The right of people to move around the world, and the right of people-movers to profit from moving people around the world, is now considered to be a higher social good than saving human life.Rico says just replace 'British' with 'American' and you have his views on the subject... (Oh, yeah, and throw in 'the dumb fucks' where appropriate.)
Influenza pandemics tend to appear with depressing frequency. The Spanish flu outbreak of 1918-19 was followed by Chinese flu in the '50's, and Hong Kong flu in the '60's.
The world might just be due another one. We have dodged the bullet for forty years, and taking heed of the necessary precautions against infection might be a good idea.
Yet at the same time as advances in public health could have greatly minimised the likely number of casualties, political ideology and commercial imperative have developed in such a way that they are likely to be maximised. To travel to places where public health policy is not considered priority is considered to be a right. By failing to close our borders, or submit Mexicans and travellers from Mexico to quarantine, the British government is saying that it considers the right of British citizens and residents to travel to and from Mexico without impediment to be of greater importance than the lives of my wife, my elderly parents, and my young nieces and nephews. And yours.
It's good to know your place.
27 April 2009
A good Scots curse on the idiots in charge
Rico says one of the good blogs in his sidebar, written by Martin Kelly, is worth visiting now and again:
No comments:
Post a Comment
No more Anonymous comments, sorry.