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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: 3, Informative) by zocalo on Monday May 18 2020, @02:18PM (2 children)
There's no disputing that it's a tough calculation, nor that there's going to be a lot of guesswork involved, but it's certainly interesting to see where people's priorities lie, and how responsibility for any problems with re-opening their businesses are not *their* problem to resolve. Human nature at it's finest - almost everyone out for number one. In particular those of the notional 1% that actually run the businesses (no doubt from home, or some other "safe" location), that are expecting their minions in the 99% to get back to work and take their chances. Lots of sociopaths being outed as a result of this, that's for sure.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Monday May 18 2020, @02:32PM (1 child)
Yes, there are those sociopaths, and then there are the other sociopaths, who are not part of the 1% and are not out of work because they can do their jobs remotely, who excoriate those who have to show up physically to do their job. Those latter should just starve because they're endangering the investment bankers and brave journalists who continue to blog from home during this crisis.
It is a tough calculation that does not fit into an "economy vs. lives" dichotomy.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Monday May 18 2020, @05:22PM
I've been thinking a bit about how backward our economy is. Anything that cannot be done from home, has a much higher liklihood of being an actual essential task -- as in essential for survival (food, water, energy) and you will or could die without it. These people typically get paid the least. Work a person can do from home though, most of it is just superfluous overpaid busy work. I will grant that there a few things people can do with computers that improve the world, but most of what gets done is just bullshit.