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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 Pav on Monday May 18 2020, @02:16PM (7 children)

    by Pav (114) on Monday May 18 2020, @02:16PM (#995780)

    I'm not saying Australia is perfect, and our government certainly sucks. The undeniably miserable bushfire response made our prime ministers grip on power somewhat shakey, so that played some part in him taking this pandemic more seriously... though he still managed to blunder a couple of times eg. allowing flights of young partiers from Italy and expecting them to self isolate. Still, he allowed actual experts to mostly control the response, and we've got a heathcare system leagues better than the US... and somewhat better than europes worst (ie. Sweden and the UK).

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  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday May 18 2020, @03:06PM (4 children)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday May 18 2020, @03:06PM (#995821) Journal

    I am not panning Australia. It's a lovely country with lovely people. (It has not been very nice to the aborigines, but as an American I really can't talk.)

    My larger point is that nobody knows what the right answer is with this thing. The WHO has alternately praised China and Sweden for their approaches, and held them up as models for the rest of the world. But Sweden and China took opposite tacks so the WHO is really talking out of both sides of its mouth. There's another question, too, implicit in this matter: if Trump did the most amazing job in the world, and managed the largest number of infected to the lowest number of deaths, would anybody who hates him give him credit, or would they find some other thing to criticize him on or give the credit to somebody else? Given what has gone on the past 3 years, I say that for those that hate him, Trump can do nothing right. The other side of the coin is those who love Trump and will never say anything against him.

    Generally, I think jingoism is a bad habit all of us should curb.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 2) by Pav on Monday May 18 2020, @03:36PM

      by Pav (114) on Monday May 18 2020, @03:36PM (#995861)

      On US politics I haven't found a trustworthy mainstream source. I like the "Rising" show on YouTube from "The Hill" and the sarcastically named "Useful Idiots" show from "Rolling Stone"... and I can listen to them while doing other stuff unlike text sources. Granted, they're somewhat fringe... but they criticise and (much less regularly) praise both sides.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by Barenflimski on Monday May 18 2020, @04:31PM (1 child)

      by Barenflimski (6836) on Monday May 18 2020, @04:31PM (#995910)

      From my experience people will continue to hate the guy and anything that comes out of his mouth.

      I was talking to a very neighbor of mine over the weekend. She can't stand Trump and is much like anyone else I talk to that simply can't stand anything the guy says or does. I said to her, "It seems to me that another issue with this COVID response is that even when the president rambles and says something that is correct people simply go to, 'If he said it, I'm against it.'" She said to me, "Yes, I am doing that for good or bad. I just simply can't stand the stuff that comes out of his mouth most of the time and I'm not going to parse any of it anymore."

      He has turned vast amounts of people off to the point where they simply won't entertain anything that he puts in front of them as he's worn them out. We are seeing this play out in the response to the virus along political lines. It puts all of our politicians in a tough situation. Do something that the president promotes and you may be cast as a Trump supporter. Do something that he doesn't promote and you may be cast as being woke.

      Unfortunately for the rest of us this political nonsense affects us as our politicians are more worried about the correct political response instead of the smart response.

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday May 19 2020, @06:30AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 19 2020, @06:30AM (#996200) Journal
        Why are they even paying attention, if they're not interested in listening? I hate to say this, but I think this is what they want. They need that two minute hate, be it Trump, liberals, or whatever. It's not productive, but at least it's not killing millions of people either.
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by dry on Tuesday May 19 2020, @06:18AM

      by dry (223) on Tuesday May 19 2020, @06:18AM (#996198) Journal

      Here in Canada, actually Ontario, we have Doug Ford, was he hated, for many of the same reasons as Trump. While he started out dismissing the pandemic, telling people not to worry and go party, he quickly turned around and even the extreme left has praised his leadership during the crisis. This includes following scientific advice, calling the protesters out as hooligans and so on. I'm sure once this is over he'll go back to his old self but who knows. Right now his popularity has gone from the low 20's IIRC to the high 80's.
      If he can do it, so could Trump. The key is allowing the experts to lead while giving them support and handling the economic issues. Here in BC, it is the head of health, a civil servant, who gives the daily updates, with the Minister of Health doing introductions and little else and the Premier only showing up occasionally to deal with economic matters. I believe it is similar in all Provinces and all our governments have had a huge uptick in popularity. Of course that is likely to vanish once this is over.
      Meanwhile Trump has been more of a hindrance then a help, doesn't know when to step back and support the experts, steadily wishy washy and seems intend on doing everything opposite what a good leader should do. The weird thing is how his cult worships everything he says, even when he says the opposite 5 minutes later. It's scary that people can be so deranged. Holding your nose and voting for the lesser evil is one thing, worshiping the evil because he's our evil is another.

  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday May 18 2020, @09:26PM (1 child)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday May 18 2020, @09:26PM (#996033) Homepage
    > eg. allowing flights of young partiers from Italy and expecting them to self isolate.

    You too, eh? Estonia feels your pain.

    Right, I'll go and crack open a brilliant local beer brewed by a fantastic Australian brewer who now lives here!
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 19 2020, @12:32PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 19 2020, @12:32PM (#996299)

      Those Estonians flying from Italy, mostly went through Riga airport, and overland from there, didn't they? Add to that Latvians doing same, add to that the absence of lockdown in Latvia, look at the statistics, compare with Estonia. Try explaining the difference.