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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: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 18 2020, @02:26PM (7 children)
Lol, your swing away from the DNC led straight into the stupid bush.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday May 18 2020, @03:09PM (6 children)
Is it that you have difficulty with prose in English? Did you get thrown out of debate club? Did you never learn to type properly because your first device was a phone you had to use abbreviations on?
It's marvelous to hear such from an AC that can't reason, form complex thoughts, or even muster the gumption to use a handle.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday May 18 2020, @03:26PM (5 children)
I believe he is mocking the pendulum politics, where angry people swing from one crooked party to the other and back, instead of looking for something else to break the circle. It is a chronic issue that very few people want to address
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 18 2020, @04:36PM (4 children)
Exactly, P666 claims he worked for the Clinton campaign, became a disaffected Democrat and now spouts rightwing talking points. Maybe it just highlights how party affiliation is a very rough guide for someone's true opinions.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday May 19 2020, @06:54AM
Like what? I doubt US rightwingers are defending the handling of covid by comparing it to Australian brushfires.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 19 2020, @12:38PM (2 children)
I worked for the Clinton Foundation, not the Clinton campaign. I have been a progressive all my life. I first joined the Green Party; they turned proto-Woke, so I left and became a Democrat. When the Clintons rigged the 2016 primary against Bernie, I left that party. I am not affiliated with any party now.
Having had a window right into the heart of the Democratic Party, and indeed right into the heart of wealth and power in the world, I see things much differently now. I can discern things I couldn't before. For example, you, dear AC, carry the miasma of government shill all around you. Do the occasional pats they give you on the head fulfill you as much as they used to when you were fresh out of school? Or are you starting to notice that carrying their water doesn't gain you anything, and you're growing ever more concerned and possibly upset at that thought?
I call things the way I see them, without script. If that seems "right wing" to you, it's only because you've fallen off the leftward edge of the universe and have lost all sense of perspective.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 19 2020, @09:58PM (1 child)
Noice overton shoving yer doing, keep it up! Soon we'll all get to enjoy the freedom of the post-apocalypse. You claim progressive stances, but your use of "woke" and the rest of the opinions you have are definitely rightwing to libertarian. Maybe you'ee just what passes for progressive as an older east coast resident, maybe you're just another fake account astroturfing US voters.
I know I'm real, and all I know about you is that your opinions don't match claimed political leanings. The most effective propaganda comes from users with a "reputation." My AC shitposting doesn't do anyone much good unless they're trying to get a better perspective on SN users.
I'll offer an apology for calling you rightwing. You are closer to libertarian than the religious noids.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 20 2020, @12:20PM
Principles exist in a three dimensional space, but you are a two dimensional being.
Washington DC delenda est.