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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: 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.

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  • (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.