I remember striking up a conversation with an Englishman who mentioned that “I have very little going for me in life except my pink and blotchy skin and I guess you have to use what you have been given.” I remember this conversation because this man had summed up a major truism about post-colonial societies, they can’t get over the “superiority” of the “white colonial” master. Russel Peters famously joked that “Every Indian has a home land – it’s called the United Kingdom.” The same joke could be repeated of any post-colonial society. The homeland of every Vietnamese for example is France (I’ve met quite a few Mr. Nguyen’s who are more responsive to “bonjour” than “Xin Cao.”)
In a way that’s
very understandable. Leaving aside Japan and the original NICS (Newly
Industrialised Countries, namely South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore)
Asia is predominantly “emerging.” While countries in Asia (including China and
India) have been the main drivers of global growth in the past few years, life
for the majority of Asians is for the most part not as good as in the West. If
you look at migration flows, the Westerners (defined primarily as the US and
EU) coming to Asia are predominantly well to do executives being sent by the company
to run an outpost or backpackers (who usually end up becoming executives). If you
look at the Asians moving West, it’s either manual labour or average middle
class hopping to settle for a better quality of life.
We should also
not forget that while Asia has been growing and prospering, the West remains a
world leader in most things. Asia, has for the most part built its prosperity
on building or doing things cheaper. The “world-dominating” parts of America
are in “ideas” industries like software and movies (the type of industries that
require you to be open to diversity). French and Italian fashion still set the
tone for what we want to wear. The world’s most solid cars are still built in
Germany. While these countries are becoming increasingly diverse in their
ethnic mix, they are predominantly inhabited by Pink and Blotchy people.
So, I do get
the continuing reverence for all things pink and blotchy. The “world standards”
or the places where the world’s best want to be are predominantly “pink and
blotchy” lands. Asia and the rest of the “emerging” world would be much better
off if we had many of the elements of Western society like the culture that
encourages people to be different – we’d have far more innovation and
creativity.
However, thanks
to Donald Trump, there is a twist to this. Just as America and the West is a
world leader most of the things that make modern life the wonderful and convenient
thing that it is, the Western world also has highly effective nut-jobs who are effective and being nut jobs.
While no
ethnicity or religion has a monopoly on nut jobs, the ones in the West have
something that the others don’t have – a voice. Nobody cares about the other
jobs as long as they stick to screwing up their own people. Sure, we get upset
about the Mad Mullah’s who were behind the Taliban in Afghanistan and all the
horrible things they were doing. However, nobody cared enough about them until
September 11 2001 when Osama Bin Ladin, who was their ally, claimed
responsibility for the attack on the Twin Towers. We all knew that Idi Amin in
Uganda was a nut job but nobody cared as long as he stuck to brutalizing black
Ugandans.
Western ones
are a different matter. Not only do they have a voice, they usually have the
ability to spread the virus of insanity and to encourage otherwise normal and
intelligent people to take on the virus of stupidity.
This was
exposed by Covid and the mismanagement of the Trump Administration. While every
other leader around the globe was imposing lockdowns, mask mandates and social
distancing, the Trump administration decided to do the opposite. Then there was
the infamous recommendation of the then President prescribing the injection of
bleach.
Now, this on
its own would not be so bad if it was limited to the Trump and his team.
However, you had ordinary citizens doing the same and dying. Now, I don’t know
about you but the guys who took it because a politician whose previous career
was in reality TV told them to take it despite the doctors telling them
otherwise is asking for it. One nut job had spread the virus of insanity.
Even without the Trump in the White House, the insanity virus persist and continues to encourage stupidity. You have an opinion host who sees that wearing mask, a proven protective measure against Covid as being a sign of a mental disorder. Mr. Carlson thought he was promoting sanity and freedom. The sane world understood that he had the virus and was busy spreading it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVC7VYlGmx8
I’m not saying
that the Asian leaders were all great in their handling of Covid-19. In
Singapore, ours planned things well for the main elements of society but
somehow forgot that there was a large population of workers housed on overcrowded
dormitories. China tried to cover up the initial outbreak and “silenced” a
couple of scientists who tried to speak out. However, the difference here is
that we know that China is a nasty totalitarian state and so we expect this
sort of thing. We know that Singapore doesn’t give a s** about construction
workers as long as they remain cheap. You could call the Asian ones “intentionally
nasty.”
The Western ones
are different. They seem to be nicer and more well-meaning. Apparently being
told to wear a mask is a violation of freedom and having your kids vaccinated
from a host of horrible diseases is also against personal liberty. Somehow that’s
worse than letting the kid die of the disease. For the record, vaccines had a
role in eradicating small pox and keeping tuberculosis under control – no
rational being should doubt that certain diseases kill and vaccines that have
gone through clinical trials work.
Yet the Western
world is filled with nut jobs who think otherwise and somehow the virus of
insanity spreads. As long as someone with pink and blotchy skin says something,
you’ll have an army of Asians, Arabs and Africans who will buy it. I think of
the taxi driver who announced “What’s the big deal – I agree with Donald Trump,
it’s no big deal.” He forgot the minor fact that while the Trump was announcing
that it was no big deal, he was busy telling Bob Woodward that this was airborne,
very bad and worse than the flue.
The worst thing
about the people who spread the virus of insanity is that they are against
factual observations and believe that everything that doesn’t go their way is
either a left- or right-wing conspiracy. Just take a look at the following
Linkedin post by Mr. Devadas K, CEO of Future-Moves Group.
I looked up Mr.
Alan Fairnington and found out that he was J. Walter Thomson Asia Pacific for
25-years. As with the case with a lot of expats, one is left dumbfounded by the
level of happy stupidity. Here is someone smart enough to get a prominent job
in a credible company buying into and peddling stuff that encourages dangerous
behavior in a pandemic.
The insanity
virus coming out of the Western world encourages people to do stupid things and
it seems that it has a particular effect on people who should be otherwise
clever people. What makes this virus especially dangerous is that other people start
following the example of the people who have this insanity virus.
So, while
everyone is understandably worried about the outbreak of the virus in India and
thus restricting travel to and from India, surely, we should also be looking at
doing the same with the Pink and Blotchy people from the Western World who are spreading
the virus of insanity and getting us to not take a dangerous pandemic
seriously.
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