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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: 5, Informative) by Pav on Monday May 18 2020, @01:57PM (4 children)

    by Pav (114) on Monday May 18 2020, @01:57PM (#995764)

    But but... you forgot Sweden and its recently privatised healthcare. It has been WONDERFUL! The righties were ecstatic [theguardian.com]. It's a pity costs then rose to be amongst the highest, and heathcare beds per 1000 fell to being the second lowest (the UKs NHS coming dead last) in Western Europe. And the scandals... thousands of healthcare workers sacked, women being freighted to Finland just so they had a bed to give birth in, aged care facilities not changing adult daipers so they could make some extra coin... and that was BEFORE the pandemic. Bernie Sanders' rhetoric definitely needs an update. If they couldn't afford adult daipers OF COURSE the PPE was inadequate, and aged care faciliies became major epicentres. Healthcare worker shortages became even worse in Swedish lapland when the rest of Scandinavia walled off Sweden, and Finland closed its border so workers on the other side couldn't commute to hospitals in Sweden.

    And the Swedes have been gaslit by both government and media. They've been saying good Swedes can do all that social distancing, PPE etc... organically. Therefore if things go bad it's because of bad Swedes and most particularly recent immigrants. Also, good Swedes don't complain, so if you hear anything it's those bad unSwedish people. And many Swedes seem to have taken this to heart and are pushing this view online. To be fair Swedes aren't as used to media bullshit... they had Aftonbladet (their "Daily Mail") majority owned by the unions until about 12 years ago, so there were genuine arguments from the working side of politics in national discussions. No longer.

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  • (Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 18 2020, @02:34PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 18 2020, @02:34PM (#995797)

    Why do you hate Sweden?

    • (Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 18 2020, @03:38PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 18 2020, @03:38PM (#995864)

      Rejected by Swedish Bikini Team.

  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday May 18 2020, @09:22PM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday May 18 2020, @09:22PM (#996030) Homepage
    > Aftonbladet (their "Daily Mail") majority owned by the unions

    If you mean to imply "shitrag" by the Daily Fail reference, then "The Mirror" would have been a better example to give, as it was always the left-leaning paper for the workers/unions (no matter if behind the scenes it was as top-heavily corporate and corrupt as any other).
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
  • (Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday May 19 2020, @06:03AM

    by dry (223) on Tuesday May 19 2020, @06:03AM (#996195) Journal

    Here in Canada, it has been the private assisted living places that have had the brunt of deaths. A lot has been exposed about these for profit places, ranging from the shitty way they treat their workers to the shitty way they treat the residents. Whether anything changes long term remains to be seen as there are always right wingers claiming private is always better.
    The problem is running a decent society is expensive and so many people don't want to pay for it and even if the country is okay with paying, the global competition makes it hard.