The poor Occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has been accused of being a racist because he’s decided that Covid-19 or the Coronavirus should be better known as the “Chinese Virus.”
OK, let’s be fair to the Occupant (though if there’s anybody that you shouldn’t be fair to, it would be the Occupant), he has a point. The virus started out in Wuhan, which is geographically located in China. So, in this sense, he’s right, the virus is a Chinese virus.
Having said that, is it wise to focus on the origins of the virus when it’s already spreading havoc in your backyard. At the time of writing, New York State accounts for some five percent of global cases and the US has 15,219 cases, which places America, the world’s most advanced nation in fourth place in terms of number of cases. By comparison Malaysia, a third world country which locked itself down on 18 March 2020 has 1,183 cases. The figures can be seen at:
https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/685d0ace521648f8a5beeeee1b9125cd
The problem, as an American friend of mine, who is currently living in Texas, says, “The Virus is serious” and the Trump’s medical experts have sounded the alarm saying that the problem will probably get worse before it gets better.
Everyone who isn’t brain damaged or a Trump supporter understands that America is going to have problems getting to grips with this virus. Thankfully, America’s President doesn’t have total control of the country. Most American politics is local and for the average American, it’s the mayors and state governors who make the majority of decisions that affect the majority. Thankfully, State-Level politicians have shown more competence and courage in dealing with the virus than the Occupant.
Nobody blames the average man in the street for being angry with the Communist Party in China for being the source of this virus. Here in Southeast Asia (South East of China for reading Americans), we have a long history of noisy and rude tourist from China messing up our environment. There are people in our region who think that this virus has finally gotten governments to do what we’ve wanted them to do for ages – keeping out the Chinese.
Yet, for whatever resentments our local people might feel towards the Chinese from China, our political leaders figured out that it was better to focus on trying to fix the problem in our backyard than looking for someone to blame. Thus far, if you believe the figures coming out of the region, we’ve done a better job at keeping things in check than the Western world, especially the US of A.
The second point that the Trump does not realise or wish to realise is that by calling it a “Chinese Virus,” he is setting up American born Chinese for a good lynching from hysterical lay abouts who wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a Chinese person from China, Southeast Asia or dare I say America.
This is a shame. American born Chinese are considered a “model-minority,” who do things like go to work and send their kids to school. Look at any American University and the top achievers are inevitably from this “Model-Minority,” – So much so that the Old Rogue used to tell people, “If American Universities were really about merit, there wouldn’t be a single round eye.” (Affirmative Action being about keeping Asian-Americans out of university as it has been about helping Black and Hispanic students get in.)
The virus may have started in China but that’s as Chinese as it gets. The virus has shown itself to be wonderfully open in who it affects. The virus like many others before it, is an equal opportunity killer, which affects people regardless of gender, ethnicity and religion.
So, rather than focusing of where the virus came from, perhaps its time the Occupant worked on trying to solve the problem in his own backyard.
OK, let’s be fair to the Occupant (though if there’s anybody that you shouldn’t be fair to, it would be the Occupant), he has a point. The virus started out in Wuhan, which is geographically located in China. So, in this sense, he’s right, the virus is a Chinese virus.
Having said that, is it wise to focus on the origins of the virus when it’s already spreading havoc in your backyard. At the time of writing, New York State accounts for some five percent of global cases and the US has 15,219 cases, which places America, the world’s most advanced nation in fourth place in terms of number of cases. By comparison Malaysia, a third world country which locked itself down on 18 March 2020 has 1,183 cases. The figures can be seen at:
https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/685d0ace521648f8a5beeeee1b9125cd
The problem, as an American friend of mine, who is currently living in Texas, says, “The Virus is serious” and the Trump’s medical experts have sounded the alarm saying that the problem will probably get worse before it gets better.
Everyone who isn’t brain damaged or a Trump supporter understands that America is going to have problems getting to grips with this virus. Thankfully, America’s President doesn’t have total control of the country. Most American politics is local and for the average American, it’s the mayors and state governors who make the majority of decisions that affect the majority. Thankfully, State-Level politicians have shown more competence and courage in dealing with the virus than the Occupant.
Nobody blames the average man in the street for being angry with the Communist Party in China for being the source of this virus. Here in Southeast Asia (South East of China for reading Americans), we have a long history of noisy and rude tourist from China messing up our environment. There are people in our region who think that this virus has finally gotten governments to do what we’ve wanted them to do for ages – keeping out the Chinese.
Yet, for whatever resentments our local people might feel towards the Chinese from China, our political leaders figured out that it was better to focus on trying to fix the problem in our backyard than looking for someone to blame. Thus far, if you believe the figures coming out of the region, we’ve done a better job at keeping things in check than the Western world, especially the US of A.
The second point that the Trump does not realise or wish to realise is that by calling it a “Chinese Virus,” he is setting up American born Chinese for a good lynching from hysterical lay abouts who wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a Chinese person from China, Southeast Asia or dare I say America.
This is a shame. American born Chinese are considered a “model-minority,” who do things like go to work and send their kids to school. Look at any American University and the top achievers are inevitably from this “Model-Minority,” – So much so that the Old Rogue used to tell people, “If American Universities were really about merit, there wouldn’t be a single round eye.” (Affirmative Action being about keeping Asian-Americans out of university as it has been about helping Black and Hispanic students get in.)
The virus may have started in China but that’s as Chinese as it gets. The virus has shown itself to be wonderfully open in who it affects. The virus like many others before it, is an equal opportunity killer, which affects people regardless of gender, ethnicity and religion.
So, rather than focusing of where the virus came from, perhaps its time the Occupant worked on trying to solve the problem in his own backyard.
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