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posted by Fnord666 on Monday May 18 2020, @10:08AM   Printer-friendly

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?


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  • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Monday May 18 2020, @01:10PM (1 child)

    by acid andy (1683) on Monday May 18 2020, @01:10PM (#995732) Homepage Journal

    socialist/communist utopian pipedream

    FFS. I suppose my comment was a bit unclear. I'm talking about social democracy. Not communism. I don't deny for one minute that there are great benefits to free market capitalism. The issue I have is the level to which it is being deregulated, subsidized and corrupted, and it needs to be supported with welfare and environmental protections which are insufficient and being eroded in the west.

    --
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday May 18 2020, @01:30PM

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Monday May 18 2020, @01:30PM (#995745) Journal

    His MO is to conflate the two. And unless he's very wealthy himself, the term for this is "useful idiot." I've never understood the complete, global nihilism it takes to not only act against your own self-interest but willingly take down others in your position with you. And then they have the fucking balls to blather on about how immoral other economic systems are!

    IMO it's a badly- and thinly-disguised case of crab bucket syndrome--ironically, the REAL "politics of envy" (another catchphrase that marks the user as an utter sociopath).

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...