“Heads we Win, Tails you Lose”
Timir Basu
Bad things can be turned into good. But the Chinese have failed to turn Mao’s popular dictum into reality. Americans, however, never allow a ‘good crisis’ go to waste as the Corona pandemic sweeps the world. America’s top 1 per cent have taken profitable advantage of the proverbial saying, “heads we win, tails you lose”, in letter and spirit. The Rich in America are minting billions without much hassle as `the Trump administration has handed out trillions of dollars to prop up an economy it shuttered amid Corona virus pandemic. True to American tradition, the billionaire class has reportedly added $ 308 bn to its wealth in four weeks --even as a record million lost their jobs and more than 56,000 died while 10 lakh affected.
Pandemic had exposed fault lines further in US body politic, widening the gap between the super-rich and rich and the rest over decades. For one thing Corona virus has made Amazon a public utility which was unthinkable even six months ago. No doubt Corona has tipped the US economy in favour of asset owners against everyone else. For Black Americans and Lations the situation is worse, Corona has permanently damaged their lives and livelihoods. The Black-White income gap is larger today than they were in 1979. When the pandemic struck, those at zt the apex of the wealth pyramid is better positioned than ever to take advantage of the crisis. The in their super profit they never thought of in normal timed. They won’t die, they would survive to enjoy the next bonanza. The profit the American business class is earning is mind-boggling, albeit they have to take no trouble for it. About 150 American public companies managed to bag more than $600 m in forgivable loans before the funds ran out. According to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank, between March 18 and April 22 the wealth of America’s plutocrats grew 10.5 per cent. Eight of America’s super billionaires have recently seen their wealth surge by over $ 11 bn, including the Amazon boss, Jeff Bejo. Maybe, the American corporates are thanking the Chinese in private for creating the chaos world-wide.
The deadly virus which was originated in China in mid-November has so far killed more than 2 lakh people and infected over 30 lakh globally. What a horrible scenario! Most scientists and medicos believe that the unfortunate deaths and and spread of virus in humans and destruction of the global economy could have been avoided, if China had shown transparency about the virus in its early phases. But China didn’t.
Now the affected by the virus are demanding compensation from China because China cannot avoid the responsibility. Germany is planning to send a bill to China for Euro 130 billion for the damages. And Trump has a larger bill in his pocket. China is being held accountable by all, rich and poor alike. But the accused --China--has so far been silent about the Compensation cry. Trump says, they are doing very serious investigation in spreading the pandemic but investigation results are yet to be made public.
Right now 184 countries, including India and other poor Asian countries in general are passing through hell they never experienced before. America’s imported-oriented economy is mainly dependent on China. So it won’t be that easy to punish Beijing for spreading the disease. Meanwhile, China’s grandiose investment project OBOR is in limbo, at least for the time being.
Different reports indicate that for years the Wuhan Institute of Virology used to get American funding from the US National Institutes of Health for secretive and dangerous laboratory research on Corona virus - infected bats. Both China and America are in the same boat---they should made accountable equally. There is every reason to believe that China has lied and covered up information about Covid-19 since the beginning.
Due to the presence of a robust public health infrastructure coupled with rigorous spirited training in community medicine Cuba has been not only successfully tackling the spread of Corona virus, they are reaching out to Italy, Bolivia, Haiti, in their hour of crisis. They have mobilized in massive numbers of doctors, nurse, health workers, third, fourth and fifth year medical students who are going door to door to record their history, screen the susceptible people by ‘on the spot’ tests and the confirmed cases to the regional tropical medical centre. With the cruelest embargo on shipment of oil and other essential goods imposed by US existing for more than six decades Cuban people have been undergoing terrible hardship, but they refused to back down. They are the true representative of communist spirit in this hour of grave crisis.
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May 5, 2020
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