that we are likely to have "10%" of the power (whatever that means) in the future - and I guess that is a fair comment.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 18 2020, @07:48PM
Your counterexamples significantly "reinvented" themselves somewhat frequently with transformations more drastic than the US civil war - China a couple of times in the last century. They also tended to geographically bound themselves and mostly stay out of far flung endeavors.
IMO, China is ramping up to attempt global domination - Chinese style, one little bit of expansion at a time.
The NATO partners are holding around 10% of world population, and a great deal more of the economic and military power at the moment. Wouldn't be surprising at all if they continue to steadily dwindle on the world stage over the coming decades. I just hope the USA doesn't do something immature and self destructive on the way down, at least not more immature and self destructive than we have been recently.
🌻🌻 [google.com]