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