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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, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 18 2020, @02:39PM (18 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday May 18 2020, @02:39PM (#995801)

    Government-provided healthcare is not now and never has been a hallmark of first-world countries.

    List of countries I'd consider relocating the whole family from the US to (without having millions to spend, with millions you just buy a Caribbean island...):

    New Zealand, Canada, England, Australia, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Austria, Finland...

    What do all those countries have in common? I'd call that a hallmark of first-world countries.

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  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday May 18 2020, @03:11PM (7 children)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday May 18 2020, @03:11PM (#995829) Journal

    You can relocate to most of those right now, JoeMerchant. Except New Zealand, which requires you to invest $250K of your own money there before they'll let you in. But Americans relocate to other countries all the time, and you can too if that's what you want.

    Don't put up with America if you hate it. Life's too short. Go and be happy.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 18 2020, @03:33PM (6 children)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday May 18 2020, @03:33PM (#995858)

      When we were living in KKK country (central Florida), we took a long hard look at relocation - globally. We actually settled on the Hilo-Puna region of Hawaii as a destination to get away from the redneck bullshit, without the hassle of international immigration. Thing is, my wife and I were born in Florida, lived here 50+ years now, and that carries a certain amount of "cultural acceptance," even in KKK country. Employment abroad is challenging, as is services for our kids with Autism. We finally decided to move to a bigger city near the coast, got away from the KKK and their shitty attitude toward disabled services in the schools - though we do still see pickup trucks proudly flying 8' rebel flags sometimes.

      Hilo has its own issues - not too different from the West Coast Florida I grew up in - massive growth, and I know what my family thought about the newcomers while that was going on - not too anxious to become "one of those people." It is affordable, and with the right attitude much more accepting of all people as human beings than Florida is. We have close-ish friends who have lived in Hilo/Puna/Central Florida back and forth for the last 20 years, but the job in the bigger Florida city presented itself first...

      There's some family in Costa Rica, it's tempting - had a shaky/shady job offer to live in a commune on a beach there once... the language would be a lifelong challenge.

      New Zealand is tempting, but I feel like the native issues in Puna would only be bigger with the Maori - and if I'm moving to NZ I'll probably end up in Maori heavy country. I'd treat them with respect, but I'm not sure our pale skin and freckles would get that respect back. NZ$250K isn't an issue - we'd want a house that cost at least that.

      There's an acre of land about 200 meters from the beach just outside Darwin that's hella cheap and tempting... and if we get serious about living on a boat, Port Lincoln is also something to check out. We're not stuck here, but there is something to be said for helping your children to build long term relationships in the community.

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
      • (Score: 2) by PocketSizeSUn on Monday May 18 2020, @08:26PM (3 children)

        by PocketSizeSUn (5340) on Monday May 18 2020, @08:26PM (#995994)

        On the one hand Pune doesn't require you to immigrate, which I understand is not so easy for an American moving to NZ. Just what I have been told but I never looked into it.

        On the other hand Pune is a good fit for some, hippie types and farmers can do well there. You seem to have experience in Pune however the flew vs brew is still a non-trivial cultural shift for most ha'ole trying to make a home there. I have heard of quite a few ha'ole have difficulty in Pune. Also the serious Meth problems on the south kona side are bit disturbing. I haven't been back since kapohoe went under lava.

        I have not been to NZ but I know people from there and I have never heard of any Maori issues.

        I looked at Costa Rica it is not a place I would consider without knowing the language well and land ownership can be a bit dicey.

        • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 18 2020, @09:00PM (2 children)

          by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday May 18 2020, @09:00PM (#996017)

          We've already been burned by Costa Rican laws once, ignorant on our part but we invested in a company with an agreement written in English, therefore unenforceable in the courts that have jurisdiction... Not a reason to stay away, and the "burn" cost less than a trip down there and back - cheap education overall. Still, our Spanish would always be 2nd class, I'm sure. Family connections might compensate, might not - hard to guess the future.

          Our friend on the Big Island put us in touch with some locals that we talked with on the phone and e-mailed a bit (people from his church) - they were all really really nice. We had pretty well settled on upper HPP as the place we wanted to move to, but reliable sustaining income was a major concern, and once I found a good job only 75 miles from where we were, what the hell - much easier move, and it was well worth it. Of course there are horror stories out of Puna, cars being stolen and police won't go look for them in "native land", etc. but to hear our ex-army Colonel tell about it: you respect them, they respect you - mostly.

          What I heard about the Maori in the north end of North Island reminded me of 1970s Florida - people getting beat up at the beach over turf wars that basically break down on racial lines, that sort of stuff - also lots of the indie film being made about NZ is emphasizing the raw deal that the Maori got and how that has led to them having similar issues as the North American natives...

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          • (Score: 2) by pdfernhout on Tuesday May 19 2020, @01:35AM (1 child)

            by pdfernhout (5984) on Tuesday May 19 2020, @01:35AM (#996122) Homepage

            Rupert may have been wrong about peak oil but he got something right in this essay (after bitter experience trying to move to Venezuela in 2006) about the importance of community/tribe/connectedness:
            https://web.archive.org/web/20161021081420/http://fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/110706_mcr_evolution.shtml [archive.org]
            "Living in Venezuela has been an amazing, brutal, and illuminating lesson. It is a truly alien culture that I find simultaneously beautiful, hard, giving, unfamiliar, uncomfortable and definitely self-protecting to the extreme. That is why I am confident that Venezuela, and most of Latin America, will survive the coming crash of Peak Oil better than any other region of the world. I believe it is already starting to protect itself. It doesn’t need me or any outsider to survive. But as a general rule, only those who are native here will be protected by its blessings. ...
                    The important distinctions about adaptivity are not racial at all. US citizens come in all colors. American culture is the water they have swum in since birth. A native US citizen of Latin descent who did not (or even did) speak Spanish would probably feel almost as out of place here as I do. They would look the same but not feel the same. And when it came time to deal collectively with a rapidly changing world, a world in turmoil, a native-born American’s inbred decades of “instinctive” survival skills might not harmonize with the skills used by those around him.
                    Another one of my trademarked lines is that Post Peak survival is not a matter of individual survival or national survival. It is a matter of cooperative, community survival. If one is not a fully integrated member of a community when the challenges come, one might hinder the effectiveness of the entire community which has unspoken and often consciously unrecognized ways of adapting. As stresses increase, the gauntlets required to gain acceptance in strange places will only get tougher. Diversity will become more, rather than less, rigid and enforced.
                    As energy shortages and blackouts arrive; as food shortages grow worse; as droughts expand and proliferate; as icecaps melt, as restless, cold and hungry populations start looking for other places to go; minute cultural and racial differences will trigger progressively more abrupt reactions, not unlike a stressed out and ill human body will react more violently to things that otherwise would never reach conscious thought.
                    Start building your lifeboats where you are now. I can see that the lessons I have learned here are important whether you are thinking of moving from city to countryside, state to state, or nation to nation. Whatever shortcomings you may think exist where you live are far outnumbered by the advantages you have where you are a part of an existing ecosystem that you know and which knows you.
                    If the time comes when it is necessary to leave that community you will be better off moving with your tribe rather than moving alone."

            --
            The biggest challenge of the 21st century: the irony of technologies of abundance used by scarcity-minded people.
            • (Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Tuesday May 19 2020, @05:48AM

              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 19 2020, @05:48AM (#996188) Journal
              I can't imagine what he got right. As of mid 2019, over 4 million [unhcr.org] Venezuelans had left the country, most in the previous four years. They aren't surviving peak oil better now!

              One of our former writers has expressed concern for his safety in the current political climate of the United States. I know that he is not alone and that many others feel the same. I say to you all, fight the good fight.

              I imagine the "former writer" hasn't come even close to having a reason to be concerned for his safety in the subsequent 14 years. Meanwhile, Venezuela has a murder rate of 81 per 100k people [reuters.com] in 2018.

      • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 20 2020, @12:34PM (1 child)

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday May 20 2020, @12:34PM (#996846) Journal

        There's a lot of wisdom in what you're saying: there's always a fly in the ointment.

        Still, Costa Rica has a high standard of living and a stable government. So what if you're not going to be writing Nobel prize winning literature in Spanish? You just need to be able to get by. My father-in-law immigrated from Korea 50 years ago but still only speaks pidgin English; he owned his own business and bought property and raised a family just fine.

          New Zealand is a beautiful country with friendly people (if they'll let you in). The Maori are fine. They retain their culture in modernity and thanks to the Treaty of Waitangi have fared much better than natives in almost any country where Europeans arrived. The only reason not to live in NZ is if you have an irrational fear of sheep.

        --
        Washington DC delenda est.
        • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 20 2020, @12:59PM

          by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday May 20 2020, @12:59PM (#996856)

          Are sheep really an issue north of Auckland? Because that's where I would see myself settling most comfortably... Agreed that the Maori stood up to the Euro-imperialists better than any other islanders, including Hawaiians (who did pretty well themselves...), but they still got a pretty shitty deal - reminds me of Israel, white people on the beaches and more indigenous brown people shoved back inland.

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  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday May 18 2020, @09:31PM (9 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday May 18 2020, @09:31PM (#996036) Homepage
    They've got gold or oil? That describes the US too though.
    --
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    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 18 2020, @10:33PM (8 children)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday May 18 2020, @10:33PM (#996057)

      Netherlands, Denmark? Maybe a little oil, not much gold at all.

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      • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday May 18 2020, @11:41PM (7 children)

        by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday May 18 2020, @11:41PM (#996084) Homepage
        Royal Dutch Shell makes Netherlands clearly on my list.

        The fact yoju only found one that wasn't a good fit compliments my astuteness as much as yours.
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
        • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday May 19 2020, @02:42AM (6 children)

          by JoeMerchant (3937) on Tuesday May 19 2020, @02:42AM (#996142)

          Well, the list was selected based on places I've semi-seriously considered moving the family and come back with a positive: yes, I see how that holds the _possibility_ of a better life than what we have here. None are a guarantee, and in some the possibility hovers somewhere around the 50% mark - but... my criteria had nothing to do with oil or gold. However, the correlation is probably not a coincidence - wealthy countries, whether by oil or gold or any other source, at least have the capacity to do good things for their citizens and residents: ergo first world.

          --
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          • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday May 19 2020, @03:33PM (5 children)

            by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday May 19 2020, @03:33PM (#996379) Homepage
            The overlap with my equivalent list is huge. The populist right-wing undercurrents in a couple of them perturb me somewhat, nowhere's perfect.
            --
            Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
            • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday May 19 2020, @04:23PM (4 children)

              by JoeMerchant (3937) on Tuesday May 19 2020, @04:23PM (#996393)

              I'll take a populist right-wing undercurrent over a breaking tsunami of ignorance and fear driven conservative corporate welfare anyday, but... the bird in the hand is worth 10 that look better in the bush.

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              • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 20 2020, @12:41PM (3 children)

                by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday May 20 2020, @12:41PM (#996850) Journal

                As a foreigner you are going to be instantly disenfranchised no matter what. Politics will become a game you no longer play because nobody will let you. So that shouldn't be a major factor in your decision to relocate. Relative freedom and overall stability are more important.

                No matter what, though, six months in you will come to hate any place because culture shock always catches up to you.

                --
                Washington DC delenda est.
                • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 20 2020, @01:06PM

                  by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday May 20 2020, @01:06PM (#996859)

                  When we moved from Miami to Houston we loved the culture shift, it was the shitty air quality that got us to leave as soon as my 2 year obligation was up.

                  Whether you vote or not, politics is a game that plays you. Any place I would considering moving has enough freedom of speech that even the disenfranchised can make about as much difference "being heard" as the voters. I don't dislike the abstract concept of public service, in an alternate universe-timeline (like the fantasy land portrayed in Madam Secretary/President) I could imagine myself fulfilled by life as a politico... in this reality, I couldn't run for the local schoolboard without fear of myself going postal on the establishment if I had to deal with their hypocrisy in close quarters on a regular basis.

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                • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday May 21 2020, @07:54AM (1 child)

                  by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Thursday May 21 2020, @07:54AM (#997315) Homepage
                  Nonsense. G/f left the US 25 years ago and doesn't miss anything about the US apart from the geography. I left the UK 20 years ago, and miss nothing apart from the real ales. The cultures we both left were toxic, it's not "shock" to be free of them, it's relief.
                  --
                  Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves