The Developed World must reconsider and ‘look in the mirror’ for who is responsible for the current and future Pandemics.
If future pandemics are to be averted, the Developed world must fundamentally change its economics so that workers are not forced to live in sub-human conditions.
There is a ground swell of blame being apportioned to China for the origin of the Covid 19 Pandemic from their so called ‘wet markets’ where food hygiene is lacking or non-existent. What is not being discussed is that when workers are starving because they are working as a ‘battery hens’ in Chinese factories that supply gadgets/goods for the self-entitled ‘Developed World’, they will eat whatever they can. Food hygiene is not an option.
Modern economic theories rely on continual growth with increased productivity being a fundamental tenet. To deal with this insatiable demand to improve productivity and reduce costs, ‘globalisation’ became the mantra in the 20th Century. Globalisation was ‘dressed up’ under the pretext that it provided access to skills and capabilities across borders which increased the pool of intelligence that could be applied to technological advancement in all endeavours. The reality is that it enabled massive access to cheap labour that very often works under conditions that are either not legal or would not be tolerated in developed countries.
‘High Technology’ manufacturing is a prime example of how the developed economies rely on exploitation of cheap labour. The Post Magazine article “Life for China’s migrant workers: dorm that looks like prison” published in 2016 [https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1955023/life-chinas-migrant-workers-dorm-looks-prison ] highlighted the conditions that Apple, amongst other ‘hi-tech’ companies, leverage from Asian companies such as Pegatron and Foxconn.
I have seen first hand how workers live in monotonous dormitories with a minimum of 8 bunks in a room, the size of which would accommodate at most 2 people in developed countries. Looking at the workers’ faces on the production lines, as we pompously toured past them in our golf carts reserved for ‘VIP facility tours’, it was clear that these people were suffering the desolation that comes from doing monotonous jobs with no respite or hope of rising above their current station in life. As the Post Magazine article highlights, Chinese migrant workers are compelled to endure sub-human living conditions. All too often their salaries are stolen by ‘gangs’ and they have to live out of rubbish bins with some of the women even resorting to prostitution to ‘make ends meet’.
Identifying the source of the Covid 19 outbreak is merely defining the symptom of a very unhealthy global economy that exploits ‘cheap labour’. The ‘inconvenient truth’ that this current Pandemic highlights is that the Developed world must look in the mirror for the Pandemic’s root cause and systematically, incrementally and surely address the Developed world’s profligacy that relies on the current system of exploiting ‘cheap labour’.
This Pandemic, along with global warming, massive pollution and diminishing resources, are the disastrous outcomes of the real root cause: profligacy of the Developed world. It is up to all of us in the Developed world, individually and collectively, to change our sense of entitlement and living habits in order to begin to resolve the issues so that there can be future generations who live in harmony. Especially, we must elect and actively support leaders that have a clear mandate to implement the difficult measures necessary to re-balance the world. Failure to act now will result in alternatives that are not worth considering.
