Resident columnist Dickson Igwe
The unmitigated spread of Corona Virus is the result of gross incompetence in governance in China, the USA, and the UK
Corona deaths globally have surged past 100 000. In the USA and UK, deaths approach 30,000. Just under a third. And it is rising still, and astronomically.
Incredibly, Donald Trump, USA President, advocates opening back up a partially locked down country in May. This is simply for fear the pandemic and fallout will cost him re election in November. It will not happen. If it does it will amount to thousands of extra deaths. And the USA will be trading with itself, as all other countries it trades with, will be closed for business.
Paradoxically, had the present US leader and his Republican base adopted the Barack Obama policy of taking the fight against the virus to Wuhan China – an approach also adopted by George Bush, Obama’s predecessor- the existential threat the pandemic poses today, would have been a model of study in a university or research lab, and not the reality of present day humanity: a world shut down by a virus.
Philanthropist Bill Gates. Photo courtesy https://techcrunch.com/
The UK began it’s fight against this virus in the same delayed and flawed manner as the USA. However as the ”cup of troubles” overflowed with even the UK Prime Minister getting infected, the country woke up to the reality that the virus posed an existential threat to UK society and economy.
Billionaire Philantropist Bill Gates is in the Barack Obama School, and for years warned that the fight against a global pandemic was only possible with the appropriate medical and scientific infrasrtucture in place, so that at the first sign of a problem, all global resources and effort could be brought in place to stop the virus at root.
However, instead of thoughtful leadership, the USA President and his Fox News loving Base, dismantled that pandemic fighting infrastructure out of simple spite, plunging the western world into huge vulnerability, as it has blamed President Barack Obama for every evil under the sun.
Donald Trump prefers to take advice from rustic evangelists, conspiracy theorists, and right wing hucksters, rather than scientists and epidemiologists.
Today that USA is in the Caribbean interdicting vessels in the Caribbean and seizing medical supplies for various islands, as it panics.
The US economy has practically collapsed. An economic depression is approaching. And until this virus is eradicated, all ”manufactured cash” for stimulus is better placed in a ”fiery furnace.”
In the past month, 20 million US jobs have disappeared into thin air. It will be interesting to see whether a 50% unemployment rate- half the USA work force- will impact Donald Trump’s re election effort. It probably won’t. After all, the man rides a golden horse, according to his evangelical supporters.
To be continued
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Dickson Igwe is an education official in the Virgin Islands. He is also a national sea safety instructor. He writes a national column across media and has authored a story book on the Caribbean: ‘The Adventures of a West Indian Villager’. Dickson is focused on economics articles, and he believes economics holds the answer to the full economic and social development of the Caribbean. He is of both West African and Caribbean heritage. Dickson is married with one son.
