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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 18 2020, @12:19PM (9 children)
So, you want to bring back literacy tests then? Maybe a poll tax? We left that crap behind a long time ago.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 18 2020, @12:36PM (5 children)
Not literacy tests, and poll taxes are just a crude shortcut to enhance most of the problems we already have, how about general literacy and cultural awareness improvement? Maybe 90 minutes a week of "world travel" education for 4 years of school, consisting of things that actually reach the students like first person travel documentary films?
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(Score: 2) by BK on Monday May 18 2020, @01:28PM (4 children)
How does this address your issue of qualification? Are you willing to disenfranchise whoever skips those classes?
The flip side to qualification is that if it's real, some will be disqualified. Aiming for the lofty goal of universal qualification is great, but only if you recognize that there are some who will NEVER get there.
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 18 2020, @02:10PM (3 children)
No, but considering that we give free child care and food, attendance is pretty good in public school - and I would be willing to withdraw all public funding and tax incentives from any private school that failed to deliver the content.
Of course, and there will always be a slice of society that just doesn't get it, no matter how they've been educated. Would be nice if we were working toward making that slice of ignorance something less than half the pie, instead of consistently growing it like we seem to be.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by BK on Monday May 18 2020, @03:59PM (2 children)
OK then. So no solution.
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 18 2020, @07:40PM
I believe I proposed education, but given our apparent inability to execute on that goal for the past two centuries... yeah, y'all are screwed after I'm gone.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 18 2020, @10:05PM
"OK then. So no solution."
Surely you can see that making educational content more readily available is better than leaving the population to wallow in ignorance?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Monday May 18 2020, @03:24PM
Maybe not for the voters.
But definitely for the people they vote for.
Who would have ever thought that the US would have an illiterate president.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday May 18 2020, @04:21PM (1 child)
The problem with literacy tests was that they were applied in a corrupt manner. If you could avoid that, I'd be in favor of them.
There is a real argument that people shouldn't be able to vote on matters they don't understand. The problem is that this allows those who frame the questions to specify that the answers should agree with their biases. This is the reason I usually refuse to reply to polls. The questions are so framed as to ensure a corrupt answer.
This is what makes literacy tests a bad idea. Yes, people should understand the issues before they vote on them, but this is very different from saying they should agree with the creator of the test what those issues are.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 18 2020, @10:10PM
"The problem with literacy tests was that they were applied in a corrupt manner. If you could avoid that, I'd be in favor of them."
Hear, hear! Also, it would be great if people were required to take the same test that immigrants take when applying for citizenship.